Michael Vick loves anime, and other assorted tales of intrigue!
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Before I get in to the nitty gritty details of what's going on with the Blue Jackets, a little doozy of a picture I stumbled across on one of the forums I frequent daily:
Michael Vick, that feisty and nimble quarterback of the NFL's Atlanta Falcons, apparently likes anime. That pretty much makes my day. My best guess is that he must have been at Dragon*Con, which is a large comic book convention down in Atlanta which happens at the start of September.
With that little chuckle-worthy point of interest out of the way, let's get to what's happened in Columbus, where everything seems to be moving at a whirlwind pace ever since the end of that 4-1 pre-season scrubbing of the Buffaville Prebres.
First off is the big news, which concerns Sergei Fedorov and his sprained shoulder (I bet Christy at Behind the Jersey could come up with a better description of shoulder spraining than the Dispatch has). All signs point to no surgery being required, but Fedorov is still pretty down and out about it, as he talks about in The Columbus Dispatch:
Meanwhile, there's a little conflict of reporting going on, as despite Michael Arace reporting that MacLean is standing pat and saying he isn't going to start brokering a deal for any new players -- or try negotiating again with Nikolai Zherdev -- with Fedorov going down for a while, Aaron Portzline reported earlier that scouts from the New Jersey Devils and Anaheim Ducks -- two teams looking to make some cap space -- were seen skulking about Nationwide during the game against the Sabres. So now the question is what were they doing there? Anaheim you can pass off as just checking out the competition, but the Devils only have one game (in New Jersey) against the Jackets this season, so scouting at this point in the season seems rather silly.
Lastly, 2006 1st round draft pick Derrick Brassard has been given a three-year contract with the Jackets as of today. I guess ol' Dougy doesn't want him slipping away even though he's now got a surgery-requiring injury that'll keep him on the sidelines for at most half a year. The surgery will be this week in Cleveland, by the way. Considering it's your typical entry-level contract, there really isn't much to be bothered about, even if common sense might leave some people scratching their heads at signing Brassard while he's injured. Then again, MacLean did sign Steve Mason in the 3rd round of this draft, despite the fact he also got hit with the injury bug, which left him unable to show his full potential before the draft.
In any event, tonight the Jackets are down in Memphis -- not Nashville -- to meet their Central Division rival Predators for a little Elvis-style rock'n'roll. Checking the roster for tonight, it looks like the team is going to be a little on the fresh side, with only a total of 3-4 players having at least three seasons worth of games apiece under their belt. Norrena and Popperle will be backstopping the Jackets tonight. Popperle definitely earned some brownie points with his hard work at the NHL Rookie Tournament a few weeks ago, so this is probably the team's way of rewarding him. Popperle also had an outing last week in the first pre-season game for the Jackets, also against the Predators, where he stopped 23 of 23 shots after relieving Pascal Leclaire mid-way through the game. Let's hope that mojo of his is as ready as ever for tonight's game.
Michael Vick, that feisty and nimble quarterback of the NFL's Atlanta Falcons, apparently likes anime. That pretty much makes my day. My best guess is that he must have been at Dragon*Con, which is a large comic book convention down in Atlanta which happens at the start of September.
With that little chuckle-worthy point of interest out of the way, let's get to what's happened in Columbus, where everything seems to be moving at a whirlwind pace ever since the end of that 4-1 pre-season scrubbing of the Buffaville Prebres.
First off is the big news, which concerns Sergei Fedorov and his sprained shoulder (I bet Christy at Behind the Jersey could come up with a better description of shoulder spraining than the Dispatch has). All signs point to no surgery being required, but Fedorov is still pretty down and out about it, as he talks about in The Columbus Dispatch:
"Unfortunately for me, it’s very upsetting at the moment. All this hard work is gone to nothing. I’m not very happy with that turnout. I was surprised there was no penalty called on the play."Regardless, he'll be out between four to six weeks. Drew at End of the Bench is quick to point out that while this might seem like a dark beginning to the season which begins on October 6th for the Jackets, Fedorov will miss only four games at the least, and nine games at the most, so long as he returns in that timeframe. Godspeed, Fedorov!
Meanwhile, there's a little conflict of reporting going on, as despite Michael Arace reporting that MacLean is standing pat and saying he isn't going to start brokering a deal for any new players -- or try negotiating again with Nikolai Zherdev -- with Fedorov going down for a while, Aaron Portzline reported earlier that scouts from the New Jersey Devils and Anaheim Ducks -- two teams looking to make some cap space -- were seen skulking about Nationwide during the game against the Sabres. So now the question is what were they doing there? Anaheim you can pass off as just checking out the competition, but the Devils only have one game (in New Jersey) against the Jackets this season, so scouting at this point in the season seems rather silly.
Lastly, 2006 1st round draft pick Derrick Brassard has been given a three-year contract with the Jackets as of today. I guess ol' Dougy doesn't want him slipping away even though he's now got a surgery-requiring injury that'll keep him on the sidelines for at most half a year. The surgery will be this week in Cleveland, by the way. Considering it's your typical entry-level contract, there really isn't much to be bothered about, even if common sense might leave some people scratching their heads at signing Brassard while he's injured. Then again, MacLean did sign Steve Mason in the 3rd round of this draft, despite the fact he also got hit with the injury bug, which left him unable to show his full potential before the draft.
In any event, tonight the Jackets are down in Memphis -- not Nashville -- to meet their Central Division rival Predators for a little Elvis-style rock'n'roll. Checking the roster for tonight, it looks like the team is going to be a little on the fresh side, with only a total of 3-4 players having at least three seasons worth of games apiece under their belt. Norrena and Popperle will be backstopping the Jackets tonight. Popperle definitely earned some brownie points with his hard work at the NHL Rookie Tournament a few weeks ago, so this is probably the team's way of rewarding him. Popperle also had an outing last week in the first pre-season game for the Jackets, also against the Predators, where he stopped 23 of 23 shots after relieving Pascal Leclaire mid-way through the game. Let's hope that mojo of his is as ready as ever for tonight's game.
