Daily Cupcakes- September 12th, 2011

First up, Erik Johnson speaks about Denver.

"It's a great place to live," Johnson said during his stop through the League's offices in midtown Manhattan on Friday as part of this year's Player Media Tour. "It's got to be one of the top five destinations in the country to live and people love living there. Guys love playing there."

A link provided by DDC, about fighting versus toughness.

Konowalchuk, a left winger, wasn't a fighter. When he fought, he just tried to survive. He wasn't a fighter, but he was physical. He was willing to take the abuse in exchange for a scoring opportunity. He wasn't a fighter, but he was tough. He finished checks. He took the pounding and the slashing in front of the net.

But now, after two seasons as an assistant coach with the Colorado Avalanche, in his first weeks as the Thunderbirds coach, he has noticed that many junior-hockey players mistake fighting for toughness.

"There's still a lot more of the fighting mentality here than in the NHL," he said. "To me fighting is just one of maybe 10 aspects that make up a tough hockey player.

A story on Wade Belak, his history and his last day, by MacLean's. 

The most poignant nod, however, came the day of his funeral, when Nashville forward David Legwand bought a full-page ad in the Tennessean newspaper paying tribute to Belak’s character. It included photos of Belak in an AC/DC T-shirt working the phones at a telethon, and wearing a toy fireman’s hat while reading to elementary school students. The images stood in contrast to those of the players gathered at his funeral—to a man, they wore stricken looks and $2,000 suits. But it was an inspired choice, nonetheless, reminding us that, as surely as he was one of them, Belak was very much one of us.