Let's start off by wishing my fellow Canadian-folk a Happy Thanksgiving, that's right, happy Gobble Gobble Day. On Saturday night the Avalanche were busy. They retired Peter Forsberg's number. They paid tribute to Wade Belak, Karlis Skrastins, and Ruslan Salei. They also traded Kyle Cumiskey for Jake Newton and a conditional pick. Unfortunately, they also lost to the Red Wings. But let's keep the focus on the Forsberg part of the night. If you want to see the video the ColoradoAvalanche.com site now has video of the ceremony up.
The Huffington Post has an article about the retirement, and also has some video. They also have an interview with Claude Lemieux, and they reveal what Foppa will be doing now that his number is hanging from the bleachers. He will be going back to school. He'll be studying economics because he feels it will be an asset with his business ventures. But he won't be stepping away form hockey completely, he'll also be an assistant general manager for Modo.
The capacity crowd gave Forsberg a thunderous ovation during his entire journey around the ice.
That's simply how beloved he remains in the Mile High City, an infatuation he's never quite understood.
"You've always been so nice to me," he said in his speech. "I don't really know why, but thank you so much."
NHL.com has an article up about Colorado's road trip. Colorado will have five games in eight days starting with an afternoon game (1 PM EST) today. This is a great time for the team to really get to know each other and bond. But, at the same time, Sacco isn't trying to pressure them too much. The game against Boston Bruins isn't going to be easy.
We still have 76 games when we get back," Sacco said after practice Sunday. "We have a lot of hockey when we get back. I look at it as an opportunity for the guys to bond, to form some good team chemistry, because that's what you do on the road. You spend a lot of time together. You're with your roommate and your teammates almost 24-7. We need to use those games and those days as a time for our team to get some closeness, to get tight together.
"The journey is just beginning right now. It's a long year. But if we can have some success on the road out there it certainly would make our guys feel better about themselves and more confident."
Finally, last night was the season opener for the Winnipeg Jets. The first puck drop was done by Rick Rypien's mother. What an emotional start to the game that must have been. The Jets lost to Montreal 5-1. This is an open letter that was written by a hockey writer for the Winnipeg Sun.
Dear Shelley,
I know that couldn’t have been easy for you today, but at the same time I applaud you for having the courage to attend the Winnipeg Jets home opener and am thrilled you could be part of this historic moment.
For anybody who knew Rick, it was an emotional scene, seeing you head out on the ice sporting the dark blue No. 11 Jets jersey he planned to wear this season.
A ceremonial puck drop has never caused that many eyes to tear up and the ovation you received was downright deafening — and deserving.
In an interesting piece of news, the article itself is small, the National Post is reporting that a player has been suspended for two games for high-sticking his opponent.
Minnesota Wild forward Pierre-Marc Bouchard was suspended for two games without pay by the NHL on Sunday for high-sticking Columbus' Matt Calvert in the face Saturday night
And, lastly, unsurprisingly Don Cherry has managed to anger a lot of people.The Montreal Gazette's Jack Todd is asking CBC to take a closer look at HNIC's Don Cherry and to remove the microphone from him.
In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past week, here’s some of what Cherry said: “The ones that I am really disgusted with . . . are the bunch of pukes that fought before: Stu Grimson, Chris Nilan and Jim Thomson. (They say) ‘Oh, the reason that they’re drinking, (taking) drugs and alcoholics is because they’re fighting.’ You turncoats. You hypocrites.”
When Thomson talks about his friends in the business, he has to talk in the past tense: John Kordic, Marc Potvin, Bob Probert, Wade Belak, Derek Boogaard are all gone, all victims, in various ways, of their own brutal trade.
Even though Nilan and Grimson never said the things Cherry accused them of saying, he refused to apologize when given the opportunity Saturday night.