Weekend Brunch: Yakupov looking for a solid footing

The Avalanche

The Colorado Avalanche’s newest winger, Nail Yakupov, has had a very unlucky and rocky career that includes lockouts, coaching changes, and tanks. Colorado could be the fresh start he needs to unlock his full potential. “To say the Oilers then were a disaster would be an understatement. They made a trip to the Stanley Cup Final in 2006, but by 2009, they were one of the bottom 10 teams in the league. After that, they finished 30th, 30th, and 29th the next three seasons.” [BSN Denver]

Like Yak, Jonathan Bernier is a player with a mile high ceiling but just struggles to put it together (being on the tire fire Maple Leafs probably didnt help, sorry). “Without actually picking his brain personally, it’s easy to safely conclude that he ended up with a lost season almost of his own doing, overcorrecting and missing his tracking rhythms after psyching himself out by a slow start to the year.” [Mile High Hockey]

The Avalanche have jumped on to support a really good cause:

“Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, Inc. is dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled active military service personnel and disabled veterans through fly fishing and associated activities including education and outings.” [Mile High Hockey]

The Game

Top pick for the Philadelphia Flyers Nolan Patrick has “an infection in his face”. The team reported that Patrick had a “abscess/boil” that had to be removed. Why am I sharing this with you? Because the replies to these tweets are priceless, that’s why.

In an attempt to become more environmentally friendly (and cut down on all the ticket scalpers) the Montreal Canadiens have stopped giving their season ticket holders printed tickets and are charging for printing them. “the Canadiens are charging an extra $344.92 CAD to season-ticket holders who want their pair of season tickets printed rather than just have them scanned from their smartphones.” [Montreal Gazette]

Ottawa Senators forward Nate Thompson spoke with the media yesterday for the first time since joining the team saying that with Tom Pyatt on the team and Guy Boucher behind the bench that they’ll be hoping to repeat some of the successes they had last time they were together. [Ottawa Citizen]

New Jersey center prospect Michael McLeod (courtsey of my hometown Mississauga Steelheads) is looking to jump over several in order to land an opening night spot on the NHL team, if not he will have to come all the way back to junior. “[Pavel] Zacha and McLeod will enter camp as part of a crowded group of potential centers that includes Travis Zajac, Adam Henrique, Brian Boyle and Nico Hischer, plus others. While McLeod and the Devils both want him to play in the middle, McLeod wouldn't mind jumping on the wing if it meant contributing in the NHL.” [NJ]