UPDATE, BREAKING NEWS: Recently retired NHL enforcer Wade Belak was found dead in a hotel room today. He'd recently been transitioning from an NHL career to hosting his own radio show. Terrible news.

Some random topics for the final day of August 2011 (good riddance). From the Kings going to Renaissance Fair threads full-time to an elaborate study of defensemen's use of the "off" hand. Get your hockey on here and after the jump.

• This was fun. Eric Hornick totaled up those scout projections from Chris Botta's poll and found the Islanders would be a very dynamic offense if it held true. But if everything breaks right, maybe...
• Last week we dinged a Montreal writer who was dismissive of Mark Streit's non-Markov-aided abilities. To be fair, here's one who rates him quite highly. (Link is a couple weeks old.)
• This was discussed in FanShots last week, but it's an interesting look by Malcolm Gladwell on the "psychic value" of sports (NBA lockout talk, but applicable to any pro sports ownership).

• At SB Nation-New York: the eternal and elusive quest to quantify the attraction of many, many New York pro sports teams.
• FanPosts/Shots around here: Research into which goalies (starters vs. backups) the Islanders faced last year. |  Revisiting the Brooklyn question, in a "would you?" sort of way. | And anyone fancy a meetup for the preseason game in Bridgeport?
  
• I feel bad for Quisp at Jewels of the Crown. His team has given up their purple "royal" identity to go all-black once again, with a silly medieval homeplate for a logo. And their franchise defenseman Drew Doughty is still haggling. On the other hand, he still gets to root for a team on the rise. (People who hear me whine about uniforms all the time know that I wish every team would embrace its bold colors, and not default to the trend of the moment. Some talk of this in WebBard's FanShot earlier.)
  
• From Puck Daddy, this is video of when NHL owners finally decided they needed to hire someone with actual power to talk back to them (John Ziegler and Gil Stein didn't quite cut it) ... so they brought in a guy with a loud tie.
• Flyers fans are digesting the James Van Riemsdyk deal. Here's a transcript of his comments on the deal, which counts on the guy to become a star. JVR is 22 years old.
• Via Copper & Blue, something to chew on if you have the time: Utilizing the Defenseman’s "Off" Hand: A Discussion of Theory and an Empirical Review

Finally ... Quiz time! Name the Europeans who have won the Stanley Cup, then report back to me.