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In the past two years, NHL agent Allan Walsh has:
1) Taken to Twitter to stoke a Montreal goalie controversy in favor of his client, who promptly put up a bad 2010-11 while his surviving partner blossomed for the Habs; 2) Stoked controversy when his guy was not named Capitals opening night starter, only to see that client give up five goals when his turn came; 3) Ripped Brendan Shanahan's much-welcomed explanatory suspension videos with enough ridiculous hyperbole to make Don Cherry blush.
And that is why I don't trust really vocal agents. Including the one who makes the rounds about Alexei Yashin each and every single summer.
Agents are good lawyers and negotiators, and good at leaking tailored information to the media when it serves their purpose. But media relations experts? Reliable narrators? No. Usually not. Publicly the really loud ones are as agenda-driven and condescending to their audience as politicians, except they don't even have to make concessions to their base. It's "show me the money time," all the time.
Islanders Links
Reading a lot into Al Montoya's two starts: Newsday, the Times, the Goalie Guild and the official site (not to mention comments in multiple threads at our own site here). I am utterly amazed how much attention this has gotten. After two games. After Montoya finished last season as the team's best option.
- This Patch reporter tours the Coliseum, makes Travis Hamonic grin.
- Not adding much but here's a reset of the Kirill Kabanov situation with his junior team, the Bigword-Hyphen-Frenchwords, at their max for imports. We've been chewing this over in comments here, too.
- Skates on a Plane: The Walk-Off [Skates on a Plane]
- It's coming up on power rankings time, and THN has the Isles 22nd after two games, for what that's worth.
- The Checking Line: Isles need to search for offense.
- Chris at NYIFYI on the Wild game.
- 7th Woman on NHL Weekly show on sportstalknetwork.
Hockey is Reason Enough to Wake Up Links
Ol' Islanders Richard Park scored a funky goal last night (sorry about the announcers):
Rival watching I: The Pens beat the Panthers last night, but Malkin sat out again.
Rival watching II: Tampa Bay will be without Ohlund Thursday, and up to two months or so after that.
Rival watching III: So the Isles have RW depth issues. The Smurfs have LW issues. Discuss.
Old men and a coach: Chelios, Guerin, Waddell
Bruins lock up Rich Peverley, a great trade deadline acquisition last year.
Mostly interesting, but I found the conclusion to this Justin Bourne piece confusing. It seems to say a good medical staff is a conservative one, one that doesn't let you play hurt. But then it says a team with multiple injuries year after year needs a new staff ... but isn't a team with a lot of published injuries a team with a conservative staff? Might be two separate ideas here.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins joined John Tavares, Billy Harris, and precious few other #1 overall picks in scoring in his NHL debut.
Completely OT but Funny: If you're too young or it wasn't on your radar, this may not make sense. But for NFL fans (I was one at the time), this old skit about when Monday Night Football added Dennis Miller is fantastic. Naturally, Will Ferrell and Tracy Morgan steal the show in supporting roles. Took me back.