Hey, remember the post I wrote before this one? No? Me either, it was forever ago.

Long story short: I’m the web editor for theScore’s new hockey blog, “Backhand Shelf,” where I’ll be posting 20 (literally) times a week. So please, check it out!

Backhand Shelf

Sorry about disappearing there for oh, a hot month or so. It’s been a remarkably busy summer here. We put on the fantasy camp, I’m starting a new job (more on that later), I’m getting married (more on that much, much later), we “built” an office in our apartment after deciding not to move (wait til you see a picture – we turned about 12 square feet in a badass set-up w/ a TV), and are planning a honeymoon. Also, we’ve been working and trying to get in shape.

Again, busy.

All of this settles down the second we get back from our honeymoon September 27th. Then the new job starts October 1st – the good news: I will be literally writing 400% more posts. (Up from 5 to 20 a week. If you count BB, up from 10 to 20 a week, soo….hockey!). I’ll reveal the details a little further when I’m allowed to.

My dear old Dad will be staying at our condo while we’re gone (flying back to NY for wedding, back here right after) to keep Tyson and Jiggs company and oh yeah to have a free place to stay in Phoenix in late September. So we appreciate that.

When I return to work in October, this site will still be used on occasion, I think. It will just return to it’s original form, a personal blog where I write about stand-up comedy and news and thoughts and cats and all that other bullshit. I’m looking forward to not feeling like I have to comment on hockey here. Plus, 20 posts a week might leave me a little dry of anything original to say.

But until then, it will remain relatively dormant.

Hope your summer is going well – follow me at @jtbourne on twitter, and let’s catch up!

http://www.lighthousehockey.com/2011/7/27/2297211/rock-the-referendum-contest-get-out-the-vote-for-aug-1

I’m in Santa Cruz with Easton, then flying to Kelowna, so I’m too busy right now to do better than this but….please, join in.

Hey gang. Wednesday’s work should be up on HPT soon, here’s….

New Puck Daddy: 5 goal scoring tips. Hope you like it!

New Puck Daddy X2: How I prepare my stick (I think I wrote about that once for Bourne’s Blog years ago too, shh), and the progression of summer workouts. Hope you like ‘em.

Howdy friends.

Just a quick note for ya here: it’s been a battle to try to get back this blog and write something after resuming the work with the Hockey Greats Fantasy Camp and taking on new work with Easton. I truly apologize for the sporadic nature of posts, and at some point they may get back to a measure of consistency, but I just can’t be sure when.

I’d be forcing it, and that’s not fun nor necessary for me.

Everytime I get the bug, I’ll be back! For now, I’ll probably just be linking to my daily posts.

This blog has taken me to somewhere I never thought I could go (steady employment!), so it’s not going to go anywhere except on the back burner. Think of Chris Jones’ “Son of Bold Venture” where he posts a few times a month. It’ll probably end up being more like that when it comes to real, legit posts. Especially during the off-season.

Thanks so, so, so effing much to all of you who’ve helped me get the opportunities I have now, I can’t say enough about how fun this has been so far. Follow me on twitter, and I’ll be sure to let you know every time I drop a real post on Bourne’s Blog! Thanks,

OH MY GOD IT’S A HUGE KITTEN FRIGHTENED BY A LOUD GARBAGE TRUCK

Jiggsy at eight frickin' months.

{By the way, that sounded like a eulogy…it wasn’t. Just wanted to let you know the days I do write will be less common than the ones I don’t. Get it, got it, good.}

Well hey, remember me? It’s been awhile folks, and for that, I apologize.

Since we last talked (I think when Dubya was still in office), a few things have happened during the NHL’s off-season.

I don’t remember exactly what, but I’m pretty sure the Florida Panthers hired some actual NHL players, the Philadelphia Flyers had some grenades explode in the middle of their dressing room, and the Sabres found their long-misplaced wallet.

Crazy stuff.

Since there’s not a ton of news in the hockey world these days, let’s talk about those things, one at a time, of the course of this week. Started with the most compelling story….

These are not your grand-pappy’s Flyers

Actually, that header for this section sucked. These aren’t even your Flyers from last season. I’ll save the full overview paragraph, because by now you know the gist of what happened, so…Cole’s Notes: cornerstone guys that would ensure the Flyers would always be at least playoff-level-good Mike Richards and Jeff Carter got traded for a whole bunch of “yeah that guy’s pretty good’s” and the right to overpay a very good goaltender in Ilya Bryzgalov.

Oh, and they signed Jaromir Jagr.

…Wait, what? Seriously? Hm.

Maybe he wasn't the most lovable guy, who knows?

Anyway, the team has gone from the decades-long philosophy of ”if your team is good enough, you just need a living goaltender to win” to “goaltending is obviously the most important position on the ice.”

Here’s an uncommon opinion: I don’t hate what they did.

Detractors of the trade will cite that they were in the Stanley Cup Finals just a couple years back with a similar looking team, and that’s fair. But let’s keep in mind it’s not like they mowed through a Conference that they were clearly the best team in. They just got hot at the right time, as teams occasionally do.

The picture going forward for this team, is that they have to get by some mighty fine teams at the top of their conference, and they didn’t feel like what they had was going to be able to do it.

Philly never seemed to be able to get past the big moments in the past (save for the comeback against the Krejci-less Bruins). Something was just…off. Whether it was in the dressing room or on the ice, there was something missing…. They always just seemed good, yet rarely great.

If that’s how they felt in the front office, which they clearly did, I’m okay with them heading in a new direction.

I don’t think there are many people out there making the case that they won’t be good next year, it’s just a matter of if they’ll be better or not. They’re still well-stocked up front, on defense, and finally, in the net. The past two Stanley Cup champions have relied heavily on depth throughout playoffs, and I think they got better in that regard.

They still have enough play-makers to score, and in the dressing room….sometimes too many cooks spoil the broth when it comes to leadership. Whether the guys like him or not, having less people that’ll openly resist Chris Pronger’s occasionally overbearing form of it is a good thing. He’s dragged teams to the Final before, and he can do it again.

You can’t really know until you see them play but I’m curious…what do you think?

New Puck Daddy: how a fresh start with a new team can rejuvenate a player’s career (Puck Daddy)

*****

Since July 1st I’ve been spending my days learning more about a job of mine that’s recently changed. I know the posts have been infrequent, so thanks for your patience. I will keep everyone in the loop, of course, and it won’t hinder my ability to actually blog once I get the hang of it. Hope everyone (in the US) had a great long weekend!

New Hockey Primetime: The many questions of an unrestricted free agent. ….Seriously, I go over like a thousand of them, it’s a long column.

New Puck Daddy: TJ Oshie signs a mere one year deal, so I discuss how players need to be disciplined (with the partying) to be successful. I mean, one year for this kid? They must be wary about something.

*****

When I first moved to Phoenix, I knew one human in the state, an old buddy from high school who just happened to move here too.

Unfortunately for me, he has a wife and two young kids and two businesses, so….we weren’t about to be hanging out a ton any time soon.

It’s no secret that Bri and I like to stop in to our favourite pub for a couple drinks here and there, so after we found our apartment, I made it a personal mission to find the closest, cheapest place, and establish a ”home.” At the end of my work day, sitting in silence and typing, the quest was a nice excuse to go have a pint and a little conversation. Twitter can only take a man so far.

I misfired at first, thinking I had found my home at Majerles (Dan Majerles’ bar, obviously). It’s a classy place with an awesome happy hour – $2 domestic pints, no tax – but it’s kind of got a corporatey feel to it. It’s one of three in the chain, the TVs have sports on but the sound is never on the action (music, boo), and it’s just a little….well….too nice. I mean, a granite bar? Do I look like I use a monocle?

We have a great little organic food store near our place that we discovered after a few months in our place that’s about a one song drive away. Tucked behind that, was Nate’s Third Base – “your last stop before home.”

Nate’s is owned by Nate, a 27 year old with a wife and three kids who bartends at his own place. It’s a “Boston bar” (irish pub, really) with a lot of TVs (with the sound on one), the NHL package, a projector screen for big games, an amazing happy hour, and it’s on a man-made lake. It’s even wheelchair accesible for my brother, whom they love. It was perfect (wood bar!), and it’s now my local haunt.

I was starting to make a few more friends thanks to playing on a rec hockey and softball teams, but still not that many. You don’t meet a lot of people working from home (let alone when you’re pushing 30), so Bri and I remained bar visitors.

The people from Nate’s make up the majority of people I know in town to this day. From the bartenders to patrons, that’s where my local friends have come from.

One of those guys was part of a crew of 60 year old gents who come in on Wednesdays and Fridays and stay for the entirety of happy “hour” (3-7pm), Barry Wilkins. Being that he was once a Boston Bruin, Pittsburgh Penguin and scored the first goal in Canucks history, we naturally hit it off well.

Barry pre-mustache. His cookie duster became the stuff of legends.

Barry was the life of the bar – the more he drank, the more he bought me drinks, so it was always a laugh to walk in and see he was well under way. And, the more he liked you, the more he called you a dork, big dummy, or piece of shit, which is something you become accustomed to in the hockey community.

About nine months ago he met my Dad, and they shared some laughs about hockey in the 70s, repeatedly making fun of themselves.

A month later, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. This morning I attended his service.

It all happened so fast I’m not even really sure what to say about it.

He started missing the odd Wednesday and Friday, and when he came, he was quieter. More listening, less talking. When he got really weak, he stopped coming entirely. He was a proud man, and told his friends he didn’t want them to see him like that. They were pretty shook.

Probably everyone at his service today knew him better than I did, but at a time when it was just nice to have someone to BS with, let alone about hockey, he helped me adjust to my new life here. I’ll miss the big bear paw handshake when I walk in or out of Nate’s on a Wednesday or Friday. I’m just glad I moved here in time to meet him.

Barry Wilkins was 64. I’m guess that’s roughly the number of beers that will be consumed in his honor by his friends at Nate’s today.

First goal in Canucks history is a damn cool stat.