Dancing With Battle of the Blades, Could The Oilers Be Fo’rilz?

Today’s Puck Daddy: Why the first few games of the season actually do have more value than mid-season ones.

Great matchup

*****

Just a reminder – head on over to Hockey Primetime.com at 6 pm EST and 8 pm EST to watch college hockey and chat with myself and Blake Benzel.   Notre Dame vs. Holy Cross is the first game (not as interesting), Wisconsin vs. Boston University is the second one (more interesting, plus I’ll probably have a pint in my hand for that one).  So yeah.  Do that.

*****

I occassionally get help for blog topics in my email (still waiting to write the one on player visits to hospitals, I promise), and this one was terrific:

I can think of nothing that better illustrates both the commonalities and differences between Canada and the United States than the hit shows in the respective countries:

 

US – Dancing With the Stars
Canada – Battle of the Blades

Ain’t that the truth.

Love that he's wearing hockey skates, annoyed by the show (that I've never seen).

To me, both of these shows seem like the entertainment equivalent of reading a Rick Reilly column these days (utterly painful)……{actually, fuck it, I can’t let Reilly get off that easily.  I used to love his work.  Couldn’t wait to turn to the last page of Sports Illustrated.  If I was ever at a doctors/dentist office with an SI subscription, I’d go through them one-by-one to catch up.  I bought a book of his.  I cried with regularity throughout.  But ho-ly-shit, has anyone ever mailed in talent quite like this guy?  Go read his latest, please: Help Me Help Lebron James.   He’s gotten so bad Deadspin has stopped making fun of him.}

WOW, where was I – right, those shows.  If Battle of the Blades is anything near as bad as Dancing With the Stars, then whooosh.  Sorry, Canada.

But the point is, the two shows are identical programs, we Canadians apparently just strapped skates to their feet and used hockey players for stars.  Sooooo EXACTLY what you would joke about if you were to guess what would be the most popular show in Canada right now. 

What do I think they watch up there?  I dunno, Dancing with the Stars… on ice?  Ooo, but with hockey players!

Hey, give the people what they want, I support that.

For those of you who care about the show, new Puck Daddy writer Erin Nicks has done a great job covering what’s going on in the show.  I’m really looking forward to reading more of her work, when it’s not about THAT.  I’ll let the same email close us out on this:

George Laraque takes 13 stitches at Battle of Blades rehearsal. Apparently some 4-foot-11, 98-pound figure skater can do more damage than Derek Boogard.

Ha!

*****

We know the NHL has become more about being young, fast, and skilled in the past decade.  There’s a place for bruisers, but increasingly, it’s the team with the unstoppable, dangly waterbuggs (<— Big Boi tribute) that’ve gotten it done.  Kane, Toews, Crosby, Datsyuk and so on.

Muchos Talento.

Soooo, is there any chance the Oilers might just hustle themselves into being trouble for opponents…. already?

Never have I so quickly recanted an opinion as I have with my Pacific Division pre-season predictions.  After Vancouver, I had:

 Calgary
Minnesota
Colorado
Edmonton

Part of me thinks you could flip that exact four-pack-prediction upside down (or near to, putting Edmonton 2nd is a tad aggressive), and you’d be closer to how the division could end up.

I’m not foolish enough to think that we can learn that much from one game, but as I wrote in my column today, if a team gets it going early (or can’t *coughCalgarycough*), you just never know who might be this year’s Coyotes.

*****

Short and sweet today friends, gotta get Monday’s bit for THN started before it’s live blog time.  Have a greatastic weekend.

It’s fahking gorgeous in Phoenix right now.

The Plight of the Oiler fan

Edmonton - Birthplace for the no-trade clause.