Friday Miscellany

The last Friday in August brings us that much closer to the puck dropping on another NHL season. A few nuggets to pass the time:

Going to the Rookie Game? Make sure to get your (free) tickets ahead of time.... Resisting the urge to make a juvenile joke about entitling an article "Most Amazing No. 2" (yes, I know it's a countdown of accomplishments), I'll point out that this profile of Bobby Carpenter is the best one you'll read from a newspaper with a witch on a broomstick in its masthead all day.... Ho hum, Alex Ovechkin spotted with another attractive blond (another pic here).... When the Sens don't match the offer sheet on Andrej Meszaros (because he's not worth $5 million), "the door opens for ... Lawrence Nycholat to earn a spot on the blue-line." Um, downgrade (and yet another entry in our "Where Is That Crappy Former Caps Blueliner Now?" series).... Finally, the line of the day goes to the great Steven Ovadia at PuckUpdate: "There's a very famous Yiddish joke that features people at a wedding complaining about the food and then finishing up with 'And the portions? They're too small.' With that in mind, FSN and Sun will only show 65 Florida Panther games this season."

R.I.P. Max McNab, 1924-2007

Former Caps General Manager Max McNab passed away over the weekend, and Vogs pays his respects to the man who drafted some of the Caps' all-time greats (and guys used to acquire some of the Caps' all-time greats), including Rick Green, Ryan Walter, Bengt Gustafsson, Mike Gartner, Bobby Carpenter, Gaetan Duchesne and a personal fave, Lou Franceschetti.

The "Can't-Miss Kid" Is Headed To The Hall

Another former Cap is headed to the Hall of Fame, as Bobby Carpenter will be enshrined in October. OK, so it's the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. Still, it's quite an honor for the first American-born 50-goal scorer in NHL history.

Undoubtedly a Caps great (the first-time around - not so much the second time), Carpenter not only produced for D.C. on the ice, but his trade value was enough to bring back two great assets from the Rangers in Mike Ridley and Kelly Miller on New Year's Day, 1987.

After leaving Washington, Carpenter's game evolved from scorer to Selke-caliber defensive forward, and he won a Cup with the Devils along the way, but I'll always remember his as a Cap.

Congrats, Bobby - you didn't miss.


Update: For much more on Carpenter, check out Vogel's feature over at Caps.com.

This, That And The Other Thing

A few random notes:

The London (Ontario) Free Press had a nice article on Dale Hunter's life as an OHL bench boss, where his record is an astounding 245-96-13-11 in five-plus years. Hmmm...

Another former Cap with coaching aspirations is taking it easy at home in Salem, MA (h/t to Kukla's on the link). Perhaps he'll be the Can't Miss Coach.

Am I crazy for totally wanting to tune in for this?

OFB points out that Hockey's Future really likes the Caps' NCAA prospects.

Speaking of OFB, Gustafsson pointed me to this (scroll to the bottom for "More Local Caps News"). Pretty cool.

The SeSo General & Media Links have been updated and are quite extensive (they're linked to on the sidebar here as well). Check 'em out, as well as the ever-expanding SeSo Blog Roll (also linked on the sidebar here).

Finally, this is fantastic - in the Battle of Ontario, there is a Row for Razor.