Rick on Injured Reserve; Champions League Hockey on TV

Right now I am home sick and to my surprise, while flipping through the channels I came across Champions League Hockey from Europe. The game is HV71 (of Sweden) versus Espoo (Finland) is a repeated broadcast but it is still great to see. The teams are fighting for first place in Group B action. Not a hundred percent sure what that means but it has been a pretty good game so far. Also, and I may be wrong on this, but the guy doing the play-by-play sounds like Steve Mears.

Here is a link to the Champions League schedule from Universal Sports HD.

This is the third try at starting a European Champions League and apparently revived in an attempt to compete with Russia's Kontinental Hockey League.

OK, so now that you know that, Chris Botta has a bit on his blog that Rick DiPietro and his mysterious malady have landed on IR. Of course we have no real indication as to what the injury possibly could be or for how long DiPietro will be sidelined.

Speaking of Steve Mears, he breaks news on islanderspointblank.com that enforcer Mitch Fritz will be in the lineup tonight and that Jeff Tambellini will be returned to the press box for tonight's game in Philadelphia.