What's the deal with the lack of updates?

Well, the deal is that I have been too freaking busy to type...but here goes:

THE WINTER CLASSIC: I loved it. Loved it. Two admitted rivals playing outdoors and Bob Costas getting frostbite on his self-importance. Good times.

Wrigley Field was just an outstanding place to have the game. The whole presentation was great; Costas aside. I half-expected him to pull a LB move and whine about the "shrine of basebore" that is Wrigley Field was hosting a hockey game. Thankfully, he did not.

He also didn't pull out his Ogie Oglethorpe story from last year. I figured it was his only hockey story.

Being the resident hockey guy in the office has it's privileges. For one, no one is asking me to join any fantasy sports leagues. But the down side is that whenever anything happens in the game, I get asked about it 150 times a day. And since the mainstream media only plays the stupid stuff, well, you can guess what I hear.

Anyway, the next day at work, a couple people thought they had a great idea and they said that the league should play the All-Star Game outdoors every year on New Year's Day.

Um, no. What makes the Winter Classic so special and unique is that it is a real game. It's a real game that counts in the standings. The ASG is simply a place for the sponsors of the league to kick back and hobnob with NHL power brokers. The players and the game are almost an afterthought. The game becomes a high-priced game of shinny and the science of skating big circles is examined for three hours and we all get tired of it after the first period anyway. They can say it is about the fans all they want, but it ain't. It's about the sponsors.

So let's keep the Winter Classic what it is: a classic. It means something. Don't mess with it.

THE ISLANDERS KEEP LOSING: Is it me or does Scott Gordon look like he is about to explode on the bench some times? After the Isles let the Oilers kick back two goals to lose 3-2 the other night, I thought our coach was going to spontaneously combust right at the Rexall Centre.

This losing leads to trade talk. Big props to Doug Weight for sounding like a guy who wants to stay and help the kids. Same for Billy Guerin. The team can play all the kids they want but unless they have professionals who have had solid careers to guide them, the team is going to be a mess. Players and fans throughout the league trust Guerin and Weight and you can see how guys like Okposo and Josh Bailey look up to them when their getting real life lessons on the bench and during timeouts. Hopefully, the Isles can keep guys like that around to help usher in the next generation.

I want them to keep guys like Trent Hunter and Richard Park too. And Mark Streit. If Streit doesn't go to the All-Star Game, I'll eat my hat without condiments. It will be really sweet for him to return to Montreal as an All-Stat when the Canadiens didn't respect his all-around abilities.

Newsday makes a compelling argument that Weight should represent the Isles too. I like the argument and I am wondering if Bettman can make a Commissioner's Pick and add Weight to the Eastern Conference All-Stars. At least with two Islanders the skills competition will be more fun to watch.

And all this ragging on the ASG today is strange because even though I always say I won't watch it, I always do.

CANADA WINS GOLD: Sweden tried trash-talking, but it didn't work. The Canadians breezed by the Swedes in the World Junior Championships to win the gold medal for the fifth-straight time.

John Tavares was the most outstanding player in the tournament and trust me, he put to rest the race between he and Victor Hedman over who is going to be the first overall choice in this year's entry draft. The knock on Tavares is that he isn't a great skater but so what? You can teach skating. You can take power skating classes from ads you see in the back of The Hockey News from Laura Stamm and get better at it. What you can't teach is a nose for the net. You can't teach skill and you can't teach strength on the puck and body control.

The tournament itself is just hyper-exciting. John Buccigross mentions it on ESPN.com. At the same time that Canada and Russia were playing, the NFL playoffs were on TV and by sheer emotion, you'd have to pick the hockey over the football. Seeing the passion and (yes, Don Cherry and Pierre McGuire) heart of the fans in Ottawa as they passed the world's largest Canadian flag across ScotiaBank Place was inspiring. Canada is a country that truly loves their hockey. They cared more than the guy with three beers whining about his fantasy league did sitting in San Diego.

And, um, by the way. About that Tavares kid? The Islanders are currently leading the race to having the most ping pong balls in April. Just sayin'.

RUUTUU BITES MAN: One of my favorite headlines growing up was TREE BITES MAN. It was in the local paper when Tree Rollins, then of the Atlanta Hawks, tried to take a bite out of crime and allegedly chomped down on Celtics' super-pest Danny Ainge in a playoff game when I was like eleven. The Celtics probably pasted Atlanta that year and I don't remember who won but I do remember TREE BITES MAN.

Now the evidence (as seen on NHLN's On The Fly) pretty much clearly shows Ottawa's Jarko Ruutu biting the gloved thumb of Sabres tough guy Andrew Peters last night in Buffalo, the league has to hold a hearing to decide how to proceed with a suspension and/or fine.

Here's your pull quote from Jarko: "Nothing happened there," Ruutu said to TSN. "His fingers were by my mouth but I didn't bite him."

Video evidence shows differently. Already the guys in Buffalo who sell the bootleg t-shirts in the parking lot are printing new ones with the phrase: Ruutuu Bites on them. You just know they are.


Isles are in Calgary tomorrow night.

NHL Winter Classic

Who here didn't see any of the Winter Classic? (If anyone raises their hand, it's just shameful.)

Man, I just have to say that game was the most fun I've had watching television in a long, long time. And I swear the thing couldn't have been scripted better with Crosby winning the game in the shootout. The snow and sleet was just such a spectacle that made for great TV. I even forgot how much I hate Bob Costas during the game! That is how great it was. Just an excellent experience. Big ups to the NHL and NBC and the hearty souls of Buffalo who just proved to be about the best fans around by keeping the energy up for the whole game.

New NBC hairdo Mike Milbury said something interesting, too, so now he is beating Brett Hull 1-0 as far as NBC analysts have gone. He said that the "hockey purists" are a pretty cynical bunch but that the entire atmosphere was great for bringing the game back to it's roots. And Costas even tried to make it about him with his between periods story about "the real" Ogie Oglethorpe. Let's just say that Old Man Winter wasn't the only thing blowing around Ralph Wilson Stadium on Tuesday. Not even a power-tripping egomaniacal midget could ruin the day--a Great Day for Hockey, as Badger Bob would say.

The Winter Classic was a Cinderella story--and it's a good lesson for the fans of other sports. Sometimes, it really just can be about the game. Yesterday wasn't about the ratings or the long stretches where the ice was being fixed. The Winter Classic was a celebration of hockey and the people who love it. It was a chance for our beloved sport to
stand up and put on one heck of a show. And I loved it.

To close this out, I just want to mention the WWE angle that they're doing with Ric Flair. If anyone missed it, Vince McMahon told Flair that the next time he loses a match, that Flair has to retire. Look--no one is a bigger Flair fan that I am but at almost 59, maybe it is time to get out of the ring.

This past Monday, in a match with Triple H, Ric Flair's career was saved by Mr. McMahon's house elf, William Regal, who came down and hit the Nature Boy with brass knux so that HHH would lose by DQ and would therefore, not qualify for the Royal Rumble.

The buildup to the match was great and a lot like the buildup to Starrcade '93 where Ric vowed to retire if he didn't beat Vader for the WCW World Title. The match itself was very old school in psychology and told a good story. In fact, it pains me to say it, but Trips needs to be praised because the man simply can pull off any style he needs to
when he wants to do it.

I'm interested in this angle enough to Tivo RAW and FF through it to see what they are doing with the Nature Boy. It's probably the last thing that Vince can do to grab my attention and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in that line of thinking.

Simon gets 30; Okposo leaves school; Costas still short

Kyle Okposo, he of "the" famous YouTube goal, has reportedly left University of Minnesota and The Golden Gophers have even called a news conference for 5 p.m. ET to announce Okposo’s decision.

According to Greg Logan's kick-ass Newsday blog--the blog of record if you ask me (and I write this one)--the Islanders have offered no comment about the situation so far.

This allows for some fun speculation. Okposo was (is?) expected to be a major player for the US at the World Junior Championships after Christmas. (Thank you, Center Ice.) Will he jump straight to the Isles? Will he play for the US and then come to the Island? Let the speculations begin!

In other Islander news, of course, Colin Campbell passed out a 30 game hall pass to Chris Simon. It's about right, I think.

The thing that we need to take into consideration here is that something is wrong with the dude. After the initial knee-jerk reaction I had to can him for good, I'm thinking that the Isles are taking the high road in this mess and are trying to do right by Chris Simon the person. Do I think he is going to play again for the team? I doubt it. He's caused many more headaches and embarrassment to the organization than he really should have. But Mr. Wang and Garth Snow and Ted Nolan are being very brave and noble in their attempt to help the guy out. You just have to respect that.

Oh, yeah. And the boys are back against Buffalo tonight.

In sad news, NBC announced that perpetual midget and Bill James Lap Boy Bob Costas will be the master of ceremonies at Ralph Wilson Stadium on 1/1/08 when the Penguins play the Sabres in the Winter Classic in Buffalo.

Early reports we can find online are projecting a high-pressure system full of self-importance settling in over the greater Buffalo metro-area right before the opening faceoff. Skies will be smirky with a 90% chance of smugness. Highs of 4-foot-2.

Seriously, is it too late to get NBC to cancel the game? C'mon, Gary. I already get the Center Ice package (bless you, Center Ice) and I could always watch the CBC coverage instead? Gary? Little help?