Snowy day here in Calg-aree, although I hear it’ll be the same back there. After walking to and from the rink today, I can years from now be one of those guys that says, “When I was young, I used to walk to work in a blizzard.”

Alberta’s a weird place today. It’s like a province in mourning because of the trade of Ryan Smyth. Even Calgarians realize this is nothing to celebrate because it could be a sign of things to come with Jarome Iginla or Miikka Kiprusoff next year at this time. Hmm, sounds like a Sunday column idea.

Incidentally, Smyth’s press conference at the Edmonton airport today was televised LIVE on the three sports networks. Just think about that. Is there one hockey player in the U.S. that could be traded and his news conference be televised on ESPN? Heck, is there one hockey player in the U.S. that could be traded and it be mentioned on ESPN? Other than Pascal Dupuis, of course.

Incidentally, many thanks to “Mike” for making my blog blow up. You should be on the payroll. I promise you all, “Mike” is not me. My first byline in the Sun-Sentinel when I was 16 years old said, “Mike Russo.” I got a phone call at 6:30 before high school the next morning from my grandmother asking me what name was listed on my birth certificate. I’ve been “Michael” in print ever since. 

According to Jacques Lemaire, newly-arrived Dominic Moore will be kept on ice for a few games so he learns the system. Lemaire wants him to get a few practices under his belt, which makes me think — barring injuries to others — Moore will debut Sunday in Vancouver.

Because of the late 9 p.m. start, tonight’s one of those nights where I file a running story the second the game’s over and maybe have time to call in a quote. So I’ll try to do a more extensive blog post than normal after tonight’s game.

Good day, and once again, thank you “Mike.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 28th, 2007 at 3:49 pm and is filed under Pregame skate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.