Who's On Santa's Nice List?

Ho ho ho! The big red guy here. You also might know me as Santa Claus, Kris Kringle, or Papa C. I'm just about to head out for my annual trip around the world. Pretty sweet gig eh? Get to travel the world and only work one day a year.

Before I load up the sleigh and feed the reindeers their traditional pre-flight meal of carrots and red bull, I thought I would give you some inside information on who in the hockey world are on my nice and naughty lists.

Should I actually be preparing for Christmas instead of writing 0n this here blog. Perhaps yes. But nobody ever told Santa what to do. Except for Mrs. Claus of course. She's a real ball buster.

So without further adieu, here is a look at my nice list. The naughty list will be revealed in a later post. Once I'm done shovelling all the coal out of the North Pole's furnace to give to those guys.

Snow
Ho ho ho! You've got to love the white stuff. I'm of course referring to snow, not cocaine. It's especially nice when hockey is played in the snow and that's what the NHL will do when it holds it's now annual Winter Classic next week in Chicago. This has become one of my favourite events of the year as it falls during my after Christmas vacation. Nothing thrills me more than sitting in my nice warm room, snuggled up under the covers, being fed cookies and hot chocolate by elves, while watching millionaires play hockey in the bitter freezing cold.

Jeff Carter, Philadelphia Flyers
The youngster is leading the NHL with goals and is having a season to remember yet will still not be voted on to the All-Star team. What an injustice! And he has to wear those hideous orange Flyers third jerseys. Having to put up with that embarassment alone puts him on the nice list.

Scott Clemmensen, New Jersey Devils
First of all, he plays for a team named the Devils which is very naughty. I mean why not go with the name Angels? Oh, it's already taken by a baseball team? Fair enough. So remember when Martin Brodeur went down with an injury and everybody predicted the end of the world in New Jersey? Well Clemmensen has been brilliant in net and kept the Devils right in the thick of things. And on top of that, he has 11 wins this season. More wins than he had the past four seasons combined!

Boston Bruins and San Jose Sharks
These two teams have been playing such good, dominating hockey! What a lovely surprise! Especially for the long suffering sports fans of Boston who have had to deal with terribly awful sports teams over the past few years. It must be nice for them to finally have a winner on their hands. What's that you say? The Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox have all won championships in the last 5 years? And now they have a dominant Bruins team? If Boston area sports fans get to full of themselves, they might secure a spot on my naughty list.

Mats Sundin
Most people might think that for leaving the hockey world on edge for six months would put Sundin on my naughty list. And I'll be honest, me and the my advisors (elfs) had a long debare about the Big Swede. But ultimately Santa is as big a hockey fan as you are and is just glad this whole Sundin thing is over with. Thank you Mats! Just please don't put us through this again next off-season.

Sidney Crosby
He is the NHL's golden boy and deserves to be treated as such. Nothing further.

There's more who are on the nice list, but I drink a lot of milk to wash down all those cookies, so I have to make a quick trip to the bathroom. Make sure you check in later to see who in the hockey world goes on my naughty list!

Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas! There are other holidays, but it's in my Santa contract that I'm not allowed to acknowledge them. Sorry Jewish people!

Wow Wheeler!

The term "best ever" gets thrown around a lot these days. Especially by bloggers who think anything special they just saw was the best thing ever. That's what happens when you spend all day in your mother's basement.

But seriously guys, this goal by Boston Bruins rookie Blake Wheeler against the St. Louis Blues from Sunday night definitely qualifies as a 'Goal of the Year' candidate.

Wheeler must have been watching some football from earlier in the day, because he bounces off a defender like a running back off a lineman, then dekes around the Blues defense like they're human pylons and pops it in past a sprawling Manny Legace for a stunning short-handed goal. For some reason, despite all the sweet moves the announcers seem not as impressed as I am. Which is odd because it was carried by NESN who are usually the biggest homers in the business.

So again, I don't want to fall into the blogger trap of calling every thing I see the best thing ever, but I feel comfortable calling this a 'Goal of the Year' candidate. However the one thing I do feel comfortable calling the best thing ever is this french toast I'm eating. Both delicious and filling.

Lucic Wusses Out

During Saturday night's Bruins/Canadiens game, Habs tough guy Georges Laraque wanted himself a piece of Milan Lucic. Correction, he didn't just want a piece, he wanted every last bit of him.

The reason is because during a game a few weeks ago, Milan Lucic got into a fight with Montreal d-man Mike Komisarek, where Komisarek seperated his shoulder and will be out for the next month and a half.

Laraque wanted to settle the score, but Lucic wanted nothing to do with him. He skated away from him all game like a kid obsessed with Dungeons and Dragons running away from the school bully during recess.

Some say it's a wise move by Lucic. Why risk injury by fighting Laraque when you're a key part to the Bruins lineup? I say it's pathetic. Milan Lucic lost a lot of his credibility by ducking Laraque all game long. And you can now add him to the list of cowardly supposed tough guys who pick their fights like Sean Avery and Jarkko Ruutu.

Here's some video of Lucic avoiding Laraque at all costs. It's shot by what I'm guessing is an 8mm home video camera at the game on Saturday. How did they sneak in a camera? It's not good quality at all. It looks like it was done by the same people who illegally tape movies at theatres.

Third Jersey Round Up

Over the weekend while I was busy sobbing like a baby during the Patrick Roy ceremony, and while you were busy searching Craigslist for local hook-ups, a whole slew of NHL teams released their third jerseys. I'm really not thrilled with the fact that they're mostly all black. No that's not me being racist, I do support Barack Obama after all. Changing topics, let's take a closer look at the third jerseys...

San Jose Sharks - Not too much of a departure from their current home jerseys, but now the Shark has a tail! And they've got drawstrings and shoulder patches! Where can I drop $120 for these?

Los Angeles Kings - This is one of the rare occassions where I like the black jerseys. Mostly because there's no purple on them and these harken back to the Kings jerseys from the 90's. I only wish they would've went 100% with the retro look and brought back the old logo, or Wayne Gretzky. Or maybe a Wayne Gretzky logo!












Tampa Bay Lightning - Words as a logo? Words as a logo?! So now I have to read when I watch hockey? That is not cool with me Tampa Bay. Not cool at all! Also can I start calling them the Tampa Bay Bolts? Dangerously close to the Indianapolis Colts if you ask me. Colts or Bolts, which team is which? I hope I don't confuse Peyton Manning for Vincent Lecavalier. The French Canadian guy is the quarterback right? Damn! It's started already.
























Phoenix Coyotes - These duds challenge Atlanta and Philly's third sweaters for worst in the league. Where did they get that logo? Off the side of a Greyhound bus? And as if these sweaters weren't bad enough, they went with red helmets and pants to add to the overall hideousness.
























Ottawa Senators - See my Tampa Bay notes from above in regards to not wanting to read a logo. Though I do like the stripes on the sleeves. They're mesmerizing. But that also might be due to the hallucenagetic drugs.
















Boston Bruins - Black jerseys have been in Boston for as long as baked beans, clam chowder, and jumping on the Patriots bandwagon when they're winning. i.e. Forever. So I'm fine with the colour, and I also like the crest on the chest. Though I think by featuring a bear on their logo, the Boston Bruins have made themselves a powerful enemy in Stephen Colbert.

Notable Quotable of the Day

“You’re going to have to get wins all kinds of different ways. Is that the way we would have drawn it up? No. But we’re happy to get the two points and now we can go regroup.”

- Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas on pulling out a very close 3-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday night.

Notable Quotable of the Day

“I told them I was going to change my number before every game. They said, 'That’s not a good idea.' I guess I’ll stick with the No. 26, its working for me.”

- Bruins rookie Blake Wheeler on the luck he's had since switching to number 26, which includes a hat trick against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday.

Bruins at Fenway

No, this isn't a story about the Boston Bruins possibly playing a Winter Classic game sometime at Fenway Park. As cool as that might be.

The Bruins have just released a promotional video for Boston area network NESN, which features some of the players doing grounds crew work at Fenway. It also features the same disturbing shot of water coming out of a house more times than I would have liked.

One thing I would like to point out to Red Sox fans is if the Sox lose tonight and commit a lot of fielding errors, this is the reason why. You could also probably use this video as evidence in court as to why you took revenge on the Bruins players for the elimination of the BoSox.