Highlights-a-Plenty

The Detroit Red Wings and Dallas Stars put on quite a show Monday night, with the Stars surprisingly winning 5-4 in overtime. Ooooooooh-vahtime! Sorry, I just like saying it like that.

The game featured quite a few highlight reel saves and goals. Too many in fact for me to talk about them seperately. If I did pinpoint each and everyone of them, I'd be here all day. And I have a manicure/pedicure appointment to go to. It's ok to pamper yourself, it doesn't make you any less of a man. Right?...

Here are the highlights from the game...

Sailing With The Stars Ice Girls

Consider this my Christmas present to all you Power Players out there. It's the Dallas Stars Ice Girls on a yacht! What more could you ask for? Beautiful women, bikinis, the sun, a yacht, quotes that can misconstrued into something dirty...Wait, what?

"There's more to do, more girls around." - Phoenix
"Today we're on a beautiful yacht, having fun with each other." - Tracy
"I've got 19 other girls next to me, backing me up." - Meg

Giggidy, giggidy, giggidy.



All I could think of while watching this video was the song "Boats 'N Hoes" from Step Brothers. I mean sure, seeing all these girls frolicking around is great and all, but the whole experience definitely would have been enhanced if Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly were there in their Don Johnson from Miami Vice suits performing the song. In the meantime, I'll just have to settle for watching the music video...

Who's On Santa's Naughty List?

Ho Ho Ho! Hello again Power Players! Your old friend Kris Kringle here. Just checking in for the second part of my Who's Been Nice/Naughty feature where this time around I give you the inside info on who's been naughty.

Some might even say that I'm being naughty right now. Writing on a blog while flying over the Atlantic Ocean! Having just delivered all the presents to good little European boys and girls. Maybe even some future NHLers for Don Cherry to ridicule for their lack of grit!

A little known fact is that my sleigh just had cruise control installed this summer. Along with a satellite radio. XM of course so I can listen to NHL games. So while the technology (reindeers) do all the work, I can kick back with my laptop. Plus it'll be a little while until I reach Iceland so I've got some time to kill.

So what are we waiting for? Let's find out who in the hockey world has been naughty. We all know Ken Beckett, the creator and writer of The Power Play, has been naughty this year. That's what happens when you run an illegal puppy racing league out of your basement.

Barry Melrose
Barry has been on my naughty list for years now. Santa isn't a big fan of mullets you see. What really did him in this year were those comments about never wanting Tampa Bay to win another game. They're already awful enough Barry, you didn't need you to rub it in. And poor young, impressionable Steven Stamkos. Your comments about him not being NHL ready really hurt him. In fact, on his Christmas list this year he asked for your approval and the skills to become NHL ready. How am I supposed to deliver that?

Sean Avery and the Dallas Stars
This one's a no brainer. Sean's sloppy seconds comments were disgusting and Santa doesn't approve. The only sloppy seconds I like are when you dip your cookies into milk and then your second bite of the cookie is all soggy. Ho Ho Ho! Now Dallas, when you signed Avery in the summer to that big contract you knew what you were getting yourselves into. And when you abandoned him and booted him off your team it was a cowardly move. That reminds me of when Rudolph first started out and he was ashamed of his red nose and all he wanted was some courage. Wait, am I mixing up the story of Rudolph and the cowardly lion from The Wizard of Oz? I think somebody might have spiked some of the milk I drank in Europe. I bet it happened in Ireland. They're always pulling drunken pranks like that.

Washington Capitals
To be honest guys, I don't have you on my naughty list but somebody must. How else do you explain all those injuries to your team. Does anybody have any outstanding debts to the mob?

Alexander Semin
A few months ago, Alexander dared to speak out about the "talents" of golden boy Sidney Crosby. How dare he. Sid is the lord and saviour of the league and the most talented man to ever touch a hockey stick. Maybe Semin's comments actually explain all the injuries to the Caps. Karma sure is tough.

Joe Sakic
Yes the Colorado Avalanche veteran is on the naughty list. And I don't use the term "veteran" loosely as Joe is the same age as me! Ho Ho Ho! Sakic's been naughty by not resting and trying to recover from his serious back surgery. He even went so far as to clear out his driveway when it snowed. Well that backfired. While trying to clear out a clog he broke three fingers and will miss even more time. Joe, maybe for Christmas I'll get you a professional who can do those sorts of things for you. Heck, you wouldn't even need a professional. I'm sure you could find a neighbourhood kid who would do it for ten dollars. Or maybe even for some Joe Sakic autographed hockey sticks. Actually, considering how expensive hockey sticks are these days, you had better just give him the ten bucks.

Well that's it for me. There of course have been a lot of other very naughty guys in hockey this year (I'm keeping my eye on you Wayne Gretzky, you know why) but duty calls and all the little children of Iceland need their gifts. Plus I think I saw Dancer and Prancer socializing instead of driving the sleigh. It looks like Santa's going to have to lay down the law.

Merry Christmas to you and yours! And Season's Greetings to everyone who celebrates non-Santa/Christmas related holidays! Ho Ho Ho!

Stars Meet A Star

Will Smith's latest movie Seven Pounds opened to mostly terrible reviews this weekend. But while the movie was doing bad things to moviegoers at the theatres, at least at the Dallas premiere they tried to make up for it and do some good.

At the premiere some of the guys from the Stars and the star of Seven Pounds Will Smith were on hand to raise money for the North Texas Food Bank. (Donations to the food bank can also be made here)

And after all was said and done, they raised $4,000 for the non-profit food bank. Not bad but I mean come on. Will Smith or some of the Stars players couldn't have put in some dough for this? $4k is pocket change to these guys. More so for Smith, but I digress.

Later on in the event, Smith called up the Dallas Stars on stage and was presented with a Stars jersey! Which after the photo-op he will never ever wear again.

Here's video from the event...

Avery Needs Medical Help?

The Sloppy Seconds Scandal continues as everybody continues to weigh in on the matter. That includes co-general manager of the Dallas Stars Brett Hull, who made an appearance on Toronto sports radio station the Fan 590 on Wednesday to talk about Avery's antics.

In an effort to make sense of it all, Hull went so far as to suggest that Avery may need medical help saying, "I think there's gotta be some definite medical people look into the situation, and find out what can be done to curtail this kind of act."

Medical help? Is there a drug problem, or some other sort of issue that we don't know about? Because last time I checked, they don't make medication to cure being an obnoxious, egotistical loud mouth. If they did, I definitely would have been prescribed it years ago.

It is a little known fact that Avery suffers from being bi-polar. Back in September during Stars' training camp, Sean agreed to an interview with TSN. Ultimately, however, he decided he didn't want to do it. "I'm bipolar, man," Avery said, walking away from the network's rolling camera. Though can you blame this and his other incidents on being bi-polar?

On Wednesday, Avery released an apology through his publicist which is pretty weak. He was able to russle up some cameras for his staged, awkward sloppy second comments. Why couldn't he do the same for his apology? Here's what Avery (his publicist) had to say...

"I would like to sincerely apologize for my off-color remarks to the press yesterday from Calgary.

"I should not have made those comments and I recognize that they were inappropriate. It was a bad attempt to build excitement for the game, but I am now acutely aware of how hurtful my actions were. I caused unnecessary embarrassment to my peers as well as people I have been close with in the past.

"I apologize for offending the great fans of the NHL, the commissioner, my teammates, my coaching staff and the Dallas Stars management and ownership. As many of you know, I like to mix it up on and off the ice from time to time, but understand that this time I took it too far."

Hey here's an idea. How about apologizing to Elisha Cuthbert. You know, the person who the sloppy seconds comments probably hurt the most. It's pretty clear that Avery just doesn't get it by leaving her out of his statement.

Hull will accompany Avery when he is called into Principal Bettman's office Thursday morning at 10:30am et. A decision on exactly how long Avery will be suspended for is expected to be announced by around noon.


[Source]

Notable Quotable of the Day

“It’s real frustrating. We had high expectations, but you look at the standings and we’re at the bottom. With the talent we have, that’s unacceptable.”

-Dallas Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas on the Stars disappointing performance this season.

Notable Quotable of the Day

"It was idiotic and stupid... It was one of the most embarassing things I've seen. If that's what we're going for, then they need to find me an off-ice job."

- Dallas Stars veteran Mike Modano describing the behaviour of goon teammates Sean Avery and Steve Ott during Saturday's 5-1 fight filled loss to the Boston Bruins.