MISLEADING

From a recent Jim Matheson article:

Cross their fingers -- The Islanders are on track for the league's worst record and a shot at centre John Tavares, the world junior hockey championship MVP. They'll have to be lucky, though, because finishing dead last only gives them a 25-per-cent chance of coming up first in the bingo-ball draft lottery.

As all non-playoff teams (14 in total) are entered in the lottery, and the fact each team can move up only four spots, the Islanders will have approximately a 50% chance in obtaining the rights to John Tavares.

Hey now, you're an all-star

Ales Hemsky isn't going to the NHL All Star bash this weekend, but it's become impossible to argue that number 83 doesn't belong in the upper echelon of talents in the league. He's taken this team by the scruff of the neck and dragged them into a nice 6th place spot in the division going into the break. He's in the top 10 in the league for points/game and he's on track for an 80 point campaign. The kid has arrived.
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I'm looking forward to the part in the Oilers 2009 Stanley Cup DVD where the Hall and Oates game against Phoenix gets referenced as the turning point.
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Yeah, it's been a good week. The Oil are sitting pretty and the Bush era is over down south. Think I'll celebrate:

NHL Television Audiences as at mid-season

William Houston, a respected journalist, writes one of his final columns for the Globe and Mail. He recently accepted a buyout - a sign of the impending collapse of the newspaper business.

Some snippets:

TSN's average viewership is up 17 per cent from last year to 481,000 a game.

Versus in the United States is averaging 308,695, a rise of 18 per cent.

And the CBC, despite losing three Toronto Maple Leafs telecasts in its new NHL deal, is drawing prime-time audiences that are up 4 per cent from last year, to 1.206 million a game.

REGIONAL

Regional audiences on Rogers Sportsnet also reflect team performances. The Leafs' average of 321,000 is down 22 per cent from last year. Audiences for another losing team, the Senators, have dropped 33 per cent, to 67,000 a game.

Numbers for the Vancouver Canucks are down 8 per cent (227,000 viewers). For the Flames (135,000) and Oilers (146,000), audiences are up 15 per cent and 17 per cent, respectively.

Inter Milan to play in Edmonton?1?!?

I nearly had an Oilgasm when I read this story in the Edmonton Journal this morning.