Morning water cooler

Welcome to 2011! I hope 2010 was good for you but I hope 2011 can be better.

The new year started pretty good for this blogger. Great food, good company and the Leafs absolutely dominated the Ottawa Senators. One can only hope that this is the start of good things to come in 2011.

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The Saskatoon Blades rang in the new year by handing the Red Deer Rebels a 7-3 beat down on January 1st. The game was marred with an ugly incident when the Rebels Josh Cowen jumped the Blades Stefan Elliott. Earlier Lucas Sutter has fought the Rebels Ryan Nugent-Hopkins but that doesn't justify this:



I assume a lengthy suspension is coming. I would think 5 games would be the maximum handed out in this situation but 2 or 3 games is likely. Personally I would like to see a much stiffer penalty come down for acts like this but I just don't think it's going to happen.

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Saskatoon should get some serious consideration when the CHL picks the host for the 2013 Memorial Cup. This club is headed in the right direction and should be serious contenders for the next few seasons.

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The University of Saskatchewan Huskies men's hockey team received a couple Christmas gifts over the holidays. Joining the team is defenceman Matt Delahey and forward Derek Hulak.

Adolph is clearly building a strong contender for a pair of University Cup's that the team will host in 2013 and 2014. The only question is who becomes the odd men out each game?

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Speaking of the Huskies, they are back on the ice this weekend for a home and home with the Regina Cougars. I'll be calling the game from Rutherford on Saturday and will discuss the roster situation with Dave Adolph before hand.

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One week from yesterday is trade deadline day for junior hockey teams in Canada and I'll be interested to see who becomes sellers and who the buyers will be. My focus will be on the Blades and the WHL along with the SJHL. A couple questions a week in advance are running through my mind:

- who could the blades possibly target to make a serious run or who could they afford to give up in a potential deal? They have to keep the future in mind especially if they want to host the 2013 Memorial Cup.

- Will the Melville Millionaires still be sellers come Jan. 10? Coach/GM Jamie Fiesel had stated that they will likely be sellers but a sweep of the Yorkton Terriers may change his mind. There usually aren't many sellers in the SJHL due to the parity and everyone being in so if they do choose to sell the price should be fairly high.

- What will the Humboldt Broncos do? They do need to keep in mind that they are going to host the RBC Cup next season but they have a fairly good one going this year. Could 20 yr old goaltender Andrew Bodnarchuk be in play?

- Will any players trickle down from major junior to junior A?

Those questions and more will be answered in a week.

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I won my fantasy football league. I've been in two leagues now and finished 2nd in the first one and now have my first championship.

I was ravaged by injuries for the championship game but made some nice pick-ups that were key. With Vick, McFadden, Andre Johnson, Ochocinco, Romo and then Kitna, Joseph Addai, all out I had to find relief.

My pick-ups included Joe McKnight who rushed for 158 yards, Jerome Simpson who put up some big fantasy points along with Pierre Garcon, and Tim Tebow who put up 33.60 fantasy points

If anyone's looking for a last minute birthday present (January 25th) a 2010 Yahoo! Fantasy Football championship bobblehead would be the perfect gift. Just 20 bucks.

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If you like American Idol and even if you don't, I recommend picking up Lee DeWyze's debut album 'Live it up.' It's the first thing I listen to in the morning and it puts me in a great mood.

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If you're into this type of thing we experienced a couple special times on Saturday. At 11:11am and 11:11pm it was 11:11 1/1/11. Hope you wished for something good.

In November we will see 11:11 11/11/11. That's going to drive some people nuts.

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Following their win over Canada on New Year's Eve Sweden's head coach at the World Junior Hockey Championship said the team had tougher games against the Czechs and the Russians.

Dave Cameran responded with this gem: "I wish part of this tournament was a shinny game between coaches, with no media."

I can see it now. It would be like Gordon Bombay against the coach from Iceland going head to head in a game of post.

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Speaking of the World Jr.'s, I was a little bit disappointed to see the Russians beat Sweden in the semi-final yesterday. Yes it would seem that Canada had a slightly easier time with the Russians than the Swedes but part of me will feel like the team didn't prove they were the best because they weren't given a chance to play Sweden one more time.

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Part of my new year's resolution here on the blog is to blog more and expand my blogging topics. You may have noticed more Saskatoon Blades info here and that will be one of my focuses. I am going to focus mainly on the Huskies and Blades along with some WHL/SJHL and various football items. I'll throw in a tid bit of other info here and there but for the most part that's what you can expect.

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While this is back to work for most, it will be my final day off as I'm back at it tomorrow. I'm going to enjoy every last second of the holiday and it's been great so far.

Have a great first week in 2011!

dd