Off Wing Opinion

The ESPY nominations were announced yesterday (yawn), and while Sidney Crosby was nominated for best hockey player, The Sidney Crosby Show is angry that Sid the Kid was ignored in the Best Male Athlete category:

Just take a wild guess who DIDN'T make the list of nominees for Best Male Athlete... Yeah, I am stunned right now. Can someone out there please tell me how you can win the awards for league MVP and top point scorer of the NHL, be voted the most outstanding player by your peers, and be named the youngest captain in NHL history - all in one season - yet NOT be a consideration for male athlete of the year?!

Because the ESPYs are not about honoring athletic achievement, they're about glorifying and promoting ESPN. There's one way to guarantee that Crosby will get nominated for an ESPY, and that's to start challenging some of Wayne Gretzky's records.

So if/when Crosby gets near 92 goals, 163 assists or 215 points, that's around the time ESPN will show up with an ESPY nomination. It's also around the time I expect ESPN will show up wanting to take the NHL back into its prime time lineup.

No pressure Sid. No pressure.

I ponder the memories over at the NHL Fanhouse.

Last November over at NBC Sports, I wrote a column about the Professional Athlete Transition Institute, a project at Quinnipiac University that's designed to help professional athletes, mostly ex-NHL players, move on from the game once their time on the ice is over.

Earlier this month, nine ex-NHLers participated in a PATI-sponsored seminar to help them develop their broadcasting skills, working with ESPN's John Buccigross:

First we get the first round pick Nashville traded to Philly in the Forsberg deal boomerang back for the negotiating rights to Kimmo Timonen and Scott Hartnell, now we have this:

The St. Louis Blues acquired the rights to center Keith Tkachuk from the Atlanta Thrashers on Tuesday along with a conditional fourth-round draft choice in 2008 (which could become a third-round choice in 2009) in exchange for a conditional first-round draft choice in 2008 (previously acquired from Atlanta on Feb. 25).

Like Tom Benjamin, I don't have a problem with deals like these. But what I do have a problem with is not making the quid pro quo clear at the time of the original deal. Even if there was a "future considerations" clause inserted at the time, it would be better than the way this is being presented now.

If you're going to make fun of the NHL, this is the way to do it.

Thanks to Paul Kukla for the pointer.

UPDATE: OFP is not happy with Simmons.

Over the course of my season in the press box at Verizon Center, there were more than a few moments when I had to rely on the help of the team's media relations staff. Needless to say, I was grateful to be able to rely on folks like Kurt Kehl, Nate Ewell, Paul Rovnak and Julie Petri, all solid professionals who went out of their way to treat me, and every other blogger who came into the press box, just like any other member of the working media.

I'm fortunate to be able to work with them, which is why I was so happy to hear that they'd been given the Dick Dillman Award by the Professional Hockey Writers Association for excellence in media relations. The Caps team is a crack group, and I'm glad to see them get the recognition they deserve.

Congratulations also go to the San Jose Sharks, who won the Dillman in the Western Conference.

Greetings from Columbus, site of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft. I got into the media hotel last night and had a nice time getting to know some of the local watering holes.

All the buzz right now is happening here in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency here in the Arena District. We had a false alarm about 10 minutes ago concerning the Bruins, as a knot of reporters gathered around Boston GM Peter Chiarelli even though he didn't have much to say.

And word has already leaked out that the Maple Leafs are on the verge of acquiring Vesa Toskala from the San Jose Sharks for the 13th pick.

After grabbing a late lunch here at the hotel, I'll be headed over to the Nationwide Arena to meet some local bloggers at the Bud Light Arena Pub. As I've written before, the most fun I have watching hockey comes when I have the chance to get together with other bloggers, and I'm looking forward to having a chance to meet the folks behind Jerseys and Hockey Love, Army of the Ohio, End of the Bench, and even the Acid Queen herself.

Later on tonight, look for me to be live blogging the draft over at the NHL Fanhouse. In short, it's going to be a busy day. I hope you decide to ride along.

UPDATE: All the skinny on Toskala, who will be making the move to Toronto along with Mark Bell.

UPDATE: Just fought my way inside the arena, where there's something of a crush at the media entrance, where Greg Wyshynski is still waiting. Here's a shot from the fan fest outside the arena:

I'm set up in the 7th row on the media risers and have a pretty good view of the draft floor:

Now I'm off to rub elbows with some of my blogger friends at the Arena Pub. Be back soon with more pics.

UPDATE: I'm a little late to this story, but the selloff continues in Columbus where Tomas Vokoun has been shipped to Florida:

The Predators will receive the Panthers' first-round pick in 2008, a second-round pick in the 2007 draft and a second-round pick they must use either Saturday or in the 2008 draft. Nashville will have at least nine draft picks in this draft.

General manager David Poile said they felt they could make the trade after watching Chris Mason, now 31, develop from a backup to a top goalie this season. They also have Pekka Rinne, a 2004 draft choice.

"With full confidence in Chris and Pekka Rinne, we felt as if we could make this move," Poile said in a statement. "Mason won 24 games for us this past season, starting 21 in a row at one point, and finished with the second-highest save percentage (.925) in the NHL.

One of my friends from On Frozen Blog informs me that Preds owner Craig Leipold doesn't want to sell the team to Jim Balsillie any longer because of his desire to move the team. I wonder who get to him. Click here for details from TSN.

Details from Jibblescribbits, Dear Lord Stanley and Greg Wyshynski.

Here's the excerpt everyone is talking about:

... hell yes, I'm glad I'm not some ESPN stooge, who might make more money than me, but spends his/her entire day preening around the athletic arena, microphone in hand, makeup case in hand, hair spray in hand, ready to ask an inane, suckup, kiss-butt question to a player that, at the end of the day, at the end of this life, at the end of this universe, HAS ABSOLUTELY NO RESONATING IMPACT ON THE MEMORIES OF ITS VIEWING AUDIENCE, AND ABSOLUTELY NO LASTING IMPACT ON ANYTHING REMOTELY ASSOCIATED WITH THE ART CALLED "JOURNALISM" WHICH YOU FALSELY ATTACH YOURSELVES TO."

Let's just say we've all had days like that. More later.

Jerseys And Hockey Love, which has been in the business for one year.

How many hockey bloggers are there? So many, that I can't keep up with milestones like this anymore.

For years now, Real GM has featured a piece of software that allows fans to come up with trades that would fit under the salary cap. Now it turns out that the company that owns the site is taking things to the next level.

Here's Newsday's Jim Baumbach:

As many as 14 general managers this season will be using RealGM.com to come up with trade ideas that fit under the salary cap. But there's a catch. Unlike Layden, these GMs are not using the same program as fans do.

RealGM.com, a popular basketball Web site that was founded in 2000 and has only four full-time employees, actually produces a software program specifically for NBA teams that helps them produce trade ideas. It costs teams about $30,000 per year, and chief operating officer Todd Essman (who grew up in Plainview) said currently nine teams have already signed up for next season. They could land another five.

Essman wouldn't name the teams, citing how sensitive some teams can be when it comes to their front-office machinations. But he said when they first came up with the idea in 2003 and went around the league trying to sell it, the Indiana Pacers and senior vice president David Morway were especially helpful.

How fast would a professional piece of software like this turn into the most popular destination over at NHL.com? I'd kill for something just like it.