Ohlund press conference

Here's the press conference of the Lightning for Mattias Ohlund and Matt Walker. Ohlund talks briefly and puts on his new team's jersey.

Some Lightning news! Bettman asks Barrie to fork up 10mill

Looks like I have to stay in touch with Lightning news now..

Well, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has ordered Len Barrie, co-owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning, to cough up 10 million in cash or irrevocable letter of credit to prove that he can keep up the funding of the team.

Apparently Len has an investment property in Victoria - Bear Mountain Golf Resort and Spa, which, last week, received an investment committment of $350 million dollars from Siraj Capital of Dubai, UAE.

Hurry up and release the 09-10 NHL schedule already!

Trying to plan vacation is useless unless I have the schedule. HELL-OOOO??

And where are the photos from yesterday's Mattias Ohlund authograph signing in Tampa Bay? Anyway, here's a photo of Mattias from a Feb NSD article.

Aside: I know I don't do a lot of personal blogging but I have to say that I was highly disappointed in the level of hotness of people encountered in europe. Out of the 7? countries I went to, people were only hot in.. Belgium. Very disappointing. tsk tsk. Belgians. Their country slogan should be: Hot people... and we make good chocolate too.

Dedicated Fan of Mattias Ohlund WANTED!

Hmm.. How am I going to continue blogging about Mattias Ohlund if I can't watch any of his games? I guess I haven't really thought of the future of the blog (and website) all that much. Maybe it's time to put a call out for a Tampa Bay resident Ohlund fan to help out with the reins of blogging and website management. =( I can only do web research from here.. not actually give opinion on how he's playing/his effect on the team, etc..

Dedicated Fan of Mattias Ohlund WANTED!
MUST BE: 1. A fan of Mattias Ohlund
2. Someone who CAN and WILL watch Tampa Bay games
3. A hockey knowledgable fan
4. A website and blog saavy person.
5. Willing to take on the responsibility of helping to maintain both a fan blog and website (including but not limited to web research, doing weekly posts) for years to come.. (until he comes back to Vancouver!)

MUST NOT BE: 1. A fly by night / hobby fan!

Tampa Bay is so faarr awayyy..

The nice thing about going to non-hockey markets is that the players are more anonymous so can have more interaction with the public. The bad thing is that hockey doesn't get airtime.

New Canucks signed

Goaltender: Andrew Raycroft
Right wing: Mikael Samuelsson

Not new but signed: Shane O'Brien

Gone: Jason Labarbara

I'm quite disappointed in the state of the Canucks right now. I don't really care anymore though.

I think the 2005/06 season was the lowest point. Having Trevor Linden hang up his skates was down there too. I really sympathized with Markus Naslund too. But with Mattias, I'm happy for him. Sure, I'm resentful that management didn't fight for him and I'm sad that he's no longer a Canuck, but I fully support the decision he made an applaud the deal JP made for him.

I miss Ohlund already

So Ohlund is supposed to be taking part in Tampa Bay's prospect camp autograph signing July 11, 2009. Wow. That was fast. Goodbye mountains, rain, snow, hounding press attention. Hello... sun, beach, hurricanes? Hmm, what's Tampa Bay known for?

TAMPA - Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman, the No. 2 overall pick in last week's NHL Draft, headlines the additions to an updated list of players who will attend a prospect camp in Tampa next week.

Hedman, 18, will take the ice for the first time in a Lightning jersey during the week-long event, which begins on July 9.

The team is designing a special Hedman T-shirt for the occasion, to be given away free to the first 200 people who attend an intrasquad scrimmage on July 11. Voting for one of three potential designs is being conducted on the team's Twitter page at www.twitter.com/TBLightning.

The camp, which is open to the public, will run from July 9-15 at the St. Pete Times Forum. The scrimmage/skills competition will be from 7-9 p.m. on July 11, with newly signed free agents Mattias Ohlund and Matt Walker expected to join the prospects to sign autographs before and after the scrimmage session.