Oh Ohlie.. =(

I missed the first game for Tampa Bay. Chuckle. Actually, I'll miss pretty much all of them, I figure. Once again, if anyone who's a Tampa Bay fan wants to take on keeping us up to date about Mattias Ohlund and his play, let me know..

As for what I can find on the net, I liked this cheeky psuedo letter to Mattias Ohlund in the form of a blog post by D. Vanspall:

Sorry I missed it back on Sept 9, but I've been thinking of writing you for a while.

I still have your jersey hanging on the wall in my bedroom. You are still awesome. I'm happy that you'll get to spend your final years in sunny Tampa Bay, collecting millions of dollars that you deserve, with virtually no pressure at all. I hope your son Viktor is doing great and wish you and the rest of your family all the best. And I hope you enjoy and relish working the next few seasons beside your countryman Victor Hedman, you will make a formidable duo on the blueline for both the Lightning and Team Sweden.

I wish you could have stayed in Vancouver. When we decided we couldn't pay you anymore we went out and attempted to replace you with someone presumably younger and cheaper. I think we've managed to replace you but in pieces. We signed 40 yr old Mathieu Schneider for $1.5mil to replace you on the point on the powerplay. I think Christian Ehrhoff is supposed to replace your skating and puck moving for $3.1mil. And I think Brad Lukowich is going to replace your toughness for another $1.5mil, but if he can't handle the load I guess we still have Lawrence Nycholat, Nolan Baumgartner, Ossi Vaananen, and some guy named Aaron Rome to fill in.

Of course with the other top six D-men from last year still in town, that means we have to play eight defencemen a game and pay them roughly $2mil more than we would have had to pay you (did I mention we're having salary cap problems?). But oh well. Happy Belated Birthday!