Breaking Up Is Hard To Do.

My dearest Jiří,

It's been a week now and I still can't believe we've parted. Those dreams we had, the plans we made...all so much dust on the breeze.

I saw you last night, in your fancy new clothes. A goal on your first shift too, nice. Will you be happy though? Leaping into the arms of Rod Brind'Amour night after night? Taking your orders from...Maurice again. Oh, I know you'll be smiling - but I also know it will be a mask. No more red hot action at the Ricoh Coliseum. No more rooming with Ben Ondrus on road trips. No more Prague Night of Glamour.

It's time to move on now, Jiří. You see...we've met someone else too. No....you don't know him. His name is Philippe. Sure, his neck is almost wider than his head and we can't really understand what he's saying, but he's ours now.

Let's not make this harder than it needs to be. Let's not spoil our good memories by you coming back here in January and scoring a hat-trick. When we see the last chicken in the shop, we'll always think of you. Always.

With all our love,

(Signed on behalf of) The Barilkosphere.

Excuse me - I was getting a little tearful for a second there. Must be a lot of dust in the room or something like that. Chopping onions too, I often have onions for breakfast. Let's get linking before the floodgates open for sure.

• First off - in a shootout that lasted longer than Chris Chelios's life, the Marlies downed the Chicago Wolves 5 - 4, with Juraj Mikus potting the winner.
• More thoughts on the Thursday third period matchup with the Bruins, provided by budblog, Toronto Mike and Under The Helmet of Slava Duris.
• Maple Leaf Hot Stove has their Friday night prospect report and also a look into the sudden rise in shootout occurances.
• On the subject of which, Puck Daddy reels off the stats for defensive penalty shot takers - chock full of Marek Malik goodness.
• Far Away Leaf bemoans the pantomime that is our penalty kill.
• The Hockey Writers cover the ongoing saga of Vesa Toskala and his campaign to either rebuild his body/confidence or else bring us to our knees.
• ...and also bring us the top 10 items thrown onto the ice. (Conclusions to be drawn - hockey players tend to take a pro-bra stance and if only Tom Webster had access to an actual javelin).
• What better way to spend a Saturday morning, than with a cup of coffee, the weekend papers and laughing heartily at the delicious salty tears of Habs fans. Barry Melrose Rocks is good enough to provide the ammunition for today.
• A ticket for tomorrow's Marlies game against Grand Rapids also gives you admission to the Leafs practice at the Ricoh at 13:30. Feel free to lavish praise/hurl rotten vegetables on the basis of the game tonight against the Caps - but please, no sharp objects at the Monster - now back on ice ice.
  It's sixteen years since a Canadian team last lifted the cup. Suite 101 looks at the reasons why.
• The non-hockey link for today - it's the year 3126, but the music of John, Paul, Greg and Scottie lives on.
• UPDATE - The Zambonic Youth cabal whip out the conference call equipment and discuss renaming the NHL trophies./