This got de-railed by some actual news. First there was Chemmy joining the site and then the Leafs complete their master plan to sign every Swedish defenceman in the hopes that one of them is actually the bastard love child of Nik Lidstrom's dad. Only one of these moves will actually have any effect on this coming season for us here and it's not the Swedish-Algerian-Finnish defenceman. Anyway, here are some links to peruse while wondering how Chemmy will kick off his official PPP career:

  • Operation C*cktease is in effect for the Jays. I hated seeing Yankees fans getting drunk on our overpowering beer (I know, it's not that much stronger, different ways of measuring it, blah blah blah, all I know if Americans get sh*tcanned way quicker than us Canucks) so I will be glad to see some respectful Red Sox fans in town.
  • Greener callously breaks Norte's heart.
  • Jeff Finger is getting used to the idea of playing in Toronto. He won't have a real sense of it until his game costing blunder is splashed across the front page of all of Toronto's dailies and featured on all three national television in 30 minute loops.
  • JP wades into the '5 Ways to Improve the NHL' debate with some real winners (and in a perfect world, no-brainers).
  • Wyshynski! reports on the theft of a pretty classic Ovechkin clip from a blogger. Good to know that all of the official sources have such strict codes of ethics. God forbid they do ridiculous stuff like steal another blogger's work. Wait, the NHL stole the clip? Wow. My world's been flipped upside down.
  • THN and McKeen's rankings are out. DGB sums up the problem with these superficial rankings perfectly.
  • MacLean can be a tough nugget on some issues (his at time abrasive interview style, his now-dead crusade against the new rules) but he is such a pro. I can't believe how he handled it so well.