After the summer world junior showcase or whatever ended I thought we were done with August hockey tournaments, but no. Now it’s the Gretzky/Hlinka tournament,

I’m not going to touch on shoehorning Gretzky’s name into this already established tournament - as if having it named for someone who wasn’t a Canadian is an affront to hockey or something - but holy crap can we just let the children take the summer off?

It’s 30 degrees out, the sun is scorching the earth with it’s fire, beaches are filled with young people making fools of themselves, smores are being made around campfires and we need to take this all away from kids so some random hockey tournaments can be played?

Just let it go! Play baseball (like Stamkos) or lacrosse (like Tavares) or take up macrame. Find another hobby to fill your time with kids, all the cool players do it, and you’re not better than John Tavares.

Many experts say this causes burnout on kids and, yeah, bloggers too. I can not make myself care even a little bit about any of this. It’s all meaningless nonsense for Hockey Canada employees to justify their jobs or something, I don’t know.

Who cares, I’m going outside.

Oh, and here are the links I could scrounge up:

Alexander Radulov: The Stars’ Invisible Superstar

Really, the Stars are generally invisible to me since they play out west.

Arizona Coyotes finish 12th in The Athletics ranking of front office confidence

.....how?

Remembering the Trade That Sent Wayne Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings - Last Word on Hockey

Prove It: Three Predators Who Need Big Seasons

Subban better shape up, he’s barely talked about by Preds fans this summer.

Bold Predictions: Eugene Melnyk Will Sell The Ottawa Senators Within The Next Year

Tank it’s value then sell. Sounds like a good plan.

Alright, that’s enough for me. See you in, say, two hours.

From The Branches