Marleau Stripped of C

Might as well get this out there before everyone else does.
"Marleau being shopped to Montreal"
Better yet, "this is the first domino to fall prior to the three-way trade involving Heatly, San Jose and Montreal. I have no names coming from Montreal other than Markov, Marleau would be the center that Montreal has been courting for years and this is their best chance"
I believe that that's a reasonable guess on what will be posted within the hour from our favourite blogger.

A quick quote coming from an interview with McLelllan done by David Pollak

"Who will be our captain? Who will be our assistants? At this point I can't give you that answer?

You can't or you won't?

"I won't and I can't," McLellan said. "I want to see who's stepping up to the front. When training camp starts on Sept. 12, you may walk into my office and say who's your captain and I'll probably tell you I'll let you know when we know.

"At this point, nobody's our captain," he said. "We don't have assistant captains. The discussion is ongoing and when we determine that, then we'll make those announcements."

Team Canada Jersey Photo Leaked

May not be a leak after all....but here are some nice pictures on the icthetics blog
http://www.icethetics.info/blog/2009/8/12/olympic-first-look-canada.html

August 14th Rumour Roundtable

Tanguay may find a new home soon

"I can tell you that I had messages from some people on the golf course (Wednesday) but I will not tell you who, he said, laughing. Nous sommes en discussions avec plusieurs équipes et on verra en temps et lieu, s'est il contenté de dire en ajoutant qu'il attend des développements au cours des prochains jours. We are in discussions with several teams and we'll see in due course, he was content to say, adding that he expects developments in the coming days.

For more insight as to why Tanguay may not be picked up yet, check out this post by the fine bloggers at lionsinwinter

Bouillon may find a new home soon

Labbe at Cyberpresse says that the Rags, Pens and Hawks are interested in D depth and going after Cubes services.

Stats Update

OK, so, while perusing Ek on HB, I noticed that he no longer uses his rating system and it's harder to tell when he's actually putting a rumour out there or he's using his own speculation, which makes things harder to tell. Convenient for him I guess as he gets to say he called it if the trade or signing happens and call it his own speculation if what he says never happens. Also of note, is his tendancy to edit previous posts to reflect on him a little better.
I got through June 15th to June 21st and he had one correct (The Suter to coach the Flames one that everyone saw coming).
There were some that weren't even close and a couple that were close as well. My favourite one was the Flyers going after the LA pick in the draft and all that was seemingly required was Scott Hartnell.
Most of his rumours can be traced to forums like www.hfboards.com and believe me, there are a lot of posters there that make speculation trades and Ek seems to snag 'em up if there are enough replies.
Luckily, I am no longer a member there and freely talk of trades more plausible on www.hockeybroads.com with much better analysis from quality posters.
I post there as well and I'd suggest you check out my Former Teams posts on the Whalers, Nordiques and the Jets. Some good news from their NHL and WHA days and maybe even a couple things you never knew about them.

Please help me welcome our newest author, Brock Beliveau. I've known Brock for some time online now and he has some very good insights to the game and will be a valuable author on here. He's quite a bit better at the number crunching than I am and he'll be more adept to the stats stuff.

Sorry, more Ek

Came across another one of his patented "Breaking News" posts. Bouillon signed with the Rangers

http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?post_id=22508&blogger_id=1

Note the time of his posting and now go here:

http://www.rangerstribune.com/2009/08/rumor-rangers-sign-bouillon-and.html

I lied

OK, OK, OK....I said I'd start with stats and all and from the day after the Pens won the cup, but I couldn't hold back as the most famous mysterious hockey blogger (pssst, he's not that mysterious, we already know his name is Dwayne Klessel) and he dropped this gem on my Habs today:

I am not hearing any specifics yet, but from my calls around here are some names that the other side is rumored to be interested in. Again, I am not saying that this is the trade. Obviously not.

Only that these are names that I am hearing are coveted by the other side.


The Canucks like Plekanec and Chipchura and others.

The Habs like Rodin, Burrows, Grabner and could be interested in a young goalie...which does seem odd...


I will continue to call around...

you may enjoy more of his gems at: http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1

The odd thing of it all is that Pleks is the number two and Chips is the only other center that could very well move up other than Lapierre, the Habs centre depth isn't that great for the next couple of seasons.
Don't forget that the Canucks have Sedin, Wellwood and Kesler for the top three centre positions and not a single name being mentioned.


I think I may have be off to a great start in my low stats scoring...or I may be ahead of myself since he didn't give this update any e rating

Intro

Good day hockey fans;

Seeing as how popular hockeybuzzhogwash had gotten, I and a couple others decided to keep the spirit of it alive through this blog.

It's not going to be all Eklund all the time, we'll also update stats and rumours provided by Garrioch, PJ Stock and their ilk. If there are any bloggers, reporters, insiders or whatever they'd like to call themselves that have not been mentioned, be free to shoot a line to set us straight.

I think the best time to start the timeline for us is probably the day after the Cup was awarded to the Pens, stay tuned for our updates.

This should be quite the interesting little ride and don't forget to bookmark this spot.