News And Notes

There have quietly been some things happening in corners of the hockey world that I thought I should touch upon today before we get into some major stuff down the road. The NHL Playoffs are rolling on, and I am happy to say that a few vendors came through with some awesome stuff for the HBIC Playoff Pool! If you're playing, you'll be happy with the haul of gear this year. If you're a fan of The Hockey Show, we move to our new one-hour time slot this week starting at 5:30pm CT, and I'll have some details about that below. Without further adieu, though, let's get to the news that may have been missed by most major news outlets.

KHL's Top Awards

The KHL held their annual awards ceremony, and a few players and teams were recognized for their outstanding efforts this season. Sergei Mozyakin of Metallurg Magnitogorsk, who played alongside Evgeni Malkin, was the leading goal scorer with 35 tallies this season, and he also led the KHL in points with 76 points. Because of these totals, Mozyakin was also awarded the "Golden Stick" as the league's Most Valuable Player this season.

Renat Mamashev of Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk was the highest-scoring defenceman with 10 goals and 32 assists. The Alexei Cherepanov Award for the best rookie this season was won by Traktor Chelyabinsk forward Valery Nichushkin. The Best Goaltender Award as well as Playoff MVP Trophy went to Alexander Yeryomenko of Dynamo Moscow. Dynamo Moscow coach Oleg Znarok won his second consecutive Coach of the Year Award.

Eye Spy

Reader Mike E. was watching Game Five between the San Jose Sharks and the Los Angeles Kings when he spied something on the back of Antti Niemi's uniform.

It's pretty clear that Niemi is wearing a Reebok vector on his neckline as opposed to the wordmark. How old is that uniform he's wearing, and how many do the Sharks still have left over? I went hunting and there was no twentieth anniversary patch on the sleeve, so this uniform might be the last of a very old batch that the Sharks have kicking around. But you'd assume that the equipment manager would have caught that pretty quickly, no? Wow. Great eyes, Mike!

Sixty Minutes

If you missed the announcement on The Hockey Show last week, we're moving to a new time slot! Starting this week and for the week's going forward, we'll be on at 5:30pm CT for one full hour until 6:30pm on Thursday nights! That means more insanity, more of your calls, and lots more hockey chatter to satisfy your and our hockey needs!

This week, we'll be featuring former NHL star Jared Aulin as he brings his perspective to the show! Jared's been lucky enough to have played in the NHL, the AHL, the CIS, and in Sweden, so it will be interesting to get his take on each of those leagues. He also suffered a fairly serious injury that almost cost him his hockey career, so we'll chat about that. We'll also chat a little about his love life, particularly one young lady in Los Angeles that he was attached to in social circles.

From there, we'll feature four more Survivor: NHL Playoffs exit interviews as the second round will have come to a close. The Rangers and Senators are already out, so Isabelle and Josh will be required to speak. And we'll see in the coming days which two Western Conference teams will be joining those two at tribal council! All that and more as we begin our one-hour shows on Thursday at 5:30pm CT! Tune in on 101.5 UMFM for the fun!

Ball Hockey Awesomeness

Spent my Saturday at Richmond Kings Arena where I was privy to witnessing some of the greatest ball hockey teams Winnipeg has to offer playing for the right to hoist the REMAX Cup at the third annual tournament! Honestly, there were a few teams there that could have put some NHL teams to shame with how they moved the ball. Of course, ball hockey is different from ice hockey, but it was still impressive to watch these teams play. Incredible hockey!

I want to thank Stu E. and Kevin W. for inviting me down to the event! I had a blast, and really enjoyed the hockey and the interaction with the players! Many thanks go out to Trinity, the official photographer, for putting up with my chatter! I'll have a full write-up about the tournament later this week, so stay tuned for that!

That's about all I have for today, kids. Just wanted to make sure that I got a few smaller stories out to the world, and that I've done. Remember to tune into The Hockey Show on 101.5 UMFM at 5:30pm CT for the one-hour show!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!