- According to
Leigh Weimers of the San Jose Mercury News, the HP Pavilion in San Jose is first in the US and third worldwide in non-sports ticket sales. The arena formely known as The Tank ranks only behind the Manchester Evening News Arena in Manchester, and the Bell Centre in Toronto. Billboard magazine and Pollstar conducted the survey. The article ended with this:
No wonder theres no rush to settle the hockey impasse. With ticket sales like that who needs hockey (except our downtown businesses).
I will just leave that as is without any of my thoughtful and respectful analysis. Yanni is coming to the
HP Pavilion on the 12th. Who needs the Sharks when you have Yanni?
- Many diehard hockey fans already visit
TSN.ca for hockey news, but I wanted to mention this for the young hockey fans and their parents who have been emailing me about the lockout. TSN.ca is like ESPN for Canada with half the shouting, and twice the hockey coverage [or more]. Now that ESPN has canceled NHL2nite, I highly recommend watching the
video clips streamed on their website.
Right now there is an excellent segment where Bob McKenzie compares AK Bars Kazan of the Russian Superleague to the New York Rangers. Not content with suiting up Ilya Kovalchuck [who is struggling] and making an offer to
Nikolai Khabibulin [best name in hockey], AK Bars is also making a run on Brad Richards and Vincent LeCavalier. Kazan is a town in Eastern Russia in its 1000th year of existence. The city-owned team is pushing hard for a championship to celebrate the millenium.
A second video segment by Ellen Pinchuk has to be my favorite of the year. It covers Fred Braithwaite's move from the Columbus Blue Jackets to guess where? AK Bars Kazan. Anyone who has been lost in a foreign country will identify with Fred being on a first name basis with the employees at the local McDonalds.
I am not sure if it is ok to directly link to the past Braithwaite
clip, but it is a must see. I am going to contact TSN for their permission, and try to contact Fred himself to see how his season is going. Or as the local fans call him, Fareed.
For current Russian hockey news in English I would recommend
Russianprospects.com or
Rushockey.com.
For more information visit the official
AK Bars Kazan website. Here is a
Russian-English translator. I only know how to say "cheers" and "more vodka please". But here is a
McDonalds quote just for you Fred [11th one down].
- Where is Alexander Korolyuk?
Redwingscentral.com has Korolyuk playing for second level Russian team Vityaz Podolsk in the city of Chekhov. They mention Alexander has 17 points in 12 games.
- Sharks prospect Miroslav Zalesak is tearing up
HK36 Skalica of the Czech Extraliga. He has 9 goals and 11 assists in 14 games. As usual, visit
Jes Golbez for all your Slovakian and Czech hockey information needs. As soon as I mail him photos of his trip to SF [nice Red Sox game, eh?] he should be able to point me to more on Zalesak or Michalek.
- Rob Davision is playing well with the
Cardiff Devils in the UK. Rob scored the only goal Saturday in a 4-1 loss to Nottingham. The concept of selling dvds of Cardiff games on the front page should make its way to the NHL. Great idea. I have already been offered dvds of games in Finland and Germany by fans.
- Many consider the Swedish Elite League to be the closest in level of play to the NHL. Sharks forward Nils Ekman is playing for Djurgarden of the SEL in his hometown of Stockholm. The official website is unfortunately a prime example of
flashploixtation. I want to throw something heavy at my monitor. I dont want to see animated lightning and clouds, I want to find
stats. Click the player profile in the first link to see a streaming video introduction of the entire Djurgarden team. It sounds like Axl Rose is singing a Rolling Stones song for that clip. More on Swedish hockey and Nils coming soon. [Note: Ekman has 6 goals and 8 assists in 14 games].
More on Djurgarden and the Swedish Elite League from
McKeens Hockey.
- The NHLPA and NHL are talking about having
talks?
-
Fissure in union wall? - Prince of Pucks asks another pertinent question in his new column for Foxsports.
- No international Sharks update would be possible without mentioning the German DEL.
Prohockey.de has Ingolstadt in fourth place overall. The official Deutscher Eishockey Liga website lists Marco Sturm among the
top scorers with 9 goals and 6 assists in 14 games played. In addition to former SJ goalie Jimmy Waite, Gryph over at the Feeder noted former Sharks defenseman Ken Sutton is also suiting up for Ingolstadt. The Hannover Scorpions recently signed Paul Mara from Phoenix making the number of NHL players in Europe
236.
- LetsgoKings covered the AHL Manchester Monarchs 5-0 win over the Utah Grizzlies at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Click here for the
photo gallery. Hopefully I can do something similar for the Cleveland Barons game in San Jose.
- FYI, the Mens Hardball Roller Hockey World Championships comes to San Jose
August 2005.
- Many Shark fans contributed to this list of updates. Thanks. Also take a look at the new and improved
sitemap.
[Update] More on Ingolstadt from the USA Today:
Players warm up to less pay, more fun - Kevin Allen. Thanks to the
Ice Block for the link.
[Update2] Brad Richards
signs with AK Bars Kazan according to the St Petersburg Times. Thanks to
Boltsmag for the link.