On Thursday, two strange tweets showed up on the Twitter page of New York Rangers center Brad Richards that made it seemed like yet another professional athlete had their account hacked.

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We suspected either someone was either framing Tommy Lee of Motley Crue or the drummer best known for documenting his, ahem, exploits with Pam Anderson had become a super hacker.

Turns out Richards was still logged into his account from his New York City hotel and with the Crue on tour in the Northeast, Lee just happened to hop on the right computer and played Good Samaritan by informing the Rangers' star of his goof, while signing him out at the same time.

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Richards later found out it really was Lee and told him he was definitely coming to a Rangers game at some point this season.

So next time you forget to sign out of your Twitter account in a big city hotel, rest assured that some member of a 1980s hair band will rescue you.

Chances are you've probably never watched a game from the IIHF's Division III championships, so the probability of you ever hearing the name Eliezer Sherbatov is slim, unless you're a devout follower of the Israeli national hockey team or the Montreal Juniors or Baie-Comeau Drakkar of the QMJHL.

During the D-III championships in April in South Africa, Sherbatov had a six-point game against Greece and delivered what would have been a highlight-reel goal around the world had the tournament been on many more people's radars ... and also not been finally uploaded to YouTube last weekend.

Via a retweet from Paul Bissonnette and CBS's Eye on Hockey blog, here's what's arguably a top-five "Goal of the Year" candidate:

Sherbatov was the star at the tournament leading Israel to the gold medal with 14 goals and 26 points in four games. When you beat teams like Greece 26-2, that'll help pad your stats. (The Greeks also lost 20-0 to Luxembourg and allowed 79 goals in four games. Mongolia withdrew

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So here we are on July 13 and two of the biggest names on the restricted free agent market -- Steven Stamkos and Drew Doughty -- remain unsigned.

At what point does this turn into a "Fan Hostage Crisis" for Lightning and Kings fans? We were at Day 13 of the Ilya Kovalchuk Wait-and-See a year ago at this time. And we're not sure how many more Twitter rumors LA and Tampa beat writers can take.

Doughty's agent, Don Meehan, told Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times yesterday that he hasn't spoken with Kings GM Dean Lombardi since June 23. Lombardi has obviously been busy adding Mike Richards, courting Brad Richards, re-signing Brad Richardson and dealing away Ryan Smyth since the week of the NHL Draft. But the ball is in the Kings' court to make the next move according to Meehan.

The sticking point is both the length and dollar amount according to Lombardi. It's been reported that the Kings are believed to have offered a nine-year, $65 million deal to Doughty.

But another facet of any

In the two days after the NHL's free agency period opened on July 1, over $400 million was spent on players. We can mostly thank Florida Panthers GM Dale Tallon for that as he overhauled his roster with a few overpayments on his way to reach and surpass the salary cap floor.

But Tallon wasn't alone in his big spending. The Buffalo Sabres, New York Rangers, Phoenix Coyotes, and Columbus Blue Jackets were the top four teams shelling out big bucks during the first week of free agency.

Puck Buddy Justin Megahan of Every Facet of the Game created an infographic that gives a team-by-team look at unrestricted and restricted free agent spending for the 236-year, $548.125 million in contracts that were handed out between July 1 and July 8:

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Megahan didn't include every free agent signing, instead focusing mostly on one-way contracts with a few exceptions.

"I did not count 2-way contracts with a few exceptions, like Brian Elliott's deal with St. Louis, since unless they sign someone else he's

109746595When we last left the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings they had just completed the Ryan Smyth trade, but one hangup from the deal was the discovery that Colin Fraser had a fracture in his foot, along with a cyst and would need surgery that would put him out of action for four months.

Understandably, the Kings weren't happy that they were getting back damaged goods. An earlier proposal of the deal that included Gilbert Brule instead of Fraser went sour when it was learned Brule hadn't been cleared yet for physical contact after suffering two concussions. Kings GM Dean Lombardi had planned to buyout Brule if that deal had gone through, but under the current NHL CBA injured players cannot be bought out. With Fraser, the Kings were getting back a player they had planned to have as part of their lineup going forward.

Lombardi told the Los Angeles Times last month that he wanted to work things out with the Oilers regarding the Fraser deal instead of voiding it. Oilers GM Steve

YANDLEDEAL copyThe unknown future of the Phoenix Coyotes didn't play into Keith Yandle's decision to re-sign with the team as his agent Jerome Buckley pointed out last week while negotiations were still on-going.

While some free agents may be scared off in signing a long-term deal in Phoenix given that they may not be there in a year's time, Yandle showed his commitment to the organization and took a nice pay raise at the same time.

After signing a five-year, $26.25 million deal Tuesday, Yandle's cap hit is just $300,000 more than Michal Roszival's $5 million. That's Glen Sather for you.

The news was broken by Ryan Whitney of the Edmonton Oilers of all people. He and Yandle are currently working out together in their home state of Massachusetts.

The 24-year-old Yandle is coming off a career season that saw him net 11 goals and 59 points, good for third among all NHL defensemen.

According to Andy Strickland of True Hockey, Yandle's deal breaks down over the five years as $4.75 million, $5M, $5.25M,

TARO copyHe wasn't the first draft choice to fail to make it to the NHL, but he certainly was the first player to not exist as all.

The legend of Taro Tsujimoto began during the 1974 NHL Draft. During the 11th round, Buffalo Sabres GM Punch Imlach became bored at the Draft's drawn-out process and decided to play a prank ... by inventing a player to select with his pick.

From the Sabres:

Sending a secretary to find some common Japanese names, Imlach soon came up with the imaginary Taro Tsujimoto of the Tokyo Katanas - literally translating to the Tokyo Sabres (Katana is a type of Japanese samurai sword).

When NHL President Clarence Campbell asked Imlach for his selection, he was met with laughter from around the League. International scouting wasn't as prevalent as it is in the NHL now, and drafting a player from Japan wasn't exactly a common practice.

Imlach stayed true to the prank until training camp, when he revealed that the draft pick didn't exist. To this day, however, Tsujimoto's name