Brian Burke firing reaction; Zamboni auction; Russian player’s victory dance (Puck Headlines)
Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.
• The lockout is over, and Canuck fans just pick up right where they left off. [PITB]
• Pierre LeBrun asks if reluctance over a Roberto Luongo trade cost Brian Burke his job.[ESPN]
• Damien Cox says yes: "Both Bell and Rogers are keen on a deal for Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo, and Burke was resisting such a move. He said repeatedly of late that he was "90 per cent" certain he wanted to go with the combination of James Reimer and Ben Scrivens in net, and had talked several times about his frustrations of dealing with Vancouver GM Mike Gillis, particularly since he wasn't sure dealing for Luongo was the right move." [Toronto Star]
• Want a zamboni? Flint, Michigan is auctioning theirs off on January 15. [Michigan Radio]
• The Honda Center now begins the daunting task of hiring more than 100 part-time employees ahead of the NHL season on January 19. [OC Register]
• IIHF president Rene Fasel on the NHL's participation in the Olympics: “Once the CBA is ratified and there has been some cooling-down period, we will sit together with the IOC, the NHL and NHLPA to find solutions how to make sure that Sochi 2014 becomes the fifth consecutive best-on-best Olympic event,” said Fasel. “As I have always pointed (out) whenever asked questions about NHL players’ participation, our doors are always open and I am confident that we will find ways — like we did in Nagano, Salt Lake City, Turin and Vancouver — to stage this event on the biggest sporting stage there is." [Vancouver Sun]
• If Lubomir Visnovsky has to report to the Islanders, he will. Poor guy. [Newsday]
• Sure, the lockout is going to cost the game some fans, but here's the sad truth: the true fans always come back. [ESPN]
• Dallas Stars CEO Jim Lites, on keeping green as the team's primary colour: "I think I would have been lynched and Tom Gaglardi would have been assassinated in his bed had we decided to make a [color] change." [Defending Big D]
• Why, exactly, are NHL players apologizing for the lockout? [Arctic Ice Hockey]
• How dare you people suggest the Blue Jackets will finish last. 13th, maybe. BUT NOT LAST. [Dark Blue Jacket]
• Zdeno Chara on playing in Europe and whether he ever thought about staying: “We all knew [Boston] is where we wanted to be and this is where we wanted to play. Europe was good in the short term for a lot of us, but this is where we all wanted to be." [CSNNE]
• Pekka Rinne returns to Nashville and refutes reports that he suffered a groin injury overseas. [Smashville 24/7]
• The Wisconsin Badgers reveal their uniforms for the Office Max city classic, and they actually kind of look like they might have been designed by Office Max. [Badgers]
• Pretty goal here by University of Minnesota sophomore Christian Isackson. [Western College Hockey Blog]
• Ranking the 12 best teams in junior hockey. [Buzzing the Net]
• Are the Edmonton Oilers a playoff team? Warning: this post has math. [MC79 Hockey]
• Paul Ranger is doing some excellent work with the Toronto Marlies, and he's listed as an unrestricted free agent. Might he be back in the NHL soon? [Raw Charge]
• And finally, here's a video of Kirill Kremser, from Russian minor-league team Yuzhny Ural Orsk, performing a victory dance after a 3-2 win.
