Hello Hockey fans I am back after a long hiatus and ready to give you some insight into the Asia league,the Boston Bruins,fantasy hockey and our hockey pool.

Let us look at the Asia league first,The Nippon Paper Cranes are tied for first place with 30 points with Anyang Halla from Korea and Oji Paper is in 3rd with 26 points,all these teams having played 12 games. High1 from Korea which has the two leading scorers Alex Kim and Tim Smith is in fourth with 25 points but they have played 15 games,the Nikko Ice Bucks are in fifth,the  Tohoku Freeblades the newest team in the league has 13 points and in last place the China Dragon with 0 points and no wins after 15 games.The Dragon have a Japanese goalie and he has been peppered with pucks every game as they could go winless for the whole season.I hope to get to some games this weekend in Yokohama as there will be four games played on Saturday and  Sunday by the four Japanese teams.Pictures to follow in the next blog post.Here is a picture of Chris Yule from last year he presently has 6 goals and 5 assists for the Nippon Paper Cranes in 12 games this season,he was born in Edmonton,but has become a naturalized Japanese citizen and has played for the Japanese national team at the Nagano Olympics and other international tournaments.

On to the Bruins they have made it back to .500 hockey with a great 4-2 win over the Northeast leading Buffalo Sabres last Saturday which I watched on NHL Gamecenter with much hooting and hollering from 9-12 in the morning,however they are not in the playoffs at the moment due to having some injury problems right now as their leading scorer Marc Savard  is on the shelf for 4-6 weeks.The other injury is to Milan Lucic the reincarnation of Bruins legend Cam Neely who broke his finger and is out for 4-6 weeks as well.Tuuka Rask the backup goalie for the Bruins is playing well and got the win for the Bs on Saturday.Here is a picture from 2006 of the Finnish Junior team of which Rask was a member in downtown Vancouver during the World Junior Championships which Canada won of course.Next on to Yahoo Fantasy Hockey,I am in first place as all my players have been scoring and racking up the penalty minutes.My 3 goalies are Tim Thomas,Steve Mason and Evgeni Nabokov.Thomas and Mason have been below average so far but Nabokov has been stellar.Arrogant Dave is in second and his players have been heading to the injury list in droves.Spruce Grove Jeff  my fraternity brother is in third and has been trash talking me quite a bit.Johnny boy from Vancouver in 4th with Luongo on the injured list,Kevin from Toronto in fifth and Thomas in last.The lack of players is disappointing but oh well lots of players available on the waiver wire.

In the main pool,Patrick the newcomer is in first,but the beginners luck should wear out soon,Johnny boy in second,Jay the minister in third,me in fourth,Papa Rog in fifth and Brian the sophomore in last.I have 3 players on the injured list Briere,Toews and Setoguchi and am contemplating making my first trade.It is rare for me to have not pulled the trigger on a trade by now as all other poolies have made at least one trade.This strategy could pay off for me in 2010 when I will be able to bolster my team for the  stretch run in march and April.

One last thing before I go,my Dad will probably kill me for posting this picture but here is a pic of the oldtimer who just celebrated his 66th birthday on November 5 some time in the 1970s in the dressing room for his army team.See you soon and enjoy the hockey wherever you are!!!!!

Hi hockey fans the summer is over and hockey is back,I went back to Calgary and Vancouver in July for 10 days and the only sort of hockey pic I have is Ron Maclean at the Calgary Stampede giving out some awards on the last day of the rodeo.The Asia league is already 2 weeks into the season and the Oji Eagles are in first place but they have played 5 games so that is more than most of the other teams.A new team has joined the league called the Tohoku Freeblades a team from the northern part of Japan who will play games in Fukushima and Aomori prefectures,they did manage to win their first game of the season yesterday against the Nikko Icebucks in Nikko.I might go see a game next weekend in Nikko as the Icebucks will play the China Dragon,the new Chinese team which is based in Shanghai,they were the China Sharks last year but it looks like the San Jose Sharks have pulled their affiliation with the Chinese team.They have 2 foreigners on the China Dragon one German and one Russian.The Seibu Prince Rabbits folding last season sent some players to the Icebucks Eagles and Cranes and the new coach of the Freeblades is the old Seibu coach.More info to come in my next post next I will move onto the pool and NHL reports.

The main pool will be held this Sunday at 630pm and we have 5 confirmed participants Jay the minister Johnny boy Papa Rog back after a 1 year absence and Joey the golden boy of finance and me.If you would like to join us please email or call me 13 players and 1 goalie with 3 trades.Players get 1 point for goals and assists as do goalies and goalies get 1 point for a win and 2 for a shutout.

As for  the yahoo fantasy  this is where we have a problem only 4 players so far but interest from Brian the sophomore and Jeff from Spruce Grove and a fellow Bruins fan.I hope we can keep this pool alive because it has been going on for 9 years so I will be very disappointed if it doesn’t go ahead.If you are interested the pool name is below and the password will be supplied if you want to join.

http://hockey.fantasysports.yahoo.com/hockey/127920/

The Bruins report well the season starts in 3 days and the GM traded Phil Kessel to the Toronto Maple Leafs for 2 first round picks and a second round pick.I really like this trade it reminds me how we ripped off the Leafs in the Raycroft -Raask trade,speaking of Tuuka Raask he will be the backup goalie for the Bs this year and he has an NHL record of 1 win a shutout and 100% save percentage from last year but in only 1 game.Marco Sturm should pick up the scoring slack left behind because of the loss of Kessel.

Well thats all for now hockey fans see you soon and enjoy the opening games of the NHL season this week!!!!

hey everyone going to Calgary in 10 days I hope I can meet up with some of you there!!!

waiting for the iphone 3.0 update it is June 17th in japan I want my copy and paste already!!!

hey all new blog post is up at
http://ping.fm/bRWcX

Well back again for a Finals edition a little late but what  the hell here goes nothing.I did make a prediction of Pens in 6 before the series started and have slightly modified it to Pens in 7 after game 3 finished.The Wings are a strong team but the Pens really played well in the third period  tonight but they played poorly in the second  so they were lucky to get the win and get back in the series and a non-call for a too many men on the ice penalty in the game helped them avoid a Wings powerplay as well.Fleury played well today and recovered from the bad goal he gave up in game 2.Looking forward to game 4 on Friday morning in Japan,but I have to work so I will try to keep up on the game between breaks at work and hope for a long overtime so I can see the winning goal in OT by the Penguins.

Hockey pool news,  Jay the minister is hanging on to first but is only 2 points ahead of Billyboy,Malkin is giving him a shot  to win it all,all other poolies are out of it and dreaming of the regular season pool next season.

Bruins news, the Bruins have signed David Krecji to a 3 year extension of his contract which is great news as he was the second leading scorer on the team this year and the big man Z, the captain has been nominated for the Mark Messier leadership award which will be handed out on June 18 at the NHL awards in Las Vegas where it is being held for the first time in history.

That is all for now over and out,enjoy the rest of the Finals and  a day without hockey is like a day without oxygen.

wings lose there isn’t anything sweeter except for a Bruins win and a Habs loss Pens in 7 is the prediction modification!!!

new blog post is up at http://ping.fm/KPxJd

Hi hockey blog fans and friends and family the mourning period is over for the Bruins and I have decided to look back at the heartbreak of the game 7 loss in OT.I watched the game at home by myself on Friday morning and definitely woke up the neighbours or scared them when the Bruins or Hurricane scored and threw some blankets and pillows at the screen door when the evil Scott Walker scored the winning goal in OT with under 2 minutes left in the first period when I had expected to see the second overtime period start and was totally devastated.Here is a picture of my Bruins playoff beard before I shaved it off on Friday night.Round 3 has started with 2 interesting semifinals to decided who will go to the Cup finals the Wings which I detest almost as much as the Habs have taken a 2 game lead on the Hawks and the Hawks seem to have some injuries to Havlat and Toews from what I have read on the net.I still hope the hawks can make a series of it and even come back to win it but the Wings have a very deep squad even without Datsyuk scoring he has now not scored in 11 games.

The other series is the Hurricane against the Penguins where the Pens have a 1 game lead after a close 3-2 victory in game 1 and the Pens have the better offence and I hate to say it but I think the Pens will win this series,I was a dreadful 0 for 4 in round 2 in my predictions and 6 for 8 in round 1.

In the hockey pool,major disaster I have 1 player left Eric Staal from the Canes,it looks like a 2 man race Billy boy is in first now and Jay the minister in second place Johnny boy is in third so his dream for a double pool win this year is over as he only has 2  players left. I also lost a 2-1 bet with Billy boy on the Detroit Anaheim series for 2000 yen and I made a double or nothing bet with Joe on the Canes Bruins series which I lost after winning the first bet on the Bruins Habs series.I met Joe for lunch today he is doing well and managed to hang on to his job in high finance for the moment and he bought me lunch which was great.

Well that is all for today enjoy the rest of the playoffs,oh some Bruins news before I sign off,it looks like both Kessel and Krecji will have surgery soon to repair injuries which occurred during the season and playoffs.

Hey all my new blog post is up at http://ping.fm/LZnWP