SORRY! I've been BUSY!

Fucking layoffs. Not that I got laid off. It's just intensified my workload. Yay for business? I'm not ignoring you guys though! I do love you, I do!! All 11 of my loyal and darling readers! God you look so good today. Whaddya, doing P90X?? You look amazing! Let's go out and get smashed tonight in honour of St Patrick driving the pagans from Ireland (yeah I don't get it either, but hey, Jesus is coming soon, so hide the eggs!)! I'm hoping we can start our tribute to religious persecution at work. Like in 10 minutes. WHAT TIME DO ALCOHOL SALES BEGIN?! I've taken up recreational alcoholism, if you were wondering.

I know, I know, sorry. You don't care about me, you want me to blow sunshine up Kari's ass, and swoon over the team. Lately I think the mainstream media's done a pretty great job of picking up my slack. 6 wins in a row, 2 shutouts (ALMOST THREE!!!!!), and thank GOD Ovie didn't get 50 on Kari. 60 last year was bad enough, and I though K's post-game remark about that was pretty funny.

Oh also? When you're interview the #1 star of the game on National Television, can you PLEASE make the damned effort to not call him CARRIE? Sweet bleeding Jesus, try and prepare a little better!

I still think Kari's playing mostly for next year's contract. The better he plays, the more other teams will try to woo him, and the more DW will have to up his contract offer since he's still RFA. So at this point, they could wind up hitting the cap ceiling just on K's contract alone - haha YOU GO, LEHTS! Speaking of awesome Finns, Salmo scoring his first NHL goal last night was pretty sick. Onnea, Salmo! Is there something about Finnish names that people can't say them right? Could someone please ASK Anssi how to say his name, since I haven't heard it said the same way twice.

I love that the team embarassed the fuck out of the Caps last night. I will be gloating to all the Caps fans later. Especially since my Bruins couldn't manage to do too too much in the way of embarassing them. Funny how the Caps aren't such hot shit when they don't have Game-Over Green on their blueline, eh? And here we all thought Ovechkin was carrying the team.

So Broddy goes for the new record tonight. I can't lie. I'm swooning over him because I've "watched" him go from a punk ass rook to the greatest of goalies. Well I can't lie, I was always swooning over him. Helllloooooo hot flexible goalie guy. Sorry, puckbunny moment, couldn't be helped. I'm not entirely sure I have the patience or temerity to actually WATCH the entire Devils game tonight (zzzzzzzzzzzzzztrap), but a little Jamesons goes a long way towards gearing me down. Maybe I'll just watch the post game stuff.

But well done Kari, well done Thrashers, and well done, Broddy!

Seriously, I have pictures. I know you're dying. I've just got to resize them before I can upload them. SOON I PROMISE!

LOVE YOU! DON'T GO CHANGING!!!

It's just how we roll. Photos. Salmelainen.

Before we get into today's post, I just wanted to thank y'all so much. Yesterday was a banner day, with 202 unique visits. I know most of you dropped in to see Kari's new mask, but it looks like a bunch of people stayed to read. Thank you. I hope you'll make return visits to Kari Central. Without further ado, hockey stuff!

From THN sigh-worthy news:

Burrows' goal 11:14 into the third period came after contact between teammate Ryan Kesler and Perrin in front of the net. Perrin's stick hit Lehtonen below his right collarbone, knocking the goalie off his feet. Lehtonen was sitting on his backside in front of the net and was unable to defend Burrows' shot.

After the game, Lehtonen showed a six-inch red streak on his upper chest.

"Perrin's stick hit me right here," Lehtonen said, pointing to the mark. "That's why I went on my butt. I couldn't get up fast enough.

"I was complaining a lot because I thought it was their player's stick, but I was wrong. Sometimes things like that happen."

Greaaaaat. Well done, Perrsy.

Your photos from last night:

I would really like to see a little less of the ass beating, and a little more of the goal scoring. Also, less injuring of our own players. DO NOT BE DERIAN HATCHER, BOYS!

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Right so last night I teased you with the words Salmelainen and poliisi. Which is Finnish for police, if you're still struggling over that one (I thought about it later and realised it could be misconstrued for Polish. Maybe.). Best we figure, Salmo was arrested yesterday in Tampere, then taken to Helsinki, for returning to Finland without committing his mandatory Army conscription, which had been deferred due to his pro hockey contracts. As luck would have it, Toronto waiving him voided said deferral, and once he returned to Tampere to play for the national team, he was targeted. He was allowed to play, putting up one goal and one assist, and then taken into police custody. Late last night I heard he'd been released and was on the way to Stockholm with the team, so hopefully Yaroslavl faxed a copy of his contact with them over, and he is not on the lam. I love this guy, he's my 2nd favourite Finn player after Kari, and my god, if it weren't for bad luck he'd have none at all. Not unlike me.

But the best thing to come out of all this, from the Jatakoaika boards, was;

Tony Salmelainen Hat trick = one goal, one assist, police interrogation

That is a t-shirt waiting to happen! If you read Finnish and want more details, articles here, here, and here. And a nice pre-arrest article (with video) here. Onnea, Salmo!

Kiitos, K, for translations!

Full of fail!

1-2You know, I kind of blame myself. Because that's what I do, I take blame. Maybe I should not have posted pics of Kari's mask. Maybe I jinxed him.

Once again, there was no watching of the game because dish is running a full on Thrashblock against me, and I hate them for it. Thank god we get DirecTV on Sunday because I have had about enough of this crap. It's not bad enough we lose, but I can't even WATCH the loss.

Seriously, I don't know what to say. Alex freakin' Burrows with the GWG? Are you kidding me? That guy's turning into Ruutu revisited according to my friends who're Nucks fans. And for what it's worth, apparently on the TSN broadcast, the commentators were saying that Waddell has said he does not want to coach anymore. Well THAT much is apparent. Of the wins since the beginning of the year, how many were because of the goalie, not because we outplayed the other team? Yeah. That's what I was thinking, too. Time to promote Beast, for the love of god!

Tampa is tied with Nashville and Florida is tied with Ottawa. Oh and Ottawa's playing Emery so... that wail of anguish you'll be hearing shortly is all the Thrasher fans considering offing themselves because the Panthers leapfrogged them in the standings. But hey, you never know. Emery could pull it out of his ass. It being flying monkeys. Oh wait, Ottawa has gone up by one! Dream the impossible dream! Oh god did I just say that in reference to the Panthers? Kill me now. OH THANK GOD! OTTAWA WON! Score!

Photos in the morning.

Tony Salmelainen's inability to buy a break:


You probably don't have to read Finnish to understand the word "poliisi." Updates on this tomorrow.

Mitä vittua?! Can someone 'splain this?

The Latest on the Maple Leafs
The club put Tony Salmelainen on waivers. - TSN

OK. The day has come. This is the second time in two years this has happened but ....... something occurred in hockey that I do not understand!! And the boyfriend is not around right now to explain!! Soooo... who's gonna tell me why a guy who's been playing in Russia since October was just now waived? Anyone?

Guess who served as a catalyst!

NHL, Europe re-open player transfer agreement

Dec 13, 2007 10:44 AM
Kevin McGran

The NHL has its work cut out for itself to make a deal with European-based hockey leagues.

The IIHF-affiliated national ice hockey associations and leagues decided Thursday to give notice to the National Hockey League, exercising their right to re-open the current IIHF-NHL player transfer agreement (PTA).

The representatives from the Czech Republic, Germany, Finland, Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland met in Zurich and the decision was unanimous. The decision to re-open is mutual as the NHL informed the IIHF on Dec. 11 that the league decided to exercise the same right.

Russia has long balked at signing the deal, which guaranteed teams $100,000 per player that signed with an NHL team. Sweden recently withdrew.

That creates uncertainty between NHL teams and disgruntled players. Without an agreement, a player unhappy that he didn’t make an NHL roster, could bolt to Russia rather than play in the AHL. That scenario played out this fall when Tony Salmelainen bolted the Toronto Marlies after he was cut by the Toronto Maple Leafs.

“We listened to the reasons from the associations and their leagues and discussed in depth the most important concerns,” IIHF president René Fasel said in a news release.

“Following the discussion it became obvious that the concerns made it legitimate to exercise the right to re-open.”

Well done, Pikku!

Interviewlet with Tony Salmelainen

From AllHockey.ru (translated by Maal):

After a game in Yaroslavl, Lokomotiv v Torpedo (Lokomotiv win 4-3), AllHockey.ru correspondent Sergeyi Litvak has interviewed the two newest two players for Lokomotiv, Tony Salmelainen, and Daniel Tjarnqvist, who told us about their first impressions.

Tony, this was your first game in Russia. Please share impressions about your new team, and your today's opponents, in comparison with the teams you played with [in Toronto].
Unfortunately, I left [Toronto] last month, and I need some time to find my stride again. We played well, but the opponent was always a step ahead of us, and toward the end of the games the situation became dire, but we managed to win, and it is very important for us. I don't think that we played our best game, that is still ahead of us.

Tell us about your new teammates, particularly Alexei Yashin?
I don't think it is possible to tell you anything new about Yashin, I enjoyed playing with him. He can win [control] the puck, make very good passes, we play one style, and we even today had quite good moments. Shooting* pucks we were not so successful with, if we can be, there will be more goals.

Tell us your first impressions about Russia.
I like Yaroslavl, it's an excellent arena, everything is very convenient. I like the younger guys on the team. Russian is very difficult, but I already know some words (I did not ask him to specify which, author note) and I shall try to master the language.

*Not sure if this is exactly what was written, but given context, it's the most logical translation.

[Not Thrash Related] Salmo indeed in Russia

Sorry it took so long. We had caught whiff of a rumour that Tony Salmelainen had signed with a club back home in Finland, alas, this was not the case.

He has indeed signed with Yaroslavl Lokomotiv (link in Russian), as reported by pretty much every sporting paper in Canada. Below is an undated photo of Tony post-game, we hope he's happier over there than he looks. At least it's only a 2-3 hour flight home to Finland from there, rather than the 15-18 hours from North America! He's only played one game so far with his new club, and was kept completely off the stat sheet. No word on TOI. Also inking a deal at the same time with Lokomotiv was Daniel Tjarnqvist, most recently of the Oilers. Daniel and Tony made their RSL debut together on 12th November.

More on this when we get to a computer that will actually display Cyrillic characters.

Another update on Lehtonen

Taken from AJC's recent article about Pavelec, which you can read in its entirety over here.

It also means the team doesn't have to rush Lehtonen back. Lehtonen said he is in the best condition of his career and looks forward to getting back into hockey shape. He's now running off the ice and is working the groin on the slide board and in the weight room.

He watched his teammates on television at home and missed being a part of the action. But with the pain easing on a daily basis, his spirits are up. The original prognosis was that he'd miss six to eight weeks after hurting his groin on Oct. 18, and there has been no indication that timetable has changed. Lehtonen was, however, reluctant to put a target date on his return.

"The great thing to see is that almost every day I feel better than I felt before," Lehtonen said. "Every day the pain is less and less and that's great."

Beyond great, Lehts. Take your time and heal, but we can't wait to have you back! In the interim, Pavelec and Heddy got this.

In sadder news which shouldn't surprise us but does, Lehtonen is not on the All-Star ballot this year. Write him in, folks. Let's get our star netminder back to the All-Star game again!

Game day preview later. But we can tell you right now to place your bets on the Thrash.

Also, we should have an update for you on Tony Salmelainen. We're waiting for verification on something before we run with it, but if it's true, it's great news. We know you're holding your breath in anticipation - try not to pass out, if we can we'll have it up today.

Oops we're back! Kari's new mask theme! Salmo update!

We lied. Turns out we won't be on hiatus! You may now shed those tears of sorrow-turned-joy.

We don't have much to report, other than there's a game tomorrow night against Montreal. But we haven't really researched it. We'd say we'll do that and then post a game day preview but we'd probably be lying. Ben over at Blueland Blog has a nice preview if you really need one, as well as some info on the lines and stuff going on at practice. Also, welcome to the Thrash blogging fold newcomer Tom, who's Talkin' About Practice. About time there was a Duluth blog! Welcome, Tom!

But!! Kari's getting his new mask soon! No more girlies on the side - this time he's going for hardcore hi-tech - Optimus Prime.

Bad. Ass. We can't wait to see it - that means hurry up and get better, Kärppä!

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Also, since we last spoke, things had been left hanging in the air, re: Tony Salmelainen. According to an article on Ilta-Sanomat, Tony was contacted by the Finnish press and basically said the rumours about him signing with Lokomotiv were straight up bullshit. Although it was reported in typical Finnish tabloid way - wishy washy. So Salmo is most likely having trouble finding a team to sign him since he is coming off as money hungry. Except perhaps teams in the RSL. Irony anyone? You can read the article for yourself but it's in Finnish, so have your translator handy. We hope this means he'll be a super-late signing with IFK again, or with Jokerit, so he can play alongside his brother. But, you know, who knows what the hell he's doing at this point. Salmo, if you read this... drop a line!

Game Preview & Salmelainen

So, Atlanta's 2-7-0 and Nashville is 2-6-0. Waddell isn't changing the lineup from the other night against Toronto and the team is 2-1-0 since Hartley was sacked.

Jason Arnott of the Preds says "We have a lot of soul searching to do. Until we come together as a team, we're not going to go anywhere." Except on the next roach trip, genius. Oh, and he said he is at a loss for words as to how badly the Preds are playing of late. Clearly not a total loss for words since he was able to voice those thoughts. The Predators' new theme song: I Need a Hero.

The most awesomest quote about the Preds though was this one: "I didn't expect this," Nashville coach Barry Trotz said. "We're doing a lot of talking. We need to quit the talking and just do it." Then shut up, dumbass! Am I the only one who thinks Trotz looks like the minister from Beetlejuice? Just wondering.

Since Atlanta kind of seems to be on the tiniest of streaks, we'll give them the advantage in this one. Could be another barn burner though. Or a snoozefest, depending on how hot Hedberg and... Not-Vokoun are. Wow, that must suck, being known as Not-Vokoun. Kind of like being Not-Luongo. Or Not-Brodeur. Oh well, someone has to live in the shadows of others, and at least you get some semblance of fame.

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Soooo, the Globe and Mail has this little tidbit today:

Salmelainen heads to Russia

The real reason forward Tony Salmelainen left the Toronto Maple Leafs organization is that he has signed to play for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the Russian Super League for almost $1.5-million (U.S.).

Under the deal with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, Salmelainen will earn 650,000 euros ($930,000 U.S.) this season. If the Leafs had called him up to the NHL, the most he would have earned under his contract was $500,000.

When Salmelainen left the Leafs farm team, the Toronto Marlies, the only reason given was he did it for family reasons.

It was thought at the time he returned to his native Finland, but a source says he actually signed with the Russian club.

It's still a little unclear if this is true or not. Also? Maybe the people at G&M aren't too clear on their geography, but Finland and Russia are right next to each other, so of course, it's entirely likely he went home to Finland, then headed over to Yaroslavl (why, Tony, why?! Did Lada have no open spots?? Dynamo? Ak-Bars even?!) However, there is chatter out of Finland that someone's blowing smoke up the Globe and Mail's ass, and we've checked Lokomotiv's website and there's not even a mention of Salmo. We'll keep you updated, we know you're on the edges of your chairs awaiting the real truth behind this. OK maybe that's just us?

Salmelainen leaves Marlies

Earlier it was reported on Wharnsby's blog in the Globe and Mail:

Tony Salmelainen, a free-agent signing by the Toronto Maple Leafs over the summer, has left the AHL Toronto Marlies to return home to Finland for personal reasons. He apparently is not disgruntled with the Leafs because he has yet to be given a chance with the big club. But rather he needed a couple days back in Finland and this was a good time to fly back there because the Marlies don’t play again until their home game against the Hamilton Bulldogs on Friday evening.

Now TSN Ice Chips is reporting:

The Toronto Maple Leafs announced Tuesday that forward Tony Salmelainen has left the Toronto Marlies for personal reasons, has returned home to Finland and will not return. As a result, Salmelainen has been suspended by the Toronto Maple Leafs for failure to comply with the terms of his NHL Standard Players Contract.

And Yahoo! Sports is reporting:

Tony Salmelainen apparently has had enough of the National Hockey League. Salmelainen, who recently left the American Hockey League's Toronto Marlies and returned to his native Finland, on Tuesday was suspended by the Toronto Maple Leafs for failing to comply with the terms of his contract.

It comes off that he split because he was underutilized, huh? But word out of Finland is that his brother Tobias has been skipping Jokerit's away games lately, leading to speculation that there might be a family crisis occurring. "Things are going on with his family," general manager John Ferguson said last night, adding that "he wasn't really here long enough for us to be disappointed." Really, fuck you Toronto, for being heartless bastards. We just like saying "Fuck Toronto." Did we say "Fuck the Leafs" yet?

While his leaving the A/NHL saddens us, as we'll be far less able to watch Salmo playing live, we're glad he's heading home to a league that will appreciate him. Hopefully he can be a mid-season signing with IFK. Paljon onnea, Salmo! Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family, and hope all is well.