Cleaning Out The Mailbox

The last few days of hockey have been spectacular. If you missed some of the Olympic hockey games today, you missed a few amazing performances. Today, the Swiss and Norwegians played an amazing game that featured everything television viewers could wants - goals, hits, saves, and drama. Tore Vikingstad of Norway scored a hat trick against the Swiss - his first ever while playing for the national team - and tied the game at 1-1, 3-3, and 4-4. Vikingstad played a marvelous game, and certainly deserves some recognition for his efforts today. This game might only be edged out by the Slovakia-Russia game from Thursday in terms of its excitement. All in all, we have had some excellent games in Vancouver thus far, and we haven't even hit the playoffs yet.

With tomorrow being rivalry day at the Olympics, I figured it's time to start cleaning out the mailbox. I have lots of stuff that needs to be sorted that really doesn't fit into any categories, so I want to use tonight as a way to get the info out.

I just want to put a disclaimer up here that if you don't like the music from the first two bands I am trying to help, please don't be a jerk and write stupid stuff in the comments. Personally, I'm a rock guy, but I'm willing to help these people out because they asked. Just because you may not like what you hear doesn't mean everyone else will share that sentiment. Use your head when commenting. Anything stupid will be deleted with extreme prejudice. Are we clear?

Ok, let's get to the mailbox.

• Got an email from a gentleman named Dave Adnams. Dave works for Prhymetime Media, and he's helping a Vancouver band get their newest song onto playlists around the world. The band is called Bryan O'Ryan, and its members include Bryan Fogelman, Ryan Worsley, Zach Throne, Michael Nowak, and David Milwain. Head over to the Bryan O'Ryan site, and give a listen to their first two singles. Their newest tune, entitled "Crosby Stalls and Nash", has already received playtime on Canadian radio stations. Thanks for writing, Dave, and all the best to Bryan O'Ryan! They have a couple of great songs already!
• More musical news to pass on your way. I received an email from Françoise Doherty, an aspiring filmmaker and musician from Canada. Françoise has written a song called "I Like Hockey" that she wanted to get out to the masses. I'm happy to help her song reach these masses. Please click here to access her CBC Radio 3 webpage, and give her song a listen. The CBC site is best optimized in Internet Explorer, so if it doesn't work in Firefox, go back to IE. I had to do that in order to listen to Miss Doherty's works. Thanks for writing, Françoise, and here's hoping that you have a ton of success in your music and film career! I'll tune in on Sirius 86 to catch more of your music!
• I received an email from Liz Murphy about her company's product. Sani-Sport is a company that produces a sterilization "closet" for sports equipment to help prevent infections from bacteria and viruses. The cycle takes about 16 minutes, and Sani-Sport is already being used by 26 NHL teams. While this product isn't for the common beer league hockey player, hockey teams that want to ensure cleanliness for their athletes should investigate this product. Sani-Sport might be the best investment that any team can make in preventing unseen injuries like staph infections. This looks like a great product!
• I had asked the other day about speculation on a March 4 press conference at MTS Centre in Winnipeg. There were rumours of the Thrashers moving to Winnipeg that would be announced on March 4, but a number of sources killed that rumour. That, of course, led to other teams' names being mentioned, including both the Phoenix Coyotes and the Florida Panthers. I am officially going on record here: the NHL is not coming back to Winnipeg. The press conference has nothing to do with the NHL whatsoever, according to those few reliable sources.
• Teemu Selanne has now written his name into the Olympic record books. Selanne assisted on the powerplay goal in the second period by Kimmo Timonen to give him his 37th Olympic point, breaking a record held by Canadian Harry Watson, Czechoslovakian Vlastimil Bubnik, and Russian Valeri Kharlamov. It's one thing to score often at the NHL level, but it means something to score often at the Winter Olympics in a short tournament. Selanne has played in five Winter Olympics now, winning two bronze medals and a silver medal. Congratulations to Teemu Selanne, the most prolific scorer in Olympic men's hockey history!

That's all for tonight. My hockey teams plays in the final tomorrow evening, so we need to be ready. That means I need some sleep so I'm ready to rock tomorrow. Again, tomorrow is "rivalry day" at the Olympics as Sweden and Finland tangle, the Czech Republic take on Russia, and Canada plays the USA. Hunker down and catch some of the best hockey you'll see this season!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!