Backstop From Behind The Bench

I've told the story of Lester Patrick's goaltending heroics for the New York Rangers on HBIC before, but it's still a story that deserves to be told a thousand times again simply for the amazing tale of a man who was the epitome of putting the team first. Thankfully, pictures are worth a thousand words, so I'm told, so I'm always grateful when great artists contact me with their works about hockey. Artist extraordinaire Rob Ullman sent me his newest comic strip about Lester Patrick's tale, and it is a fantastic representation of the hockey legend's tale when Patrick went from coach to goaltender for the New York Rangers. Here is Rob's latest work, The Backstop From Behind The Bench. Enjoy!

Part One of The Backstop From Behind The Bench. As always, you can click the image to blow it up larger for easier reading.

Part Two of The Backstop From Behind The Bench.

Part Three of The Backstop From Behind The Bench.

Rob outdid himself on this one as he really did a great job in capturing the story in both words and images. I can't say enough about how good Rob's work is, and you can find a ton of excellent stuff over on his site, Atom-Bomb Bikini. There is some excellent artwork over there, so make sure you stop by his store and score yourself something great!

If nothing else, check out Rob in the Ginger Classic wearing the old-school Quebec Nordiques jersey! He looks like a young Peter Stastny out there! Well done on your jersey choice, Rob! Congrats on your success in the tournament, and thanks for sending me over these great pieces of artwork!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

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Homework Up The Ying-Yang

You might have noticed that this blog has been falling behind the times a little over the past week. I have noticed it as well, and I assure that I am working to bring this place back up to par. However, this school endeavor that I've embarked on has me working furiously every night until the wee hours of the morning, only to repeat the same process again and again and again over the last few nights. Needless to say, I'm tired, I'm busy, and I have little time to sacrifice with all these major assignments and projects being due. However, I am working feverishly on this blog when I'm burying my nose in a textbook, so I'm hoping to have this apparent disregard for this blog fixed by early next week.

Tonight, I'm just doing homework. Sorry, kids, but I am officially mailing this one in because I'm not interested in failing any of these courses. Now, I'm no liberal arts major or anything, but Calvin & Hobbes is classic literature in my books. Since this comic strip makes me laugh and I'm studying computer stuff, I thought this strip would be appropriate. If you need to see it bigger, please click here.


Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

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Too Much Homework!

The joys of going to school are many: I'm smarter (in theory), I'm more employable (in theory), I can claim my textbooks and tuition on my taxes (seriously!), and I can claim that I'm a "struggling student" on my taxes next year. Overall, it's been a very positive experience for me as I get learned and intellectualized (is that even a word?). Obviously, the one negative for school is the same complaint that kids have had throughout history, and that one complaint is homework. Universities and colleges seem to have discovered this awesome way to schedule all major assignments from all classes at the same time, so I'm a little swamped with homework despite working diligently through each and every assignment.

Therefore, I am taking tonight off and getting my rear in gear on this homework. I apologize for this, but school is fairly important to me as I spent a lot of money to attend and I intend to get a return on my investment. That being said, I'm off to get smrtr brainier wyzer things done.


Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

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HBIC Comics - Volume 5

As we near the start of September, there are a lot of trainers and teams sending players out for specific training camp exercises in order to make them better as a player. Since I missed last week's Funnies as I was out in the great wilderness of Canada, that means I'm moving to a two-a-day schedule for today to get myself up to speed for this team. Absences be damned as a I need to get myself back on schedule! So without further adieu, here are your HBIC Funnies, two-by-two, for today!

Benchies is a comic strip produced by Rick Pearson. Mick and Mike find themselves in all sorts of humorous situations, and hockey is just one of those situations where crazy things happen to the guys! You can find more of Mr. Pearson's Benchies every weekend on Uni Watch Blog where Mick and Mike get up to all sorts of hijinks!

Here is your Benchies for August 21, and it's a two-part equation. Mick and Mike are looking for better training techniques, and they have found the answer... and a new innovation for hockey!


Small Market Sports is a comic strip produced by Bill Charbonneau where his cast of characters are always up to something. There's Carter (the baseball), Doug (the football), Dave (the sports radio), Nash (the basketball), and Wayne (the hockey puck). Named after the Great One, Wayne Gretzky, Wayne the puck is "a hot-tempered and slightly egotistical 'super-star' (in his own mind, anyway). As the ambassador to his sport, he is quick to defend the unrelenting jabs about the excessive violence that permeates his hockey. Even if he has to drop his gloves and knock some teeth in to do it." Mr. Charbonneau produces a new comic every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday about these characters, and you can find them on Small Market Sports!

Here are Small Market Sports comic strips for August 21. Wayne complains to Doug about how poorly hockey is covered in the US, and then Carter discovers that hockey and religion are related!


I also want to help out the author and illustrator of Small Market Sports. I can't thank Bill Charbonneau enough for allowing me to post some of my favorite Small Market Sports comic strips, so I want to post a recent note from his blog to help him out.

"First let me just say thank you to everyone for your kind words of encouragement. I am happy to report my wife is back to her normal self (well, normal pregnant self) and the baby is fine too. I probably should've updated the site with that information a little sooner, eh?

"Anyway, let's get back to the fun stuff, shall we?

"Fun stuff like the new t-shirt design available in the Small Market Sports shop, Hockey+Beer=ME!

"It's the perfect gift for both the hockey fan AND Small Market Sports comic strip fan in your life (or beer fan even!). I intend to be wearing one to the Toronto Maple Leafs / Philadelphia Flyers pre-season game being held at the John Labatt Centre here in London, Ontario in September. Provided, of course, that my wife isn't in the middle of giving birth at the time. :)

"All proceeds from the shirt sale will go directly into paying for anything my son might need the first few months of his life (you know, like food, clothing, shelter, booze, whores, an atomic arsenal, etc...)

"Okay, enough with the sales pitch... get back to enjoying the comics."

Help Bill out if you can! It's a great looking t-shirt!

Thanks to Rick Pearson and Bill Charbonneau as always! I'm off as I have a ball tournament to continue in on Sunday, and need some sleep!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

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HBIC Comics - Volume 4

Saturday will be a busy day for me. I have about a bazillion things on the go, but I still need to get this out. Saturday is "Funnies" day on HBIC, so these should tickle your funny bone a little bit while I'm out trying accomplish some stuff in my life. Also, please scroll to the end regarding prizes for the remaining people in the HBIC Hockey Pool. I have prizes assigned to everyone except one person, and I'll list my mailing dates. There are a bunch of packages sitting in my car right now that will be going out in the mail this week, so I'll update everyone. It's tough work being as busy as a bee!

Benchies is a comic strip produced by Rick Pearson. Mick and Mike find themselves in all sorts of humorous situations, and hockey is just one of those situations where crazy things happen to the guys! You can find more of Mr. Pearson's Benchies every weekend on Uni Watch Blog where Mick and Mike get up to all sorts of hijinks!

Here is your Benchies for August 7, and Mick and Mike discover that sometimes a team can play for the logo on the front of their uniforms... kinda. And the boys are playing broomball!

Small Market Sports is a comic strip produced by Bill Charbonneau where his cast of characters are always up to something. There's Carter (the baseball), Doug (the football), Dave (the sports radio), Nash (the basketball), and Wayne (the hockey puck). Named after the Great One, Wayne Gretzky, Wayne the puck is "a hot-tempered and slightly egotistical 'super-star' (in his own mind, anyway). As the ambassador to his sport, he is quick to defend the unrelenting jabs about the excessive violence that permeates his hockey. Even if he has to drop his gloves and knock some teeth in to do it." Mr. Charbonneau produces a new comic every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday about these characters, and you can find them on Small Market Sports!

Here is a Small Market Sports comic strip for August 7, and Dave takes calls regarding Jim Balsillie's plan to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins.


MAIL SERVICE: I will be sending out all the packages that have yet to be mailed by this Friday to all the recipients who have yet to receive their prizes. Some people have asked about shipping costs, and I want to say that there is absolutely no cost to you whatsoever. If I didn't want to run this contest for free, I wouldn't have. Therefore, the total cost to acquire and ship these prizes in my responsibility, and the total cost to you if you are a prize-winner is nil. Zilch. Zero. That being said, I hope the people who have received their prizes are happy with them thus far, and the next wave of packages to go out should take about 10-14 days to arrive. That means you should have your prize by the last week of August. Good?

Alright, I'm off again. Real-life calls.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

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HBIC Comics - Volume 4

I'm going to be away this weekend doing a variety of non-hockey things, so I've prepared a few posts to go up in my absence. I'm hoping I did everything properly in my haste to get away for some rest and relaxation - R&R, to the layman - so that you, the reader, can get your HBIC fix over the long weekend. I'll be back on Monday to check to see if things went according to plan in my absence, so if things seem askew, just roll with it until Monday. Once I'm back, I can look into any and all problems, but I'm off the grid for this weekend. That means no connection to the HBIC world, so let's hope this place holds together! With that in mind, here are your HBIC Comics!

Benchies is a comic strip produced by Rick Pearson. Mick and Mike find themselves in all sorts of humorous situations, and hockey is just one of those situations where crazy things happen to the guys! You can find more of Mr. Pearson's Benchies every weekend on Uni Watch Blog where Mick and Mike get up to all sorts of hijinks!

Here is your Benchies for July 31, and it seems the boys think of an old TV show when talking about an Eastern Conference city!
Small Market Sports is a comic strip produced by Bill Charbonneau where his cast of characters are always up to something. There's Carter (the baseball), Doug (the football), Dave (the sports radio), Nash (the basketball), and Wayne (the hockey puck). Named after the Great One, Wayne Gretzky, Wayne the puck is "a hot-tempered and slightly egotistical 'super-star' (in his own mind, anyway). As the ambassador to his sport, he is quick to defend the unrelenting jabs about the excessive violence that permeates his hockey. Even if he has to drop his gloves and knock some teeth in to do it." Mr. Charbonneau produces a new comic every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday about these characters, and you can find them on Small Market Sports!

Here is a Small Market Sports comic strip for July 31. Doug is impressed with Sidney Crosby's clothes-dryer routine on The Tonight Show which prompts him and Wayne into a discussion of NHL rules.

Just to reference what Doug is talking about, here are Crosby and Max Talbot shooting pucks at a dryer while selling merchandise for Reebok:

A big thank you goes out to Rick Pearson and Bill Charbonneau for allowing me to put together a hockey-related comics page each and every Saturday. If you know someone who would like their work published, please have him or her contact me here. Whether you're an amateur or a professional artist, I'd be happy to feature your work on my site!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

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HBIC Comics - Volume 3

My weekends are something similar to the image to left. I spend my day in the sun, I'm surrounded by a lot of sand and clay, and I normally have a sunburn to show for it. The last few weekends of softball have been hot and dry, and that's awesome for playing. It's not so good, however, when you're out all day in the sun. Thankfully, my SPF 75 sunscreen worked wonders today. I'll be back out there tomorrow, but things should be ok as long as I lather myself in more sunscreen. Needless to say, I could use a break from both the softball and the sun. Here are your HBIC Comics for July 24.

Benchies is a comic strip produced by Rick Pearson. Mick and Mike find themselves in all sorts of humorous situations, and hockey is just one of those situations where crazy things happen to the guys! You can find more of Mr. Pearson's Benchies every weekend on Uni Watch Blog where Mick and Mike get up to all sorts of hijinks!

Here is your Benchies for July 24, and it appears that Benchies is looking to join the NHL Competition Committee:

Small Market Sports is a comic strip produced by Bill Charbonneau where his cast of characters are always up to something. There's Carter (the baseball), Doug (the football), Dave (the sports radio), Nash (the basketball, and Wayne (the hockey puck). Named after the Great One, Wayne Gretzky, Wayne the puck is "a hot-tempered and slightly egotistical 'super-star' (in his own mind, anyway). As the ambassador to his sport, he is quick to defend the unrelenting jabs about the excessive violence that permeates his hockey. Even if he has to drop his gloves and knock some teeth in to do it." Mr. Charbonneau produces a new comic every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday about these characters, and you can find them on Small Market Sports!

Here is a Small Market Sports comic strip for July 24 where Wayne is worried about a lock-out, but Carter may give Gary Bettman new expansion ideas!

Bizarro is a fun comic strip produced by Dan Piraro. Dan takes the mundane, everyday occurrences and puts a new twist on them by looking at them from a different angle. Honestly, his work makes me laugh all the time because of its twisted humor, but that's why it's a such a great comic strip. Dan's Bizarro can be found on his blog, BizarroBlog, where he posts daily.

Today's Bizarro isn't a comic, but a great blog post by Mr. Piraro. It was written almost two years ago to the day, yet we're still talking about problems in Iraq. The more things change, the more they stay the same, I suppose.

One last bit of fun, a reader requesting anonymity decided to snag the image that I used a while back of a horse with a bit of a problem, and came up with the Manitoba Moose's response to the Jets arriving back in town this season. Pretty funny!

A big thank you goes out to Rick Pearson, Bill Charbonneau, and Dan Piraro for allowing me to put together a hockey-related comics page each and every Saturday. If you know someone who would like their work published, please have him or her contact me here. Whether you're an amateur or a professional artist, I'd be happy to feature your work on my site!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

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HBIC Comics - Volume 2

Another day on the ball diamonds means another day with rain. Thankfully, I was only coaching today, so I didn't have to be out in the rain as an umpire. They were forced to evaluate the fields with the cycle of drizzle following by torrential downpours, but the good news is that the lightning finished the day off. I no longer have to be in the rain, but the result is an early morning tomorrow as we need to squeeze the games in for the Provincial Tournament. A berth in the Nationals is on the line, and that means we have to be on our game tomorrow morning! In order to get my head in a good place, here is another edition of HBIC Comics. As always, click on the strip to see it in larger form. Enjoy!

Benchies is a comic strip produced by Rick Pearson. Mick and Mike find themselves in all sorts of humorous situations, and hockey is just one of those situations where crazy things happen to the guys! You can find more of Mr. Pearson's Benchies every weekend on Uni Watch Blog where Mick and Mike get up to all sorts of hijinks!

Here is your Benchies for July 17, and check out the awesome jerseys worn by Mick and Mike:

Small Market Sports is a comic strip produced by Bill Charbonneau where his cast of characters are always up to something. There's Carter (the baseball), Doug (the football), Dave (the sports radio), Nash (the basketball, and Wayne (the hockey puck). Named after the Great One, Wayne Gretzky, Wayne the puck is "a hot-tempered and slightly egotistical 'super-star' (in his own mind, anyway). As the ambassador to his sport, he is quick to defend the unrelenting jabs about the excessive violence that permeates his hockey. Even if he has to drop his gloves and knock some teeth in to do it." Mr. Charbonneau produces a new comic every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday about these characters, and you can find them on Small Market Sports!

Here is a Small Market Sports comic strip for July 17 where the hockey season always takes precedence:


Bizarro is a fun comic strip produced by Dan Piraro. Dan takes the mundane, everyday occurrences and puts a new twist on them by looking at them from a different angle. Honestly, his work makes me laugh all the time because of its twisted humor, but that's why it's a such a great comic strip. Dan's Bizarro can be found on his blog, BizarroBlog, where he posts daily.

Today's Bizarro isn't a comic, but a great blog post by Mr. Piraro. Click here to read, and check out his thoughts on the "Pope of Canada". Great article!

While it's not a comic strip, I'd like to point out the work being done by Old Spice, ad agency Wieden + Kennedy, and ex-NFL player Isaiah Mustafa in their recent viral campaign where "the Old Spice Man" answers Twitter questions. He took a question from @NHLBlackhawks who asked, "What would you do on a day with the Stanley Cup". His manly answer is pretty funny.

A big thank you goes out to Rick Pearson, Bill Charbonneau, and Dan Piraro for allowing me to put together a hockey-related comics page each and every Saturday. If you know someone who would like their work published, please have him or her contact me here. Whether you're an amateur or a professional artist, I'd be happy to feature your work on my site!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

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HBIC Comics - Volume 1

Here it is, kids! HBIC is bringing you some hockey-related comic strips on Saturdays for a little added humor to your weekend. As you know, most newspapers run full-colour comic strips on the weekend. However, hardly any of them have hockey content in them. Because of this, I've contacted a few of my favorite comic strip writers/artists and asked them to contribute to the HBIC Comics. We'll run this every Saturday, and I'll include a little info on where you can find more comics and a link how to get there. If you click on the comic strip, it will open bigger in a new window for easier reading! Let's get going!

Benchies is a comic strip produced by Rick Pearson. Mick and Mike find themselves in all sorts of humorous situations, and hockey is just one of those situations where crazy things happen to the guys! You can find more of Mr. Pearson's Benchies every weekend on Uni Watch Blog where Mick and Mike get up to all sorts of hijinks!

Here is your Benchies for July 10:

Small Market Sports is a comic strip produced by Bill Charbonneau where his cast of characters are always up to something. There's Carter (the baseball), Doug (the football), Dave (the sports radio), Nash (the basketball, and Wayne (the hockey puck). Named after the Great One, Wayne Gretzky, Wayne the puck is "a hot-tempered and slightly egotistical 'super-star' (in his own mind, anyway). As the ambassador to his sport, he is quick to defend the unrelenting jabs about the excessive violence that permeates his hockey. Even if he has to drop his gloves and knock some teeth in to do it." Mr. Charbonneau produces a new comic every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday about these characters, and you can find them on Small Market Sports!

Here is a Small Market Sports comic strip for July 10:

Bizarro is a fun comic strip produced by Dan Piraro. Dan takes the mundane, everyday occurrences and puts a new twist on them by looking at them from a different angle. Honestly, his work makes me laugh all the time because of its twisted humor, but that's why it's a such a great comic strip. Dan's Bizarro can be found on his blog, BizarroBlog, where he posts daily.

Here is your Bizarro for July 10:

Now, those are the only three comic strip authors/artists that responded in regards to me using their proprietary work. I plan on adding more, but without permissions to use the comic strips, I'm kind of at a standstill right now. However, a huge thank you goes out to Rick Pearson, Bill Charbonneau, and Dan Piraro for allowing me to put together a hockey-related comics page each and every Saturday.

If you know someone who would like their work published, please have him or her contact me here. Whether you're an amateur or a professional artist, I'd be happy to feature your work on my site!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

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Some Thursday Updates

It's Thursday, and there aren't a lot of major hockey stories that are dominating the headlines today. There's some basketball player who was holding a press conference to announce he signed a contract to play somewhere, but who really cares about basketball? There are more important things going on in the world of sports than some player making a mockery of his sport and league, so let's get off that island. We've got player news, uniform news, and a Russian who is all about the money, but has yet to show up when it really matters. We'll kick it off with that story. Let's go!

• The Los Angeles Kings' saga of being in and out of the Ilya Kovalchuk sweepstakes sees the team out of the running again after they rejected agent Jay Grossman's counter-offer to the contract proposed by the Kings. Here's a quick tip for both Grossman and Kovalchuk: win something, and then ask for more money. Kovalchuk has yet to advance past the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, yet he's asking for Gretzky/Lemieux money. Personally, I wouldn't pay it.
• The Vancouver Canucks make a couple of appearances today, but we'll start with the retirement talk. A third banner will be raised to the rafters at the newly-named Rogers Arena this year as the Canucks have announced that Markus Naslund's #19 will be retired. Naslund captained the Canucks from 2000-2008, and is the franchise's leading scorer. Naslund was a major player in community initiatives, so this will be special for the city of Vancouver and Naslund himself. He joins former captains Stan Smyl and Trevor Linden as the only men to have their number retired by the Canucks, and the ceremony will go down on December 11, 2010.
• The arena that the Canucks call home got itself a new name after General Motors decided to not renew their naming rights for this upcoming season. GM Place, affectionately known as "the Garage", will now be called Rogers Arena as the telecom giant puts its name on another sports facility. Rogers has the rights to the name on the Vancouver arena for the next ten years. GM, in their defence, will remain as a major sponsor inside the building as they push the Chevrolet brand.
• The Canucks also showed off their 40th Anniversary throwback jerseys, complete with patch! Lots to like on this jersey: monsterous logo, 1970s-style captaincy letters, the "V" on the sleeve stripes, no names on the back of the jersey, and great hockey stripes. The hates? That damned Reebok logo, the curved hems at the bottom of the jersey, and tapered collar into the NHL shield logo. Look, I get the sponsorship angle in terms of having Reebok design these uniforms, but a throwback should "throw back" to the actual uniform. Overall, though, a very good design, and one I can endorse.
• In the continuing TSN series that looks at the four Canadian municipalities that are on the NHL's radar for possible expansion or relocation, Winnipeg is tops of the three cities seen right now. Winnipeg's overall mark of "B" ranked them ahead of Hamilton, who scored a "D+", and Toronto, who scored a "D-". Quebec City goes tomorrow, but with no NHL-suitable arena at their disposal, it appears Winnipeg may be the best Canadian choice for the NHL by the standards set out in this study.
• The Nashville Predators have their new captain after having dealt Jason Arnott to the New Jersey Devils. Defenceman Shea Weber has been annointed the new captain, and becomes the fifth captain in team history and the first captain that had been drafted by the Predators. Kudos to Weber as he is one of the best young defencemen in the NHL!
• Montreal Canadiens defenceman PK Subban added some hardware to his mantle today as he was awarded the AHL's President's Award in recognition of his outstanding accomplishments for this past season. I've seen this kid play, and he is an outstanding skater with a knack for being in the right place at the right time. He was a first team AHL All-Star this year as well as being part of the AHL All-Rookie team, and he showed amazing talent all season long. A very deserving award for a highly-skilled player!
• The rest of the AHL's award winners can be found on this page. Congratulations go out to Howard Dolgan of the Syracuse Crunch, Tom Mitchell of the Binghamton Senators, linesman David Butova, and the Chicago Wolves for their award wins!
• The Hershey Bears went back to the future in bringing back defenceman Lawrence Nycholat for the 2010-11 AHL season. Nycholat spent last season with the Manitoba Moose where he suited up for 37 games due to injury. Nycholat won the 2006 Calder Cup with the Bears, and put up career highs with 13 goals and 57 points. As long as he remains healthy, this signing can make the already-dangerous Hershey Bears a whole lot scarier.
• Lastly, the requests for comic strips has gone out, and we have a number of responses. On Saturday, I'll post the first-ever HBIC Funnies Page that will feature at least three hockey-related comic strips as well as blurbs about the strips and links to where you can read more. If you know of anyone else who wants their comic strips featured - professional artists or amateur doodlers are welcome - please put them in contact with me!

I'm doing a pile of coaching tomorrow, but I'll have some pretty cool stuff coming up this weekend. Make sure you hit this site up on both days as I plan to make both pretty memorable.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

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Wednesday Before The Storm

The biggest shopping day each year comes on July 1 for thirty men with deep pockets. The NHL Free Agency Market opens tomorrow, and there will be general managers across the league looking to fill holes, change directions, and stock the cupboards as contracts are offered to players. Some players are of the "game-changing" nature: Kovalchuk, Gonchar, Hamhuis, and Volchenkov. These players, it seems, will attract the richest offers, and several teams have the salary cap to make those offers. But before any new players can be brought in, teams must first get their houses in order. HBIC is no different, and tonight I want to do a little clean up on the blog before the storm of free agency hits. There will be a number of items covered, so let's get to the organizing and cleaning.

• The first of two major summer projects will run on Saturdays throughout the summer. The Saturday Funnies will literally be a page of hockey-related comic strips that runs weekly on, as its name suggests, Saturday. I have begun contacting several authors of some of the better comic strips I've read that deal in hockey matters, and I'm hoping they'll climb aboard for some free advertising compliments of HBIC. If, for whatever reason, the authors decline and there are not enough strips to make it worth the effort, I'll announce a change in this project. The Funnies page will make its debut by next Saturday at the latest.
• The second summer project, as suggested by Ben, will be a look at advertising around the boards in NHL arenas. As you may know, there are a lot of advertisements pasted on the boards in NHL rinks, but they have changed throughout the years from more local advertising to league-wide advertising. I plan on featuring at least a few rinks per week throughout the summer as I embark on a very ambitious project. If you have any images of your local rink, please send them to me and I'll get them in order. I plan on having the first rink posted by next week.
• There was lots of coverage of the passing of one of the most dedicated men I've ever read about a couple of weeks ago. Manute Bol, former NBA player, passed away at the age of 47, and his work to help the people of Sudan was incredible. His charitable work alone would be reason enough for me to pay my respects to him, but it was his one night as a member of the Indianapolis Ice of the CHL that many in the hockey community will remember of the seven-foot-seven gentle giant. Rest in peace for eternity, Mr. Bol. I'll always look up to you for your amazing humanitarian efforts.
• There have been a number of trades as teams prepare for the free agent blitz tomorrow, but the Blackhawks were shedding salary again today. This time, they dealt Kris Versteeg and Bill Sweatt to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Viktor Stalberg, Philippe Paradis, and Chris DiDomenico. Getting Versteeg is not exactly the first-line centerman that GM Brian Burke may be after, but he's the kind of gritty player that Burke likes. With another salary off the books, it appears that the Blackhawks are serious about signing Antti Niemi and Andrew Ladd in the coming days.
• For all of your off-season trades thus far, check out the TSN Trade Tracker.
• Lastly, I am pushing forward with the HBIC prizes. I'm not waiting days for people to respond anymore. Jim W. and Tom O. should contact me ASAP in order to get in on the prize action. I'm moving on starting tomorrow, and everyone on the prize list is now being notified that they have 24 hours to respond. No exceptions will be made.
  

I'll be back tomorrow with the rundown of all the Free Agency moves by each team. I'm almost certain that there will be a few teams who avoid the blitz on July 1, but you never know what may happen on the biggest shopping day in the NHL.

Until tomorrow, keep your sticks on the ice!

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Saturday Funnies

I've always been a fan of comic strips. There are some very smart, very funny comic strips that have existed over the course of time, but I've noticed that there are very few hockey-related comic strips. Sure, you'd get the occasional Peanuts comic strip where Charles Schulz would have the kids on ice, but you almost never see the mainstream comic strips delve into the world of hockey. In regards to this oversight in comic strips, HBIC, as one of my summer projects, has decided to run an online comic strip page on Saturdays for the summer where you can find hockey-based comic strips, similar to your "Funnies" page in your local newspaper.

I want to be very clear here: HBIC is not writing a comic strip. My artistic talent tops out at stick men, so there will be no poorly-drawn hockey art produced by me. Therefore, there will be no HBIC-based comic strip. I'm sure I'd drive a ton of readers away with my lack of any sort of ability.

I do think, though, that some of the artists that produce these comic strips should have their names and work featured on other sites. They produce great work, and it is very intelligently written in terms of its humor. There may not be a market for these comic strips in your local "Funnies" page, but I'm going to try to give these people a second pace to host their strips.

If you know of any comic strips that should be featured, please let me know via email or in the comments below. I'll need to contact the writer of the comic strip to find out whether he or she would be willing to participate in this project, so let me know what comic strips you'd like to see featured. I have a few strips that I want to feature already, and I'll be sending out emails this week to those artists to prepare for next Saturday as we enter July.

As an example, here is a great comic strip produced by Bill Charbonneau. Charbonneau publishes his comic strips weekly on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays on Small Market Sports, and I highly recommend that you check out his work. It's humorous and intelligent. (Click the comic strip to make it larger in a new window for easier reading!)
If you know of any additional comic strips, let me know!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

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