Wheeling and Dealing

I apologize to all for not posting over the weekend - especially under the circumstances. Friday morning, a regular but "it's Friday!" morning at the job, some guy came by the office and announced he was with Florida Panthers media. This news came in my right ear and went right out my left - until about 5 seconds later my boss spoke retold the message. Well, it turns out NHL teams do practice here at Matthews Arena on occasion. Last year, my boss watched Lemieux and Crosby up close.

Lucky for me, my girlfriend was still at home and was able to get my camera to me before practice started. I got about 20 shots of practice and took about 2 hours out of work to watch Jokinen and co. The biggest difference I noticed between those guys and our Huskies was how explosive NHLers are on their skates. From the first stride, these guys are off and up to high speeds, sending crisp and effortless saucers passes diagonally across the ice, which apparently all NHL players qualify as some of the best ice around. The Panthers looked pretty damn good - and they didn't look bad either when they took down the Bruins for the third time this year and the second time at TD. I watched that one with the girlfriend and coworkers/boss, my seventh game of the year. Anyways, those pictures of practice will be up shortly.

In other news, I have created a Google Group titled Wealing & Dealing. Why? I was scanning the posts on the newsgroup rec.collecting.sport.hockey again today and realized, again, that there is just way too much filler. For every 10 posts, there might be one worth looking at. It's either poor products offered by lackluster collectors, memorabilia I have never heard of with no description, or money hungry ebayers. None of which satisfy my needs.

My hope is that this group will eventually grow into one that is a tight-knit collection of passionate hockey cards collectors (traders) that can help out one another on a regular basis. It's my first Google Group, so only time will tell. Until then, it looks like more hours scanning on ebay.