Happy Draft Day Eve!

Greetings and salutations from the Pacific Northwest! It's NHL Draft Eve, and I'm sure that the Le Centre de Bell is buzzing with excitement already and has been for days. I wish that Lisa and I could be up there this weekend; but I'm sure we'll be keeping track of things down here. We might even see a few of the Tips boys go in the later rounds or at least I hope we will.

We went to the draft two years ago in Columbus and had a ball; well other than the seats in the upper bowl of Nationwide Arena are built for the ass width of a 5 year old. From seeing Rick Nash outside signing autographs to watching Harold Snepts walk right in front of us to getting to see all of the NHL awards up close and personal. It was all so surreal, especially when Cam Neely called our pal Zach Hamill's name; then Dave Nonis picking another of our pals Taylor Ellington. There wasn't the huge group of Tips fans cheering for him like the year before in Vancouver, but hopefully you could hear those two voices screaming from the left side of the upper bowl.

Yesterday Team Canada's Executive Director, aka the handsome Stevie Y, announced the Canadian men's Olympic hockey coaches. The head coach is Mike Babcock whose assistant coaches will be Lindy Ruff, Jacques Lemaire and Ken Hitchcock. Hopefully Team USA's assistants will be announced soon; and they'll include Mike Sullivan, Dan Bylsma and Tommy Fitzgerald for the hottie factor. Oh, and because I think they're pretty good coaches too. :)

I love you Patty Kane... you're too cute for words!

All is well here in Hooterville now that we have a head coach and the assistant coaches will not be changing; so the crew will start getting ready for training camp in August.

Two videos from the presser on Tuesday courtesy of local station King5...
New coach Craig Hartsburg...

and three of our boys: Zack Dailey, Kellan Tochkin and Thomas Heemskerk...


And to round up today's entry and in keeping with the Draft theme, I give you for Boy of the Day someone who was not only a first round pick, but was the first overall pick in 2002 Draft and that is Mr. Rick Nash...