Wednesday, July 30, 2008

2008 NHL Draft Class...Some Smart Cookies

In the midst of my July hockey-drought, I received a fun surprise when I arrived home from work yesterday. No, Ed McMahon wasn't waiting at my door with my fabulous Publisher's Clearing House award check (have you seen that poor guy lately, he could stand to win the prize himself)! But I did get my new issue of The Hockey News and did a little happy dance by the mailbox to celebrate.

Even though my magazine is sometimes slow as Christmas arriving, I really savor each issue and especially love the human-interest snippets where players reveal what they pack for a road trip, best tricks ever played on a room mate and the 2 Minutes in the Box feature. And of course all of the great insight and scoop that only Adam Proteau and friends can provide in the true spirit and history that makes up the great game of hockey.

This week's issue has a piece about the large percentage of new draft picks that will continue to wear visors into the NHL (as we all know, it's optional). The top three picks (Stamkos, Doughty and Bogosian) all told THN they expect to keep wearing a visor. I especially liked NY Ranger's prospect Michael Del Zotto's answer when asked if he'd be sporting a visor in the big dance. Del Zotto states "My mom wouldn't be too happy if I didn't wear one, that's for sure." Great answer Mikey - you just made us hockey moms proud!

The number of players wearing visors continues to increase in the league, which is a trend that makes hockey moms around North America pretty happy. Besides preventing potential career-ending injuries, they actually look pretty cool. Hey, if you want to brawl you're gonna take the whole helmet off anyway. Like I've said before, the visor thing works for Ovie - and he's the the coolest guy in the game!

1 comment:

Dan, Jr. said...

I can't understand why anyone would want to play without at least a visor. I personally would consider the full cage helmet. Health and career longevity would seem important to me. If someone calls you a sissy or whatever, check him hard into the boards next chance you get. Just can't worry so much about being cool.