November 1st

The Eagle Has Landed!

Ed Belfour was a winner in his season debut Wednesday night, his Swedish League debut that is. Belfour, between the pipes for Leksand IF, surrendered a goal on the first shot his faced, but was flawless the rest of the way making 16 saves as Leksand downed Sundsvall 4-1 in front of 7,000 fans at the Ejendals Arena. Leksand competes in the Allsvenskan, one tier below the Swedish Elite League (Elitserein). The Eagle on his new employer said, "I see it as an honor to play for a classic club like Leksand". Who knows if the 42 year old goaltender will end up back state side, but it is nice to see he hasn't hung it up yet.

One of my favorite Ed Belfour stories goes back to when I was working in Devils Lake, Nor-dakota. Most every hockey fan remembers the incident when The Eagle was arrested for drunk driving and bribed the police officer to let him go. The bribe started at $100, and ridiculously escalated to a million and then to like a trillion-dollars. After seeing this story I read it on the air, and added that "I guess he didn't pay attention in math class". Just a few minutes later the station manager comes back to the studio and says there have been several calls regarding the comments you made about Ed Belfour, and the poor education he received from the University of North Dakota. I'm like, what? All I said is that he didn't pay attention in math class, I never mentioned anything about UND or where he went to school and received his education. The station manager kinda laughed and walked out of the studio, but for the next month I had several people ask me why I hated the Fighting Sioux, and was told that I should go back to Minnesota and Goldy Gopher Country.


Tocchet, coming soon to a rink near you?

Rick Tocchet reportedly met earlier this week with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. While this could mean he may soon be reinstated, if he is, does he go back to his old job? Tocchet, an assistant for Wayne Gretzky's Coyotes, has been on a leave of absence since Feb. 8, 2006. Should he be reinstated, look for the Pete Rose reinstatement talk to surface again. While many see the two as the same, lets not forget that Rose signed a piece of paper accepting and agreeing to a life-time ban and lied for 15 years about betting on baseball.