Five "A"s, Rickey Henderson, and Awesome School

by Ryan

Just a few things to get you through the night. We plan on staying busy this week despite the break in the schedule. Look for a mid-season review and something special for Jason Pominville, as well as a few other things before we see Chicago. I'd like to keep up the pace and preview each team the Sabres face, but I can't promise anything. At least one for the Blackhawks, that's for sure.

- John Vogl had a good article about the Red Wings today. It's a nice summary of what makes them so good, including all the history surrounding the team. People always talk about what makes an attractive team to potential free agents, and Detroit pretty much covers every category when it comes to that. It's why Hossa went there for less, and it's why more and more players will give them a chance. Oh, and their GM is a wizard. I'm really curious to see how this offseason will turn out for the Red Wings, but I doubt they struggle for very long.

- Ilya Kovalchuk was named captain of Atlanta after over a season and a half without one. Check out the seven captains they've had in team history:

Kelly Buchberger, 1999–2000
Steve Staios, 2000–01
Ray Ferraro, 2001–02
Shawn McEachern, 2002–04
No captain, 2004–05 (Lockout)
Scott Mellanby, 2005–07
Bobby Holik, 2007–08
No captain, 2008-09
Ilya Kovalchuk, 2009-present

Not a great list, but I guess anything is better than five assistants. If you thought the rotating captain was bad, try having five people kind of in charge. Crazy.

- Muckers and Grinders has a solid post about Ryan Miller, in which she describes Miller taking faceoffs with Goose and Pominville at Friday's morning skate. As long as Goose doesn't use the "Selling out so hard I'm down on one knee" move and knocks Miller unconscious, I'm fine with it.

- Anytime I hear about Rickey Henderson I think about our first Internet friend at Riding With Ricky. Therefore, we have to say congratulations to both when Rickey is voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

- The color guy on Versus just said Pavel Datsyuk would be "the Valedictorian of Awesome School." It's been a fantastic game so far that I'll talk about tomorrow, but I just wanted to make sure that went on record.

- As far as the football this weekend... I wasn't nearly as entertained by these for games as I was the last four. Everyone I watched the two games on Sunday with fell asleep between them, and not because we are all 80. Either someone chloroformed the room, or the Eagles put us to sleep. Go with the latter. I think the Baltimore-Pittsburgh game will be sleepy as well, but still interesting; and the Buzzsaw/Eagles game will be interesting for a completely different reason. Larry Fitzgerald, for one, but the Deadspin angle will also be fun.