Ice Bowl confirmed

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that the first NHL outdoor game since the 2003 Heritage Classic saw the Edmonton Oilers and Montreal Canadiens compete at an outdoor Alberta rink, has been all but confirmed. As expected, the Buffalo Sabres will play host to the Pittsburgh Penguins at Ralph Wilson Stadium, home of the NFL's Buffalo Bills, on New Year's Day 2008. The game will be nationally televised on NBC, who reportedly commissioned the event as a result of failing to land a college football bowl game. This comes after the network attempted to arrange a meeting between the Rangers and Islanders at Yankee Stadium last New Year's, which was unsuccessful.

In other hockey-related news, Allan Muir of Sports Illustrated, who has been handing out grades to teams based on their off-season performance for a few weeks now, has a Pacific Division report card up. The Sharks receive a B- from Muir, which is understandable due to their relative lack of player addition, but the contract extensions to Joe Thornton, Milan Michalek and Craig Rivet (all but the Rivet deal arguably below market value, mind you) have to be taken into consideration. The Kings deservedly finish at the head of the Pacific Division class with an A-. While their horrendous goaltending situation will likely inhibit them from their first playoff berth in five years, what GM Dean Lombardi has been able to accomplish this summer without mortgaging the future (*cough*Kevin Lowe*cough*) is commendable.

So long, Ek

The prince of offsides, the king of choke, the sultan of soft -- whatever you want to call him, he's former Shark Nils Ekman (his first name is actually Nisse -- who knew?) and according to various internet reports, he'll be playing for Khimik Mytischi (say that three times fast...okay, so it's not that hard) of the Russian Super League next year, fueling speculation that in Soviet Russia, "Ekman don't go offsides, offsides go Ekman" or something like that.

Now that I've ridiculed the guy enough, I have to say he isn't as bad as he's made out to be by the Sharks fanbase and San Jose media (then again, few players -- save for Mark Bell -- truly are). In fact, he had above-average footspeed and showed great hands during his tenure with the Sharks and it could be argued (by delusional fools) that he was somewhat responsible for Joe Thornton and Jonathan Cheechoo clicking. While that's far from the truth, on the nights that he did show up, he was able to make positive contributions to the team.

But that's the problem. He seldom showed up. Ekman had a penchant for staying as far away from the net as possible and rarely did the dirty work in the corners, forcing either Thornton or Cheechoo to dig out the puck. He also pulled tremendous disappearing acts in both the San Jose playoff runs he was involved in. But I will give the guy credit -- he was far more effective on the Thornton--Cheechoo line that Mark Bell was, for whatever it's worth and, to my knowledge, Ekman always employed a designated driver. That can't be said about his replacement, Bell.

Ekman was jettisonned from San Jose long before Bell's DUI, however, traded along with goaltending prospect Patrick Ehelechner to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Carolina's second-round draft pick, which the Pens acquired in the Mark Recchi trade deadline deal in '06, which was then traded along with the Toronto Maple Leafs' first-round pick (acquired in the Vesa Toskala deal) on Draft Day 2007 for the St. Louis Blues' 9th overall pick, used to draft Logan Couture. Anyway, Ekman was reasonably effective during his tenure with the Penguins, even playing on Sidney Crosby's wing for a few games and scoring a natural hat trick against his other former team, Tampa Bay, but his time in black and yellow was cut short by a separated shoulder.

A UFA July 1st, there were message board rumblings that Ekman may return to Tealtown for his second tour of going offsides duty with the Sharks, but in the end, Russia came calling (because nobody else did) and it's there that the Swedish Mike Comrie will earn his (tax-free) salary, thankfully for Ekman, a world away from Chris Pronger. Good riddance, Ekman, and good luck (with removing the blueline).