2007-08 NE Depth Charts: Boston Bruins

(again, trying to cut/paste a table into Blogger is a fool's errand. Yet I continue to try. Sorry for the awful formatting...)

There are actually some things to like here, but the defence was so awful last year that they couldn't get the puck to their forwards. 219 goals last year...no excuse. I like the top two lines, but they've got to find a way to get Phil Kessel into the top six.

Forwards:
Marco Sturm	Marc Savard	Glen Murray
Peter Schaefer	Patrice Bergeron	Brandon Bochenski
P.J. Axelsson	Phil Kessel	Chuck Kobasew
Stanislav Chistov	Mark Mowers	Jeff Hoggan
Shawn Thornton	Jeremy Reich
Defence:
Zdeno Chara	Aaron Ward
Dennis Wideman	Andrew Alberts
Andrew Ference	Mark Stuart
Bobby Allen
rookies: Matt Lashoff
Goaltending:
Tim Thomas	Manny Fernandez

...with Tuukka Rask soon to arrive.

2007-08 NE Division depth charts: Toronto Maple Leafs

To me the most intriguing acquisition of the offseason for the entire division is Mark Bell:

Forwards:
Alexei Ponikarovsky	Mats Sundin	Jason Blake
Chad Kilger	Kyle Wellwood	Darcy Tucker
Mark Bell	Matt Stajan	Boyd Devereaux
Alex Steen	Nik Antropov
Bates Battaglia	John Pohl
rookies/callups: C – Kris Newbury
Defence:
Bryan McCabe	Tomas Kaberle
Pavel Kubina	Carlo Colaiacovo
Ian White	Hal Gill
Wade Belak
rookies/callups: Andrew Wozniewski, Staffan Kronwall
Goaltending:
Andrew Raycroft	Vesa Toskala	Scott Clemmensen

2007-08 NE Depth Charts: Montreal Canadiens

I'm not sure how good they'll be but I like where the Canadiens are heading. A bunch of young faces emerging over the past few years, with offensive talents like Mikhail Grabovski and Kyle Chipchura coming soon, and Carey Price soon to man the nets, starting in a year or two the Habs could be a presence in the East for the foreseeable future. It's just that defence that I'm not sure about...

Depth Chart:
Guillaume Latendresse	Saku Koivu	Alexei Kovalev
Chris Higgins	Bryan Smolinski	Michael Ryder
Steve Begin	Maxim Lapierre	Andrei Kostitsyn
Tomas Plekanec	Garth Murray	Tom Kostopolous

rookies/callups: C – Kyle Chipchura, LW Mikhail Grabovski

Defence
Roman Hamrlik	Andrei Markov
Francis Bouillon	Mathieu Dandenault
Josh Gorges	Mike Komisarek
Mark Streit

Goaltending:

Cristobal Huet Jaroslav Halak

rookies/callups: G – Carey Price

edit: i hate Blogger's editing "tools."

2007-08 NE Depth Charts: Buffalo Sabres

Now that a month has passed since "Black Sunday" (Captains Daniel Briere and Chris Drury left for much greener pastures) a little objectivity can set in...Buffalo is still very well-off. And although they signed Thomas Vanek (7 years, $50 million) and Derek Roy (6 years, $24 million) to more money than they would have liked, at the end of the day the Sabres have these two offensive talents locked up until they're both 30 years old.

Depth chart:

Thomas Vanek	Derek Roy	Maxim Afinogenov
Ales Kotalik	Tim Connolly	Jason Pominville
Jochen Hecht	Paul Gaustad	Drew Stafford
Dan Paille	Adam Mair
Andrew Peters	Mike Ryan
possible rookies: C – Marek Zagrapan, W - Clarke MacArthur, Patrick Kaleta, Mark Mancari.
Defence:
Henrik Tallinder	Toni Lydman
Brian Campbell	Teppo Numminen
Dmitri Kalinin	Jaroslav Spacek
Nathan Paetsch
Possible rookies: Michael Funk, Andrej Sekera, Mike Card
Goaltending:
Ryan Miller	Jocelyn Thibault

The next major front office order of business must be to lock up Ryan Miller for as long as possible. For all the press about Buffalo's new-NHL powerhouse offence, they go nowhere without Miller.

With the entire roster now signed, the Sabres' cap hit stands at just over US$45million, leaving about $5.1 million of space under the cap, giving them room to afford any sort of "rental" if they go that route this season.

2007-08 NE Depth Charts: Ottawa Senators

Preparing some Northeast division previews - I'll be posting my best stab at the depth charts as they exist today (late July).

Ottawa hasn't lost much, especially compared to last year's offseason (Zdeno Chara, Martin Havlat, Dominik Hasek). Peter Schaefer is a quality forward who will be missed; Mike Comrie was only added late in the year. Tom Preissing shouldn't be missed much as this team has quality defensive depth. Especially with another year in the books for youngsters like Patrick Eaves, Chris Kelly, and Antoine Vermette, the Sens should be right back near the top of the East again this year:

Depth Chart:
Dany Heatley	Jason Spezza	Daniel Alfredsson
Dean McAmmond	Mike Fisher	Patrick Eaves
Oleg Saprykin -UFA	Chris Kelly	Chris Neil
Shean Donovan (RW)	Antoine Vermette	Brian McGrattan
possible rookies: Josh Hennessy – C, Jim McKenzie – LW

Defence:
Chris Phillips	Wade Redden
Joe Corvo	Anton Volchenkov
Christoph Schubert	Andrej Meszaros
Lawrence Nycholat

Goaltending:
Ray Emery	Martin Gerber

Despite his quality season last year, the weak(est) link on this team remains in goal with Ray Emery. He could still emerge as a top-flight goaltender, but he needs serious progress on rebounds and positioning.

Schoney's rock and roll fights

Classic clip from a December 1972 battle btwn Buffalo and Boston, with the famed "through the Zamboni doors" incident between Jim Schoenfield and Wayne Cashman:

More women playing fantasy sports

Hat tip to HP for this one - today's New York Times has an article on how women are becoming an increasing presence in fantasy leagues. Although from personal experience it isn't new to me - one hockey league that I've been in for nearly 15 years had a woman as a charter member (and we weren't shy about ragging on her for drafting Ulf Samuelsson late one draft). My wife also joined me for one year in an NL-only league and finished ahead of me. Naturally, I disbanded the league.

(aside: the infamous knee-on-knee hit delivered to Cam Neely by Ulfie was deemed so dirty back when it happened, but how many times have we seen that same kind of hit in the past 10-15 years, and most of the time much worse?)

Absence

OK, summer hockey writing is better left to folks like Eric McErlain at Off Wing, James Mirtle, or NHL Numbers to keep up with the salary cap. I'll be back fulltime once pre-season begins. Too many vacations, reunions (family, friends, high school) this summer to do the job that the aforementioned (and others) are already doing.

However, starting by the end of this week I'll have some previews of the Northeast division here - my "assignment" for the SportsGrumblings.com NHL preview Sourcebook.

Steve Sullivan heckles injured fan

Big hat tip to Parlayer.com for this one: Steve Sullivan gets heckled by a front-row fan after taking a stick to the grill. Sullivan has the unreal luck of being able to "repay the favour" later in the game.



Brilliant work Steve (no, really).

Kind of reminds me of the Seinfeld episode when Jerry goes to Elaine's office to heckle Kramer's girlfriend (and chases her into the street where her pinky toe gets run over...)

Home, Home Again

I had the (dis)pleasure of being in the general Western New York region during "Black Sunday" when the Sabres lost both Daniel Briere and Chris Drury to free agency. The text messages I received were frustrating and hilarious all at once... (the displeasure came from subjecting myself to 10 minutes of the local sports-talk radio)

Anyways, I obviously missed the free agent frenzy which was covered to extremes by virtually any/every blog in the blogroll to the right.

Possibly the most interesting hockey site over the summer is the increasingly-important NHL Numbers which dutifully has kept track of every team's salary cap commitments. For the big splashes they made this month, the Rangers have some work to do in getting that payroll down at least USD$1.4million by September (this not even considering that Sean Avery and Marcel Hossa are unsigned...)

As for the rest of this month, I'm beginning work on the online SportsGrumblings.com 2007-2008 NHL Sourcebook, something we did over at the now-extinct SportsBlurb.com last season. We'll have the usual: detailed team/division previews, rookie previews, and a bunch of fantasy content - from fantasy 101 articles, breakout/bust players, and a detailed forecast on hundreds of NHL players. We were a little late on it last year but after working out the kinks we should have it ready by late August - keep checking back here for previews and ultimately a link to the final product. 100% free, btw.

NOTE: SportsGrumblings.com requires (free) registration - gives you an account/password. Yes, it stinks and I'm not generally a fan of the concept. But - and this is my Smooth Jimmy Apollo Lock of the Week - you'll never get any spam from them and your e-mail address isn't given to anyone. Which begs the question 'why bother' but that's not my call to make. Anyways, just some info to hopefully encourage people to check it out.


UPDATE: some conflicting reports about the Rangers' salary commitments - the NHLSCAP.com site lists New York as having USD$2.8 million wiggle room.

A Million Vacations

is what I've got in mind.


I'm away until roughly July 9th, at which point the entire NHL landscape will have changed. A few notes, both major and minor:

• Apparently - FINALLY - the salary cap figure will be agreed upon today or tomorrow at the NHLPA executive board meeting - it could go as high as USD$50 million. Last year's cap was at USD$44 million. Prepare for the annual round of logic-defying head-shaking contracts. I expect to get a number of mind-blowing text messages on Sunday when free-agent season begins.
  

• In another exclusive-rights deal, the Atlanta Thrashers traded the rights to free agent center Keith Tkachuk back to St. Louis for the conditional first round pick they gave up when originally acquiring his useless carcass at the deadline. I can never understand why rebuilding teams would re-sign retreads like this.

• The Hall of Fame committee meets tomorrow and will vote in one of the greatest classes ever, led by Mark Messier. Other possibilities include Ron Francis, Scott Stevens, Al MacInnis, Adam Oates, Igor Larionov and Claude Lemieux. A maximum of four can be inducted each year.
  

• On the (very) light side, Wayne Gretzky is getting into the wine business in Southern Ontario despite admitting that he doesn't "know a whole lot about wine." Rumours that he plans on hiring Jeremy Roenick, Owen Nolan, and Marty McSorley to pick grapes are unfounded.
  

Please follow the critical hockey links in the right-hand column below to keep tabs on all goings-on over the next few weeks.

Road Apples NHL mock draft - 2007

Dispensing with the commentary, and ripe for abuse by probably 8:30 EDT tonight, I've thrown my hat in the ring - here is my 1st round mock NHL draft for 2007 in simple list form (top 5 selections / justifications can be found in the 5 previous posts here):

1. Chicago	Kyle Turris
2. Philadelphia	Jakub Voracek
3. Phoenix	Patrick Kane
4. Los Angeles	Karl Alzner
5. Washington	Alexei Chereponov
6. Edmonton	Sam Gagner
7. Columbus	James Van Riemsdyk
8. Boston	Angelo Esposito
9. St. Louis	Lars Eller
10. Florida	Keaton Ellerby
11. Carolina	Zach Hamill
12. Montreal	Mikael Backlund
13. Toronto	Logan Couture
14. Colorado	Ryan McDonagh
15. Edmonton (from NYI)	Tommy Cross
16. Anaheim (from TB)	Stefen Legein
17. NY Rangers	David Perron
18. Calgary	Brandon Sutter
19. Minnesota	Dana Tyrell
20. Pittsburgh	Brett MacLean
21. Phoenix (from DAL)	Luca Cunti
22. Montreal (from SJ)	Joakim Andersson
23. Philadelphia (from NAS)	Nicholas Petrecki
24. St. Louis (from ATL)	Max Pacioretty
25. Vancouver	Maxim Mayorov
26. St. Louis (from NJ via SJ)	Oscar Moller
27. Detroit	Kevin Shattenkirk
28. Washington (from BUF)	Colton Gillies
29. Ottawa	Jonathon Blum
30. Edmonton (from ANA)	Akim Aliu

In the mock draft pool I'm in, we have different values for the top 5: exact slot gets you 2 points, +/- 1 gets you 1 point. From pick 6 through 30, exact slot gets you 3 points, +/- 1 = 2, +/- 2 = 1. We'll see if any of us can crack 10.

NHL draft talk - #5 pick: Washington Capitals

Full text/summary of my mock top 5 can be found on SportsGrumblings.com (signin required but they mercifully don't put you on any mailing lists)

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After yet another down year, the Capitals as they present are constructed - unlike a franchise like, say, Los Angeles - don't exactly have an impending crop of young players at the NHL level ready to help make the team take that next step towards respectability. Last year's fourth overall pick - center Nicklas Backstrom - returned to Europe in 2006 rather than immediately sign with Washington (although he was just signed by the Capitals to a three-year entry-level deal). Talented forward prospects like Eric Fehr and Francois Bouchard (QMJHL scoring leader with 125 points) should still be expected to be at least a year or two away from not only earning a full-time spot with the big club but having any sort of positive impact.

In terms of goaltending, the team drafted two in the top 34 picks last year in prospects Michal Neuvirth (2nd round, 2006) and Semen Varlamov (1st round, 2006) and both are developing nicely: Neuvirth led his Plymouth Whalers to their first OHL title and Memorial Cup last month, sporting a .932 save percentage over 18 playoff games; Varlamov excelled at this year's World Junior Championships (WJC) and is generally considered the top Russian goaltending prospect, putting up a 2.12 GAA in the Russian Super League. There should be good competition in coming years once longtime incumbent Olaf Kolzig finally retires.

In other words, barring a rash of trades and free agent signings this summer, the Capitals will still be building for a few years down the road (and have Alexander Ovechkin's restricted free agency status to look forward to after this coming season). Assuming that Washington's brass feels the same way, trying to figure out the direction of their first round selection is intriguing. Finding that one specific position in the Capitals' organization that they need to upgrade is difficult, and at the number five selection they could reasonably be expected to take whom they deem is the most-talented player available. If I'm going by my biased assumptions of the first four selections, James VanRiemsdyk and Jakub Voracek won't be available (if they are, Washington would be well off selecting either one)

The Capitals could continue their European invasion by drafting Alexei Cherepanov, the top-ranked European in the draft. Cherepanov will help eventually give the Capitals an outstanding top 4 with Alexander Ovechkin, Niklas Backstrom and Alexander Semin - perhaps as early as next season. Cherepanov was the top forward at the WJC this past winter and scouts rave about his offensive presence and creativity. The knock is that he can be maddeningly inconsistent and disappears at times. By drafting the Russian and putting fellow countryman Ovechkin at his side, the Capitals may be able to take this high-risk / high- reward player and help transform their club into an offensive dynamo over the next few seasons.

NHL draft - #4 pick: Los Angeles

At pick #4 we have the Los Angeles Kings. Despite bottoming out last year - winning only 27 games (better than only Philadelphia) and missing the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season - the Kings have a burgeoning stable of young talent and are not far off from making a run at a playoff spot. With young offensive talents such as Mike Cammalleri, Alexander Frolov, Dustin Brown, a future superstar in Anze Kopitar, and then Patrick O'Sullivan and Trevor Lewis on the horizon, within a few years the Kings could be one of the better offensive teams in the league. As was written here on this site and elsewhere by Kings fans, goaltending was the main reason the Kings went into the tank so early last season, with Dan Cloutier suffering the wrath of fans and feeling the heat of red lights on the back of his jersey until his season mercifully ended with hip surgery. Goaltending will have to be a temporary transitional phase for Los Angeles until top-flight prospect Jonathan Bernier of the QMJHL champion Lewiston Maineiacs is ready to turn pro. Make no mistake: Bernier is the Kings' goalie of the not-so-distant future, so the Kings will be looking for a skater at the four slot on Friday.

Where the Kings could and should continue to build is on the blueline. Veterans Rob Blake and Lubomir Visnovsky provide a decent-enough one-two, but with one year left on both of their deals and Blake pulling in USD$6 million, the Kings will likely either try to deal Blake this season or simply not re-sign him when he reaches the end of his contract. Highly regarded youngster Jack Johnson - acquired from Carolina in a pre-season fleecing last September - will start the year with a full-time job in L.A. but will likely undergo growing pains for a few seasons. The Kings' greatest need for depth is at defence and at the number four position it is highly likely that either of Karl Alzner or Keaton Ellerby will be available.

The thinking here is that Alzner of the Calgary Hitmen would be the best fit for the Kings. Even though scouts agree that he could take more risks offensively, what Los Angeles needs is to take care of play in their own zone and develop a quality three-zone system to be a contender when their young talent begins to peak a few years from now. NHL Central Scouting writes that Alzner "...is calm under pressure and composed with the puck. Has good positioning and reads the play well." Exactly the kind of player who GM Dean Lombardi could see playing 24-27 minutes every night in front of Jonathan Bernier three or four years from now.

NHL draft - #3 pick: Phoenix

As a reminder, I'm not intending these to be predictions on who will be selected - simply evaluating who I would take if I were in each club's position, and basing subsequent picks on my previous phantom picks. In other words, it's complete bullshit. :-D

Ahh, Phoenix. So much to pick on, so little time...but in this article we'll keep a focused criticism of the franchise on their drafting legacy. Of the 12 first-round picks they've made in their short and terrible 11-year history (has it been that long already?), the only one to become a star is Daniel Briere, who quite obviously has not been plying his trade for the Coyotes of late. Defensive forward Fredrik Sjostrom (#11, 2001 draft) has held a steady job for the 'Yotes over the past three seasons, but there has been no homegrown star power in the desert. To be fair, we can't fairly analyze recent draft history, which may eventually help boost their drafting reputation. They just signed their high-scoring 2005 first rounder Martin Hanzel to an entry level deal. Their highest pick - Blake Wheeler, 5th overall in 2004 - is currently excelling at the University of Minnesota. Wheeler's high school teammate Peter Mueller (#8, 2006 draft) scored 78 points for Everett (WHL) last year and has represented the USA at the past two World Junior Championships.

Yet there's no denying that this franchise's cycle of mediocrity has their roots in poor drafting. A team must expect the occasional first-round bust but Phoenix has taken that to extremes by almost literally never having success in a decade of drafts. Awful drafting has doomed the Phoenix organization to repeated mediocre finishes, only once finishing as high as second in their division. Here's an indictment of the entire organization: outside of Daniel Briere, never (since 1996) has the franchise drafted a single player who has scored 20 goals in an NHL season (the only one close being Trevor Letowski in 2000). Phoenix needs a lot, but what could help them take a big step forward both on the ice and at the gate would be an offensive dynamo.


The best fit for the Coyotes would be London Knights first-year sensation Patrick Kane. Although the chances of him still being available at the #3 slot are fairly slim, it wouldn't be unprecedented for a highly-acclaimed and odds-on favourite to go #1 to slip to the third spot - in 2002 Jay Bouwmeester was expected by many all season to be the top pick but on draft day he slipped to third, much to his surprise.

Although Phoenix is still far off from being a serious competitor, Kane's offensive wizardry is exactly what the Coyotes need to start them on the road back to respectability. Phoenix must make the hard decision to avoid ridiculous and backward-thinking signings of veterans and focus on a 3-5 year plan on making this team ready to challenge for the cup by the end of the decade. Kane could immediately be the best forward on the team by mid-season, with only Shane Doan able to challenge for that post. In the likely event that Kane is not available at the third spot, the Coyotes will likely take whomever is left of Kyle Turris and James vanRiemsdyk.

NHL draft - #2 pick: Philadelphia

As a reminder, I'm not intending these to be predictions on who will be selected - simply evaluating who I would take if I were in each club's position, and basing subsequent picks on my previous phantom picks. In other words, it's complete bullshit. :-D


Coming off a shockingly disastrous season - only one year removed from finishing with 100 points - the Philadelphia Flyers may not be as bad-off as other teams in the top (actually, bottom) 5. Anything good that developed in the first post-lockout season completely unraveled last season, as promising second-year players like Jeff Carter and Mike Richards suffered through the sophomore jinx, both missing extensive time with injuries. Goaltending was a disaster for the Flyers as neither Antero Niittymaki nor Robert Esche provided support behind what was frankly a terribly immobile defence. The late-season trade with Buffalo that gained them veteran Martin Biron (whom they subsequently signed to a 2-year deal) shored up the goaltending, although Biron isn't the kind of keeper who can carry a bad team.

They own the 2nd-overall pick next week, and will be able to claim a top talent no matter what...although defence is where they need the most help, and this draft is definitely weighted towards offensive talent, at least at the top end. Gaining Braydon Coburn at the trading deadline for Alexei Zhitnik was an absolute steal, but there is still a need for a more veteran presence (Darien Hatcher doesn't count) on the blueline. Regardless, I'd be a little surprised if the Flyers took Karl Alzner or Keaton Ellerby (who, although is only listed at 187 lbs. stands at a towering 6'4") when there are still elite-level forwards available - even though I could see the physical Ellerby being a fan favourite.

I'm going to assume that Philadelphia will be aggressive and successful in signing one of the better unrestricted free agent centers on the market within the next few weeks - they have just over USD$30 million committed to the cap next season with only a few potentially integral free agents to deal with. Therefore drafting someone who may be just a bit more of a long-term solution would be more palatable with a veteran like Daniel Briere or Scott Gomez centering their top line for the next four years.

UPDATE - 18JUNE: After the trade-and-sign with Nashville to obtain Scott Hartnell and Kimmo Timonen, the Flyers appear to stand at just over USD$42 million for next season, which certainly stands to limit much more off-season spending.

Patrick Kane has rightfully earned a lot of praise for his fantastic first season in the OHL for London, but his 5'9" frame doesn't exactly fit into how the Flyers have historically built their roster. With other sizeable forwards like Mike Knuble, Jeff Carter, Scottie Upshall, and RJ Umberger, I see Philadelphia steering more towards James VanRiemsdyk but I personally like the idea of them taking Halifax's Jakub Voracek. Voracek is ranked as the #7 prospect by Central Scouting but his showing after one year in the QMJHL (having arrived from the Czech Republic speaking no English) was nothing short of dominant in every way, with 86 points in 59 games and adding 24 in just 12 playoff games. Voracek is ready to make the next step and join a Philadelphia organization that hopes to rebound from the worst season in their history.

NHL draft talk - #1 pick: Chicago Blackhawks

Tonight marks the symbolic end to the 2006-07 NHL season with the annual awards show, likely to be marked with terrible puns, bad suits, and shifting empty seats. But starting tomorrow morning the 2007-08 season begins, with a leadup to next Friday's first round of the NHL Entry Draft. As of now, the first five picks will go to:

1. Chicago
2. Philadelphia
3. Phoenix
4. Los Angeles
5. Washington

Predicting who will go where is perhaps a fool's game, but a little semi-mindless speculation and analysis is always enjoyable. I'm not intending these to be predictions, because so much goes on behind the scenes so to speak on which teams will draft which players, so I'll informally spend a little time on the top 5 clubs and slowly go down the list and evaluate who I would take if I were in each club's position.

Starting off with number one: The Chicago Blackhawks.

The Chicago Blackhawks hold the first selection in the draft for the first time in their history (likely shocking to those only familiar with their latest decade of failure, having made the playoffs only once since 1997) and GM Dale Tallon has implied that the choice is between forwards Patrick Kane, Kyle Turris, and James van Riemsdyk (barring any sort of trade, of course).

It sounds like Tallon may prefer the two-way physical play of Turris and Van Riemsdyk, as their size (6'0" and 6'3" respectively) gives them the advantage over the 5'9" Kane, but Kane is the most-likely to turn pro next season, which could be beneficial to getting fans excited about the Hawks again. But the Hawks have to be patient and continue their slow but emerging re-building process - if Jonathan Toews and Jack Skille progress as expected they should help provide Chicago with a fearsome combination not seen since the days of Jeremy Roenick and Steve Larmer. If Tallon believes Kyle Turris - who is slated to play at the University of Wisconsin this fall - will be their #1 center for a decade starting three years from now that's the pick he needs to make: Kyle Turris at number one.

CSS final rankings

Top North American Skaters

Top International Skaters

Top North American Goalies

Top International Goalies

(note: all are links to .pdf files - Adobe Reader required)

Iron Mike is back

Mike Keenan is back to unite a new team in hatred against him - reports out of Calgary are that he will be the new coach of the Flames next season. Enough has been written about the swath of personal destruction that Keenan has left in his wake, but he has had considerable success amidst the turmoil. And truth be told, Calgary could use something to wake them from their stupor - they have the talent to win the Cup but an inexplicable home/road split during the season and playoffs spelled strangely predictable doom.

The relationship between Keenan and Jarome Iginla will be especially interesting. Much more to come, I'm sure.

Bloggers beware

Neate Sager runs an excellent blog in Canada called Out of Left Field (see right-hand sidebar); he covers all aspects of virtually every sport in Canada (I'm particularly partial to his junior hockey leanings in the winter).

Sager is being sued for CAD$2 million by Steelback Brewery owner Frank D'Angelo for comments Sager made on his blog that supposedly "damaged his reputation." D'Angelo at one point last year was bidding to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Whether you care or not, Sager not only runs this blog but does a lot of work in the "traditional" media fields as well so he could hardly be represented as some lone hack working out of his mother's basement (not...that there's anything wrong with that). Much to Sager's credit, he has taken and continues to take the high road in this affair. Best of luck to Neate in his efforts to get the case dropped.