Meet Adam Hall.
During the 2004-05 lockout, Hall needed some work. Sure he was playing for KalPa of the Finnish League. But KalPa is a team owned by current Flyers Sami Kapanen and Kimmo Timonen. And as we all know, Flyers tend to possess two terrible traits in life:
1.) They spit on newborn babies. It's a team policy Bobby Clarke insisted on when he was general manager. You can look it up.
2. They're cheap.
So the penny-pinching ways of Kapanen and Timonen basically forced Hall to the streets to take up a life in the sinister world of pitching Finnish excavating equipment.
Since the end of the lockout, Hall has bounced between Nashville, New York and Minnesota and now Pittsburgh. Hall is attending the Penguins training camp on a tryout basis.
He is a player who can do a little bit of everything, but nothing great. He could make the team as a third- or fourth-line winger and probably recommend a good brand of pneumatic drills to use in building the new arena.
EMPTY NETTER ASSISTS
The NHL will hold a press conference Monday, 2 p.m. at Ralph Wilson Stadium, in Orchard Park, N.Y. to announce the "Ice Bowl."
Dave Molinari tells us what to expect at Camp Therrien. And assistant coaches Gilles Meloche, Andre Savard and Mike Yeo got contract extensions.
Shelly Anderson talked to Jordan Staal about getting arrested at his brother's bachelor party.
Free agent acquisition Petr Sykora got a hole in one at the team's annual golf tournament. The Penguins are hoping he shoots that well all season.
The Penguins' will hold the first practice of training camp Friday, 9 a.m. at ICEOPLEX at Southpointe. It is free and open to the public.
Maple Leafs forward Mark Bell was suspended for 15 games by the league for a DUI and hit and run incident last year. The NHLPA isn't happy with suspension and is looking into challenging it.
Sabres defenseman Teppo Numminen will need heart surgery .
For those who aren't fans of the current scheduling format (i.e. playing teams in your division eight times) Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch hinted that the format may change as soon as the 2008-09 season. We hope so. As entertaining as the playoff races have been for division titles and seedings the past two seasons, watching the Penguins play the Islanders seemingly every other night gets old.
From the NHL still doesn't get it department, the Predators of all teams, are raising ticket prices. Because when your franchise almost relocated due to disinterest in a non-traditional hockey market, the best way to treat your few fans that campaigned to keep the team in town is to charge them more money.
Jason Arnott will be the next captain of the Predators.
This just in; They like hockey in Minnesota. The Wild had a 96 percent renewal rate on season tickets this season.
Someone owns the Thrashers. We're just not sure who.
Minnesota Wild goaltender is a guy who gets it. Last season he wore a mask with pink ribbons painted on it to raise awareness for breast cancer. This season he will wear one memorializing the I-35W bridge disaster (Third item from the bottom.)
The same applies to former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins goaltender Nolan Schaefer who's also with the Wild. He has a Web site devoted to awareness about Lyme disease.
A few new jerseys:
Ducks. They pretty much didn't change anything other than the collar.
Avalanche. Reebok downgraded these with a ton of vertical striping.
Maple Leafs. The only change was the removal of the horizontal striping around the waist. Good move to not mess these beauties up.
Sabres. No changes other than the collar. These were ruined last year.
Devils. As despicable as the Devils are, their uniform was always solid ever since they ditched the Christmas look. We're glad they didn't change.
Blackhawks. If their was a uniform that had no business changing whatsoever, this was it. This is arguably the finest uniform in all of the NHL and perhaps sports. You don't mess with perfection.
Former Penguins forward Tom Chorske is not returning as the Devils radio color commentator.
Former supermodel Carol Alt, who was married to former Ranger Ron Greschner and linked to former Islander Alexei Yashin, is now being linked to Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. (With the coolest headline ever.)
Today's sign a professional athlete's life is better than yours; The new Mrs. Patrik Elias.
Today's sign summer is over; There's a preseason game tonight.
If you want to look like Chris Chelios (minus the nose of course) here's how.
Finally, being a Kings fan must be tough. They haven't reached the playoffs in four seasons, and haven't really had a lot to root for. So you'll understand if they tend to have a lot of free time on their hands:
First Published: September 13, 2007, 11:45 p.m.
