Last summer seemed like the longest off-season ever. For me, it dragged and dragged, and I couldn’t wait for October to come. This summer has a different feel to it, with the impending approach of training camp and the start of the season feeling like a bulldozer riding up my ankles.

I’m looking forward to the start of the next season, but it sure does feel like summer is going by fast. Perhaps it’s the entertainment that we have had all year. I haven’t been chiming in much lately, so I just wanted to throw some thoughts up here.

I’m happy the NHL won the Kovalchuk case:

Yeah, I know. Evil Bettman. I’m not a Devils fan. Whatever. But I didn’t like this contract for a multitude of reasons. It did more than just circumvent the salary cap, it circumvented parity, created a false market for star players, and restored the have and have not spending of the pre-cap days. It also wasn’t bargaining in good faith, which should be expected across the entire leagues, all teams, all agents, and all players. I understand that some people didn’t want to see the NHL win this case. I’m certainly glad they did.

The Avalanche are doing nothing:

This is the offseason of our discontent. The Colorado Avalanche haven’t touched the free agent market, and that has some fans concerned. I don’t blame them, but for the moment, I’m going to take the approach that the Avs have confidence in their minor league system (which just fells strange to type), and are very happy with the team they have now. I would have liked to see the Avalanche plug a few holes in the lower end of the market (two 20 – 25 goal scoring wingers and a bottom three defenseman), but looking at the over-spending that went on in the first part of free agency, I’m glad they didn’t repeat the mistakes of a few years ago (how did that Ryan Smyth / Scott Hannan free agency ‘splash’ work out?). I wouldn’t be surprised if a few bargains are picked up along the way. I would rather see two half Kovalchuks on the team than the real deal.

Twitter is killing my blogging:

I’ve been on twitter a lot lately (@Tapeleg). It’s a great time waster, but also a great place for conversation (not every conversation is great, mind you). I got into hockey blogging to have a conversation about hockey, to talk to people about hockey in a way that I wasn’t getting in my day to day life. Twitter is decent for that, but it isn’t perfect. It does fulfill some of my needs as a hockey fan, but not all of them. Twitter is great for reactions and instant analysis, but that doesn’t mean it’s superb at either. And staying away from my blog make me a worse writer. Those stumbling blocks come up more often, and I get more frustrated when I haven’t been regularly writing. It’s time to get back to the blog.

Jerseys to come:

Remember when I hated the RBK EDGE jerseys? Yeah, about that. I still hate the EDGE 1.0 version, which are just garbage. And the retail versions are an insult to your wallet. More expensive for a cheaper product? If you buy an off the shelf jersey, you are being had. But the player’s RBK EDGE 2.0 jerseys? Pretty nice. I’m still not convinced of the cut, but it’s a huge improvement over the 1.0. I now own two 1.0 jerseys, and a 2.0, all player jerseys. The 2.0 is a much nicer jersey than I was expecting. I will have photos to post at some point.

I also have some more jerseys to post. Photos have been taken of some jerseys I have owned for a while. The new ones still have to be photographed, but their day will come. For now, I will go back into the archives. And check out the jersey posts from Jay at The Avs Hockey Podcast and from Greg at The Post Pessimist Association blog.

More to come, I promise.

And if you need your fix, there was a new episode of The Rink posted. You can find it here.