9.23.2008

Blues lose defensive stud: Johnson out indefinitely

I just checked www.nhl.com, and apparently Erik Johnson has torn his ACL and suffered a tear in his MCL. I don't know what the difference is between tearing, and suffering a tear, but that's what it said on the St. Louis website.

Either way, this is a major loss for St. Louis, who relied heavily upon Johnson last season as a 19-year-old rookie. Johnson tallied 5 goals and 33 points last season, but also had a -9 rating. That no doubt would have, and still will, improve as the seasons go on, but this year was a key developmental year for Johnson, and he'll have to work hard to make sure that this injury doesn't affect his career permanently.

Part 2 of the "Who will be the next Darren Helm?" series comes out tomorrow, probably.

Hockey online, in Toronto, and Brazil...

I had a great hockey conversation yesterday with quite a few other bloggers (many of whom I've added to my hockey blog list, any of you who I didn't add, shoot me an email or comment with a link and I'll add you).

The main subject was the pre-season game between Toronto and Buffalo, but a variety of hockey subjects were discussed. You can go to James Mirtle's blog to view an archive of the discussion, but there was one awesome point I wanted to bring up.

About two-thirds of the way through the chat, a man named Humberto joined us. We found out, through him, that Brazil actually has quite the hockey following. I can't understand much of it, being uneducated in the language, but it looks to be quite the paper. Humberto told me that it is run by just 13 guys who write every week, but they look pretty up to date. Humberto himself is a Red Wings fan, and I wouldn't be surprised if many of the others are too, although Calgary is another appealing option, with rock solid defenseman Robyn Regehr having been born in Brazil. Brazilian-born Michael Greenlay also had an inauspicious 2-game run with the Edmonton Oilers in 89-90, as a goaltender, but spent most of his career in the minor leagues.

Humberto's personal blog can be found at http://redwingsbrasil.blogspot.com/
He's pretty current as well, his last post being a quick note about Darren McCarty's contract (I think, something with McCarty).

Overall, I enjoyed talking with other bloggers in the hockey world, and maybe someday, if my blog gets enough readers, I'll try and host a live blog on here as well. Of course, it'll be Stars based! See ya later, folks.
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