the best bit of hockey blogging I've read today

I don't really care much about the Rangers, beyond the obvious: as a fan of hockey, I want the New York and Los Angeles franchises to be high-quality, because that raises the profile of the sport, thus easing my access to same. (Also Richter/Leetch are American heroes who held off the Canucks and therefore drink for free on me if I ever meet them.)

But one thing I do really like about the Rangers is the Hockey Rodent. He breaks down damn near every game, and always keeps a weather eye on strength of schedule effects, which is refreshing. This recent bit, where he creates a metric for risk and reward with respect to cheating, is everything I want to read: thinky, just right enough to be attractive, just wrong enough to provoke further development and well-written enough to be a hell of a lot of fun to read.

Also he calls guys pussies all the time, which is a never-fail source of hilarity.

One of these days, I'm gonna want to use his military metaphor for hockey, using the notions of strategic, tactical and operational capacities to analyze teams. But today, it's a lovely day and I'm nearly two hours late to my friend's birthday festivities. (Oh, quick note: I love that the Devils are getting the band back together. I can only hope they sign Danyko and give Claude Lemieux his 45th opportunity to sully the sport further. By biographical rights, I should love this team--they started in KC and spent some time in Denver, as I did--but until Lou Lamorillo joins Bill Wirtz in the fires of hell, they will remain possibly my most loathed franchise. So I love love love the idea of them searching for 2010 success by stockpiling contributors from 2000.)