5 Good hockey articles to read (Bartl’s Blog)

It’s the end of the day and you have 10 minutes to kill before you head home… or it’s the beginning of the day and you just need some light reading with your morning coffee and donut. Either way, I have five articles/blogs/postings here that hockey fans will probably enjoy, gathered over the last 36 hours. It’s my “5 Things” for this week. And I didn’t write any of them.

5. Nothing like a little free agency anticipation during a heated playoff series. And that’s what we have brewing with the Rangers-Devils Eastern Conference Finals matchup, with pending UFA Zach Parise right in the middle of things. It doesn’t help that his father, a former NHLer, chimed in as well, basically saying that his son would fit right in on Broadway (Thanks, Dad.), although that part of the story is left out of this link. Regardless, Parise is going to be a hot commodity, and probably one that Tortorella doesn’t have to bench in future Conference Finals games for his effort like he has done with Gaborik and Del Zotto.

4. Welcome back to the ECHL, Jason Lockhart. In the 2009-10 season, Jason Lockhart shared the broadcast booth with me, and made most of the road trips. He was a good guy, a hard worker and a good broadcaster in his time in Condorstown. After leaving here to head to the AHL with Syracuse, “Lock” has found the pangs of the West Coast too hard to ignore, and has returned to the Golden State, as the Voice of the San Francisco Bulls. We look forward to welcoming him back to Rabobank Arena… as he settles into the much smaller Visitor’s Radio Booth. And of course, we selfishly hope he gets to call a lot of losses here.

3. Billy Johnson’s Las Vegas Wranglers squad is in a fight for their lives against the Florida Everblades right now, trailing 3-games-to-1 in their quest for the Kelly Cup. Billy moonlights as a blogger for the Las Vegas Sun, and has a unique perspective on things. This is his most recent, and includes nice visuals to the ever-present danger of losing a limb to an alligator while in Florida.

3b. (BONUS) If you liked that one, and also dislike the Alaska Aces, which I’m guessing you do if you’re a Condors fan, you’ll enjoy this gem from Billy as well.

2. There used to be a guy here that scored a bunch of goals by the name of Jamie Cooke. Apparently he can STILL score a bunch of goals, and now in his 40’s, he’s hoping to do it for Team USA. “Cookie” was one of the most popular Condors back in the day, and twice led the team in goals. He’s is third in team history in games played, and with the way players move around at this level of hockey these days, his team record of 143 career goals is probably never going to be touched. He has extensive history in roller hockey, most notably winning a local rink championship playing alongside… me. We won t-shirts for our efforts out at the old Niles St. establishment. Fun stuff. Good luck, Cookie!

1. Hopefully you’ve been following along with the disgraceful coverage that the Kings have been getting in their hometown. If not, please click the following links, before clicking my #1 selection of articles you need to read.

a) Logo Fail: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uswy18taOWQ&feature=related
b) Mascot Fail: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SwBx3pLhRw&feature=related
c) Kings players names and/or sport mega-fail: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw3EkpXVWZM

So after three of the four network stations in LA embarrassed themselves, the Kings posted a very clever response, poking fun but avoiding being insulting.

Kevin Bartl is the VP of Communications and part of the broadcast team for the Condors. His blog comes out every Tuesday… or whenever he gets around to it. Entering his 10th season in Condorstown, you can follow him on twitter for not-always-hockey-related and usually-overly-opinionated tweets @KevinBartl.