Aaron Voros Pisses Off Lindsay Lohan

This article is a bit……..different than one might expect to see from me. I'm not one for celebrity gossip or anything, but this was too funny to pass up.

Saturday night in a New York City club, Voros, his girlfriend Jessica Stam, and fellow Ranger buddy Sean Avery, apparently had a pretty prime seat in the club next to the DJ. That seat just happened to be the one Lindsay Lohan wanted and subsequently threw a fit to the club's security goon squad, trying to get them to forcibly move Aaron and his party. Naturally, security refused to do so and pissed off Lindsay to the point of mental breakdown. Okay she was already there. But regardless, she makes a wild story, claiming Voros is her former boyfriend who she wanted nothing to do with. Of course, Voros denied knowing her (who wouldn't?), and then Lindsay threw her drink at Voros' girlfriend Stam, and eventually left the club.

Surprisingly enough, Voros didn't actually retaliate. Though, I suppose if this was on the ice, it might have ended a little differently. Just ask the Canadien's Ryan O'Byrne...

NY Post Article.

History Will Be Made

For those of you that follow the NHL and the Stanley Cup Playoffs, you've likely seen the "History Will Be Made" commercials. If you haven't, here is one of the best.






Well, one of the Nanook players have compiled a few videos to say goodbye to his collegiate team and highlight a few of the 'Nooks key players. So, here they are. You can also subscribe "dionk20" (whoever that is :D ) YouTube channel as he heads over to Norway.



Chad "Gino" Gehon





Cowboy Ronnie Meyers





Andy "T.O." Taranto

Dion Knelsen Heads to Norway

Dion Knelsen, now informally known as King Leonidas, will join the Sparta Warriors (or, officially known as Ishockeyklubben Sparta Sarpsborg) in the Norwegian Elite League, GET-ligaen. If you can read Norsk, be my guest and check the official press release. I haven't seen one from the UA athletic department yet, but I would estimate that to come soon.

If anyone remembers the Olympics from Vancouver, besides the NHL names playing, the only other name I remember was from Norway's team - Tore Vikingstad. Sadly, he plays in the German league now...

UPDATE 5:42: There it is. AlaskaNanooks.com got their press release out on the subject about 10 minutes ago. Couple of good quotes in there too!

"I am thrilled to be playing with Sparta for the upcoming season,” said Knelsen. “I know they are an excellent organization, playing out of a passionate hockey-town in a competitive league. They are giving me a great opportunity early in my pro career, and I will do everything I can to help them win a championship.  I am looking forward to learning the European game and having a very successful season with the Warriors."

Good for Dion. He's a great player with a phenomenal attitude. I don't think he speaks Norsk yet, but he will before long...

Trimmings

A lot has happened recently, so rather than do a whole lot of features, here are a few bullets with links to other articles. I know, not usually my style, but hey, I'm a busy guy.

• Chad Johnson got some ice time with team Canada in their 6-1 beat down of Latvia the other day. Canada was in complete control of the third period and coach Craig MacTavish gave backup goalie Chad Johnson the final 20 minutes of play. Chad allowed the only goal, to Georgijs Pujacs, midway through the period. "We're all about the Maple Leaf here," starting netminder Chris Mason said. "[Coach Craig] MacT came to me and told me, “That's enough. Johnny [Chad Johnson] is going in.” I was actually really happy for him. It's his first time, and I know what that feels like, since I had my first opportunity last year. He was pretty excited." "It's always been a dream of mine to wear the Canadian jersey," Johsnon said with a big grin. "To get the opportunity to go out there in the third period with such a big lead, it was a little more comfortable." He played pretty good, despite allowing a lone goal which is a little insignificant in the grand scheme of things. He had 11 stops on 12 shots faced. I received the pictures below from the coach partially responsible for getting Chad into a Nanooks jersey. That would be Wade Klippenstein, who was at the game in Mannheim (thanks coach Klipp!).

•  Former Nanook defenseman Jordan Hendry and his Chicago Blackhawks have dispatched the Vancouver Canucks in the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs to advance to the Western Conference Finals. Hendry has played in 8 playoff games so far this season, of which the 'Hawks have played 12 total so far. Unfortunately, he has 0 points and a -4, but that's how it goes sometimes. Sad story for a Blackhawks fan too, who showed his team pride holding a banner against the glass, who wasn't greeted with a sportsmans handshake so much as getting drenched with a beer that someone threw at him, which was caught on [inter]national television. Some Nanooks fans though have shown darker moments. This past season, for those that didn't hear or perhaps don't remember, UNO head coach Dean Blais received a carbonated surprise from a fan at the Carlson Center. Here, public service announcement time, it doesn't matter which team you root for in what sport, if your team loses, don't lose your cool. You never know how many people are looking straight at you.

• For those that haven't seen the changes up for discussion to the NCAA hockey rulebook, I highly suggest you study up a bit. I'm not going to go into too much detail just yet about it. I'm going to sit down with Forrest next week and ask him some questions surrounding all of this. Keep your eyes peeled for that. As an overview, some of the rules up for discussion include amendments to penalty killing, requiring the unit on the ice when the penalty was committed to kill off the entire 2:00 of shorthanded affair, and eliminating the ability of the short handed unit from icing the puck. The major update is an overhaul of the contact to the head penalty rules. Currently, a separate infraction such as high sticking, or elbowing must be attached to it. Under the new rules (if enacted) an official will not have to attach a separate penalty to it to box up a player for a couple of minutes, or even send him packing with a misconduct. Other propositions include changes to overtime rules, goals off a skate, icing rules, sending a puck out of the rink, sprawling to block a shot with the body, and my personal favorite is half shields. Like I said, more on this to come.
   
• And lastly, goalie recruit Sean Cahill from the AJHL was originally slated to come in the upcoming season, however his enrollment has been deferred until the 2011-2012 season. He will play next season with his current team, the 2009-2010 south division AJHL champions, the Okotoks Oilers.

Nanook Rookie Recruit Write Up #1 - Cody Kunyk (AJHL)

So, I decided to break these posts up and write about one recruit at a time. It will be better than last year, since I'm not limiting myself to a paragraph or two on each player and I can do the research and due diligence for each player and get more in depth with each of them.

The first player in my sights is a star-studded recruit, Sherwood Park forward Cody Kunyk (Coon-ick) of the AJHL.

Over the past three seasons with Sherwood Park, Kunyk has shown excellent progression. In his first season, Cody registered 24 points, accumulating 13 goals and 11 assists for the crusaders in 51 games during the 2007-2008 season (0.47 points per game). The following year, he more than doubled his point totals, netting 58 points with 25 goals, 33 assists, averaging 0.95 points per game.

This year, Kunyk has turned on the after burners. As an alternate captain with the Crusaders, Kunyk amassed 87 points between 44 goals and 43 assists, putting him in 5th place in the AJHL in scoring, and putting him in place to garner the AJHL MVP honor.

On Friday, May 7th, Kunyk was presented with the RBC Canadian Junior Hockey League Player of the Year award as the top Junior A player in all of Canada. An honor which current NHL skaters such as Dany Heatley (San Jose), Paul Kariya (St. Louis), Mike Comrie (Edmonton), and Jeff Tambellini (New York Islanders) have under their belts from their Canadian Junior A past. Kunyk was the AJHL nominee for the award, among five other nominees from each other Junior A conference. In addition to all of these accolades, Cody was named to the World Junior A Challenge All-star team. Kunyk will join the Nanooks alongside his former teammate Nik Yaremchuk in the fall.

Having seen just clips of Cody play, I'm pretty excited to see him in a Nanooks uniform. He seems to have great vision, great puck handling, and a great feel for the play that puts him in the right place at the right time. He's obviously got a great scoring sense, and I think he is going to be a great supplement for the team with the loss of Dion Knelsen. At 6' 0" 180lbs, he fits the average Nanook mold very nicely. He doesn't take many penalties (just 33 minutes in 51 games), and as he took the hockey academy route since the 5th grade, he knows how to keep a balance of hockey and schooling. He plans to major in business for UAF.

Last season, the Nanooks, while dramatically improved from the season before it, showed some trouble scoring through the middle of the season. With two 1.5+ point per game scorers coming in, and a number of established scorers already on the team, their vow of improvement next season is already looking good. With their first taste of the NCAA tournament--despite missing the trip to the Joe-- its apparent that the motivation for the team is going to be aimed much higher. Kunyk, along with other the other incoming freshmen, and the current lineup of Nanooks will take aim at a re-surging run at the CCHA NCAA tournaments.

Chad Johnson Selected to Represent Canada in IIHF 2010 World Championship

Multiple emails came into my inbox this afternoon, and passed on word that Hockey Canada General Manager Mark Messier has finalized his 23-man roster, and have named Nanook alum Chad Johnson as one of the two netminders for Team Canada.

Johnson finished his collegiate career with Alaska in 2009, backstopping the 'Nooks with a 1.66 Goals Against Average and a .940 save percentage (both ranked first among all NCAA D1 teams).

Photo credit: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

 

Since departing Fairbanks, Johnson signed a standard player contract with the New York Rangers after being traded from the Penguins for an extra draft pick (which is great, because Pittsburgh is definitely not my favorite team). He made his first NHL appearance in a pre-season game against the New Jersey Devils, and his first regular season appearance in relief of Henrik Lundqvist against the Philly Flyers, and earned his first start against the St. Louis Blues, and earned his first win in a stellar performance against the Colorado Avalanche. While serving as the starting goaltender for the Rangers' AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack, Johnson finished 7th among the top AHL goaltenders, going 24-18-2 with a 2.54 GAA and a .911 save percentage with 3 shutouts.

I'm sure Chad is ecstatic to represent his home country for the IIHF world championship. Next to the Olympics, this is about as big as it gets in terms of international play. The team will convene in Hamburg on May 2 for a four-day pre-camp and one exhibition game, on May 4 against Germany. Canada’s first game at the 2010 IIHF World Championship is on May 8 vs. Italy in Mannheim. Chad will likely serve the back-up role to starting netminder Chris Mason of the St. Louis Blues.

Team Canada announces final 23-man roster for IIHF World Championships