Tom Preissing on Sportsnet and a lot of video to waste your time at work...

As you may remember from an old episode of TundraTalk, the Podcast that does not suck, Tom Preissing, formerly of the Green Bay Gamblers currently playing with the Ottowa Senators, sat down and gave us the answers we wanted to hear. Go back and listen to episode seven of TundraTalk, the podcast that does not suck, and do a bit of remembering.

Okay, now that you have that out of the way, we can move on. Tom recently was on Sportsnet, not the network that I work for, in a story that took him out to the local mall in Ottowa to see if anyone recognizes him. He is leading the league in +/- so they called it the 'Tom Preissing Plus Minus test'. This story is very funny and good on Tom for playing along. Have a look...



Preissing on Vimeo

My personal belief is that a lot more people would know who he is if he was a Canadain born hockey player rather than American. Up here they track all of their future stars from birth to death. It is hard for a Canadian hockey star to go anywhere without being recognized. That is why no one knew him. It probably would be the same in the states because no one cares about hockey. He was traded to Ottowa this year from San Jose so I imagine he could go anywhere in SJ and not be bothered.

Tom is a good kid and a great hockey player that recently has been rumoured to maybe coming to Edmonton via trade. How great would that be having two former Green Bay Gamblers on the same team. Kinda like last year with Greene and Conklin. Then in the playoffs we had Greene, Conklin, and Preissing all on the ice in an NHL game at once. That was historic.

CLICK HERE to read a good story on Tom.

NEXT: As I was at the game on Saturday I was informed that an interview that I shot ended up on YouTube. Funny how that stuff gets up there. It was when Pronger came back to Edmonton with Anaheim earlier in the season. Ilya Bryzgalov ranted about the weather and the fact that he thinks Pronger is a quote 'Good Guy'. His voice goes all high and it is hilarious. Have a look...



Also as I was on YouTube I ran accross these 'Knob Hockey' videos. About the funniest thing I have seen in recent memory. These guys shot their old slide hockey games and added sound of the players and stuff over the top of the game. They all are timed around the playoffs last year and relate to them. The first one is Bryzglov 'Behind the mask'. Have a look. This one will kill ya...



The next one is kind of mean spirited. It involves TundraTalk vetran and former Green Bay Gambler Ty Conlkin. Very mean, but very funny...



The next one also mentions Ty but stars Ryan Smyth doing a pre game pep talk in the locker room prior to game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final. Notice the ripped up head on Ryan represents how beat up he got during the series last year. This one will make soda come out your nose or spit it on your screen....



There are about 4 or 5 more up there for your parusing. Just log on to YouTube then search 'Knob Hockey'. The Fernando Pisani one is great and one about Rod Brind'amor being really ugly. Braveheart speech. If you do not want any part of YouTube CLICK HERE to go to the Knob Hockey site.

This last piece of video I have for you is a hockey fight involving George Laraque and some dude who does not really matter. It is about a month old but a good fight. The reason why I am posting it is because they had George Mic'd up. You get to hear what they say before they go. George wishes him luck. Classic. Most of the time when they mic a guy up they get lame audio, not this time. One of the best things that has ever been caught on a mic'd up segment.




NEXT: Also have a look at Megan Venner, of the East coast of Canada Venner's, blog. There is a link to the right. She is a working at home mom writing freelance. I think she is going to also right a best selling novel. I know the topic, it will be about how to work with as a reporter and keep your camera man happy. It will have chapters on how to get to press conferences early so the cameraman can eat all the free food he wants. You know good stuff like that. Now that I think about it, the way to keep a cameraman happy is basically keep him fed. Oh well, that will be a short book.


Have a great week.

Lots of catching up to do, Dee Snider, AND a new rant...

As long time TundraTalk readers you will know the legend of the Hamilton Sweater. For those of you who are new to the fold, I will enlighten you with the legend that is THE Hamilton Sweater. I had a Green Bay Gamblers game worn that was my most prized possesion. I had many good memories in that sweater. I shot a commercial, drove the Zamboni, jumped in lake Michigan on Jan first, sat ringside for a WCW saturday night show, saw my first Colorado Avalanche game, and saw many dominant performances of the Gamblers. That is the sweater in the picture above.

Now you may wonder why I speak of the Hamilton in third person. Well, it is important to recognize the dominance of the sweater. When a person, me, pulls that sweater over his head he becomes another person. A person that can strike fear in any player wearing an opposing teams colors. A person that can lift a section in a hockey rink to new heights of spirit and just outright loudness. When in the presence of the Hamilton Jersey it was truly an awe inspiring experience.

It was number 12, worn and signed by Ryan Saverine, customized for Hamilton. I wore this sweater to to an Oilers playoff game in 2001. As I was working I got warm, so I took it off and buried it under a pile of cables near my gear. I came back 10 minutes later and it was gone. Devastation. I was in mourning for weeks. When news of this hit Gambler Nation, there were public outcries, public wakes, and just the feeling of loss.

Flash forward to 2005, young Matt Greene, a Gambler alumi, sat down next to me in the press box. We began to swap Brown County Arena Stories. He told me about the crazy fans in Section A & B and how that dude with the Kocur sweater was crazy and I told him the tale of the Hamilton Sweater. He was moved, so moved that he offered to get his game Gambler Sweater out of his closet in Michigan and offer it to the hockey gods as a gift to Hamilton himself. I of course accepted his offer.

Well on Friday Matt Greene made the hockey gods very happy. He presented Hamilton with a new flag to fly. Matt Greene is truly a patriot. Have a look at the presentation below.


Matt Greene rules!!

So here is a big thank you to Matt Geene formerly of the Green Bay Gamblers and now of the Edmonton Oilers. You, my friend are truly a great person to ease the pain of Hamiltons loss.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not just pushing Hamilton era aside for the Greene era, Hamilton will always have a place in hockey legend and lore. This is just a start of a new era of hockey domination. Watch out, here we come!!! Oh and one more thing, the day I see the dude who swiped the Hamilton, I will beat the snot out of this dude, then I will get mad.

Damn I look good


NEXT: I got an email from the Nordic Man, a man who truly knows the power of the Hamilton sweater, the other day and he of course had to bring up one of the most popular topics on TundraTalk, Dee Snider...

"Dee Snider on Celebrity Duets
I don't know if you get that show from the US, Celebrity Duets? But this week they had Dee Schneider on. I could not stop laughing thinking about the infamous quote from poker night. Then you see Little Richard behind him while he was singing and LR was just staring at Dee's ass."

So I did some searching and found a link to the actual performance...

CLICK HERE TO WATCH DEE SNIDER ROCK OUT, KINDA...

NEXT: I have a bit of a rant for you today...I went to a rock show the other night. Danko Jones was the rocker in question and yes, he did rock out. That dude plays rock and roll like it is supposed to be played. Full out, no holds barred. That is not what I want to rant about but I do have a bone to pick about something that happened on the way in.

I was waiting in line out front, right there I am already on my way to grouch, lines suck. After about 15 minutes of listening to the two brain dead girls in front of me talk about a party they were having and how they needed to get someone to buy them booze for the party, we get to the front. The muscle head that was looking at the I.D.'s asked for the brain dead's I.D.'s. That is when it hit me, the girls in front of me were minors, I was excited that I was going to witness the old, "I left my I.D. in the car" routine. Nope, they had 'em with them. Sweet, now I was going to get to see them bounced for having bad I.D.'s. I glanced at the cards as they handed them over, I was then really gonna love this because the pictures looked NOTHING like the girls. Musclehead took the cards, looked at the girls, and promptly LET THEM IN!!! Man, why was it not that easy for me when I was too young? Oh yeah, I did not have breasts.

So he takes my card and does not even look at it then informs me of the mandatory coat check. Which I guess is not so bad, but then I see the sign above that says "Mandatory Coat Check. Two Dollars" WHAT? First you make me stand in line, then you make me give you my coat, and charge me for it. Uh uh. I ask said musclead why I needed to give them my coat. He said because management says so. So I asked him why? He repeated the management BS again, three times. I of course loving a good arguement, pushed again. Why? He said it was for my own safety. What, so I can be safe from my own jacket?

If you are going to pull the 'safety' card I am okay with that, but don't charge me two bucks to do it. I of course went on to inform him that his management were not at all concerned with our safety but with lining his own pocket with money for nothing. What a total rip job. I wanted to go to the show, so I gave them my money, AND my coat, and went inside.

After I relayed this story to Donna later she said, "Man you are getting old." Okay, she is right, but I would have argued about that BS even back when I was 21. I suck. I am old.

The show was awesome though, and I was this close earlier in the day to getting him for the podcast. I just got to the radio station too late. Oiler practice took to long.

NEXT: I would also like to mention that when I was parking for the show I had to parallel park. Which reminded me that I am the greatest parallel parker in the world. NO ONE could touch me in my senior class, no one can touch me now. In fact I would issue the challenge that if anyone would like to take me on, bring it. That includes anyone from my senior class Hazen High 1986. As Garner Andrews, a good friend of TundraTalk would say, I am the Wayne Gretzky of parallel parking. How does that taste. NO ONE CAN TOUCH ME.



Opening night at the rink. It is still hard to believe that the NHL has started again already. It seems like just yesterday that we were in Anaheim. The Oilers won and my live hit went off with out a hitch.

Yes that is a new mic monkey, long story that I do not want to go into right now. Her name is Christy Chorley and she used to work at City TV in Edmonton. You might also recognize her name from something else, and that is a long story that I will not even touch. Except to say it is not true.

Have a nice day and a good weekend.