Jonesy, Put Your Head Down and Write

I've been meaning to touch on this for quite some time, but I've never had the chance. Recently I got a copy of Jonesy, Put Your Head Down and Skate, written by former Philadelphia Flyer Keith Jones and ESPN's John Buccigross. If you've read any of John's columns recently, you may have seen it mentioned.

In the book, Jones tells the story of his career, as well as many other yarns that he picked up along the way. That's about all I'll say for now, as I meant to write a mini-review of it, but really haven't had any time to do anything of late (if you haven't noticed by how infrequently the site has been updated). If you want to check out some more information about the book, head on over to it's official website.

Last note, but probably the most important, is that Keith Jones is donating his proceeds from the book to Alex's Lemonade Stand. Alex's is a charitable organization that is trying to find a cure for childhood cancer. If you are on the fence about buying this book, my advice would be to buy it just for that reason. You're giving to charity, and you're getting something in return. Really can't beat that.

Required Reading for Oct. 4th

Meet Paul Stastny (right) early season fantasy hockey wrecking machine. AP Photo/David Zalubowski

• Do we get to fight other customers? It's retail shopping, NHL style. The fine folks over at Pop Jocks have a look at the new NHL store opening in Manhattan on October 12th. By far the best feature is the "in-house Starbucks where men can dump off their girlfriends for a few hours." Why didn't anyone think of that sooner? It also goes to show that you cannot escape Starbucks no matter where you go. Soon they'll be installing a Starbucks in my house. That's the next logical step.
• Kings are Masters of the Obvious: Great post up at Battle of California. In case anyone had any doubts, a new TV spot clears things up; the Kings do, in fact, play in L.A.
• Don't say I didn't warn you: ESPN sucks at fantasy sports, something Scotty Hockey learned about recently. It's an 'A+' rant in my book. Bravo! Well, except for the part where your fantasy team got ruined in the process. Probably not worth it, I would guess.
• The morning news: Brought to you by the gang at Illegal Curve. Probably the best hockey blog you haven't heard of. If it happens in hockey, they know about it. No, really. They do.
• Thank you Paul Stastny hat trick: Now all three of my fantasy hockey teams are +3 goals. Not nearly as cool as +1 throwing daggers, but still cooler than Chris Kattan.
  
• More blog rankings: This time courtesy of Sports Business Daily. How many of these friggin' things do we need? My cat can rank blogs, too. Wanna see?

Required Reading for Sept. 26th: Hawks Un-Eliminated from Playoffs

Who wants to reminisce about shitty hockey cards? LuckyCards.de

Lots to talk about in the hockey world today, so listen up class. The gist of it is really only mindless violence and death, which is depressing. Those are the reasons why I stopped watching the local news. Good thing hockey was built on mindless violence though. Due to that, I don't think I'll be walking away from the sport anytime soon.

• First off, my condolences to the family and friends of Hawks owner Bill Wurtz who died today from cancer at age 77. As bad as this guy was for the Hawks, it takes a sick individual to dance on a grave. There will be none of that here. That being said, I'm seriously considering retracting my statements from Septmber 20th, where I declared that the Hawks were already out of the playoff hunt. This is an event that can shake a franchise, and it will be interesting to see if the new owner keeps the status quo or moves the team into the 21st century.
• If you watch only one internet video today, this had better be the one that you watch. Honestly, one of the funniest things that I have ever seen related to hockey. The guys over at The Score give us the low down on the worst hockey cards of all-time, the 1990 Pro Set Series. The best line; "Why not just call him a fucking prick on the back of the card, it would be just as damaging."
• You've surely seen the video by now, but Steve Downie destroyed Dean McAmmond last night. McAmmond suffered a concussion, I would assume a very severe one, and hopefully we'll see him in an NHL uniform in the future. If you remember, McAmmond was the recipient of a not so pleasant elbow from Chris Pronger in the playoffs last spring. This is honestly the roughest pre-season that I can remember. Is wasn't this crazy last year, was it?
• LOL Pre-season Hockey
• It's not hockey, but if you know anything about college football, this will probably be the funniest post you read all week. How long till college football herpes jumps species into the NHL?
• Finally, a great season preview from Teebz over at Hockey Blog in Canada.