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Weekend Edition Aug 16: Radko Gudas: fantasy gem, NHL drug testing, and new owners for the Devils

It’s August and while things are starting to gear up towards the season, it’s still….well, August. There’s so little news these days that when I was unable to post on Tuesday due to technology crapping out on me, it didn’t really matter. This post will be a bit longer than usual, but it’s a slow news month.

Local (Lightning)

Two Keeper League Salary Cap Gems
Dobber Hockey (Fantasy guru) says to get Radko Gudas onto your fantasy team.

Seven candidates for a breakout season in 2013-14 – NHL.com – NHL Insider
NHL.com picks Ben Bishop as one of their five candidates for a “breakout” season. Could be, I suppose. “Breakout” implies “gets good and stays good for the next several years,” however. And I’m not anywhere near willing to prognosticate that far out on the basis of 45 NHL games (or Lindback’s 63 games, for that matter). I’ll take a good season, though.

Ludzik fights to beat Parkinson’s disease | Tampa Bay Times
Former Lightning coach is battling Parkinson’s disease.

Career change for Bolts’ Gwozdecky a surprise | Breaking Tampa Bay, Florida and national news and weather from Tampa Bay Online and The Tampa Tribune | TBO.com
More from Coach Gwozdecky.

Ottawa Senator star from Burlington helps diabetic kids at hockey camp – Hamilton
Not really a Lightning story anymore, but Cory Conacher taught hockey at a camp for kids with diabetes.

National

NHL delays testing for human growth hormone until 2014-15 season at earliest | Toronto Star
PEDs? No big deal, says Bill Daly. We’ll get to that…whenever.

Toews on PEDs: ‘the more tests the better’ | ProHockeyTalk
Jonathon Toews, however, thinks there’s something there.

“Eventually… someone is going to save their own butt and throw you under the bus. And that’s your legacy. That’s what people remember: that you’re a cheater and you took performance enhancing drugs. “I think guys that apologize and plead that they didn’t know what they were doing, I think they know exactly what they’re doing. So the more tests the better. It protects the guys that are being fair and are putting good things into their body. So I have no problem with (more testing).”

Claude Giroux suffers the manliest golf injury in hockey history, out 5-6 weeks | Puck Daddy – Yahoo! Sports

First off, it’s good to know it was Giroux’s index finger that was injured. He can live without pointing and laughing; but had it been his middle finger, we can’t imagine how hard it would have been to effectively communicate with other Philadelphians in their native language.

Sens GM Bryan Murray says Alfie’s version of events untrue | Senators | Sports | Ottawa Sun
Finger pointing still going on in Ottawa. I understand the need to try to figure out what went wrong, but I suspect there’s plenty of misunderstanding on all sides in this one.

Johnston: Alfredsson airs Senators’ dirty laundry – Sportsnet.ca
I’m glad not to be a Senators fan dealing with crap like this.

The new playoff format is baffling, awful and interesting I guess? | Backhand Shelf | Blogs | theScore.com
From Ryan Lambert: “[T]hat’s the way the NHL works, isn’t it? Take an easily-fixable problem and making it worse.”

Understanding jersey numbers in our current era | Backhand Shelf | Blogs | theScore.com
Apparently there are a lot of people who care about this stuff. This post had 60 comments on it before it was even 12 hours old.

Bedford hockey player dies during QMJHL camp in N.B. | The Chronicle Herald
A teenage hockey player from Bedford died Monday after he collapsed during a rookie camp skating session in New Brunswick.

Family decision – Tbnewswatch.com
Doug Gilmour, general manager of the Kingston Frontenacs, traded his son Jake.

International

Sochi 2014: No good options for taking action on Russia’s anti-gay law ahead of Olympics | National Post
A very thorough look at the options for athletes and countries concerned about Russia’s anti-gay laws and the human rights violations taking place there. It ends up being a choice between bad options.

Farm Report (Prospects and the Minors)
Reinhart, Nylander and Ekblad top the first look at the 2014 NHL draft class | Buzzing The Net – Yahoo! Sports Canada
Because it’s never too early to make sweeping generalizations about teenaged players….

Double Blue Sports Analytics | The Most Advanced And Affordable Goaltending Analytic System The World Has Ever Seen.
Remember David Alexander? This is an intro video for the analytics app he’s been working on (launch is this month). See if you notice someone familiar in there.

Rejoice, Burger King jersey fans—AHL team will wear them – NHL – Sporting News
Yes, yes. The plan is working.

Des joueurs de la LNH en compétition à L’Ancienne-Lorette – Hockey – Québec Hebdo
Cedrick Desjardins‘ charity hockey tournament is August 16-18, and will feature a number of Tampacuse guys as well as players from other NHL teams. (in French)

Business

Winning is everything for fans – or is it? – BBC Sport
An interesting take from outside the world of hockey: what really makes for a beloved sport is an balance between chaos and winnability.

Josh Harris bails out New Jersey Devils, as NHL ownership bid is approved | Puck Daddy – Yahoo! Sports
New Jersey escapes the fate that befell Phoenix and gets new ownership in place quickly.

Dallas Stars deny tampering with Evgeni Malkin, but did Sergei Gonchar? | Puck Daddy – Yahoo! Sports
Wyshinski’s been watching too much summer TV and is seeing conspiracies everywhere now.

The Market (Numbers)

Your Goalie May Vary, Part II: Looking at Single-Game Save Percentages – Fear The Fin
This piece is getting a lot of play these days. While the underlying work shows clearly that single-game save percentages are pretty random and very, very few goalies play a very, very high proportion of very, very good good games over several years, I have some issues with some of the other conclusions drawn. Still, it’s worth looking at.

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