Todd Bertuzzi pleads not guilty on the count of assault. The video clip of Bertuzzi sucker-punching Steve Moore has been played ad-nauseum, from every possible angle. The incident itself happened so far back that any residual emotions of disgust have evaporated for me, not to mention the media overkill [I'm the type of insomniac that needs talk radio to sleep].

Alexander Perezhogin has been charged with assault. It stems back to an AHL playoff game, where the Hamilton Bulldog player swung a stick to the face of Cleveland Barron Garret Stafford, leaving Stafford in epileptic seizures on the ice. This story hasn't got a lot of coverage, way less than it deserves, because of the timing. Not suprisingly, the swing to Stafford's face was also retaliation for a blow that Stafford delivered to the back of Perezhogin's helmet.

It's been quite a year for hockey players and their legal matters. Dany Heatley, Todd Bertuzzi, Alexander Perezhogin, Mike Danton and Jeremy Roenick's semi-illegal betting tips. It's got to be some kind of record. Maybe we'll have a nice All-Felons team soon.

NHL considers changing their logo. I suspect this is the result of many pages of doodling at NHLPA-NHL meetings.

World Cup exhibition: USA 1, Canada 3. I didn't get to listen to this game, but my impression is that it wasn't nearly as exciting or as well-played by both sides. Who really thinks Conklin is a world-class calibre goalie? Seeing Lecavalier murmur sheeplishly to Lemieux, almost apologetic for using SuperMario as a decoy was a delight to watch, even if only on the highlights package. Hal Gill broke his foot in the game, further depleting US defense corps. An added note, the US out-shot Canada. Again.

Coming up: Slovakia at Canada. Redden vs Chara and Hossa, but national allegiances trump NHL team allegiances, but I have this constant fear that Hossa, Chara or Redden will be injured in the tournament. Freak incidents like Aaron Boone (pick-up basketball) or Eric Desjardins (performing the fatherly duty of playing catch) only serve to fuel my paranoia. As for the game, Canada's defense needs to tighten up against the more explosive Slovakian team.

Arrogant Canadians! Apparently, there's been a lot of Canadian trash-talk, proclaiming that nobody could possibly match the greatness of Gretzky & Co.'s perfectly assembled Team Canada, much less the inferior Americans. While it is hypocritical of us to transform into obnoxious, arrogant twats and then criticize Americans for doing it, we've got to be arrogant sometime. It's a part of patriotism and national pride -- loud, brash, bold patriotism, not quiet, understated inoffensive patriotism. People are severely off-base in their observations, if they assume Canadians are always happy being complacent and underachieving in the Olympics. I would call the over-reaction to the exhibition win over-compensating for a loss and failure at the Olympics, if only more people actually cared about the Olympics. And then there's the anti-American sentiments. [Second-hand accounts say that there were some people booing the American anthem, which was also slaughtered by the Corel Centre anthem singer .. "for the land of the free?"] I've come to accept it as the myth and paradox of Canada. Some conservatives will see this as detrimental and hypocritical, but that's just the way it is, and not completely uncalled for, either [and I'm not talking about the Iraqi War].

On the other hand, it's just hockey.

To end this entry with a lighter note, meet Aerodynamic Alfie!