Quick hits: Jimmy's smokin'; Cal-to-Pouliot heart transplant; ASG Breakaway competition goalie

I'm feeling a little cranky this afternoon, but then this bit of magical loveliness floated into my Google Reader and put a smile on my face.

Here's James Shepperd and his perfect face talking about his all star break plans. Am I the only one who is always a little surprised by how deep his voice is? Rawr.

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Mike Toth of Sportsnet.ca looks back at his pre-season predictions to see how they're coming along at mid-season.

Prediction:
3. The perfect hockey transplant? Removing the heart of Cal Clutterbuck and placing it inside the body of Benoit Pouliot. The Minnesota Wild selected the gifted Pouliot fourth overall in the 2005 NHL draft. But since then, he's only played a handful of games at the NHL level and has spent much of his AHL apprenticeship skating around in a fog. Clutterbuck, on the other hand, is the epitome of making the most out of limited ability and the former Oshawa General has a chance of cracking the Minnesota roster as a fourth line energy player. Wild officials say that because Pouliot is so talented, he's never had to sweat like the Clutterbuck's of the world. However, if the light bulb finally goes on, it would play a major role in solving Minnesota's search for a sniper to complement Marian Gaborik.

Reflection:
Top shelf: While we're on that subject, let's turn our attention to a pair of prospects with the Minnesota Wild. "Too bad you couldn't place the heart of Cal Clutterbuck inside the body of Benoit Pouliot", we wrote. Lo and behold, Pouliot is in danger of being a first round flop, as he was recently returned to the minors. Clutterbuck, on the other hand, is making a real name for himself. (Which isn't that difficult when you've got a perfect hockey handle like "Clutterbuck".) Living up to our claims that he'd crack the roster, Clutterbuck has displayed a knack for chipping in with some big goals and is fast becoming one of the NHL's most annoying super-pests. Heck! He's even had Wayne Gretzky screaming at him a couple of times from the Coyotes bench, as The Great One wished he could deploy Dave Semenko to teach Clutterbuck a lesson.

Yep. Mr. Toth has been paying attention.

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Finally, this post from Puck Daddy today vis-a-vis the goalie who will be taking the shots during the Breakaway competition at the All Star Game:

Gone are the all-star goalies with pride on the line; according the League, the current plan is for the goalie in the competition to be a "junior level guy from the Montreal-area" that (as of this morning) has not been selected. Maybe League officials will drive up to a rink in an unmarked van, put a bag over some random goalie's head, and he wakes up between the pipes in Montreal ...

Wysh nails the mental visuals again. Funny stuff. And he's got some good suggestions for alternatives. It's worth a read.

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Ms. Conduct gives thanks

Meanwhile, thank you Hockey Gods for Cal Clutterbuck. Another goal tonight and just incredibly well-spoken and collected for such a young guy, in spite of his teammates yelling shit at him during his interview, which is here.

I'd bet money, on that late crosscheck penalty he drew while he was going on the bench, that was by design. I guarantee he stood there just a little bit longer than he needed to because he knew the other guy was coming and figured he might give him a shot.

Here are pictures from the game. A couple of good Cal ones and one of Shep's fight. Dayum.

Some quotes from Russo, who was buzzing in his post game blog:

Cal Clutterbuck was the hero again, scoring his first career winning goal, taking on five more hits (152 now) and drawing three penalties.

Wow. Five points in his last four games. I'm stunned by people who still think he's going to be a flash in the pan a la Voros. Nope.

Remember how the season started? He focused on his defensive play almost exclusively and people were saying, "I don't see that he's such a big deal? What's he bringing besides a little grit?" But from there, he added one piece of his game at a time to make sure he never got ahead of himself or bit off more than he could chew. Never gave Jock a reason not to trust him.

I knew when he went up that's how he'd work it because he's smart like that. He's a guy who can read a situation and just understand how to get the most of out it. He's 21. Imagine what he's doing at 27 or 30.

If you’ve ever seen Souray with his shirt off, this is one strong dude. Ripped.

Christ, Russo. What are you trying to do to me? Meanwhile, I hope Weller is okay. I'm not sure he knew what planet he was on when Souray got done with him. But I'm agreeing with Dumb and Dumber that that plastic brace on his hand is pretty questionable shit to be wearing if you're gonna fight a guy. "Wait, let me brace my wrists in hard, clear plastic and then I'll punch you in the face. Deal?" Dipshit. I have an issue with that.

What else? I guess that's all. We'll get caught up on the Aeros return to the Toyota Center tomorrow. In spite of my struggles with faith, I'm very excited to see live hockey again.

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Wow. Just wow.

You can imagine the utter giddiness in my living room tonight. And actually, I was late to turn on the game and had put it on during the commercial break right before Cal's first goal. Get that? Cal's FIRST goal. Because there were TWO. Because we in Clutter Nation knew it was gonna happen sooner than later.

Here's his First Star for the game:

And then his first star for the LEAGUE on NHL.com! Get out!


In only 10:14 of ice time, the little fella had 4 hits and 2 goals. Boogie may call him Cannonball but I call him Efficient!

Video is here. Photos (some fantastic ones of Cal) are here. Post-game interview here. And the Strib article here. And I'm declaring this Cal Clutterbuck Day on the Ms. Conduct blog. But who are we kidding... every day is Cal Clutterbuck day here.

Also, congrats to Jimmy Shepperd who also got his first goal for the season. Here's hoping this kicks off a string for the kid.

And if all that wasn't fantastic enough, I spent the entire game sitting on my new goalie leg pads to get them broken in a bit. All that's left to arrive is Müller. Ack!

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Shep

Great article on Jimmy Sheppard by Russo today. He's a funny kid.

I dunno about other teams but we've got just a crazy number of rock stars/rock stars-in-the-making on this team. From Burns and Mikko, who started to get some buzz last season, to Shep, who is on the radar of those in the know (obvious by how many calls Riser got asking to make a deal for him in the off-season), to Cuma, who is the next Lidstrom. And of course, if you ask me, Clutterbuck will find a place in the spotlight at some point for something other than his wicked name.

Anyway, someone posted the Under Armor ad that Shep is in on the Wild board. I think it pretty much speaks for itself.

And BTW, I promise this is the last of my drooling for a while. Just so happy to have hockey almost back...

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Post Camp Video

From some Minny TV station

Interviews with Cal Clutterbuck, Colton Gillies, and Little Jimmy Shepperd

Observations:

• Cal always throws me off me with his off-ice demeanor. He's such a mean little bastard on the ice that when he's all smiley and friendly, it freaks me out a little bit. Of course, being drawn to strong contrasts like I am, that just makes me like him all the more.
• I so hope Gillies makes the team this year. I know he won't have a huge season if he does, but I'm looking forward to watching him develop and put the "mean streak" I'm always hearing about into action.
  
• Shep has kinda lost his "boy" face. The Wild's hottie quotient is suddenly quite a bit higher in my estimation.
  

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Kassian's Camp Wrap-Up

Posted on Wild.com today, this little blurb made me laugh.

SUPERLATIVES

Ed note: By way of a very unscientific poll, conducted primarily with Matt Kassian, who had help from others.

Fastest skater: Colton Gillies

Hardest worker: Ryan Hamilton

Hardest shot: Justin Falk, Max Noreau

Sickest hands: Benoit Pouliot

Best stickhandler: Benoit Pouliot

Most agile: Benoit Pouliot, James Sheppard or Colton Gillies. "They're all pretty close."

Best passer: Morten Madsen

Future leader: James Sheppard

Best hockey sense: Tyler Cuma

Best one-on-one: James Sheppard, Beniot Pouliot

Funniest: "Funniest looking is Colton Gillies [who happened to be walking by]. Funniest is possibly Paul Albers or Cal Clutterbuck."

Strongest: "I'd rank myself high there."

Gillies: "You can't pump your own tires."

Kassian: "I'm pumping my own tires. I get to pick myself. Matt Kassian."

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Um. Hi there.

So, it was a little weird for my self-indulgent little blog to get called out by one of the hockey writers at the New York (freaking) Times. I do appreciate it, but now I feel I should probably do more than whine about my aches and pains and freak out over my missing xanax bottle.

Since we're hitting the symphony tonight (sounds fancy but they're playing music from popular video games, so really it's a big dorkfest that I'm not all that excited about, but DH supports my dorking out about hockey, so I'll support his dorking out about the soundtrack to Civilization 4), I'm not getting a workout in. I think this week is pretty much a wash on that front. Not even a mid-week skate. It's going to be brutal on the ice Saturday.

I have, however, been getting my hockey fix and that is surely keeping my head above water right now. The Wild are hosting their week-long prospect development camp, so all my favorite Houston boys, plus the recent draft picks (including the mysterious Eero Elo), plus some invitees, are busting their humps down at the X.

And of course, since this is providing fresh meat for us hockey hounds to chew on, we're chowing down big time. Thankfully the Wild organization is providing great articles and videos and interviews of these guys for us, and Russo is covering the goings on, though not with the rabid fervor that I would prefer. ;)

Go here for all the good stuff. And Russo's blog yesterday has some nice stuff as well. There was a scrimmage this evening, so I'm looking forward to hearing about that.

I have to say, I'm SO impressed with these young guys the Wild have picked up in the last three years. For Tyler Cuma to be so focused and poised and well-spoken at his age... it just blows my mind. And James Shepperd and Colton Gillies seem to be similarly good guys. Down to earth and hard working. Guys that are so easy to cheer for.

Also, while I'm not as big a fan of Benoit Pouliot (aka Benny, Ben, Pouly, Pouls, Princess...), he's looking really good, both in a *wolf whistle* way with his shaved head and looking a bit more filled out and bulked up, which is great from a hockey perspective.

And be sure and listen to the interview with upcoming Aeros enforcer, Matt Kassian. I think I may have my new favorite Aero in that fella. What's not to love?

Finally, the Clutterbuck article is pretty decent and you can't help but want the guy to make the big club this year. You can tell he's gonna do whatever it takes, but if you've been watching the Aeros (or probably any team he's been on), this isn't surprising. He's always 110%.

Okay, off to the symphony/nerdfest.

UPDATE: OH. MY. GOD. That was a bizarre. People were Fist Pumping Excited to hear the Houston Symphony play the theme music for games like Halo, WOW, etc. But watching a guy play Sweet Emotion on Guitar Hero with the symphony backing him, that was pretty cool. But still... the biggest collection of gamer geeks I've EVER seen. And I get uncomfortable just going to Electronics Boutique.

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