Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.
• Let's say you invite Patrick Kane to a press event at an airport bar, but you want to make sure everyone's on his best behavior. The solution? Have a giant mutant bird shadow him like Esa Tikkanen, obviously. This was taken at the unveiling for the Chicago Blackhawks Sports Bar and Grill at O'Hare International Airport. [Blackhawks]
REMINDER: Our Boston Bruins Photoshop contest is in full swing. Entries due by Friday!
• Chris Pronger sounding rather pessimistic about being ready for Philadelphia Flyers camp: "I would guess I would not be starting camp just from the mere fact that I haven't been able to work out at all yet. I'm skinny to begin with, and now I'm looking really skinny." [Broad Street Hockey]
• Potential NHL comeback alert: The indestructible Sergei Brylin. [Fire & Ice]
• Nice work by the Rangers: "The New York Rangers have continued to honor the legacy of Derek Boogaard with Wednesday's announcement of two scholarships to be awarded annually to the Rangers Summer Youth Hockey Camp for children from the Defending the Blue Line program." [NHL.com]
• Detroit Red Wings GM Ken Holland wants to hear what Chris Osgood has to say about his future. We nominate Ryan Lambert as the moderator for this discussion. [Freep]
• Did a Toronto radio host use "a homophobic slur" against Cody Franson? [PPP]
• How interesting: News that Matthew Hulsizer is sniffing around the St. Louis Blues leaks out and suddenly the Blues are the pretty girl at the potential NHL ownership dance. [Post Dispatch]
• Adam Proteau with the top 10 off-season winners in the NHL. The Toronto Maple Leafs are No. 9. [THN]
• A marketing firm in Vancouver is running a "create the Winnipeg Jets' logo" contest … that has no connection to the NHL team. An executive actually said "throw them a message and see if anything interests them" to the Winnipeg Sun. [Sun; check out Puck Drawn's concepts as well and Icethetics' contest]
• Ottawa Senators general manager Bryan Murray announced today that the club has signed forward Mika Zibanejad to a three-year entry-level contract. [Senators]
• The Columbus Blue Jackets caught you a delicious Bass. [Puck-Rakers]
• QMI changes the Craig Leipold radio interview with KFAN about realignment from "Monday" (which was false) to "recently" (which is technically true but still baffling as to why they can't get the date of an interview they allegedly listened to themselves correct). [QMI]
• Scott Burnside on the realignment talk, stating the obvious thing that so many seem to miss: This realignment is going to be much more sweeping than simply putting the Winnipeg Jets in the Central and moving someone back East. [ESPN]
• From reader Kate comes this Atlanta Thrashers logo sighting during a Women's World Cup cutaway to troops in Afghanistan watching the game.
• New head coach for the Texas Stars: Jeff Pyle, former head coach for the Gwinnett Gladiators of the ECHL. [Dallas Stars Blog]
• From the NHL: The National Hockey League has been named to the prestigious Official Shortlist for the 2011 Beyond Sport Awards as a finalist in both the Sport for Environment and Federation of the Year categories. Beyond Sport, a global organization that promotes, develops and supports the use of sport to drive positive social change across the world, accepted entries in 12 categories covering the entire sporting spectrum of health, social inclusion, corporate and social responsibility, and philanthropy. The NHL stands as one of 35 shortlisted organizations from nearly 400 worldwide entries. The League is one of only two organizations to be shortlisted in multiple categories. [NHL]
• Looking back at some of the great free-agent offer sheets of the past. Troy Mallette for Adam Graves … gee, thanks arbitration process! [Puck Press]
• Kitchener Rangers coach Steve Spott says the Colorado Avalanche expect Gabriel Landeskog to play in the NHL next season. [Washington Times]
• Speaking of power forwards, a great post by Derek Zona on that type of player in the NHL and why they're so coveted. [Copper & Blue]
• Finally, Reason No. 1 you're seeing this video: It was sent to us by a reader who signed the email "May The Force Be With You … Dexter Hamilton, The genius." Reason No. 2 you're seeing this video: As roller hockey saves go, this is Hasekian: