This post was written entirely last night, then I forgot to publish, and it went off to the abyss of the internet. Disgusting. But I did want to jump in here and rewrite it since I missed last week's opportunity for a drinking game.

Boston fans and people from New Jersey will have the most vested interest in tonight's game. If my Midwestern stereotypes are correct, then that pits two of New Yorks most hated groups against each other. So long as one of these teams loses, they'll be happy. Neither team is in first place this season, and Bostonians might even label the Bruins a disappointment this season, as they sit 4th in the Northeast. They do have a hold on the 8th spot in the East though, only one point ahead of the Rangers. I guess that could make New Yorkers happy. Even better news is that the Devils have a brand new Kovalchuck to bandy about in their efforts to defeat the B's.

Wait, what am I doing? You didn't come here for game analysis, you came here for a drinking game.

DRINK

...any time Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond is simply referred to as "#22". That guy's got hyphens like I got paternity suits.

... if Vanna White is referenced in any attempt to make a Travis Zajac joke. And let me tell you, there are a TON of Travis Zajak jokes out there. I won't list them for brevity's sake.

... if new Devils acquisition Martin Skoula looks lost on the ice. It's not because he is still learning the system. He ALWAYS looks lost on the ice.

... if any Bruins fans lament the fact that Dennis Seidenberg hasn't scored any goals since coming over in a deadline trade. Never mind that he is a defenseman or has 3 points in 6 games.

Drinking player of the week: Andy Greene

- A native of Detroit, he often gets asked if his personality is "more Eminem or Kid Rock". He doesn't have an answer to that, because he is more Smokey Robinson.

- He isn't afraid to poop right there in his breezers.

- Andy thinks the extra E at the end of his surname will make people think "panache". And they do, as panache also ends with a silent E.

Far be it from any of us to understand the complex workings and goings on in the mind of Mike Milbury, but apparently, he's now supportive of Alex Ovechkin and his (debatable) dirty hit on Brian Campbell. It was label a major and game misconduct by the on-ice officials, which is a fastball down the middle for someone who has been very critical of AO in the past. If you remember, during the Olympics Milbury said the Russians -- of which AO is -- brought their "eurotrash" game. That, being the most recent example of Milbury's playa hatin'.

So maybe this is all an elaborate ruse. Maybe, knowing that we would all yawn and ignore him if he criticized AO since we've come to expect it so much, Milbury pulled a reversal on us and didn't criticize because he knew that would be so unexpected, out-of-left-field and newsworthy that we would blog about it. Maybe, just maybe, I fell for his elaborate ruse. For a guy who tried to make the show all about him when he was GM of the Islanders, I wouldn't put it past him. It's the saying; "I may be dumb but I'm not stupid."

Milbury's dumb as a rock, but maybe he's not as stupid as we think.

And then again, every idiot has a good idea once in a while.

Here's the video. Shield your eyes.

Have you ever watched a Preds game and thought "Boy, I could use a bottle of wine". Nashville heard and misunderstood your lamentations, and is now announcing their 2010 Wine Festival and Tasting! As if to signify the classiness of the event, the entrance is under the "Premium seating awning".

I'm sure you all have questions about such a sophisticated evening. Hopefully, I can answer a few of them.

- What if I don't like wine? Good news! There is a spirits tasting as well! And Budweiser. If you are classy enough to want wine, then surely you will want nothing less than the King of Beers.

- Will we have enough space for all this fun? I sure hope so! It's being held on the floor of the arena!

- I love silent auctions. Are there any at this event, and how would you describe it? Extensive!

- No wine tasting is complete without an anthropomorphic, felt covered feral cat is there. Can we count on one? Of course you can! This is a wine tasting after all!

If they had to designate this the 2010 version of the Festival, that seems to imply there were others. I guess the Predators know what Nashville wants. I would have pegged them as a whiskey city, however.

I love a lot of people in the hockey world. John Tavares. Jeremy Roenick. Barry Melrose. And then there are a few people who grind my gears, one who I don't think has been mentioned much before on the blog -- Chris Pronger. The dislike -- hate is such a strong word -- is mostly based on a long, storied career of dirty elbows. So, for that reason and because it's such a sweet ass deke, here's Patrice Bergeon turning Mr. Pronger into one of the following (your choice):

A) Traffic cone

B) Large, awkward white guy

C) Chris Chelios

D) Any Eddie Murphy character from the last decade

In my other life, I work nights so I've always got a lot of free time during the day. Usually what happens is I wake up and sit with my laptop in front of the TV for an hour or two when I first wake up. I'd always have Sportscenter on during the day, as they have live shows going from, I believe, 10a-3p ET. It's pretty much the sports world's version of a 24-hr news network where anything and everything is combed over with a sledgehammer.

But what was a morning ritual is now one that I haven't taken part in for the last week. And I have no intention of taking part in again. Last Tuesday, for me, was the day that Sportscenter died.

I had watched/left on in the background the morning Sportscenters as they were generally harmless in a way where the hosts know there's not a lot to talk about so it's kind of one big joke unless they're fellating talking about Bretty Favre. It always seems like Hannah Storm and Josh Elliot were in on the joke and having a good time with it.

Then everyone decided that they needed to give a shit about hockey for a day. And I mean everyone; Herman Edwards, Doug freaking Gottlieb, EVERYONE.

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At a press conference held by Brian Burke after the trade deadline has passed. Also, if you haven't seen Idiocracy, you really should..

BRIAN BURKE: Shut up. Shut up. Sit your monkey ass down. Shit, I know shit's bad for the Leafs right now, with all the veteran defenseman bullshit, and with we runnin’ out of draft picks and players who don’t have exploding bones. But I got a solution--
HOWARD BERGER: That's what you said last time, dipshit
DAMIEN COX: I got a solution, you're a dick. Mittenstringers, wasup? (they high five)
BURKE: (pulls out and fires AK-47 into the air, crowd falls silent.) That's what I thought! Now, I understand every Leafs fan’s shit's emotional right now, but listen up: I got a 3 point solution to fix everything!
VOICE: Break it down, Burkie!
BURKE: Number one: we got these guys Ron Wilson, Phil Kessel, and Brian Burke. Number Two, those three combined got more hockey sense than any man alive, And number 3, they's gonna fix everything. I give you my word as General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs. They’re gonna fix the problems with the dead offense. They’re gonna make ‘em score again. And that ain't all…(grabs michrophone) I give you my word (guitar riff) he's gonna fix the goaltending,  too! (Guitar riff) I give you my word (guitar riff) they’re gonna fiiiiiiiix the powerplay. And they’re so smart, he's gonna do it alllllll by 2012!
RON WILSON: (mouths) 2012? Ah, crap.

So, last night after the Islanders beat the Blackhawks 5-3 on the heels of a hat trick from Blake Comeau, NHL.com decided to get a little wacky with their recap. You can check it out here.

UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- Blake Comeau looks an awful lot like Sidney Crosby.

He's suddenly playing an awful lot like him, too.

It's funny because:

A) The idea that one hat trick suddenly turns a 3rd liner on a crappy team into Sid the Kid requires heavy drug use and/or orange and blue colored glasses (For the record, I don't work for NHL.com but I would totally write every recap like this if I did).

B) We all know what Crosby looks like. For those of you who don't know, this is what Blake Comeau looks like.

Well, to be fair, I guess they are both white and Canadian.

The Olympic break is over, and we are in the home stretch on the NHL Season. Dave, LD and myself have a few predictions for the last few weeks:

Dave: Whoever wins it all will have the Carolina Hurricanes to thank.  Doesn't matter if they picked up a pending UFA from them or not - they'll just know who to pay their respects to, damn it.

LD: Personally, I think Brian Burke's still got some wild trades up his sleeves. And also, Twitter will break at least once. Book it.

Enforcer: In the final months of the season, owing to the success of the Olympics, Sidney Crosby and Ovechkin will be required to take all shootout attempts. Doesn't matter who is playing or where they are.

OK, one more surprise predictor

Barry Melrose: Desire for protein will mean more people eat chicken, leading to a chicken sh*t shortage. What will I put on my face to keep me young?!

I have trouble imagining that this indeed our BFFEAEAE John Buccigross' Twitter account (purple sparkle background, John?) but if the news is indeed true, then the rest of sports can you know what.