Hockeybird.com: Alt + 0246

In Windows, while holding down the ALT key press 0246 and these little buggers will show up: ööööööö. There's your Hockeybird special character tip of the day. Now you can write Thomas Pöck the same way all the cool kids do.

Speaking of Pöck, the 22-year old ex-UMass defender who was signed an hour before yesterday's game and scored on a 60-foot wrister in the 3rd period, he was about the only highlight of last night's miserable affair with the Penguins. I liked what I saw. Seems very fast, not afraid to take the body and looked awfully poised for someone who became a professional hockey player about an hour before game time.

Check in with the Rodent first, where he not only uses one lowercase ö during his article, but two of them! Also, his lotteryWatch has the Rangers up to a 60.8% chance of clinching the fifth worst record and thus having an outside chance at drafting Alex Ovechkin, who unfortunately doesn't have any umlauts in his name.

Larry Brooks talks about the same thing this morning. Also, maybe I'm reading into things too much, but I found this quote by Holik very interesting and worrisome at the same time: "I hope that I would never see an attempt by a coach to do something to give my team less of a chance to win," Holik said. "If that would ever happen, that would be the final straw for me."

The final straw? Holik has already commented negatively on the Rangers fire sale, and should they continue to go with a youthful lineup that's not build to contend next season, it seems like Bobby is going to be a royal pain in the ass about things. In which case, I hope he's traded.

Daily News: "When I was driving down with my roommate, I was just joking and I said: 'I'm going to score tonight.' Yeah, right," a grinning Pock said after a fairy-tale day that included making the 3-1/2-hour drive down from Amherst, Mass. Not only can this guy score on 60-foot wrist shots, he's a fortune teller, too!

Star-Ledger: Pock, a native of Klagenfurt, Austria, was never drafted and actually switched from forward to defense at the end of his sophomore year with the Minutemen. I believe Klangenfurt translates into "noisy fart" in English, which would mean Mr. Pöck is from the town of Noisy Fart, Austria, and that's even cooler than being from Moose Jaw! (No one ever said we're above toilet humor here)

Newsday: These are the days of the "Bizarro" Rangers, when they sign a kid defenseman right out of college and put him on the Madison Square Garden ice the same night. Did somebody say... BIZARRO?! (If you've never seen Sealab 2021, you should be ashamed)

Journal News: The whole whirlwind day was a bit surreal for the Austrian, a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award as college hockey's top player. He signed a two-year deal with the Rangers after drawing interest from as many as 20 teams.

a. Plays in the NHL one hour before signing his first contract
b. Scores on 60-foot wrist shots
c. Is a fortune teller
d. Has an umlaut in his name
e. Comes from Noisy Fart, Austria, which is cooler than even Moose Jaw
f. Had as many as 20 teams interested in his services and decided to sign with the Rangers

Pete,

I passed through Klagenfurt on my way from Austria into Italy. It is a border town in the Dolomite mountains. The literal translation from the German for Klagenfurt is "wail" "ford" which would translate as "crying bridge" not "noisy fart".

I live to serve you, RR!

Posted by: mhurley on March 24, 2004 06:13 PM