A Swedish Trick or Treat

What a strange day Halloween can be as for a Swedish newspaper decided Sunday was a good day for a trick but there was no treat in the end for the paper. For me it gave me a pretty good laugh in the end when I watched how the story made the rounds.

By now you have all read/heard the false rumor about Mats Zuccarello wanting out of Hartford. In a way the only thing about this story is how a simple tweet can turn the Ranger universe upside down.

It started about 3AM PDT when someone named TheZwede tweeted this: From a Swedish newspaper. Zuccarello close to sign with Modo. Will leave Hartford.

It lead to exchange between the two of us where I asked him for a link to the article which he gave me. It is amazing how despite warning people that the rumor was not very credible that it ran wild.

After translating it, I passed it on to Bruce Berlet who covers Hartford and Jesse Spector of the Daily News since it was late for me with the same warning. I went to bed at 4:30 since I kind of figured the story was bogus (Glen Sather saying "Sure if he is wants to go just ask" has about as much happening as I do replacing Sather)

It did not take long for Bruce to get the expected dismissal out of Jim Schoenfeld but by then the tweet had made it's rounds so course as fast as the rumor makes it's rounds in the blogsphere, the dismissal takes takes as long to finally end the story.

Amazing stuff Twitter and the Blogsphere can be I like my Halloween with costumes and candy.

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Prospect Action

It was a pretty good day for the 2 prospects who saw action on Sunday as both were as they have been major impact players for their respective teams. Ryan Bourque of the New York Rangers and Casey Cizikas of the New York Islanders have been solid performers since day one and both had impacts in their team's wins.

Ryan Bourque (2009 3rd) scored the game's tying goal at 13:32 of the 3rd period as his Quebec Remparts scored in overtime to defeat the Baie-Comeau Drakkar 3-2. It was Bourque's 5th goal of the season as well as 12th point of the season in just 9 games.

Bourque also earned his 3rd "First Star of the Game" for the season which is very impressive given just playing in 9 games.

Bourque and his Rempart continue to have the best record of all the teams in the 3 CHL leagues with 15-1-0-1 thanks to the best defense in the CHL giving up just 36 goals in 17 games.

Bourque and his Remparts are looking for a chance to visit the Hershey Centre for a shot at the Memorial Cup. The Hershey Centre just so happens to be the home of Casey Cizikas (2009 4th) and his Mississauga St. Micheal's Majors who as hosts of the Memorial Cup are already guaranteed a spot in the championships.

That is not stopping Cizikas from wanting to enter the Memorial Cup as OHL champions as Cizikas with a goal and a assist led a 3 goal third period outburst to come from behind to defeat the Sudbury Wolves 7-5.

Cizikas set up Justin Shugg 21 seconds into the 2nd period on the Major's 2nd goal of the game. In the third period with the Majors holding on to a 6-5 lead; Cizikas took a feed from former Ranger prospect Chris Doyle to score his 9th goal of the season on the power play at 18:09 of the 3rd period.

Cizikas leads the Islander prospects with a 9-5-14 +9 on the season and we will be surprised if Cizikas is not also a member of Team Canada when they name their World Under-20 Championship team.

(Images: Bourque/Katherine Ep, Cizikas/Aaron Bell/OHL Images)