Your savory breakfast links:
- The latest labor-related news, non-news and assorted whatnot:
- Good news! You can probably go ahead and make those New Year’s Eve plans now without fear of an NHL game getting in the way. [ESPN, TSN]
- Might another owners/players meeting be in the offing? [ESPN]
- Remember that oil spill that dumped five million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico (caused by an explosion that killed 11 men)? This lockout is… worse than that in some way? [Backhand Shelf, CBS]
- … or no one cares, which could be even worse. [Puck Daddy]
- Does the NHL have a winner in court? [Globe and Mail]
- Speaking of courts, one in Sweden confirmed the SEL’s right to ban signing NHLers to short-term contracts during the lockout (sorry, Nick). [National Post]
- Matt Hendricks‘ on a USO Holiday Tour is one of the best things about the lockout. [CSNW]
- Would contraction be a good thing? [Backhand Shelf]
- Other lockout-related thoughts (which are very much worthwhile and some of the most compelling stuff in today’s Clips, despite being lumped together in this uninteresting catch-all bullet). [National Post, THN, mc79hockey, Tom Benjamin, Ottawa Sun, NHL Numbers, Arctic Ice Hockey]
- Alex Ovechkin at minus-38 (and it has nothing to do with his defense). [Alex Ovetjkin, RMNB, and thumbs up for borscht! (Or something)]
- And if Ovi glamour shots are your thing, this is your link. [RMNB]
- Congrats, Michal Neuvirth, you made a year-end top-10 list. [Puck Daddy]
- Stanislav Galiev has been recalled from Reading to Hershey, but this time he’s got some confidence goin’. [Patriot-News (and video), with more Bears notes here]
- Up close and personal with the Bears’ Outdoor Classic sweaters. [SHoE]
- Evgeny Kuznetsov gets his own KHL All-Star Game commercial. Impressive. [RMNB]
- A quick overview of the upcoming World Juniors… [National Post]
- … where Riley Barber may turn some heads. [THN, Hockey Prospectus]
- Bob Sirois is a name known to Caps fans of a certain age and few others… until now. Read up, young ‘uns. [Capitals]
- Happy 39th birthday to Andreas Salomonsson and happy 42nd to Robert Lang.
- Finally, don’t forget to vote (for us) – a vote for The Rink is a vote for hockey. (Feel free to help us out, people whose work we link to all the time…) [WaPo]