FanHouse GeorgeParros

Thanks once again to our friend Dmitry Chesnokov of Sovetsky Sport for passing along yet another translation of an interview from the pages of his newspaper. Today, we have a conversation between Sovetsky's Bay Area correspondent, Mikhail Bykov and San Jose Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov. The following conversation took place immediately following last Thursday night's game between the Sharks and the Ducks in San Jose that the Sharks won, 2-0. Nabokov had the shutout.

Evgeni Nabokov (EN): "Anaheim is a very difficult opponent for us. We have a constant struggle with them. The second goal helped us a lot, after that we secured the victory."

Mikhail Bykov (MB): Before the game I was listening to a radio broadcast where hosts talked said they were expecting lots of fights. Do you and Anaheim players plan them well ahead?

George Parros of the Anaheim Ducks is generally acknowledged to be one of the toughest men in the NHL. But there's one thing that will always stop Parros in his tracks, and that's the sight of San Diego Padres outfielder Brian Giles coming towards him in a baseball locker room.

As it turns out, Parros is old friends with Padres pitcher Chris Young going back to their days together at Princeton. Even though their paths diverged long ago, Young and Parros stay in touch, and Parros has been known to visit the Padres locker room. I'll let Tim Sullivan of the San Diego Union-Tribune take it from here:

Their friendship endures despite their different paths, their nomadic schedules, their distance and the awkward greetings Brian Giles has delivered during Parros' visits to Petco Park and to the Padres' training camp in Peoria, Ariz.

"The best memory I have of George is seeing his face when Brian gave him his naked hug," Young said.

"It's happened every time I go down there," Parros lamented. "I'm going to start going down there in a rubber body suit."

Here's hoping somebody pins this story on the wall of the Ducks locker room.

If yesterday's talk of adding another team in Toronto wasn't wacky enough for you (even though it is feasible), then you were in luck -- things just kept getting wackier in the city. There was only one game going on in Toronto, but the Maple Leafs and Ducks still managed to have a couple Bizarro World-type moments. And I'm not talking about things like "oh the puck took some odd bounces." No, these moments were more along the lines of why sports are so unique. Every time you go to an arena or watch a game on TV, there's the chance you will see something that you have never seen before or at the very least you may view a rare feat. There were a pair of odd plays in this game, the first of which will be second guessed endlessly.

The game was a rare visit to Ontario for the Ducks Formerly Known as Mighty. The teams were tied through overtime and headed to a shootout when Ron Wilson pulled the unorthodox and, to my knowledge, never before tried strategy of putting in his backup for the skills competition. Yup, despite Vesa Toskala stopping 19 of 21 shots he faced during regulation and overtime, Wilson called upon Curtis Joseph to face the Ducks in a shootout. From the moment CuJo stepped on the ice you knew this was going to be one of those coaching moves that could only look good if it worked.

The bad news for Wilson and the Leafs was that his decision worked out about as poorly as it possibly could have.

As I'm sure all of you are aware, this is Hockey Weekend Across America. (Did you remember to wear your favorite jersey to school on Friday?) Here at FanHouse, we were going to commemorate the occasion by celebrating the 15 years the U.S. has successfully kept Lord Stanley's chalice out of the syrup-covered hands of our neighbours to the nord, but we figured some members of the team might object to such blatant jingoism. Much more agreeable: A celebration of blood, fists and fury.

One look at the indispensable HockeyFights.com list of U.S.-born pugilists leaves one feeling ... yeah, I think "underwhelmed" might be the word. All due respect to Chris Tamer and Jim Cummins, there aren't enough "punchers" and more than a few "speed bags." But here they are, in completely debatable order and with little regard for anything that occurred more than 30 years ago: The Top 10 U.S.-Born Fighters in NHL History...

10. Derian Hatcher (Born: Jun 4, 1972 - Sterling Heights, Michigan): He was able to use his size (6-5, 235) and strength in a fight, unleashing some real bombs in a brawl. Check out this tussle with Darren Langdon of the Rangers to see how he handled a fellow heavyweight. Is he a cheap-shot artist? Sure. Did he pick on undersized and weaker opponents? Absolutely ... but is there anything more American than that?

Every week, or as often as I remember, I'll provide you with my poorly thought-out predictions on whose stock is on the rise and whose you should avoid like Enron. It's Buys and Sells. A few teams/players/issues to buy and a few to sell. It's simple stuff, folks. That is, if you could actually buy and sell things like these. Oh, whatever. Never mind.

... And we're back! If I had a dollar for every time I actually remembered to post a weekly feature other than the Ice Sheet, I would have about a dollar right now. This is really, really rare. Let's get to the show. This week, it's a no holds barred, adrenaline packed thrill ride edition of Buys and Sells!! To the extreme!!!

Buy: George Parros' mustache has destructive capabilities. After seeing the fight of the week in which Parros destroyed Philadelphia's Riley Cote, I think we can all agree that it was the mustache that did Cote in. Obviously. So this week, I'm buying the ability of Parros and/or his mustache to destroy another human being in the coming weeks. Let's be clear on one thing, though -- I buying that it will catch on as a fashion trend. Creepy mustaches aren't likely to make a comeback any time soon.

Hard sell: Washington setting their first line on fire as a marketing gimmick. The title of Eric McErlain's post about Eric Fehr got me thinking about potentially the greatest marketing gimmick of all time. It would be the gutsiest, too. What if the Capitals actually set their first line on fire? The sheer spectacle! Now that's extreme hockey, and a reason to finally make use of the overused slogan "fire on ice".

George Parros and the Anaheim Mighty Ducks might be going to the playoffs this year, but that didn't stop D.J. King of the St. Louis Blues from getting the best of George last night:



As always, thanks to Hockey Fights.com for the dirty work.