FanHouse PavelBure

On Tuesday, the NHL Hall of Fame will announce its class of 2009 and it's pretty much assumed -- and for good reason -- that Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull and Brian Leetch will be getting their calls for enshrinement in Toronto. Easy choices, all of them.

As Brian Costello of The Hockey News points out, the fourth spot is going to create plenty of debate with such players as Luc Robitaille, Alexander Mogilny, Dave Andreychuk, and Doug Gilmour, among others, also eligible. And let's not forget about The Russian Rocket, Pavel Bure.

A crucial offseason, possibly the most significant in franchise history, is underway for the Minnesota Wild. Head coach Jacques Lemaire and general manager Doug Risebrough, the only people to ever hold those positions for the Wild, are both gone.

The process of finding a new general manager took precedent for owner Craig Leipold, and he made sure to take his time and get things right. After a series of interviews, and a list of candidates that included high-profile broadcaster Pierre McGuire, Leipold has settled on a front-office veteran with a track record of helping build winning teams.

There was a time when my favorite sport was, without hesitation, baseball. Recently, however, my interest in the game has been lost. Not because of a steroid scandal or the incompetence of Bud Selig, but mostly because the team I grew up cheering for, the Pittsburgh Pirates, has been a Major League Baseball team in name only and is currently working on its 17th consecutive losing season with no end in sight.

You might argue that makes me a fair-weather fan, but I disagree. My interest is so low that if, by some perfect storm -- like the rest of the National League halting operations and disbanding from the league -- the Pirates actually won something, I still probably wouldn't care as much as I should. I just don't care about baseball anymore, but I certainly don't begrudge those who still do. It's still a great game, even if my interest is at an all-time low.

After being stuck on 49 goals for two whole games, Alex Ovechkin became the first -- and perhaps only -- player to hit the 50-goal plateau this season, beating Tampa Bay's Mike McKenna midway through the first period of Washington's 5-2 win. And then he celebrated as only Ovechkin can.

The last time the Florida Panthers qualified for the postseason, Pavel Bure was the best goal-scorer in the league, Alex Rodriguez was still clean and pure, Sidney Crosby was 12 years old, and Britney Spears' Baby One More Time was a No. 1 album. What a strange time that was. I bet gas only cost a buck, too.

Needless to say, it's been a long time since the Panthers and playoff hockey were mentioned in the same sentence. Despite this, Florida management is evidently quite confident in its ability to break a nine-year playoff drought, and it's even willing to put its money where its mouth is.

At last check, we were told that singer Enrique Iglesias had no plans of marrying Anna Kournikova, nor ever having kids with her. Shortly thereafter, we told you that the couple's relationship might be over. Now there are rumors that the two might be engaged:

ENRIQUE IGLESIAS has sparked rumours he has proposed to long-term girlfriend ANNA KOURNIKOVA, after the tennis ace was spotted wearing a $6 million (£3 million) engagement ring.

The singer has previously refused to confirm the couple is engaged, but the sportswoman was photographed in London wearing a diamond on her left hand on Tuesday.

Hey, wearing an engagement ring isn't necessarily the end, but it's not good for us men out there. Sure, I'm disappointed, but there have been reports of relationships, engagements, and marriages to hockey players Pavel Bure and Sergei Federov before. I think there's a chance this might not be the end for Anna Kournikova (fingers crossed).
Sorry, No Photos

Yellowcard, one of those pop/punk bands that MTV plays in between rap videos, performed live at the NHL Entry Draft in Columbus last weekend, which probably means that the Barenaked Ladies and Five for Fighting had a scheduling conflict. Gotta hand it to the NHL, however: It seems like the league's learned a thing or two about what its audience likes to listen to since it had Jewel stink up perform at the 2002 All-Star Game.

The bass player for Yellowcard, Ryan Mendez, is the band's lone hockey nut; born in Detroit, he's a huge Red Wings fan. So huge, in fact, that he took time from his limited stage banter during the concert to verbally take down a Colorado fan in the crowd, according to Christy Hammond of Behind the Jersey:

Toward the later half of the concert, a Colorado Avalanche fan made his way through the crowd holding a sign reading "RED WINGS SUCK" with a bunch of photographs glued on. After seeing that sign, the lead singer tells Ryan to look at that sign. Ryan, who hadn't said a word all concert, steps up to the microphone and says something like this...

Hey "Red Wings Sucks" guy, how did your Avs do in the playoffs? 2nd round? Oh, that's right. They didn't even make the playoffs.

If shouting down an Avs fan wasn't endearing enough, Mendez also told the Blue Jackets' Web site that his passion for hockey was also fueled by playing EA Sports' NHL 93 on Super Nintendo, mentioning Pavel Bure, Teemu Selanne and Brett Hull as some of his favorite players (although leaving out Jeremy Roenick, who I believe at the time was like the Bo Jackson of NHL video games thanks to his breakaway deke).