Another Interesting Draft Story and the NHL Schedule

The NHL released the 06-07 schedule today. The season will kick off on Saturday September 29th with a game between two California rivals, the Stanley Cup winning Ducks and the new-look Kings. Those two teams will also play the next day. The kicker is that both of those games will happen in London. The NHL is trying to spread it's influence, much like the NFL was doing last season, so it should be interesting to see what kind of attendance these two games draw.

You can view the rest of the schedule here: http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app?service=page&page=Schedule.

I posted a draft story about Angelo Esposito a few days ago and now ESPN has posted one about another player. The story is that of Akim Aliu, a 6-3 209 lb power forward from Nigeria who's only been playing hockey for 6 years. Despite his very late start, most players his age have been playing for 12-14 years, he was still ranked by some as a potential first round prospect. However, feuds with his teammates, one dramatic publicized spectacle and a history of drama sunk him to the Blackhawks with the 56th pick overall.

It's always nice to see ESPN covering unique, non-mainstream hockey stories and the story itself is quite interesting. You can read the story here: http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=2932633