Wow, today was wild.  In case you live under a puck, there were two major trades today in the N.H.L.  First, the Oilers gave Taylor Hall to the Devils for Adam Larsson in what many are calling the most lopsided player swap in the history of the league.  Remind me to never deal with Ray Shero, ever, ever, ever.  Excited for the Devils, they're getting one of the best left wingers in the game and their back end is still pretty solid.  Gonna be fun to see Hall reunited with Adam Henrique.

And this wasn't even the biggest deal of the day.

The Canadians dumped P.K. Subban to the Predators for Shea Weber.  I say 'dumped' because they obviously wanted to get rid of P.K. the person, not the player.  Why else would you trade a league top 3 defenseman for another super star defenseman who is on the bottom half of the top 10 D-men in the league?  The swap is, at it's base, a flip of 2 super star athletes.  I love Weber but Subban is just better overall.  The fans are going to love him in Nashville.  Just another head scratcher.

What else is on the horizon this off season?

Oh yeah, in other news, Stamkos took a smaller deal to stay in Tampa Bay was the least surprising deal of the day.  Because of taxes, he'll probably make the same as if he took a bigger deal somewhere else but you've got to think that part of it really is that Stammer wants to finish business in Tampa and bring those fans a Cup.  Love that guy.

Hey, we jumped on the Pinterest craze.  Is it still a craze?  I have no idea.  We're still trying to figure it out.  Us hockey players are slow that way.  If you hadn't noticed, you can pin stuff on this site, so we figured only fair to get an account and check the Pinterest world out.  You can go to our page at www.pinterest.com/wolfandcrown and follow us, even harass us.  Also, make sure you pin some of your favorite Wolf and Crown swag.  Anyone want to direct us to the cool hockey boards?

Yesterday, we lost another Legend, Mr. Hockey himself, Gordie Howe.  He lived 88 years and did a lot of damage in that time.  Gordie was a beast of a player.  He could play the game any way you wanted to play it and still beat you.  Everyone else has listed off his amazing stats and achievements but to me that was all made possible by his ability to adapt.  He could do it all:  shoot, pass, defend, hit, fight, and lead.  Howe was ambidextrous, shooting from the left or right side.  Why put a curve on your stick when you can do that?  Goalies and defenders never knew what to think.  The Man played with no cartilage in his knees for 32 years!!!  

He was a warrior and a gentleman.  This Guy knew he was the best player and he still knew humility.  Wayne Gretzky grew up idolizing him and people say that the greatest thing Howe taught Gretzky during their relationship was humility.  Gretz himself, says that Howe is the greatest hockey player of all time.  How can you argue with they guy who most people believe to be the greatest?

Grit, determination and the will to win.  This is what I think of, when I think of Mr. Hockey.  To me, those three things are at the very heart of hockey, so it's not to far fetched to say that Howe is hockey, not just Mr. Hockey, but hockey itself.

Any way you call it, we're gonna miss you Gordie, rest easy.  Thanks for everything!