Bit of a story about a former Panther prospect (9th round of the 1995 NHL Entry Draft) named David Lemanowicz and a teammate of his by the name of Savo Mitrovic.

I hadn't heard from "Manny" in a while, but I saw his name earlier this year on the transaction wires as being signed by the Laredo Bucks of the CHL. Evidently he'd played as a Leafs prospect - kind of, sort of - the year before for the Memphis RiverKings.

He did retire for five years during which time he attended the University of Toronto, and then was working as a practice goalie for the Leafs who "discovered" him and signed him for Memphis. Well, in any case, as a prospect for the Cats, he was never one of the highly thought of ones. I was actually surprised to see him sign with Laredo, doubley surprised to find he's still there and doing well.

Savo is a center who was born in Yugoslavia, but who played his juniors at the University of New Hampshire. I'm not sure about the whole story there, although I'm sure it's an interesting one, to say the least. Mitro also played for the old ECHL Greensboro Monarchs, and the Colonial Hockey League Detroit Falcons who later became the Port Huron Border Cats.

This story dates back to the 1996-97 season.

Lemanowicz had been sent down by the AHL Carolina Monarchs to Port Huron. A game between the Cats and the Generals in Flint Michigan got a little out of hand. Flint's known for having a tough crowd anyway, but some guy managed to scale the glass and get into the mix during what has essentially a bench clearing brawl.

Anyway, the guy ends up in front of Mitro and so, Savo punches him. Mitro got suspended for several games for it, as did Manny, who got tired of being pelted by trash and started throwing it back up into the stands. The guy who jumped down onto the ice got made an honorary General.

(Told you it was a tough crowd!)

Savo's excuse for his behavior: "He landed between me and my goalie. Who knew what he had in his hands?"

It's still one of my favorite quotes.

Mitro last played with the Odessa Jackalopes in the 1999-2000 season.

I kind of lost track of Manny after he was cut in training camp by the Idaho Steelheads. I honestly though I'd never see him re-surface again!

An odd side note to the above story: I was talking to my friend Ann in Flint. She related that the guy that went over the glass is now in jail for murder. Evidently he killed his girlfriend because she got pregnant. They gave him life. The man has some serious, major anger issues.

Sports agents sort of strike me as a cross between attorneys and horse traders. You have to know a little of both to be successful. Not that they are bad people. Well, some of them.

Rich Winters is likely the worst, but he does have some of the biggest names in the business.

Rick Langnas is pretty nice, and I do really like Kevin's agent, Tony. Although I think Tony gave him some bad advice in regards to his contract negotiations with the Florida Panthers.

Not that I would ever tell either of them this. Despite my personal feelings for the situation, I never said anything that wasn't 100% behind their decision.

Maybe in the end it worked out for the best. At least, that year, Kevin spent most of the time in the IHL with the Vipers until he got traded to Vancouver. The Vipers goalie went down just before their playoff series with the Solar Bears. That was the year that Cully got called up to Orlando for the Post Season, although he barely played.

But I followed the Solar Bears that whole season.

Kevin had been netting shut out after shut out with the Vipers earlier and when they lost their goalie, they tried to get him back from the Cannucks. Vancouver said no. A bunch of people on the Solar Bears list were ready to buy Vancouver jerseys, just for that! The Vips went with Lamothe in net and lost in round 3 and the Solar Bears went on to be eventually downed by the Houston Aeros.

I honestly do not remember meeting Kevin. Sometimes it seems like I always knew him, but I recall it was sometime during the 1996-97 season when he was with the old AHL Carolina Monarchs. In any case, I'd had a message for him from his Pee Wee coach, and since he refuses to have a computer, I went and delivered it. Don't even remember what it was about now.

Anyway, I waited for him after practice and he finally wandered out...

This is something else that bothers me about my favorite players. Why do I always have to pick the last ones out the locker room? Pete (Hogan) was terrible about that as is Brad, my friend in Phoenix.

In any case...he finally came out and came right on over to see me. He always does. I delivered the message and he was just all smiles and laughing. He introduced me to the guy he'd come out with.

"This is my agent, Tony. Tell him what you just told me."

So I repeated the message to Tony as Kevin went off to sign autographs.

I like to believe that someday, Mullethead will be as important to a youngster who makes the NHL as Kevin's Pee Wee Coach is to him. Who knows? Maybe twenty years from now I'll be passing on messages to one of his former students who'll be happy to hear from him.)

The repartition of the message lead to a conversation about how I'd come to know Kevin, which lead to Tony looking through my photo album which in turn lead to a conversation about masks.

Kevin insists he got into goaltending because he loves the equipment, but in trying to talk equipment with him, he gets really vague on the subject. His folks said it was because he was adamant about playing hockey but he was such a small fellow that he got put into net so he wouldn't get run over and hurt.

In any case, he averages at least two masks a year.

"I don't know what he does with them all!" Tony told me.

I laughed and suggested his folks have a basement on their home in Scarborough and all the old masks are stored on shelves. I also told him my favorite was the "Raging Lion" design he'd had for part of the second year in AHL Carolina. That's also where he latched onto his current mask maker, Masked Expressions, which is also the designer for most of the NHL Carolina helmets.

I should ask his mom sometime, as he sure as hell won't tell me.

So we ended up discussing helmets and Kevin finally came back over to collect Tony.

Tony looks at me and says "Tell him what you just told me."

Slight segue: There was a guy on the radio yesterday who had wrote a book on meeting Mr. or Mrs. Right and he insists the key to it all it talking.

Women, he says hold all the power in this and the best way to meet a guy is to stop thinking about them as guys and start thinking about them as Golden Retrievers. Golden Retrievers are easy to attract.

You cruise down the cereal aisle in the Publix, he said, because cereal is the favorite food of all men. It requires them to add just one ingredient, milk. So while your prospective Mr. Right is picking up a box of cereal, you pick up another one, make eye contact and start a conversation. Talking about cereal is great. In any case, you should end the conversation with "It was really nice talking to you" and hint at getting is phone number.

He said it works. He then went off to say that the Golden Retriever will go off to his car and immediately (it doesn't matter if he only has one minute left on this calling plan, he'll pay over for this) call the rest of the Golden Retrievers in his litter to tell them all about this "hot babe" he picked up at the Publix.

(Somehow, I do not think it will work for me, as it would be a real stretch of the imagination for anyone -- even a Golden Retriever -- to classify me as a hot babe.)

But now, I'm wondering if the pound puppies in question here actually speak to each other directly when they are alone together. One assumes they do and that they do not need a female along to interpret for them. Then again, maybe that's why Kevin got such bad advice from Tony. There wasn’t a girl around to act as a go between.

Anyway, we went back through the helmet conversation. I suggested one with a profile of Mike Jordan going up for a dunk with the slogan "I want to be like Mike!" It was popular at the time and Jordan is his favorite athlete. He thought about it. I then suggested a "cheesy" (Cheetos) theme and he quickly killed that. His nickname is "Cheesy" which comes from the days of his being a youngster and coming into the rink each day with a bag of "cheesies" (Cheetos) and a soda. He'd ask for tips from the older goalies, who ended up dubbing him "Cheesy".

He hates that nickname.

I'll never let him live it down.

:)

I'm glad he's back in Carolina and is now a Hurricane. I'm really looking forward to seeing him a Canes Camp in the fall.