After this morning - with Diamond breaking my crystal vase followed by what I consider to be a time wasting staff meeting, all I really want to do is go home and hide out.

You know...it's just one of those days. Besides I really want to unload about the staff meeting, however...

I have tickets to tonight's Florida Everblades game against the Gwinnett Gladiators. Erf...

In minor league hockey, a Valentine's Day game usually means something unusual. In this case, they're wearing special jerseys which will be auctioned off afterwards to benefit the Heart Association.

My initial thought was green and pink -- ugh -- but I saw the draft and they actually don't look too hideous, nor do they look terribly Christmasy, which was my other concern.

I did ask Sean if he had special music lined up for the game and he said "Yeah, I guess I need to do that." Jeez, I can just imagine it will be a lack-luster effort, but that's part of the problem the Blades have been having. Lack up updated effort.

Swampee comes out, skates around before the start of the game with an American Flag. Then he throws T-Shirts to the crowd. Then we introduce the team and sing the national anthem. Then....it goes on and on.

I had gone to a Valentine's Day game in 2001, the Florida Panthers vs. the Phoenix Coyotes, a game I remember fondly, not because the Yotes won. They didn't, they lost 4-3. But more because they did play Valentine's day music and make an effort at working it into the holiday.

Travis Green had gone to the box at one point, to the tune of "Lonely...I'm Mister Lonely...I have nobody...to call my own..." When he realized they had him on the Jumbotron, he looked up, got a shit eating grin on his face and waggled his eyebrows. It was HYSTERICAL!

Pavel Bure scored a hat trick - something which he seemed to do every time I showed up for game. Unfortunately, I wasn't going to enough games that season, and so he wasn't scoring enough hat tricks, make it worth the Panthers while.

Kevyn Adams had the game winning goal. The problem I had, was that Brad May had the hook on him, and he didn't take it.

"You should have set the hook," I told him after the game. Sunrise doesn't like the fans to hang out after the game, but he likes to talk to his fans, and knew I was there, so we waited back the fence to the loading dock and he came out. I knew he would. He was, if nothing else, happy to see me.

"I would have gotten thrown in the penalty box."

"Like you've never been in one before?"

"Coach would have gotten mad. They would have given him a penalty shot."

"Esche would have stopped it." Goalies always have the advantage on penalty shots and shoot outs.

"But what if he didn't?"

"Then you would have lost, which you did anyway. At least this way, you would have had a chance to preserve the tie!"

Never argue hockey with a hockey player.

After missing most of the season following reconstructive shoulder surgery, May returned to the Colorado line up in time for the 6-3 loss to Atlanta Thursday, a game in which he was -1 with four shots on goal and four penalty minutes.

He did have an assist Sunday against the Dallas Stars (another loss) and was pretty much a non-factor in last night's win over the (no longer Mighty) Ducks.

I know that many of the Colorado fans still have a problem with him, but he really is a great guy to meet on a one-to-one level.

As for the Blades, I will have pictures up, hopefully by this weekend. The shots from Friday night's game against the Ice Pilots are available here. After tonight, Florida is off for three games on the road. While I'm going to the mid-week games for the next two weeks, this is pretty much going to be my last "free" weekend, as Spring Training starts and next weekend, I'll be down at the ballpark, having a look around.

We're also getting into a work crunch where I'll have to start putting in Saturday time as well as tax season is really starting to kick into gear. Ah well, I need the money. No rest for the weary and all of that. I wouldn't mind it so much if we weren't spending time in time wasting staff meetings!

Former Tallahassee Tiger Shark center Ben Guite was called up to the Colorado Avalanche yesterday. He played 68 games with the ECHL Tiger Sharks in the 2000-01 season, the Sharks final season before the relocation to Macon.

After spending last season with the Bruins organization, the 28-year old native of Montreal, Quebec, signed as a free agent with the Avalanche in July.

Guite played one game with the NHL Bruins last season. He has spent most of his career in the AHL, playing with Bridgeport, Cincinnati and Providence.

Currently ranking second in scoring with the Albany River Rats, Guite has 25 points (8 g, 17 a) in 33 games played. He has registered points in 12 of his last 13 games, and ran his career-best point streak to 8 games in December.

Guite played four season with the University of Maine, including winning a Frozen Four championship in 1999 with the team. He served as an assistant captain last year win Providence and has been serving as co-captain this season on the Rats with former Everblade Keith Aucoin on call ups to Carolina.

In a related move, the Avalanche reassigned forward Brad Richardson to Albany. Richardson had 9 points (5 g, 4a) in 36 games with Colorado this season.

The Avalanche take on Tampa Bay at the Pepsi Center tomorrow night. Colorado is fourth (19-18-2, 40 points) in the Northwest Division while Tampa Bay is fourth (18-20-2, 38 points) in the Southeast Division. Colorado broke a three-game losing streak Monday with a 5-3 win on the road over the Nashville Predators.

In moves elsewhere, the Phoenix Coyotes acquired 23-year-old centerman Alexei Kaigorodov from the Ottawa Senators in exchange for Mike Comrie. Ottawa's second choice (47th overall) in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft, Kaigorodov made his NHL debut on October 14. He has 1 assists in six games with the Sens this season. He appeared in 12 games with Magnitogorski, in Russia earlier this season, netting 5 points (1g, 4a).

Comrie had 20 points (7g, 13a) in 24 games with the Coyotes this season. He was one of several unrestricted free agents (along with Ladislav Nagy and Shane Doan) that the Coyotes were considering trades on following the lifting of the holiday roster freeze.

Meanwhile the ECHL Florida Everblades traded defenseman Niko Tuomi to the Pensacola Ice Pilots for forward Adam Taylor. Taylor, a Florida Panthers prospect is on his third ECHL team this season, having been traded from the Victoria Salmon Kings to Pensacola earlier in the year.

“Adam is a player that will make an immediate impact on our club.” Everblades head coach Gerry Fleming said in a press release. “He's a solid player that we feel will contribute right away for us. At the same time it was tough having to move Niko. He’s a good player that played hard every night and we wish him nothing but the best.”

“Adam was somebody we tried to sign at the beginning of the year but we couldn't work something out with Victoria. I think his heart was not with Victoria or Pensacola so the Ice Pilots agreed to trade his rights,” said team president Craig Brush in a Naples Daily News article. The Everblades are the Panthers ECHL affiliate, so the move makes good sense for Taylor, who will now be working within the Panthers developmental program.

The Everblades loaned defenseman Chris Lee to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers of the AHL, and received forward Jonathan Lehun from Rochester. He'd been called up to the Americans over the Christmas break.

From http://www.ssur.org/:

"When Toronto's new jersey is unveiled next month at the NHL All-Star Game in Dallas, expect to see something that looks essentially the same as the current version, save for one important detail: the maple leaf logo. The hallowed maple leaf has apparently been altered, having a 'different silhouette,' according to a team executive. The change represents a 'modernization' of the logo rather than a dramatic redesign."

It should be noted that ALL the teams will be getting a bit of a make over, not just the Leafs. The Arizona Republic reported that the Coyotes uniforms would "lose the three stripes that encircle the bottom of their sweaters, and possibly even the stripes on their socks."

Look for the new "streamlined" uniforms, which were designed by Reebok, to preview at the All-Star game in Dallas. They feature increased flexibility and are less bulky than what players have traditionally worn for years.

Both the East Valley Tribune and the Arizona Republic are featuring articles today on the impending retirement of Jeremy Roenick.

"End of the (NHL) year, absolutely (I'll retire)," Roenick is quoted as saying in the Tribune.

The question may be more if Roenick makes it to the end of the year. Roenick left Tuesday's game at the General Motors Place early after learning he was scratched from the line up due to back spasms.

While there is no NHL rule to prohibit a player from leaving early, there is a non-written Wayne Gretzky rule to that effect. Roenick says he was unaware of such a thing.

He also says news of the so called blow up is overstated.

"I was there, I was ready to play and I wished all my guys luck," Roenick said in today's Arizona Republic. "I was in the locker room with them. I said, 'Let's go, let's get 'em'...I was a rah-rah again, like I've been all year. I don't think people should chastise me because I went to have dinner...It bothers me how the media is trying to create a stir or a controversy over nothing."

Evidently, it's not "nothing" at least to Gretzky, who will hold him out of tonight's game in favor of Mike Recci.

"I think reality is (Tuesday) night he made a mistake," said Gretzky said in the Tribune.

"I'm not disappointed with him because J.R. is a very emotional young man, and he's a good person, but what he did last night wasn't right."

Gretzky also felt he was justified in scratching the 36 year old Roenick who barely made it through Monday night's game. Roenick has had only 1 goal and 5 assists on the season, and is currently a -9.

Roenick said with the exception of his production and with the team's record, he's been happy with his performance this season and has no plans to retire in the middle of the year. Gretzky has stated he will not nudge Roenick towards retirement like he did with Brett Hull last seeason.

"I'm never going to tell him to do anything (regarding his career)," Gretzky said in the Tribune. "I have too much respect for what he's done for the game and how much he loves the game."

A number of fans have felt that Gretzky is out of line in regards to Roenick and call this just another misadventure of the coach. They feel that Roenick is the team's heart and soul.

This is in direct contrast to the many fans who felt he was out of line with his "Don't come to game" comment following the lock out season.

"Don't come. We don't want you in the rink. We don't want you in the stadium. We don't want you to watch hockey. Period."

Roenick later recanted the statement, saying his comments were taken out of context. But Roenick evidently buys into his own quote, as he didn't stay around for the game.

It is any wonder the 'Yotes were flat on Tuesday when the team's heart and soul was out to dinner?