When is an NHL Organization not an "Organization"?

On Monday's Hockey Central, panelist Nick Kypreos made a very observant comment. The Hockey Central panel was discussing the sad state of affairs of the Leafs (I know, big surprise that they were talking about the Leafs). Anyway, his comment was that under John Ferguson, the Leafs have largely ignored developing their depth through the farm. Case and point was the acquisition of Dominic Moore off of waivers from Minnesota.

Kypreos explained that farm players (and he was one of them) "play their head off" when the big club goes through rough patches. The idea here is that if they play out of their mind, they could get the nod to come up to the big club. So, the question is asked, do the Leafs think that poorly of their depth with the Marlies that they bring in a Dominic Moore, a career fourth line checker at best? Kypreos explained that its like a punch in the gut, and can really bring a prospect down.

Contrast this with Darryl Sutter and his comments about Quad Cities. He recently said that there are at least 5 of them (on the farm team) that could play at the NHL level right now. Naturally when asked to identify these five, he passed, not wanting to heap any extra pressure on these lads. Sutter always has a steady-eye on the farm. He successfully cultivated David Moss, Eric Nystrom, and Dustin Boyd, and has others like Cam Cunning, David Van Der Gulik, and Adam Pardy waiting to become household names in Calgary.

Two franchises, one sinking like a stone, the other is not.

I heard these two comments, and they almost seemed related.

MacWorld's Overlooked Goodie

For the first time in quite awhile, I had absolutely no vested interest in Steve Jobs' MacWorld Keynote. I have a brand new iMac. I have the iPod Touch, which I'm happy with. I don't need or want an iPhone. I'm just a happy, contented person.

Nevertheless, I still tuned in for the Keynote. Like most Mac owners, I get a kick out of the Steve Jobs "Reality Distortion Field", which is a real, honest-to-goodness phenomenon. Google it. Check it out.

The ultra-thin notebook was kind of cute, useless for me, but still cute. My brow was raised with the announcement of the new iPod Touch apps, making it even more like an iPhone. The iTunes movie rental service seemed ground-breaking, like Apple wanted to nudge the movie industry in a particular direction, emphasizing it with the Apple TV Take 2 device.

But there was one announcement/introduction that was made that I thought was really really cool, but is getting lost in the noise of those previously mentioned announcements: The Time Capsule.

I can understand why its getting overlooked somewhat, but not to the degree that it's currently glossed over. Think about what this device does!

(1) A network file server
(2) A wireless "N" router
(3) A network printer server
(4) An automated back-up device
(4) All of the above in a compact li'l unit

I like the idea of tucking this thing away somewhere discreet along with my printer, and getting the power of an N router. This is one product that I'll give serious consideration to buying. But as I think about it more and more, the tech media will continue to ignore it. Quite a shame, that. I think there's more people out there like me that could do with a nifty device like this.

But that's just me.