I Can't Believe It's Not Blogger - The Answers

On Wednesday, I collected ten quotes from around the hockey internet. Your job was to determine if a quote came from the MSM, or if it came from somewhere else completely. If you guessed "A" for a quote, you guessed the quote came from a paid member of media. If you guessed "B", your guess was for anywhere but a media person. It could be a player, a fan, a blogger...anybody else.

The answers are here! Let's see how you did.

1. "Would Crosby be willing or able to check his ego at the door so Toews could captain Team Canada in Sochi?"

This was Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun. Thumbs up if you picked letter "A".

2. "Lu won the gold medal three years ago — better said, he didn't lose the gold medal..."

This was "Ringo" Joe Starkey for the Pittsburgh Tribune in an article defending Marc Andre Fleury's (of all people) dreadful performance(s) over the past few years. "At least you can pencil Fleury in for 35 wins" was the backup quote here, because we all know that you can determine the quality of a goaltender by a quick and dirty look at a win column. If you chose "A", you win again. (If you're a masochist, there are some choice facebook comments at the bottom of that article. Enter at your own risk.)

3. "If Crawford keeps playing at the level he did last year, it'll be a steal as the cap rises. He's 28, though"

This is Mark Lazerus, a beat writer for the Blackhawks. I've got nothing against Crawford, but I don't see how he lives up to that salary unless he plays lights out for the duration of that deal. Then again, maybe $6M is 2018's "value buy". Letter A, go forth.

4. "The Oilers went through the garbage to find Linus Omark; tell me again how Ales Hemsky isn't valuable to the 2014 Edm Oilers?"

A compliment sandwich rolled neatly into one tweet. But who made this concoction? Matty? Stauffer? Nope. This is Twitter user Dennis King. This one was intended to be tricky. Choose B.

5. "May be a red flag that @43_Kadri has been sounding off in the media over his contracts talks; may suggest lack of maturity"

Nazem Kadri is a bad person and should be forced to work at Sobeys for $9 an hour sweeping deli shavings until he can prove his worth, the ungrateful coot. Who does he think he is, Tyler Bozak or David Clarkson? This is from Eric Macramalla of TSN. Vote A.

6. "RNH buzzing and ripping wristshots in skate with Oil guys. Shoulder surgery looks like it worked"

Didn't think we were going to get through this without a quote from Jim Matheson, did you? Come to think of it, Matheson said something I agree with (!), so we'll just rack up an "A" here and move on.

7. "Backing off the "time to move on" scenario MacT painted for Horcoff and Hemsky not long ago tells me there was zero market for No. 83."

Robin Brownlee said this, further reinforcing the belief that media guys think Hemsky is a pile of oily rags. Robin Brownlee also told me to "do my own homework" when I asked him how Tom Gilbert was overrated. In other news, Jim Matheson suggests that Gilbert should have NHL work by now. No, really. Anyways, another 'A'.

8. "Gee, Ales Hemsky didn't say "I can't tell you how disappointed I am that Craig didn't get me out of this town."

The Sun's Terry Jones, everybody. 'A' for you.

9. "...And Hall not making Team Canada...Really....C'Mon Man!"

ESPN's Michael Irvin 630 CHED analyst and Oilers employee Bob Stauffer. Choose A. C'mon, man.

10. "if Hemsky can accept a 3rd line role & the Oilers get him some help, he should produce but those are two pretty big ifs."

Rob Soria of The Oil Drop and I have gone back and forth on Hemsky no less than a thousand times. I don't see how Hemsky doesn't do the same thing he's done over and over the past decade, and that's do his job and keep quiet about it. Rob and I will probably argue Hemsky's effectiveness for another decade after 83 hangs them up. This one is letter B.

THE RECAP

1) A, 2) A, 3) A, 4) B, 5) A, 6) A, 7) A, 8)A, 9) A, 10) B

More A in this one than I originally expected. We'll get the blender going next time.