Hitting The Links: Heat Wave Edition

Happy Thursday everyone. It's really freaking hot out.

If you missed it earlier, make sure you scroll down on this page to the fanshot that Cornelius posted; there's a DVD watch party at the Fours tomorrow that everyone should check out. Seriously. I hear they have audio and everything. Cool story.

After the jump, B-rated (but really A- or C-rated, depending on who you talk to) defenseman Johnny Boychuk is in Hawaii, Nathan Horton's parade was little and adorable, a couple of people retired, and NHL 12 looks sexy.

• Jared Knight and Ryan Spooner signed with the Bruins yesterday. Here, Knight talks to his hometown paper about the deal. [Enquirer]
• Johnny Boychuk is in Hawaii and is super pumped to do something that has to do with racecars. Sorry, I know nothing about Nascar but everything about this is hilarious. [Sun]
• Andrew Ference has tattoos. Joe Corvo also has tattoos. Therefore, by Ference logic, they shall be besties. (Pouliot is another story.) [WEEI]
• Suddenly everyone is talking about Tim Thomas doing yoga again, despite this video being from like 2008 or something. I'm not really sure why this is newsworthy, since I'm pretty sure everyone knew about it? But hey, whatever, the video's pretty funny. Worth a rewatch if you've got nothing else to do. [PHT]
• Here is a video of the parade in Dunnville over the weekend. One of the related links is Nathan Horton giving a little speech after the parade ends. Aw. [Youtube]
• And here is video of the Cup arriving in Europe. Apparently Tomas Kaberle and David Krejci are basically doing a two-day victory tour of the Czech Republic together. [WEEI]

NHL news:

• LOLime...excuse me, renowned NHL goaltender Patrick Lalime retired yesterday. He'll be an analyst somewhere, apparently. Ottawa doesn't hesitate to give him a good verbal kick on his way out. [Citizen]
• Some dudes signed contracts yesterday, namely Teddy Purcell and Lauri Korpikoski. Apparently Korpikoski signed mere minutes before his arbitration hearing was supposed to start. Also the Blackhawks said 'so long and thanks for all the....whatever it is you did here' to Chris Campoli. [USA Today]
• You know who didn't sign yesterday? Shea Weber. [DNJ]
• There are still free agents available, apparently. [NHL]
• NHL 12 looks awesome. Although Be A Pro mode won't be complete, to me, until you can start out in juniors (OR COLLEGE) and get drafted based on your skills at that level. More depth, EA! [PHT]

Non-hockey link of the day:

Remember the first time you saw Yao Ming step onto the court? I do. I remember watching him get drafted. I don't care about basketball, and it was still one of the cooler things I remember watching in high school. The big man retired yesterday. All the best to him - I'll always remember how smiley he was. [Reuters]