Hitting The Links: Oh No, Pop Culture Has Discovered Hockey! Edition

Yes, it's true - with the Sean Avery case making news in Hollywood and Hilary Duff marrying Mike Comrie, hockey has finally pervaded pop culture and it's weird. I heard Comrie's name on non-sports radio in Boston last night. It really threw me off. (the DJ referenced those awkward pictures that came out when she got engaged. Secondhand embarrassment, thy name is KISS 108.)

Anyways, the summer slowly marches on. Aside from the national TV schedule coming out, the AHL schedule also finally came out yesterday and once again, the Providence Bruins have eleventy billion 3-in-3s (three games in a weekend, for you AHL newbies). Oh it's going to be a fun season.

After the jump, a sick shootout move by one of Jared Knight's London teammates, some stuff about the Bruins/Habs rivalry, and how TMZ interprets "hockey fights" (hint: it involves Brad Marchand).

• The NHL season will open nationally with Bruins-Flyers on Versus. Oh lordy. [USA Today]
• Steven Kampfer will bring the Cup to Ann Arbor this coming Thursday. [M Go Blue]
• The Bruins and Canadiens won't have to wait long to renew the rivalry, not with two games in the first month of the season. Here's a look on the slightly altered face of the rivalry from a Habs writer's perspective. [CTV]
• The Providence Bruins will open their season at home against the newest AHL team, the St. John's Ice Caps. Contrary to popular belief, the team is not sponsored by Tim Horton's. [Something's Bruin]

NHL News:

• Here's the complete national TV schedule, in case you missed it. [NHL]
  
• The Sabres have made a bunch of moves under new owner Terry Pegula this season, but what does it all mean? [Buffalo News]
• Evander Kane will wear #9 in Winnipeg. Apparently there was some debate about this? I'm not sure why, since the old Jets are now the Coyotes, and these new Jets own the history of the Atlanta Thrashers. It's a weird situation. [PHT]
• Travis Zajac is sidelined with achilles surgery/problems, making many people question whether he and Zach Parise will ever play together again. [NYT]
• Andreas Athanasiou, a participant in R&D camp and London Knights teammate of our own Jared Knight, makes a sick move in the trick shot competition. [Hockey Spy]
• Apparently the 2012 draft is going to be deep with defensemen. Amazing how quickly the league moves on to the next one. [NHL]
• NHL '12 Legends includes Ray Bourque, Mario Lemieux.....Jeremy Roenick...and Chris Chelios....but no Bobby Orr or Brett Hull. That seems weird, and Laura Astorian over at SBN St. Louis agrees. [SBN STL]
• Puck Daddy's Justin Bourne with a sobering look at painkiller problems in pro hockey. If you read one article today, read this one. [Puck Daddy]
• Sean Avery is off the hook in his police battery case! Which is not the highlight of this article at all. That would be the attached gallery of "hockey fights." If anyone can get through that 18-photo gallery of bloody, bonecrunching hockey fight photos without dying of laughter at TMZ's expense...welp, I salute you. [TMZ]

Non Hockey Link of the Day:

• If you have not yet seen the Beastie Boys' extended video for Make Some Noise, well, set aside a half hour and enjoy the eight thousand cameos. [Youtube]