Hockey news from the heartland

by Steve, August 21st, 2008

For three years, the AHL team in Des Moines was affiliated with the Dallas Stars. It seemed right to this Iowa boy, who’s first NHL game was a North Stars game at the old Met Center in Bloomington.

But the Dallas Stars got a new affiliate, and the Iowa team was picked up by the Ducks, who decided a re-branding was in order. So… what do people think of when they think of Iowa?

Pork!

Ergo… the Stars have been reborn as the Iowa Chops. I think the logo’s actually pretty cool, and they’re certainly not the first pigs in the league.

If it matters to Oregonians…

by Steve, August 17th, 2008

…it’s in the Kamloops Daily News.

Greg Drinnan, sports editor of the Daily News, reported the really, really big news that the sale of the Winter Hawks to an Alberta oil magnate is all over but for the formality of league approval.

Drinnan’s sources indicate a total clean-slate approach on the hockey operations side, which means an end of the Ken Hodge era. (General manager and former head coach Hodge was one of the “three amigos” who originally brought Canadian major junior hockey to the states when they moved the Winter Hawks to Portland from Edmonton in 1976.)

Sal’s no more

by Steve, August 14th, 2008

The “where to eat” conundrum just got more or less complicated in North Portland, depending on how you see things. Sal’s Famous Italian Kitchen appears to have closed with no notice, leaving the Overlook neighborhood with one less place to eat.

I haven’t heard whether their northwest Portland location is still open.

Why couldn’t Roux close instead? (Maybe they will after they open their downtown location.)