Friday . . .

A MILESTONE: The first post appeared on this blog on June 27, 2007. . . . Sometime on Friday, July 17, 2009, the blog went over one million page views. . . . As of 11:20 p.m. Pacific time, there had been 1,000,566 page views. . . . At the same time, there had been 789,994 visits. . . . Thanks for dropping by.
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THE MacBETH REPORT: F Garrett Bembridge (Saskatoon) signed a one-year contract with Riessersee (Germany 2.Bundesliga). He had no points in five games with Iowa (AHL) and 20 goals and 22 assists in 66 games with Idaho (ECHL) last season.
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The Binghamton Senators, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators, named Don Nachbaur their head coach on Friday.
Nachbaur joins the Senators after six seasons as head coach of the WHL’s Tri-City Americans. He replaces Curtis Hunt, who left Binghamton to return as head coach of the Regina Pats.
Nachbaur, 50, leaves behind a rather enviable record. No, he didn’t win a WHL championship but he and GM Bob Tory lifted the Americans’ franchise to heights it had never before seen, including two U.S. Division titles and a spot in the Western Conference final.
“I’ve never given a resignation before,” Nachbaur told Annie Fowler of the Tri-City Herald. “I’m not sure how to do this. I want to thank the fans. This is a great hockey community and the fans have been absolutely tremendous in their support. I’d like to thank everyone from the billets to the doctors.
”I came here knowing I had a challenge and I stepped up to the challenge.
The banners are an excellent feat. My ultimate goal was to win a Memorial
Cup, but it’s a step in the right direction for the organization.”
Nachbaur becomes the fifth head coach in Binghamton franchise history, following John Paddock (2002-05), Dave Cameron (2005-07), Cory Clouston (2007-09) and Hunt (2009).
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The Nachbaur signing has been met with quite a positive reaction from Binghamton fans. Here’s what one fan wrote on a blog belonging to Michael Sharp, who covers the AHL Senators for the Binghamton Press-Connects:
“I'm not sure if folks remember back to the 85-86 season when Hershey and the Binghamton Whalers had a huge brawl at the buzzer down in Hersheypark Arena when the Bears were affiliated with the Flyers. Nachbaur literally pounded Bruce Shoebottom to pieces, Daryl Stanley and Ron Hextall join in on the fun too. (John) Paddock was Hershey's coach back then, miss that kind of hockey these days.”
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While we’re on the subject of the Americans, you can watch for an announcement one of these days that F Jason Reese has signed with the ECHL’s Florida Everblades. Reese, 21, is a native of Gresham, Ore., who played five seasons in the WHL. The Vancouver Giants selected him seventh overall in the 2003 bantam draft. He would play for them and the Moose Jaw Warriors before finding a home with the Americans. He had 82 points in 68 games after coming over from Moose Jaw early in 2007-08, then added 81 points in 69 games last season. . . .
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Some thoughts from the blog of former WHL G Daryl (Razor) Reaugh on Mark (Chopper) Lamb, the new GM and head coach of the Swift Current Broncos:
“Back in our days as teenagers playing in the WHL we were the commodities, not the brokers, and were actually traded for one another.
“I had yet to play in the league and he was just getting started. Massive tough guy named Glenn Kulka and myself were swapped for Mark in a deal between the Medicine Hat Tigers and the Nanaimo Islanders.
“Without question the Tigers got the best of the deal. Chopper challenged for the league scoring title with 136 pts in 72 games while Kulka brawled his way through the (WHL) and had a brief stint in the WWF following a post-hockey career in the CFL. Interesting guy. I never played for the Islanders, instead remaining in (junior A) until a deal to The Great Kamloops organization materialized.”
Razor is the analyst on Dallas Stars’ broadcasts. You will find his highly entertaining blog right here.
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Jeff Bromley, over at jeffbromley.blogspot.com (there is a link over there on the left), has put together a story on the David Musil situation and how his rights were traded from the Kootenay Ice to the Vancouver Giants. And if you don’t think that a family, a player and presumably an agent – and perhaps a team -- can manipulate the system, well, . . . you don't suppose that's what happened here, do you?