Thursday . . .

As the injuries continue to mount throughout the sporting world, but especially in football and hockey, I continue to wonder if the frantic offseason training regimens don’t play a part. I am hardly an expert but have watched in awe as athletes have gone from spending summers at the beach to spending them in gyms covered in perspiration.
Is it not possible that with most athletes working out and/or competing for at least 11 months of the year that maybe, just maybe, there are body parts that become fatigued and simply break down?
But I wonder if those days aren’t coming to an end? Or, if, at least, a change is in the offing?
Here’s Sports Illustrated’s Peter King, after chatting with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell:
He said he thinks organized offseason conditioning has spiraled out of control. (And bully for him on this — it's ridiculous how year-round a job playing and coaching has become.)
"I'm a firm believer that players are overworked in the offseason,'' Goodell said. "They probably need to get away from the game a little bit more. And when they're away, they probably work harder.
"There needs to be limitations in the offseason with respect to the type of work, and how much work, is done. . . .”
(If you’re an NFL fan and don’t check out King’s Monday Morning Quarterback, his weekly roundup of NFL action, well, you’re cheating yourself.)
———
Sometimes the dream just never dies, as in the case of F Ryan Keller (Saskatoon, 2001-05), who was recalled from the AHL’s Binghamton Senators and made his NHL debut Wednesday with Ottawa against the host New Jersey Devils.
Here’s the Ottawa Sun’s Chris Stevenson:
After spending a couple of years playing in Finland, Ryan Keller signed with the Binghamton Senators to chase his dream of playing in the NHL. He got his shot Wednesday night as he made his NHL debut with the Senators after Mike Fisher hurt himself in practice Tuesday. “I loved very minute of it,” he said of his time overseas, “and I’d go back in a heartbeat. But its every player’s dream to play in the NHL. I kind of feel like I made the right decision because I’m getting this opportunity.” Keller, 25, has been having a great season in Bingo, leading the team in scoring with 13 goals and nine assists in 20 games. It was a whirlwind for him after the getting the callup Monday night. “I don’t know if it’s sunk in yet,” he said. “It’s a game played between the boards. I’m just going to forget everything else . . . it’s the same game you played as a kid.” . . . Keller’s dad, Mark, managed to make it in from Saskatoon to see his son’s debut. Good for him.
———
F Marek Viedensky of the Prince George Cougars will play in the 2010 World Junior Championship, the second straight season in which he has played for the Slovakian entry. Viedensky, 19, had four assists in seven games as Slovakia finished fourth in the 2009 tournament. . . . The 2010 tournament, which will be centred in Regina and Saskatoon, runs from Dec. 26 through Jan. 5. . . . Viedensky, 19, has 16 points in 21 games with the Cougars. He was a seventh-round pick by the San Jose Sharks in the NHL’s 2009 draft.
———
If you missed it, Brandon Wheat Kings C Brayden Schenn made his NHL debut Thursday night with the Los Angeles Kings. He wore No. 55 as the Kings lost 4-1 to the Canucks in Vancouver. . . . .Schenn, 18, was selected by the Kings with the fifth overall pick in the NHL’s 2009 draft. He became the third-youngest player and the 19th teenager ever to play for the Kings. . . . Schenn has a team-high 28 points in 24 games with the Wheat Kings. . . . He played for Team WHL in its 2-1 victory over a Russian team in Victoria on Wednesday, then signed a one-day amateur tryout deal with the Kings. The Wheat Kings said Friday that they expect him back in Brandon in time to play Friday against the visiting Swift Current Broncos. However, the L.A. Kings’ website reports that Schenn may sign an entry level deal and stay in Tinseltown for a while. . . . The Kings have been rocked by injuries and on Thursday placed F Andrei Loktionov on injured reserve. Loktionov, 19, was recalled from the AHL’s Manchester Monarchs on Wednesday and suffered an upper-body injury that night in a 3-1 victory over the host Edmonton Oilers. He was a fifth-round selection in the 2008 NHL draft.
———
Team WHL got past the Russian side 4-2 in Kelowna on Thursday night, meaning the CHL swept all six games from the visitors in the Subway Super Series. Uhh, maybe it’s not so super. . . . The highlight? That had to be the warm ovation given to WHL honourary captain Gerry Zimmerman, who was Kelowna’s fire chief during the burning summer of 2003. . . . I’m told that Saskatoon Blades F Curtis Hamilton left the game with a shoulder injury and was taken to hospital. There weren’t any further details late Thursday night. Hamilton, who is eligible for the 2010 NHL draft, has 16 points in 25 games with the Blades. He missed 14 games last season with a knee injury. He is the son of Bruce Hamilton, the Kelowna Rockets’ president and general manager and the chairman of the WHL’s board of governors.
———
The QMJHL’s Moncton Wildcats have lost LW Kirill Kabanov (wrist) for up to three months. The freshman Russian had surgery Nov. 19 and hopes to be back by early February. Kabanov, 17, had 14 points in 11 games when he was injured. . . . "I injured my wrist in the playoffs last season (in Russia's Kontinental Hockey League), but I didn't know what it was,” Kabanov told Neil Hodge of the Moncton Times & Transcript. “I only found out when I came here. I should have had the surgery after last season. I had bad medical advice (in Russia).'' . . . Kabanov was No. 2 on the NHL Central Scouting’s list of QMJHL players eligible for the 2010 draft when it was released earlier this month. He was the seventh overall pick in the CHL’s 2009 import draft.
———
F Levi Lind (Regina, 2004-08) is alive and doing well with the Central league’s Columbus Cottonmouths. In fact, he even got a recent taste of ECHL action. Kathy Gierer of the Mobile Ledger-Enquirer has a story on Lind right here. Columbus head coach Jerome Bechard is also a former WHLer, having played in Moose Jaw (1985-90).
———
If you’re hungering for a taste of the game of hockey the way it used to be played, check out this story right here. It’s a November of 1977 piece by Peter Gammons, who was then writing for Sports Illustrated and it’s a dandy.
———
A recent business deal worth $50 million has something of a WHL angle to it. Seacliff Construction Corp. has agreed to purchase the Prince Albert-based Broda Construction Group. Gord Broda, the group’s CEO, is the father of Calgary Hitmen F Joel Broda. There’s a story right here.