Stumptown Sports

Well, Friday's here. Guess that's a good thing. Here goes the daily barrage of random thoughts:

• Been some discussion on the Oregonlive Hawks forum about who on the Hawks should wear the "C" and the "A" for the upcoming season. Here is my 2 cents for what it is worth. I think that the coaches would like to see Dan DaSilva wearing the C this year. From everything I hear the kid is a natural leader in the dressing room and is the type of player that coaches love to have on their team. He has been one of the scoring leaders on a team that, quite frankly hasn't had much of a reputation as a offensive powerhouse. But there are other aspects of Dan's game that lead me to think he is the front runner for the Captain's chair. He almost never takes stupid penalties, he uses his head when he's on the ice, and he seems to have a good relationship with the officials. So what is the most important quality for a Captian to have? IMO that is respect, respect from his team mates, respect from the coaching staff, and respect from the officials. I believe that this is where Dan is the team leader, he has the respect needed for the position and he has the smarts to do a good job as Captain. Now if Dan could improve his skating and learn to score the clutch goal he would be the perfect player.

• If Dan gets the C, then who should wear the A's? There typically have been three players that have been assigned assistant captain's in recent years. My choices would be Michael Funk, Michael Sauer and Brian Woolger. Why these three? Again it boils down to the respect factor, I believe these three players have the needed respect from the players, the coaches, and the officials. There are certainly other players on the roster that are more than capable of being an assistant captain, but I feel that these three players fit my description of what I would look for in assistant captains better than others on the team.

• I'm sure that there are going to be people asking me "Why don't you feel Dubinsky deserves to be either the Captain or Assistant"? It is a good question, here is the answer. Part of Brandon's game is being an agitator, he get's under the skin of the other team and quite often gets under the skin of the officials as well. If we assign him a C or an A I feel that it would take away part of what makes Brandon a more effective player on the ice. I want him to play with an edge, with a chip on his shoulder, it is part of what makes him a special player.

Well, that's all the Hawks talk I have for today, here are a couple of other sports related thoughts:

• Did you see the collision between Mike Cameron and Carlos Beltran of the Mets yesterday? Absolutely brutal, maybe one of the worst collisions I have ever seen in baseball, you can check it out here http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=250811125. Cameron took the worst of it, here's hoping for a quick recovery and I look forward to seeing Mike back in action soon.

• Some people are saying that they would like to see Brian Grant back in a Blazers uniform, my question is why? Sure, he is a good guy, lots of good community service, but the guy hasn't been the same player on the court for the last couple of years. I am not convinced that Zack Randolph will make it through the whole season healthy, so I think the Blazers need someone that will give them a solid presence on the front line in the event that Zack misses time, I'm not convinced that Grant is that guy. I'm not sure who that player would be right now, but I just don't think it is Grant.

• The NHL free agent signing frenzy seems to be slowing down to a simmer. Almost all fans are going to need to get line-up cards to figure out who is who on what teams to start the season. Man, what a crazy, mixed-up signing period it has been. What's the plus side to all of this? It sure has generated a lot of fan interest in the game that is sorely needed after losing last season to the lockout. When was the last time you saw this much interest in the NHL during the summer?

That's all I've got for now, like I said before don't expect anything on the weekends, but will be back on Monday for another spew of random thoughts.