Friday Chum Bucket: Antti Niemi’s new mask is awesome

Pictured above, Antti Niemi’s brand new mask, featuring his native Finland’s coat of arms, is pretty damn awesome. [Twitter]
Marc-Edouard Vlasic, T.J. Galiardi, Adam Burish and Andrew Desjardins discuss what they were up to during the NHL lockout. [Working the Corners]
Ditto Joe Thornton who, in addition to talking Swiss National League, addressed head-on the notion that the Sharks‘ window of contention is closing. [Working the Corners]
In addition to the previously reported season opener against the Flames on January 20th, the Sharks will start the 2013 campaign with an Albertan back-to-back, facing the Oilers the next night. [CSN Bay Area]
Brodie Brazil, Kevin Kurz and I participated in a roundtable about the Sharks’ season. Here’s part 3. [Bay Area Sports Guy]
Speaking of roundtables, here’s a great one on how the NHL can manage to rebound from this lockout in terms of fan acceptance and television eyeballs. [SB Nation]
Our very own SnarkSD has an incredible post up about the impact of luck in hockey. [NHL Numbers]
Jay Baruchel of Goon and Undeclared fame joins the EOTP podcast with spectacular results. Seriously, you should listen to this. But probably not if you’re at work. [Habs Eyes On The Prize]
Hey, the Winnipeg media is capitalizing on the most tenuous non-controversy ever to further their attempts to run Evander Kane out of town. In other news, bear shits in woods. [Jets Nation]
Sir Dave Coulier/Uncle Joey talks to us about California hockey. [Battle of California]
RFA Ryan O’Reilly has reportedly yet to return from the KHL as he and the Colorado Avalanche can’t agree on the term of his new deal. Trade for him, Doug Wilson. [Pro Hockey Talk]

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