Jacks Stay Busy in the Community

Hello fellow Jackalope fans.  It is a warm night here in the Permian Basin, and some news pertaining to the Jacks has become available since the last time that I posted.  I know I haven't blogged in a while, and I apologize for that, but I have been extremely busy with school for about the last month now.  Anyway, I have some extra time right now, so I thought I would get everybody caught up with what has been happening in the world of the mighty Jackalopes.

  The last time I blogged, I was congratulating GM Joe Clark for his contract extension which was very well deserved.  Since that had been announced, we have found out a couple of player signings, we have seen the Jacks stay involved in the community, and we have found out the new veteran rule for the upcoming CHL season. 

 Lets first start with the player signings, shall we?  The Jacks announced a couple of weeks ago that they had re-signed defenseman Alex Dunn and forward Troy Ofukany for the 2010-2011 CHL season.  I was thrilled to find out that the All-Star Dunn would be returning to the Jacks for the simple fact that he is a tough, offensive defenseman that isn't afraid to get down and dirty with anybody.  He plays with his heart, and his intensity is definitely welcomed back by this fan.  I must admit that I was a tiny bit surprised to see Ofukany return, but after thinking about it over the last couple of weeks, I see that Ofukany is a very physical grinder type player which is something that the Jacks were somewhat lacking last season.  Once the Jacks started playing the very physical Allen Americans in the Southern Conference Finals last season, it became very evident that while the Jacks were technically the team with the better talent, it was also very clear that the Americans were going to try to literally beat the Jackalopes in order to advance to the CHL Finals.  Unfortunately, as we all know, that is pretty much exactly what the Americans did.  If the Jacks are able to add a little more toughness to the team this season, combined with the incredible talent that has been announced so far, then I'm really liking the Jack's chances of bringing that elusive Presidents Cup to the Permian Basin in 2011.  With that said, I would like to say welcome back to both Dunn and Ofukany! 

 Now lets move on to the Jackalope's involvement in the community recently.  About a week ago, members of the Jackalopes team as well as front office helped raise money for the battle against Muscular Dystrophy when they participated in the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon.  The Jacks aided in raising about $30,000 locally, which is something that they should be extremely proud of.   A few weeks ago, the Jacks also held a hockey 101 event, which gave fans the chance to learn even more about the team, as well as visit with Jackalope staff members and player Sebastien Thinel.  Coach Paul Gillis also held a Q&A session where he answered questions about hockey in general as well as the Jackalopes themselves.  There were many more exciting activities that happened during this event, and I'm sure it was a huge success.  Now that the Jacks have stayed so active in the public eye, hopefully more people will show up to the ECC to catch a few more Jackalope games this season to return the favor, so to speak, as well as watch some damn good hockey played by a damn good team. 

 Finally, I would like to go over the new veteran rule, which was announced recently.  The new veteran rule allows for all CHL teams to have up to six veterans on their roster, with one of those six being a "franchise player," which means that that player had to play with that team the season before in order to be eligible to be signed by that particular team.  Goalies also do not count toward the vet limit, which means that technically speaking, a team can have up to eight veterans on their team, if a team decided to sign two veteran goalies as well.  Many people have claimed that the new limit is a bit excessive, and I do see where they are coming from, but I really don't see too much harm in the new vet rule.  I would have preferred if five vets would have been the new limit, but I really don't see six as being too excessive.  Surprising to a lot of people, the salary cap also went down slightly, which shocked many people who thought it would surely go up if the vet limit went up.  But when examined more closely, it becomes more evident how this slight decrease in the salary cap can work.  Only half of the aforementioned "franchise" vet's salary counts toward the cap, which obviously helps teams with potential salary cap issues.

Also, on a bit of a side note I would like to say that I just recently found my statistical information for this blog, and I was pleasantly surprised.  I have found that I have had several hundred pageviews from folks from throughout the United States, several pageviews from people in Sweden, several pageviews from people from both Germany and Russia, and even a few pageviews from people from countries like Finland, Canada, Argentina, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, and even China.  Like I already said, I was pleasantly surprised to see some information about my viewers and how often my blog is checked out, and I would love it if more of you posted your thoughts after I blog.  Thanks for the support, and I promise to keep giving it my all to keep all of you up to date with Jackalope related news, as well as give my two cents when it comes to this news.

With all of this said, I'm going to go ahead and wrap thing up here and get some sleep.  If there is any Jackalope related news announced in the coming days, I will update you here, so keep up with The Enforcer to get my take on all things pertaining to the Jackalopes.

Until next time Jackalope fans all I have to say is GO JACKS GO!!! and it's only a little over a month away until the puck is dropped to open up the 2010-2011 CHL season!