Welcome to Snipe City, a weekly column looking at hockey from 36 Crazyfists singer, Alaska native and huge hockey fan Brock Lindow. 36 Crazyfists’ new album, Time & Trauma, will be released on February 17th on Spinefarm Records. You can read about that here.

Gretzky, Kurri, Bossy, Gartner… and now Number Eight, Alex Ovechkin. He has joined the NHL elite!

Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals scored two goals on Sunday afternoon in a 4-3 loss to the St. Louis Blues to bring his league-leading goal total to 31 this season. Ovechkin became the fifth player in NHL history to score 30 or more goals in each season for 10 straight years.

I was thinking about what it may have been like if a guy like Mike Bossy had the equipment of today. His one-timer was lethal, but he played with a heavy wood stick. Playing with the lighter composite one-piece that’s used in today’s game could might have eclipsed his 50-in-50 way back in the day.

The second half of the season is off and roaring. Word just came down about next year’s Winter Classic: Montreal vs. Boston at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough. That’s one of the best rivalries in hockey; the NHL got it right with that selection. I will definitely have plans to spend a New Year’s Day at a Classic one of these years.

Have you guys seen the trailer for Ogilthorpe yet? I’m pretty pumped up for this film and to find out more on the legend of Ogie Ogilthorpe and his legendary brand of “Old Time Hockey.” To see the trailer and get fired up for this flick, check it out here:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/p4n-85jzhTM[/youtube]

The “Fight of the Week” goes to the dust up between Zack Still of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Tom Wilson of the Washington Capitals. These two young bruisers really have the “enforcer” roles down, as they both took off their respective lids before they went at it; that’s always a classy and respectful gesture in my book. It was pretty even tilt… but the win goes to the 20-year-old Wilson for the beauty haymakers and the nasty flow under his lid. But much respect to both these young scrappers!

I am heading across The Pond today to get the tour kicked off with our Canuck brethren in All Hail the Yeti.  There’s always plenty of hockey talk when we get all the boys together. It’s good to get in some chirps concerning teams USA and Canada for bragging rights.

I’ll be taking pics and documenting the tour to the best of my ability and keeping up with the league happenings from afar. Don’t be surprised to hear about the British and European Elite leagues in the next month’s worth of Snipe City!

Well, that about wraps it up. Did you guys get your pre-order in for the new album Time and Trauma? If you didn’t, head over to www.36crazyfists.net and get yourself hooked up with the sweet bundles that include a 36CF puck!

See all you UK’ers starting Wednesday. Snap up your chin straps; we’re comin’ in hot.

Keep your head up,

Brock