Ingmar Bergman 1918-2007

Ingmar Bergman 1918-2007.

Swedens own Mr. Ingmar Bergman passed away today. He was 89 years old. I salute your long and eventful life. I leave you with a few silly images I created in photoshop, along with links to what I consider to be funny posts.

From the post entitled "The Swedish Chef Is A Blues Fan".

And from my first "Useless Photoshop Post".

If it indeed was your time, take solace in the fact that your life will forever be remembered all over the world. Here's to you brother.

The Real Berg's life in pictures.

Edmonton Owners approve offer sheet to Penner

Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha

Money, Money, Money, Money, Money

Everybody's got a price,

Everybody's gonna pay

Cuz the Million dollar Man,

Always gets his way

Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha

Money, Money, Money, Money, Money

Some might cost a little,

some might cost a lot

But I'm the Million Dollar Man,

And you will be bought

Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha

Money, Money, Money, Money, Money

Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha

Money, Money, Money, Money, Money

Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha

Money, Money, Money, Money, Money

More (and better) coverage here: Covered In Oil, Earl Sleek, Lowetide, Eric McErlain.

One thing I'd like to add: This isn't all Kevin Lowe's fault. The owners must be blamed, or cheered depending on your view, for approving the offer sheets in the first place.

I'll be seeing you.

Staals arrested - Still have a long way to go..

News broke earlier that The Brothers Staal, Eric and Jordan, were arrested after Erics bachelor party got out of hand. Eric McErlain over at the AOL's Sportsblog writes:

"UPDATE: I've just gotten hold of the official press release from the Sheriff, and the entertainment factor just went way up. As it turns out, the entire party was actually warned that if they didn't knock it off, they faced deportation from the United States:

On 07/21/07 at approximately 12:30 a.m. the Cook County Sheriff's Office received several complaints in the area of Lutsen Resort and Sea Villas. All complaints were similar in nature, and reporting the same incident; a group of approximately 20 people screaming, yelling, and playing loud music.

At approximately 12:50 a.m. Cook County Sheriff's Office deputies arrived at the Lutsen Resort and Sea Villas. The suspects were warned multiple times to be quiet or they may be removed from the property, issued citations, arrested, and/or deported from the country. "

Deported from the country? HAHA! I know its standard procedure for da man to say to any foreign national getting arrested, but it sounds funny as hell. Well, at least they had a good time. Say what you wanna say about getting arrested, but have you ever heard of of people getting arrested during a bachelor party and NOT have fun?

Congratulations Pittsburgh and Carolina. Now you have a(nother) pair of hockey players that have been arrested.

As long as we are talking about arrested hockey players: remember when Sergei Fedorov got arrested..

"Detroit's star center, Sergei Fedorov, has been arrested on a charge of driving while impaired.

Fedorov was stopped early Sunday in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak after he was seen driving through a red light ''at a high rate of speed,'' according to the police.

The police said that Fedorov failed a field sobriety test, was arrested and agreed to a breath test, which revealed he had a .09 percent blood alcohol content, slightly under the state's limit of .10.

Fedorov was released on bond pending a court hearing no later than Oct. 3.
After practicing yesterday with the Red Wings, Fedorov refused comment. The Red Wings also declined comment. "

And Patrick Roy..

(Did they just stick his face into a Xerox machine or what?)

"Patrick Roy, the NHL's winningest goaltender, was arrested Sunday morning on investigation of domestic violence charges.

Officers went to Roy's Colorado residence after a "911 hangup call."

According to police, Roy and his wife had an argument at the residence. "

That's.. nice. Yes, nice. Those arrests are "cute". Those mugshots look all nice and cuddly don't they? As a Blues fan I feel that I am spiritually connected of THE GREATEST MUGHSOT OF ALL TIME. There's no hockey player involved, but oh lord are The Blues involved. Some of you who have read this blog before know that I love this picture.

Are you ready?

.....

....

...

..

.

This was taken in 1982, when Ozzy urinated at the Alamo in Texas.

Eric and Jordan, you have a long way to go before you become legends.

This has been Ingmar "W" Bergman for Bergman Shoots And Scores, Stockholm Sweden.

Blues trade Soderberg and sign Stempniak

The Blues have traded prospect Carl Söderberg to Boston for goaltender Hannu Toivonen and signed Lee Stempniak to a 3 year contract, thus avoiding arbitration.

Blues obtain goalie to fight for No. 2 job.

I'm a bit unhappy about the Söderberg/Toivonen trade. Soderberg is one of Swedens most promising youngsters to come out of our broken youth program in a while. He really came around last season when his club Malmo were relegated to the 1st division. He had 39 points in 39 games in a league with teams that are comparable with lower end AHL clubs.

He helped Malmo get back to Elitserien and last season he surprised everybody by scoring 30 points in 31 games. Think of it as an 80 points season in the AHL. Until his eye injury he was in serious contention for the Swedish MVP trophy. Malmö are/were the New York Rangers of old in Sweden. They signed aging veterans for much money who stopped caring once they came to Malmö. Last year Söderberg, along with leading scorer Mikael Wahlberg, was the only one who seemed to give a damn.

Therefore, trading 6'3 Söderberg for Toivonen looks like a bad deal. Toivonen had promise a few years ago but last year he was terrible. He played in 18 games, going 3-9-1 with a 4.23 goals-against average. Sure, The Blues need another goalie but I don't think Toivonen is the answer.

JD said the team "is getting a prospect who's more advanced." What does that mean? Does he have more pubic hair than Soderberg?

Soderberg is expected to miss a few games this year as he's recuperating from his season-ending eye injury, but everything points to him being fully recovered. Toivonens groin on the other hand.. It seems a bit suspect to say the least.

The Bruins win this trade in my opinion (I bet that's something the Flames said when they selected Jesper Mattsson in 1993).

Stempniak gets new deal.

"..the Blues and Stempniak, the team's leading scorer last season, agreed to a three-year, $7.5 million contract and thus avoided arbitration. The deal will pay him $1.5 million in 2007-08, $2.5 million in 2008-09 and $3.5 million in 2009-10."

I think this is a fair deal. Stempniak had 27 goals and 52 points last season. He got better and better as the season progressed and I think he'll become a 30 goals 60 point player. He may have a hard time topping 70 points because of his skating. But he works hard and is a favourite of both the fans and Murray. If he klicks with Kariya he might score 35 goals during the remainder of this deal, although 30 seems more realistic.

Off Season Aquisitions: Keith Tkachuk

I have no idea what kind of a releationship The Blues have with Tkachuk, but they sure do like him. After trading Tkachuk to the Thrashers late last season, they reaquired him by sending a conditional draft pick (previously aquired in the trade) for the rights to negiotiate with him. They signed him to a two year contract worth $8 million.

Maybe the plan is to trade him every year at the trade-deadline for prospects and draft-picks? That would be a great move if he wasn't playing for us up until then.

"Walt" is without a doubt one of the better americans to ever have played in the NHL, but lately he's been about as useful as a left-wing journalist working for Fox News. He's been injured and out of shape (although I admit that was two years ago) and his scoring touch seems to have evaporated. He scored 15 in 41 games in 05-06 and 20 in 61 games last year.

I would have preferred that they had used the $4 million to sign someone younger and healthier.

The Bergmanator 3000 says: 25 goals and 52 points in 69 games in 07-08.

Off Season Aquisitions: Paul Kariya

The Blues made me a lot happier when they announced the signing of Paul Kariya. He's one of the leagues more well known names and he's a very talented player. He scored 85 points (31g+54a) in 05-06 and 76 (24+52) points last year. He signed a 3 year contract worth 18 million dollars. He could score 75+ points and maybe help Stempniak score 30 goals.

One thing that worries me though is that he's been injured every three years, and this is his third year if you go by that cycle. The cycle goes like this: 82g, 69g, 22g, 82g, 74g, 56g, 82g, 82g, 51g, 82g and 82g last year. Hopefully he'll be a healthy player this year.

The Bergmanator 3000 says: 77 points in 07-08.

The Unnamed NHL Player

Somewhere in this picture is the unnamed NHL player. That's the end of me talking about him.

Interview with an NHL Player, Part I
Interview with an NHL Player, Part II
Interview with an NHL Player, Part III

Isn't Palffy a bit uhm Tkachukesque?

I just read that Ziggy Palffy has unretired and signed with Slovakian club Skalica. I know it's summer and all, but doesn't Palffy look a bit.. uhm.. Tkachukesque in those pictures?

It looks to me like Ziggy's been keeping one too many of them Twizzlers in his back pockets durings his retirement? Or maybe he's been in contact with Keith Tkachuk and his next NHL contract will be with the Blues?

Images and story courtesy of Brushback at the Sidearm Delivery. I'd love to hear Jes' take on Palffys weight since he loves them Slovaks (I'll stop using the word them from now on).

I'll be seeing you.

Are those Blues on a golf course?

Hello. My name is Ingmar "W" Bergman and I'm a Blues fan. This is my new blog about The Blues. Here you'll see some lame attempts at humor, mostly involving Photoshop, and some even lamer attempts at something called analysis..es.

Let's call it poorly written stuff about hockey.

The Blues went ahead and signed themselves two of them Kariyas during the off-season. Paul (left), Steve Kariya (in the middle) and unknown-and-yet-unsigned Jebediah Kariya (right) pictured here during the annual Blues off-season Golf Tournament for charity called "There are Motherfucking Blues On The Motherfucking Golf Course Tournament".

I used to have a good thing going here but I blew it by getting addicted to Nintendo Wii and a job that took away a lot of my free time.

Oh, and I interviewed an unnamed NHL player that I said I would give proof of, so you'd know he wasn't a figment of my imagination. I have a photo of a certain bar here in Stockholm were I ran into him. After a few beers and a few hi's a ho's he said he had gotten cold feet and actually regretted a few things he said. Not saying them, but letting me publish them. A day or two later he popped up on the ole' Microsoft Messenger and said he regretted saying what he told me at the bar. I could sorta publish an image I had sent him because you could sorta tell its him, but if you don't have trained ninja eyes you also couldn't spot him right away.

He said there's Foppa, and now he'll be known as Flipp-Floppa. I laughed at that. He also laughed at how I looked. He never imagined I'd be a long haired hippie with a beard that would make the Niedermayers proud. I could post the image today but I'll post it in a few days.

You see I have lined up a few posts now so that I'll be posting a few posts in a row. I tried to make a comeback with the Johan Franzén is my idol post but I just couldn't do it. Therefore I have written a few posts but I haven't published them yet. But don't misunderestimate me. I'm Dubya Bergman. I'll be doing my best to make those of you who might've forgotten me remember me again.

It's great to be back! I love all of ya'll.

Yours sincerely, Ingmar "W" Bergman.