The man in front of me has a Verizon Mi-Fi card. I have been staring at this card and his MacBook for three straight hours, as he command-1-2-3s from Gmail to TweetDeck to Excel, and my iPhone and Mac keeps telling me, “Hey, there’s internet right in front of you – but it’s password protected. Haha!”

Mean, Mi-Fi. Mean, mean, mean Mi-Fi.

I’ve written one article – a piece for the Brookline Patch about the birth of Skating magazine – because all of the sources were hard copy Skating magazines from two years ago, along with one email from Ben Wright (someone I never in my life ever thought would email wanna-be journalist me, but there it was, Sunday morning in my inbox…ask my husband, I fell over in my chair) that I was able to bring up on my phone.

But can I post this piece and assure my editor that it’s done? No, because Amtrak doesn’t offer internet. Greyhound, of all means of transportation, now offers internet, but Amtrak can’t. And because I’m too chicken to ask the man in front of me for access to his Mi-Fi in exchange for five bucks. (Yes, I’m willing to pay at this point.)

There he goes again. Command 1. Command 2. TweetDeck, Excel, GMail. Mean Mi-Fi.

So while he justly hogs his internet, here are some sports related thoughts:

- Despite all of the proclamation that New England Patriots WR Wes Welker is healthy from his MCL/ACL tear, I’m concerned about his possible overcompensation on other joints, which could lead to another injury if he revs back to 100% immediately. Remember that Tom Brady’s tear was preceded to a summer of foot and ankle problems that would lead to him relying on other portions of his legs to pick up additional work – a trait true of any injury. In order to get back faster, you over compensate with other joints what that injured joint, tendon, bone, whatever was slated to do.

Thus, Welker has to get to the point where that injured leg is doing exactly what it was before – and that the non-injured leg isn’t picking up more than it’s usual share of the work. Then he’ll be truly back.

- Sadly but not completely unexpectedly, the National Lacrosse League’s Orlando Titans have closed up shop while they work out ownership issues, aka The Curse of Steve Donner. But the Boston Blazers were able to benefit by picking up well-known laxer Casey Powell. With the Blazers on the last year of their initial three year agreement with the TD Garden and with a city starting to latch onto the sport hard-core, the addition of Powell’s talent could be just the pebble to push it over the edge. With the Boston Cannons the top seed in the MLL Championships and the Blazers now with all the pieces to make a hard-core run this winter, Boston could finally be ready to accept lacrosse completely as a major sport.

- Dear Gwinnett Gladiators: Where are you? What’s going on? Why haven’t you signed anyone in a while? Are you okay? Are you in limbo because of the Syracuse Crunch’s new affiliation? Say something, anything? Did those evil Florida Everblades kidnap you and have you tied up in a closet? Love, Your Concerned Fan in Mass.

Said Fucile:

Just imagine hearing Cusick’s voice after every Boston goal. Fans would love it. We here at Days of Y’Orr definitely feel it would add a little something after the goal. Think of the Bruins scoring a huge goal in the playoffs followed by Cusick’s “Score!” with every fan in attendance yelling the same. We can’t think of a better way to honor Fred Cusick.

I completely and wholeheartedly agree, and I wasn’t even born and bred in Boston.

To help Days of Y’orr further their cause, you can sign their petition, download a flyer to distribute, or contact the Bruins directly by phone or email (the information about the last two are on the original blog post.) It makes little sense for the Bruins not to oblige – I just hope they give Fucile and the rest of the blog’s crew the credit they deserve when they eventually do.

The morning after, my husband had to go take an ax he had borrowed (he needed to cut up our broken futon in order to remove it from the apartment) back to his parents house, and while taking it to the car, scared off the homeless man picking up the carpet o’ beer cans. He had to run down the street – with the ax -  to convince the homeless man that he wasn’t threatening him, just taking an ax to his car, and to encourage him to please take all the beer cans. Luckily, this happened at 6:30am on a Saturday morning, otherwise I think this would have become more of a problem than it was.

So we moved to the ‘burbs. (Truthfully, it was in the works way before this art opening/ax incident, but it helped seal the deal.)

Moving to the suburbs means I now have a long-ish commute on the commuter rail, which in turn leads to me spending much quality time with my iPod, which in turn has led me to the following conclusion:

Every Train song is the same.

From their 2001 introductory hit, Meet Virginia, to the ubiquitous Hey, Soul Sister, to their new single, If It’s Love (which is immensely catchy) and all of the mild adult-contemporary rock hits in-between, most Train songs follow the same storyline, which can be summarized as the following:

“I am a guy with no particular aspirations except to find peace, love and understanding, grow my hair shaggy (including my chest hair) and find a hot-but-not-too-untouchable girl to sing about. You are a girl with a job you do not particularly care for (probably a waitress or something service-oriented), where people dump on you all-day, with high aspirations of stardom or just clarity, who marches to the beat of her own drum, who likes the sun and guitar-strumming guys, and may be swayed by a song written about you. I lust after your laissez-faire attitude about life, and want to mend your perpetually-broken-by-men-and-the-real-world heart.”

This is not an attack on the band’s fans or their music – hey, I am the one that has several of their songs on my iPod – but the theme is overwhelming. Maybe this is why the band has been so successful? You know you’re not going to  be surprised. They are going to deliver a catchy song with a cute message that many people would like to relate to.

And in popular – pop – music, isn’t that all that matters?

Derek Stepan is just one of 8 former college players listed in today's Transactions. (Photo: BroadwayHockeyDaily.com)

Thursday’s start to the NHL Free Agent signing period was a nice pace of busy – just enough to keep die-hards engaged, but not so much as to seem like free agents were being tossed like slippery fish in Pike’s Place Fish Market in Seattle.

For us college hockey fans out there, many of the giant moves of the day had little to do with college hockey alumni. That isn’t to say that college hockey alumni stayed still – some moved, one officially left early, and we found a blog favorite swapped right before bedtime on free agency eve. A few quick notes for college hockey fans looking to keep up with Day 1:

- University of Vermont hangs with the Gophers and Badgers. Of the eight college hockey players (my own hand count – feel free to call me out if I’m wrong) changing hands or signing deals since late Wednesday evening, two were from the University of Vermont: Martin St. Louis (whose four year contract extension with the Lightning was previously announced but officially went through today) and The Swedish, blog favorite Viktor Stalberg (who found himself a part of a giant deal where he was swapped with others by the Maple Leafs in exchange for Chicago Blackhawks Kris Versteeg and Bill Sweatt, a Colorado College alum.) The Catamounts tied with the University of Wisconsin and the University of Minnesota for the most amount of former college players listed on the transaction wire in the past 24 hours (2 each). Now about that “former players” bit, Badgers….

- Derek Stepan officially ended his college career today. Stepan, the WCHA leader in points and assists this past season, ended his collegiate elgibility by agreeing to terms with the New York Rangers (quite the college hockey friendly franchise, eh?) He played two seasons for the Badgers, and captained the victorious squad at this year’s World Junior Championships. Not a shocking early leave, but still a early college departure in a season chock full of them…

- The State of Hockey gets one of their own. St. Cloud State alum Matt Cullen was signed to a three year deal by the Minnesota Wild today, after playing with the Carolina Hurricanes and Ottawa Senators this past year. Cullen is from Virginia, MN, giving him what is sure to be the “Little Boy In Minnesota” dream trifecta: grow up in Minnesota, play college hockey in Minnesota, then play professional hockey in Minnesota. Awww. I’m such a sucker for those stories.

Your list for Day 1, with help from TSN.ca (Happy Canada Day!)

- Toronto swapped Viktor Stalberg (UVM-Hockey East) and two others for Bill Sweatt (CC-WCHA) and Kris Versteeg from Chicago.

- Martin St. Louis (UVM back during the ECAC days) signed a four-year contract extentsion with Tampa Bay.

- Derek Stepan (Wisc.-WCHA) agrees to terms with the New York Rangers officially, thus ending his elgibility two years early.

- Matt Cullen (St. Cloud State – WCHA) signs a three year deal with the Minnesota Wild.

-Adam Burish (Wisc. – WCHA) signed a two year deal with the Dallas Stars after spending three seasons with Chicago.

- Jordan Leopold (Minn. – WCHA) signs a three year contract with the Buffalo Sabres.

-Jonathan Matsumoto (Bowling Green – CCHA) signed a two-year, two-way contract with Carolina. He’s spent his four pro seasons in the Phantoms organization in the AHL.

-Paul Martin (Minn. – WCHA) signed a deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins, after spending his entire pro thus far with the New Jersey Devils. (I initially forgot this, and didn’t see it listed when I was investigating the TSN transactions list Thursday evening, but big thanks to Laurel for reminding me.)

A new professional lacrosse league is in the works in Virginia, and all profits from the league will go to Haitian earthquake relief. Allan Harvie, the founder and commissioner, was a blast to talk to on the phone and is extremely passionate about sports and helping the devastated country. As I posted on Facebook, even if you have no interest in sports, Harvie’s story is an interesting one.

Read my article on Harvie’s plan to help Haiti through lacrosse here.

While I seriously lack any unique knowledge or insights, I wanted to share some of the story lines, Twitters and blogs I’m following as the draft unfolds this weekend.

- Are the NHL scouts as high on Charlie Coyle as we all are?

Could BU bound Charlie Coyle be the first college player taken in the draft? the most optimistic of projections have him going in the late first round, and even the college-player-shy Boston Bruins have worked out and dined the Massachusetts local. Will Coyle be the sixth BU player to be the first college player picked in the draft in history? (Fun facts provided by these interesting-to-college-hockey-geek-me College Hockey News charts.)

Not so fast, says SB Nation’s In Lou We Trust. While the rest of the media have been touting Coyle’s upside, this New Jersey Devils blog is a great summation of some realistic reviews of his ability. Will his offensive playmaking translate over from his EJHL days? While I believe the dismissal of the EJHL as a “weak league” is incorrect, I may agree with In Lou We Trust that Coyle’s talent on bigger stages may not be easily predictable.

I did speak with one person deep in the know in the EJHL last Friday who says that BU fans won’t be disappointed in Coyle, and that he is quite fun to watch. Could it be that Coyle is one great college hockey player – one BU fans sorely need after having all the fun sucked out of their 2009-10 season – but not first or second round draft pick worthy?

- Joe Pereira’s brother could be really good/UMass-BU games will be interesting…

UMass Amherst bound Mike Pereira, little brother of BU captain Joe, is being brandied about as one of the best New England nurtured players in this draft. His strong individual performances leading Avon Old Farms to a championship has scouts interested. According to New England Hockey Journal’s analysis, the younger Pereira sounds like the selfish, more competitive, big-playmaking version of his older brother. Both brothers have serious speed, but similar size doubts.

While I had heard snippets about Pereira here and there for the past year, I hadn’t yet found any great analysis of his abilities until this week. Most of this is thanks to @fearthetriangle, a UMass Amherst hockey blogger/Twitterer, who has been all up on the UMass Amherst player draft coverage. Two thumbs up.

- Why this Bruins fan is watching the Thrashers and Panthers this weekend?

Both the Atlanta Thrashers and Florida Panthers have new leadership – Thrashers with former Boston Bruins assistant Craig Ramsay as their head coach, and the Panthers with former Chicago Blackhawks General Manager Dale Tallon now serving as their GM.

As a Rochester Amerks fan, I want to see what talent the Panthers could send up to my hometown to develop next season. With the Amerks fan base hanging on a thread, will the 2010-11 edition of the team have enough talent to follow a great start all the way through the playoffs?

As a college hockey fan and one who is quite critical of the Bruins lack of development or interest in college players, I’m interested in seeing if Ramsay brings a similar disdain to the Thrashers. The Thrashers as a franchise keep continuing on the road to obscurity, but a team made up of dynamic young prospects is the only way their fate in the Atlanta area could change for the better.

Even as a Bruins fan, the Sequin-Hall debate is tired. Both are great players now, both with the real possibility of busting big time. Sequin didn’t make this year’s Canadian World Junior Team. While that allegedly motivated him to perform better, who is to say he won’t regress and or not be motivated to improve in the future? Hall has speed and has developed to a great all around player, but is used to making plays on his own and may struggle chemistry wise with older NHL players who won’t stand any twinge of selfishness or flashiness from a teenager. Then again, I’m not even a serviceable hockey scout, so what do I know?

What I do know is that when it is all said and done, the Edmonton Oilers effectively make two picks – their own and the Bruins’. Watching what a team’s new leadership does or what a team seeking a new identity does in a draft is more interesting to me. As a hockey fan, I’m more interested in picks that will paint the picture for an organization, not just add a stroke.

Source: BostonBruins.com

While making my first ever visit to the landmark Kowloon Restaurant this weekend, I happened upon information about the Ice & Dice Casino Night event happening this Wednesday night (June 23). Sponsored by the Boston Bruins, the event will benefit the Bruins Foundation Pan-Mass Bike Team, which in turn benefits Dana Farber Cancer Institute. (‘Tis the time of year for Pan-Mass fundraisers – I just attended a great one at The Bell in Hand last Thursday evening to help out my friend Chris Villiani’s Pan-Mass team.)

From 7-11pm Wednesday night, Bruins alums and Bruins Foundation volunteers will play blackjack, craps, roulette and poker while raffling and auctioning off sports memorabilia. I also imagine some PuPu Platters, Saugus Wings and Fog Cutters (my husband’s favorite Kowloon drink) might also be involved…

Tickets are $30, and are available by emailing foundationevents@bostonbruins.com or calling 617-624-1889.

On Monday, I attended TWTRCON 2010 at the Hilton New York (quite the glided hotel, by the way.) It was exciting to finally be in a professional development opportunity that aligns with my current position and what I wish to do in the future, instead of those student affairs conferences that I always felt entirely out of place at (I’m not a fan of the icebreaker). Plus, I was able to meet a great deal of folks I had conversed with for years on Twitter, but hadn’t ever met in person, which is always awesome.

Before I jumped on my bus home, I met a friend for a beer at the new Brewery in Port Authority (convenient for those times that you want to be sedated before taking a Greyhound bus any length of time, which is most of the time) and he excitedly asked me how it was. He’s the more coherent and thought-out version of what I told him over a yummy Apricot Beer:

- Martha Stewart ended up being the perfect keynote speaker. I was quite skeptical of the Queen of Domesticity’s inclusion in a conference on social media, mainly because I’m not a huge fan of her in general. However, her interview was refreshing because she was eagerly unguarded. Nothing she said was groomed. To me, her speaking about navigating online pop culture and social media is a great guide about how to interact with a demographic that is quickly adoring social media: 40-60 year old women. The higher education takeaway of that: most of the parents you program to in higher education are 40-60 year old women.

I did take issue with one of Martha’s points, however. She mentioned that she Tweets all herself – unless she calls her assistant and “dictates” a Tweet to him. “I don’t believe in ghost-tweeting,” she proclaimed. “That’s not what Twitter is for.” Dictating a Tweet over the phone to your assistant is still, in my eyes, using a ghost-tweeter. In what form is that Tweet? Is it a thought? Is it perfectly within 140 characters? Or is she just saying, “Hey Elian, just tweet something about something. I haven’t tweeted in a while”? Any way that dictating comes, I argue that Martha still has a ghost-tweeter. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

- If I’m (or my company) is spending a significant registration fee (above $200) on a conference, don’t waste my time. I loved everything about Twtrcon – great speakers, kept-to schedule, convenient set-up, useful amenities – save for the 20 minutes they wasted interviewing “BP Terry” from “BPGlobalPR.” I think the account will go down as one of the best uses of parody social media in the medium’s young history, but he brought no value to the conference. He wore a penguin suit, stayed in character the whole time, and is not the world’s best standup comic. If he had been willing to chat as the man behind the parody – even if he had to remain disguised – that would be useful to attendees. But as a comedic break, it was not needed, went on much too long, and grated on my nerves.

- Type on slides needed to be 36 point or higher, or get rid of it. This thought is coming from someone who spends her summers creating, editing, troubleshooting and running presentation slideshows (it’s part of my job), so I’m somewhat overly critical on the subject. A few of the case studies were marred by poorly laid out slides and text so small it was unreadable from any angle. The text also blended in with the background. My pro tip: if you must have text laid on top of a picture, make a transparent box in a silvery gray or teal blue and lay in between the picture and text. Volia! – your picture is unmarred and your text is readable. (I’ll make a video showing how to do this better in the coming days.)

Bonus Takeaways, in ellipse format! The Return on Investment debate is bigger than I thought – there was quite the camp at Twtrcon who didn’t understand the need for metrics, and a camp that hungered for new ways, old ways, any ways to measure engagement to report back to bosses….Speaking of metrics, one note I took away from the first panel of the morning was to not overlook the easy to measure metrics – if you run a promotion via Twitter, make sure to actually note how many people take advantage of it. That sometimes can be overlooked….Quote from the location based services session: “What do you already do that is tied to geography? Pinpoint that, and squeeze it further.”….The field of social media is so new that it is inspiring to attend any conference on the subject, because it makes you feel like you could contribute significantly to the discourse of the medium if you merely applied yourself…

(In the coming days, I’ll be writing up a more higher ed specific wrap-up of TWTRCON for the BU Social Media Communicators Blog, which I’ll make sure to link to.)

The answer didn’t come to me until I attended TWTRCON 2010 on Monday. I was asked why I was there and what I did several times that day by my fellow attendees, and I would explain, “Well, I work in higher education, where I try to manage communications and technology amongst my other duties, and am a freelance sportswriter at night.”

After the third time of this description, it hit me. …On Being a Sports Girl doesn’t reflect who I am anymore. I have a value beyond sports (well, I always did, but I don’t have to hang my hat solely on sports anymore.) Not only am I a sports buff, but a social media lover, someone who believes in the power of higher education, and everyone’s older sister. If my blog reflected me, then it would be much easier to write, promote and otherwise be passionate about again.

Once I made that consious decision, the ideas came flowing back. I could write about x, y, or z! I jotted down ideas through the entire bus ride home. Despite my exhaustion from traveling and the fact that I haven’t slept in a week thanks to the globe’s worst ever sinus infection, I was determined to get back to the computer and write. But first, I would have to change the title of my blog.

I know I’ll miss the title …On Being a Sports Girl. I may even wake up tomorrow morning and think I’ve made a rash decision, a misguided branding mistake, a loss of the online identity I’ve had since 2003 (yes, it’s been that long.) However, I’m no longer that 21 year old who writes about the “Hallmark Lackluster Quarterback Ornament Collection” and looking at grad schools. I’m now married, way older than 21, engage way too many people on Twitter, and love me some lacrosse.

So look forward to much more content in the future – still sports related when needed, but much more well-rounded. For those who need the sports writing fixes, I’ll still always link to my pieces from around the web.

What do you think of this change? Do you think I’m totally insane? Let me know.

Photo: BU Athletics

On June 20, Fox Sports Network will begin airing Season 2 of Replay The Series, a series focused on enabling rematches of games from participants’ younger years. This season will focus on a 1999 hockey game between Detroit Central Catholic and Trenton High School that was stopped mid-game when a Trenton player suffered a severe injury to his jugular vein.

While Central Catholic continued on that season to have a championship season, Trenton couldn’t rebound from the horrific injury. Gatorade, the series sponsor, set out to recreate the game to allow the two teams to finish – including the severely injured Trenton player.

The actual game and the rematch featured a former BU captain and his Providence College standout twin brother. Brad and Tony Zancanaro played for Trenton High in 1999, and are key players in the rematch. You’ll be able to spot them in the featured clips on the series’ website. Brad was captain of the Terriers in 2005-06, while his brother Tony was one of the key cogs of the Friars from 2003-07. Immediately following Trenton’s disappointing 1999 season, both brothers went on to play in the USHL and NAHL before beginning their collegiate careers.