Marblehead to Lynnfield, MA is a short distance geographically, but Marblehead native Cory Schnieder and Lynnfield’s Chris Higgins couldn’t be farther apart in their professional hockey careers this week.

For Higgins, the starting left wing for BU last year (and the LW in my most favorite line ever – Higgins, Wilson, Lawrence), Labor Day weekend will bring about his first NHL rookie camp with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Higgins, who is expected to spend the start of the season in Syracuse with the AHL Crunch, has the opportunity to be a part of a unique NHL training camp experience.

As Yahoo Sports’ Puck Daddy detailed on Wednesday, the Blue Jackets have made the beginning of their training camp a “fantasy tournament.” Owners of the franschise get to assemble their own teams for use in a two day tournament from the actual roster of the Blue Jackets training camp. According to the Columbus Dispatch, Higgins was selected by majority owner John P. McDonnell for his tournament team. Considering he had little buzz around him as he was about to enter BU in the summer of 2005, Higgins has made the best of every opportunity during his college hockey career, and it will be interesting to watch how he does in training camp.

For Cory Schneider, on the other hand, discouragement must be the primary feeling this week. Schneider, a goalie for the Vancouver Canucks, and the college hockey example of Bill Simmons’ Ewing Theory (“he’s so talented, he’s so wonderful, oh, BC will win it all this year…”, and then they finally win the national championship the year he leaves college early to go pro), is now the backup to a goaltender with a new 12 year long contract. Once goalie-extraordinaire Roberto Luongo signed an over-decade long contract this week with the Canucks, with the earliest escape clause being five years in according to the Canwest News Service, Schneider became somewhat dispensable.  Not that Schneider isn’t used to being thought of by dispensable by the Canucks organization – he was frustratingly name-dropped as trade bait nearly all last season.

The Canucks also enter training camp with Andrew Raycroft on the roster, leaving a real possibility that Schneider could be sent back to the AHL’s Manitoba Moose to start the season again. Schneider told the Salem News on Thursday that he’s not taking Luongo’s mega-deal as a death knell for his career in Vancouver. “It really doesn’t make a lot of difference as far as my situation goes; (Luongo) was still going to be here even if he hadn’t signed an extension,” said Schneider to the paper. “If you’re always striving just to be a backup goalie, you’ll never be a No. 1.”

Schneider’s lessons in hard work and humility might be needed by his former Eagles teammate, Buffalo Sabre and Portland Pirate Nathan Gerbe. According to an interview with HockeyBuzz.com, Gerbe thinks he has done all he can in the AHL, and is out for a full-time call up to the Buffalo Sabres. “I’m not going back there ( to Portland ). It’s not going to happen. I’ll play whatever position they want me to play. I’m not going down.”

As much as I root for the little guy, and as much as I like to see young players with determination, one might want to tell Gerbe that one season in the AHL doesn’t necessarily make one a full-time NHL forward. Especially when he spent a portion of the season injured, and was relatively quiet during the small amount of time he was called up to Buffalo. Gerbe may want to prepare to spend at least the first few weeks in Portland with the Pirates, given that there are a few centers ahead of him on the Sabres depth chart. And anyway, Portland’s not that bad of a city. Sure, it doesn’t have buffalo wings, but it still has Tim Hortons.

But then again, I’m a BU fan – I’m biased against Gerbe. Maybe he will crack the Sabres roster full-time….

For more hockey news, stay tuned later this weekend, as I kick off another regular series, one sure to rival my always popular, “Everyone’s Favorite Goalie” updates. Yes, it might have to do with Kane’s Donuts, Kowloon, the giant orange dinosaur, and the Hilltop Steakhouse (or the “Hilop Seakhos,” as its dying lightup catcus sign on Route 1 likes to call it.)  Stay tuned.

Let Rochester become a member of "The Eh Team." (T-shirt available at Noisebot.com)

Last Sunday, Western New York let you borrow the Buffalo Bills for a game. You gave them the Rogers Centre, a dull and lifeless home. They, in turn, gave you a dull and lifeless football game. I apologize for the unproductive exchange. Maybe when we have a quarterback, a new coach, and uninjured defense, this will go much better.

Because you were probably pretty bitter at the inferior goods we sent to Toronto, you decided last Monday to express interest in purchasing the Buffalo Sabres. Not all of you exactly, but the CEO of the best thing to come out of Canada since Tim Hortons Coffee, Research in Motion (RIM), which manufactures Blackberries. (I love my Blackberry like a second cat.) If they were for sale, RIM’s CEO reportedly is interested in buying the Sabres with a stipulation that some of their home games be played in Hamilton, Ontario.

Well, Canada, it seems that you are interested in all things Western New York. So do I have a deal for you.

Take us all.

There it is. I said it. If you want to take Western New York’s beloved but consistently downtrodden football team, and you want to take their lovable but manic depressive hockey team, then why not take all of Western New York.

I understand your argument that this might better us more than it betters you. My Western New York family would get universal health care, stricter gun laws, most likely better education, CBC, TSN, the better version of NHL Network, and even more Tim Hortons. You would get a lot of boarded up factories, Garbage Plates, and the ugly side of Niagara Falls. However, you would also get the two sports teams you desire, Wegmans, buffalo wings, and the Record Archive guy you already love so much. You would get the booming beer manufacturing business of Rochester (trust me, it pains my born-and-bred Bostonian fiance that his Sam Adams is brewed in Rochester, NY), the new MAC football champion University of Buffalo Bulls, and arguably the best stadium in Triple A baseball, Frontier Field.

You would have your coveted NFL franchise, and JP Losman could easily become the CFL quarterback he’s always deserved to be (especially after today’s heartbreaking loss to the Jets that I don’t want to talk about.) You would have an additional NHL franchise, one that especially hates southern US teams – well, at least the Dallas Stars – and you wouldn’t have to move them out of Buffalo to make them Canadian.

Listen, Canada – I realize you have your own problems at the moment. This might not be the best time for you to annex a giant piece of land from the United States. But once you get your own governmental problems worked out, I think you should talk to President-Elect Obama about the idea. He’s a politician, meaning he won’t care about Western New York, and will probably okay the deal five minutes into the discussion. And Governor Paterson won’t care – he likes to pretend Western New York is a plague anyway. He’ll be happy not to feel guilty about everything he’s not doing to help the region.

And then I’ll really be able to say I’m originally from Canada, instead of having to explain why I act, look, and speak like a Canadian without the actual citizenship. I could say, “Well, I am originally from Rochester, Ontario, Canada. That’s why I say aboot, get a headache when I go more than two days without watching hockey, and have a natural ability for ice skating.” Rochester, Ontario, Canada has a nice ring to it.

My home region is practically Canada anyway. Just make it official. Come on, Canada – whadya say?

Jon emailed me earlier this week with a comment too lengthy to be posted as a comment, and I thought it was cool enough to be my first sorta, kinda in a way guest post ever.  I’ll also link to this in the comments section of the original post as well.

Thanks, Jon for such a well thought out response to the article, and for another view into being a Western New York sports fan. The comment, which includes one of the best descriptions of why Western New Yorkers tend to flock to Boston, after the jump.

Jon:

Being a fellow WNYer almost all of my life, your Binghamton post caught my eye as I might be leaving Buffalo to go to school there. I’ve visited only a handful of times but it’s strange that my uncle who I’ve never seen as a sports fan whatsoever (more of an outdoor type) follows the Yankees quite regularly. Maybe it is because they are on TV there.

I agree with your posting about WNY/CNYers having a disdain for NYC, but not to the point where we would never visit…just not the place to live. I am more drawn to moving to Boston too. I think it’s just about being labeled Upstate. It is like feeling completely ignored. Oh well.