Milwaukeehockey.com

More questions than answers

September 16, 2007

Just a short gripe session today. (Okay, maybe not so short.)

After a busy week, I found time to read up on the Predators training camp. The team released their training camp roster last week (spreadsheet link), and I decided to update some of the information (height, weight, etc.) on my Players page with what was shown on the camp roster.

Upon doing that, I noticed several differences listed under "Place of Birth". Every year, I find player bios with minor contradictions on where a player was born. Usually, it's a matter of one listing a small town, with another listing a nearby larger city.

This year, I've now found some big differences. Ryan Maki born in Michigan and New Jersey. Dan Ellis born in Saskatchewan and Ontario. And the worst... Robert Dietrich born in Kazakhstan and West Germany.

Part of me believes the fault of these differences can be pinned on players who do not fill out questionnaires properly at some point... recently or years ago. Once a player's bio is publicized, those details will follow the player around in their career.

Another part of me believes many of the errors are caused by the person handling the information provided by the player. For instance, if the questionnaire reads "Hometown", and that answer is later cataloged as "Place of Birth".

Many of you probably don't give a rat's ass, but I want my site to be accurate, and I hate having glaring mistakes on a player's bio.

On a lighter note, I cheered for the Chicago Wolves last night... sort of. I endured a sloooooooow trip through Chicago yesterday on my way to Shererville, Indiana's Illiana Speedway. Former AHL and IHL linesman Stephen (Stevie) Campbell races late model stock cars and is sponsored by the Wolves. You can see photos of the car on Wolfkeeper's site. He races weekly at the Grundy County Speedway in Morris, Illinois, and makes occasional visits to other tracks in the area.

Stevie started 6th in the 46th annual 100 lap Tony Bettenhausen Memorial. He stayed near the front early, but eventually faded to a 15th place finish.

I also noticed the new Wolves billboard campaign along the expressway. It had an election theme. "Choose Wolves in 08" with a red, white, and blue backdrop in an attempt to lure Blackhawk fans to AHL games.

And the whereabouts of Karl Goehring were learned after I read he was invited to Buffalo's training camp. He hasn't signed with anyone yet, but he may be trying to land a job with Rochester, which may be hard to do since the Amerks have a split affiliation with Buffalo and Florida.

That leaves just Chris Durno and Victor Uchevatov as the only players from April's Admirals roster that are nowhere to be found.

posted by Todd # 10:49 AM

Comments:

Since you talked about birth places, Janne Niskala is just born in Sweden. I think it's safe to say that he's a Finn. Then again, maybe you should ask him personally if he'd like to be called a Swede. More Swedish players in NHL and all.

Well, I'm just amusing myself here but it would be interesting to hear what he thinks. More seriously though, I'm pretty positive that he doesn't have a Swedish passport. He might be eligible for both now-a-days, so I can't be absolutely sure.

# posted by

Anonymous : October 1, 2007 5:22 PM

Thanks for the clarification. I've since found a few sources listing him as a Finnish national.

# posted by

Todd : October 1, 2007 8:02 PM

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