Toronto, ON It seems like a million years ago, but this Psycho Lady made her first foray into the American Hockey League, as I’m sure many others did, during the 2004-05 NHL Lockout that devastated hockey addicts near and far. Back then the Toronto Marlies didn’t exist. The Leafs’ farm team was flourishing in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and were an integral part of the community out there.

Although the NHL Lockout was an amazing year for AHL hockey, I can only imagine that the spectacular season, loaded with NHL talent, was bittersweet for St. John’s superfans, as they knew going in that it was the end of the line for their beloved Baby Leafs. For ravenous hockey fans such as I, however, the news that Toronto would once again have an AHL team was a time of celebration. I didn’t even have to think twice about putting down a deposit on season tickets when I was approached by a fresh faced sales person just before the gates opened for a special St. John’s Maple Leafs vs. Hamilton Bulldogs extravaganza at the Air Canada Centre.

Fast track to life after the big move from Newfoundland, and Toronto hockey fans would be put under the microscope for failing to embrace the Marlies as they had been embraced in St. John’s. “Toronto isn’t a hockey town, it’s a Leafs town.” I for one find such statements offensive. Just because the average Joe isn’t willing to blow an ungodly amount of money on “the next best thing” doesn’t have anything to do with whether he is a hockey fan or not. And I know from experience that most of you AHL fans out there are not paying nearly $50 a pop to sit in the first 8 rows of your favourite minor league rink. I also don’t think I need to remind you that, especially in Toronto, most hockey fans have never actually been to a live game.

Anyway… my rant has taken me off course a bit, so I will just say that I’m beside myself with glee that AHL hockey has once again been restore to St. John’s, and I feel very fortunate to have been able to see the new club play while on my brief hockey vacation from Japan these past few days. The game between Old St. John’s and New St. John’s did not disappoint. Those last few minutes of the game were especially epic. There was one problem, however, and that was my camera. As you can see from my standard game day shot, we struggled to get the camera to focus. All pictures came out blurry or dark, and unlike SOME people I don’t tend to purposely try to overexpose my pictures like I have something to hide… ahem, so I basically just gave up on the photo thing. There must have been something weird about the lighting in Ricoh Coliseum that didn’t agree with my cheap ass camera.

Luckily, my friend had a camera on his phone (I don’t have a North American phone currently), so we were able to get some workable photos at the expense of Mr. Photo Happy himself, Mike Zigomanis. I have to use this opportunity to make another comment on that whole dick pic scandal once again. OK first of all it’s pretty sad that major Toronto media is even covering this story to begin with, but it’s even sadder that it has taken them MONTHS to actually catch up to it at all. That being said, the bullshit statements they release on the matter actually blow my mind.

“Of course the pictures aren’t of him. He’d obviously own up to it if they were because that’s the kind of guy he is.” Uhhh… really?! I don’t care if you’re Jim Carrey in Liar Liar. No one would “own up” to leaked naked photos of themselves if their face wasn’t in the pictures to begin with. Come on. I mean Jiri Tlusty didn’t really have a choice as his mug was in those pictures, but even so, I’m surprised he didn’t make more of an effort to try to make a case for photoshopping. Of course Zigomanis is going to deny those photos, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t photos of him.

Once again, I obviously can’t comment one way or the other, or confirm the allegations for either side of this “are they or aren’t they?” debate, but I can leave you with some food for thought. Like I said in my original write up on the topic, I can’t imagine who these girls are that are malicious enough to actually try to embarrass someone like this. But it is that very malicious intention that makes the strongest argument in support of the authenticity of those photos. I think that if someone was mean enough to want to post naked pictures of someone online, then they are obviously doing it with the intention of embarrassing their victim. So, that can only work in two ways. 1) They actually had naked photos of the person, and simply uploaded them to a website, or 2) they didn’t have naked photos of the person, so they went and found the most embarrassing random photos (read: small penis pictures) out there, and uploaded them to a website under the name of the victim. And, well, ladies and gentlemen, have you SEEN the Zigomanis dick pics??!?! There’s nothing embarrassing about those, eh, girls? Therefore, if you want my opinion, that can only mean ONE thing… Quick! Someone give this guy my phone number!!