A Closer Look: AOL Fanhouse Power Rankings 11/08/08 (Your Cats: Take a Guess...)

So it's come to this. Very little room for childish jabs at the likes of Atlanta or the Isles this week. At least it'll be an easy wrapup:

Teams above: SJS, MON, DET, ANH, WAS, NYR, BUF, MIN, PIT, NJD, CAL, CAR, BOS, DAL, OTW, CHI, PHI, VAN, EDM, NAS, TAM, COL, STL, PHO, COB, TOR, ATL, NYI, LAK.

Leagues Below: maybe the ECHL.

Oh yeah...get over to Puck Daddy for a bit of good news for one area Cat fan.

Puck Daddy Needs Your Vote

Please do not "Click Here". Do it below.

Maybe not a vote, per se, but your contribution can pay a hefty bounty by midnight. Tonight. Yes, Wednesday.

Get over to The Daddy and demonstrate how badly you, as a Panthers-Fan rep, need free tix, bubbly, and decent seats. For one night, anyway.

They gotta win sooner or later, right? Might as well see it while sauced courtesy of Michael Yormark.

Puck Daddy Has A Deal For You, But Ya Better Be Creative

This has certainly been the season of giveaways. And for good reason. If the boys can get some wins under their belts, the club won't need to resort to these gimmicks (and I use that term in the nicest way). Now about that St. Louis game...

Another contest is afoot, this time at Yahoo! Sports' Puck Daddy. I'll let Greg give you the details over there (where you should have honestly already been by this time of the day). It's a good one, kids.

Oh and no, I'm staying out of it. But "Cool"? Free Parking. "Uncool"? The lane-lacking entrance to the Sawgrass Expressway.

Good Luck!

Does Spilled Beer Quell the Spectre of Bettman?

Sadly, no.

Alas, those many years ago at the soon-to-fall Miami Arena I indeed bumped into the Field Marshall himself on a stairway leading to my seats during the first-ever homegame for the expansion Florida Panthers, attempting to fend off a scrappy band of recent Stanley Cup champions in the guise of the mighty Penguins from Pittsburgh.

Unfortunately, the Baby Cats fell to the Pens, but I departed the building that evening feeling pretty shallow for having dumped the hefty sum of $16 (four beers...in 1993!) on Herr Bettman's well-pressed Fifth Avenue suit during the commish's Great Sunbelt Experiment, South Florida, Day One. I hope ESPN had a hairdryer on staff...this was well before The Mullett's arrival.

Of course, April of 1997 hit several years down the road and I never looked back. The Whale hightailed it out of Hartford under his watch - some would say due to his watch - and suddenly I felt severely shortchanged on that original $16.

In any case, that's my GB story. For those not following the human drama that is "Gary Bettman - Portraits in Heroism", you're missing out.

Greg Wyshynski - the Puck Daddy himself - commisioned what has morphed into a truly epic contest, featuring everyone's favorite reality-splicer: PhotoShop.

Head over to the gallery of what can only be described as - and I'm paraphrasing that cinematic colossus The Cannonball Run - the hockey equivilent of the Bay of Pigs.

The idea? Anything goes. And it does. Absolute gold.