In case you missed it, yesterday Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo's, Puck Daddy Blog posted a great interview with Hurricanes goalie, Cam Ward.  Like in his previous interviews, the editor of the popular blog asked a few off-beat, probing questions that you normally wouldn't see on your local sports page. 

Did you know that Ward has a silky terrier named Rex and that one of his favorite things to do is to take a walk down by the lake?   

And you were expecting what, that he and his buddy Eric Staal would be racing Maseratis down the streets of Raleigh at all hours of the night?

No one can accuse the Carolina teammates of being overly rowdy, regardless of Staal's "lengthy" rapsheet.  (Remember that wild and crazy night of partying and shouting at cars up in rural northern Minnesota?)  Although the goalie admits that he loves red wine, even if the infamous Ten Wine, from Hurricanes sponsor and ex-Canes Country sponsor, Duplin Wineries, is not high on his list.    

For the record, while we do not always see eye to eye with all of the articles, (and writers), over at Puck Daddy, we feel that Wyshynski does a tremendous job for Yahoo Sports.  I'm not sure how much a full-time, professional blogger like "PD" makes, but it's probably not enough.  Hockey fans could use a few more Wyshynski's out there, shaking the bushes for stories, instilling their sense of humor, and informing the masses.  It's not easy work.

The NHL could use a few more bloggers like him as well.

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Did you ever wonder what would happen if a blogger and a professional journalist ever met face to face?  Here's an interesting story about one such meeting.  After the Sharks/Avs game on Sunday night, Adrian Dater, a sports columnist who also writes a blog for the Denver Post,  shared some food and drink with an Avs blogger who calls himself "Jibblescribbits". 

Surprisingly, Dater holds no ill will toward bloggers:

Jibbles wondered, early in our talk, if I viewed him and others as rivals or a “threat” to my business. Honest, I’ve never viewed it that way. I’ve really just thought of them like, “Oh, ok, here’s a person with their take on the Avs and here’s the way he/she is expressing themselves” and that’s great.

The big reason newspapers are having trouble right now isn’t because people are all flocking to some blog. It’s the loss of classified advertising to craigslist. That’s it, that’s the major, No. 1 reason and everything else is a far, distant second.

Dater even admitted something that many in the mainstream media would never admit:

But far from thinking of myself as indispensable, I in turn told him that many of the things I’ve read in his and other blogs have been useful to me, and I’ve enjoyed reading a lot of them. A couple of things done by the estimable David Driscoll-Carignan as a contributor to Jibbles and Mile High Hockey have opened my eyes and led me to pursuing that information further for my own purposes.

That’s what, I guess, is the good part about the introduction of bloggers. Some of you are really good and bring good stuff to the table, stuff we can all learn and share in.

Nice to see some honesty coming from the mainstream.  You can read his entire article here.

I have shared some correspondence with Mr. "Jibblescribbits" in the past myself and he seems like a normal, reasonable person.    To read his perspective of the meeting, check this link.

(hat tip to James Mirtle for sharing this info)