It's Friday

It's Friday. Here's what's happening.

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Today is February 8th, the 39th day of 2013. There are 326 days left in the year.

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Bruins trade Thomas to Islanders.

Bueckert, YWAM bring hockey to kids around globe.

Visit the official league website, http://www.nhl.com/.

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Today's Birthdays: Conductor-composer John Williams (scores for Jaws, Star Wars, Jurassic Park) is 81; Nick Nolte (The Prince of Tides) is 72; Actor-guitarist Creed Bratton (The Office, The Grass Roots) is 70; Vince Neil (Motley Crue) is 52; Seth Green (Austin Powers, Family Guy) is 39.

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Newark, NJ. -- The Tampa Bay Lightning will have to wait at least one more day to attempt to overcome its recent road struggles.

Nate Thompson and Matt Carle each had goals, Martin St. Louis registered two assists and Anders Lindback made 23 saves, but as the Lightning fell to the New Jersey Devils 4-2 at the Prudential Center in Newark on Thursday night.

Read the rest here.

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Sunday begins a new Chinese New Year, the Year of the Snake. Chinese New Year is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. In China, it is also known as the 'Spring Festival'.

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Labatt Blue/USA Hockey Pond Hockey National Championships Set to Begin Tomorrow Eigth Annual Event Will See Record Numbers COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The eighth annual Labatt Blue/USA Hockey Pond Hockey National Championships is set to take place this weekend (Feb. 8-10) on Dollar Lake in Eagle River, Wis. A record 341 teams featuring 2,400 players will take to the ice to participate in 612 games on 28 rinks in what will be the largest tournament to date. Players in the 2013 event will represent 30 different states including Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. Teams will play in 18 different divisions, including four women's divisons, on an ice surface currently 20 inches thick. Registration for the event began on July 16, 2012, and was completely sold out one month later on August 17. The immense popularity of the event has resulted in continued expansion over the years. In 2012, the Labatt Blue/USA Hockey Pond Hockey National Championships attracted 281 teams that took part in 511 games on 24 rinks. The inaugural event in 2006 included 40 teams and 240 players. For full coverage of the Labatt Blue/USA Hockey Pond Hockey National Championships, visitadulthockey.usahockey.com.

************************************************ WEEKEND TV WATCHING - Sunday is The Grammy Awards. ************************************************ Canadian receiver Franklin hangs up his cleats. Riders lock up veterans Russ and Fulton. Visit the league's official website at cfl.ca. ************************************************ A German scientist says that an evil dark patch shows up on the brain scans of criminals. [And the people who design parking garages.] ************************************************ Tampa, FL. — Greg Schiano's second staff in Tampa includes five new additions: John Garrett (WRs), John McNulty (QBs), Tony Oden (DBs), Robb Smith (LBs) and Dave Wannstedt (special teams). Read the rest here. ************************************************ The guy in charge of keeping Amazon's data centers up and running says that the NFL could have avoided its blackout black eye for the price of about two-and-a-half Super Bowl ads. The NFL could have bought a couple of bus-sized diesel generators, and hooked them up to an industrial-strength uninterruptible power supply system and then simply switched over to backup power when a breaker switched off power from one of the Superdome's two main power feeds Sunday night. ************************************************ Jimmy has fun (can't you tell?) at Daddy's Happy Birthday. ************************************************ You're reading the Johnny Blog. Almost as much fun as watching Nick Jr, isn't it? ************************************************ Today in Elvis History 1963 - The "Bossa Nova" sequence was shot for Elvis Presley's movie "Fun In Acapulco." 1964 - Elvis Presley's album "Fun In Acapulco" hit #9 in the U.K. 1968 - Evlis Presley was inducted into "Playboy" magazine's Hall of Fame. 1969 - The soundtrack "Elvis," from the NBC-TV special, hit #8 in the U.S. ************************************************ A flight bound bound for Manila made an emergency landing in India Thursday after a passenger gave birth to a boy while in the air. The plane, which took off from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, made the unscheduled stop while the 30-year-old passenger gave birth. ************************************************ Today in Beatles History: 1958 - The Quarrymen, with John Lennon and Paul McCartney, performed at the Wilson Hall in Garston, England. Paul introduced John to George Harrison at the show. 1963 - The Beatles were refused entry into a ballroom in Carlisle, England, because they were wearing leather jackets. 1969 - George Harrison's tonsils were removed at London's University College Hospital. The tonsils were destroyed so they could not be sold. 1972 - The official Beatles Fan Club disbanded. 2004 - The Beatles were given a special award at the 46th annual Grammy Awards for their first visit to the U.S. 2010 - Ringo Starr's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was unveiled in front of Capitol Records. 2011 - The Beatles' "LOVE" became available as an iTunes LP or as individual songs. Two exclusive "LOVE" versions of "The Fool On The Hill" and "Girl" were included. 2011 - The first official Beatles App, The Beatles LOVE, was released on iTunes. (iPhone App link) ************************************************ NEW IN THEATERS THIS WEEKEND - Identity Thief (R); Side Effects (R) and Top Gun IMAX 3D (PG) ************************************************ Today in Sports History: 1896 - The Western Conference was formed by representatives of Midwestern universities. The group changed its name to the Big 10 Conference. 1936 - The first National Football League (NFL) draft was held. Jay Berwanger was the first to be selected. He went to the Philadelphia Eagles. 1950 - The Associated Press named Jim Thorpe and Baby Didrikson Zaharias the greatest male and female athletes of the first half of the 20th century. 1963 - Lamar Hunt, owner of the American Football League franchise in Dallas, TX, moved the operation to Kansas City. The new team was named the Chiefs. 1984 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar broke Wilt Chamberlains record of 12,681 goals. He scored 15,836 goals before retiring in 1989. 1991 - Roger Clemens signed a contract with the Boston Red Sox that paid $5,380,250 per year. 1996 - Charles Barkley became the 22nd player in NBA history to reach 20,000 points. 1997 - Scotty Bowman won his 1,000th NHL regular season game as a coach. 1997 - Mike Gartner (Phoenix Coyotes) became only the sixth player in NHL history to get 600 career goals and 600 career assists. 1998 - The first female ice hockey game in Olympic history was played. Finland beat Sweden 6-0. 2003 - Mario Lemieux (Pittsburg Penguins) became the second fastest NHL player to reach 1,000 career assists. ************************************************ On this date in 1984, Space shuttle astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart made the first untethered space walk. ************************************************ Coming Up: Tonight -- Nothin' Doin' Saturday -- NHL Hockey -- Tampa Bay Lightning at Boston Bruins 1:00pm EST EJHL South Hockey -- Tampa Bay Juniors at Space Coast Hurricanes 5:00pm EST Empire South Hockey -- Tampa Bay Juniors vs Florida Junior Blades 5:15pm EST Sunday -- EJHL South Hockey -- Tampa Bay Juniors at Space Coast Hurricanes 11:30am EST Empire South Hockey -- Tampa Bay Juniors at Florida Junior Blades 12:00pm EST NHL Hockey -- Tampa Bay Lightning at New York Rangers 7:30pm EST ************************************************ That's all for today. Thanks for stopping by, see you tomorrow!