I'm back, apparently.

Work is for quitters, anyway. I guess my purpose as 'office manager' was simply to get things in order so that I could be laid off a week later once a direction was established and some organization put in place.

To think, the Blockbuster job I could have had - just a standard in-store job, would have been the better choice? Who would have guessed that?

The deadline is Wednesday at 3PM and the Panthers have only one game left before that time. There have been all kinds of reports online about Bouwmeester of course, and others about Jacques Martin possibly expressing some interest in Ian Laperriere of the Avalanche, along with the white-hot excitement of wondering who Bill Guerin's mystery club will be. Alright, maybe it's not all that exciting. It's the only move JM plans on making and he wants to save it for deadline day so that people can get excited. But really, I have no idea what's going to happen between today and Wednesday afternoon with players on the Panthers. Aside from knowing about McCabe a month in advance, Martin's been pretty good at keeping things on the hush-hush.

He was in Philadelphia for two games and Flyers' GM Paul Holmgren confirmed that he did indeed express interest in Jay Bouwmeester, and so that's got people wondering about a package involving at least Joffrey Lupul, and a defenseman (Randy Jones or Matt Carle, due to Philly's position agaist the cap. Of course, deep down we're probably all saying, "If it has to be you, can you please give us Coburn? Who cares about the cap. You can figure it out later,") but oh well.

Then there's the Nick Boynton situation - if you didn't read it on George Richards' blog, or Steve Gorten, or some of the other places that ran it (most places ran it, because this close to the deadline, everything is a potential trade, even if it isn't) - now you can. Will Boynton be traded? I don't know. He has faded defensively as the season progressed and he started to make some boneheaded decisions, but for the most part, he has been a pretty decent defender with a physical element and a constant willingness to stick up for any and all of his teammates all the time. Down the stretch, you don't really want to give that up. Moving his cap hit (third highest among Panther defensemen) could help the Cats in another trade, though.

So there you have it. Rochester, by the way, picked up a win against former Ottawa Senators goaltender Martin Gerber yesterday. Gerber is now playing for the Senators' AHL affiliate in Binghamton.

The Amerks added three players during this hiatus of mine: Jarret Lukin, Judd Blackwater and Kyle Hagel.

Lukin is a 25-year-old center from Fort McMurray, Alberta who had been playing with the ECHL's Dayton Bombers. Lukin led the Bombers with 20 goals before joining the Amerks on a PTO and in two games, has two assists.

Blackwater is a 21-year-old center who previously had a brief nine-game stint with the AHL's Rockford IceHogs, scoring three goals in nine games. Also from Alberta (Lethbridge), Blackwater has a goal and an assist in three games.

Hagel is the lone defenseman of the three newcomers. He's 24 years old and a native of Hamilton, Ontario. He fought Rockford's Sean McMorrow on Valentine's Day.

Michal Repik leads the club with 38 points in 57 games, while Janis Sprukts has 37 in 48. Shawn Matthias has improved, and he's up to 10 goals and 17 total points, while both Mike Brodeur and Tyler Plante have played quite well. Plante has improved his numbers considerably, and while still being 5-9, he's brought his GAA down to 2.98 and his save percentage is up to .908%. Very impressive, considering that he was 0-5 with a 5.1 GAA and an .850%.

The same cannot be said for Chris Beckford-Tseu. CBT played only one game with the ECHL's Florida Everblades and conceded 5 goals on 35 shots. Now, he's playing with the Phoenix RoadRunners (also ECHL) and he's not doing any better. Though only three games, Beckford-Tseu is 1-2 with a 4.02 GAA and an .857%.