Matt Fenwick called these the dog days on Friday, and given the utter snail's pace that hockey news has taken on the past week or so, that's pretty tough to contest. Tennis... golf... the Jays' feeble attempts to claw into the wild-card race — those are the diversions for the next few weeks in these parts.

I'm slogging through putting together what might be the largest post ever on this blog, something that I hope to have ready to go in the next few days. I figure that without a lot of the quick hit news items, now might be time to dig into some of the more complex issues that have been sitting in the draft pile all season. Should have something ready to go by early Tuesday or Wednesday.

Here's something to keep in mind, however: The Canada/Russia Super Series begins two weeks from today in Ufa, Russia, and with the two top junior nations squaring off, it may make for some compelling viewing. All eight games will be on Canadian television.

Players to watch include Kyle Turris, Angelo Esposito, Sam Gagner and John Tavares for Canada, and Semen Varlamov, Alex Cherepanov and Vyatcheslav Voynov for Russia.

Given the number of highly drafted youngsters is weighted heavily in Canada's favour, this one might be a walk in the park, but you never do know with these types of international competitions. At the very least, it'll be a nice showcase of players like Tavares who have yet to perform on the Under-20 international stage.