Chris Pronger to Anaheim...

Hey everyone!

Sorry I haven't been around more in the last few days, but I was in Montreal and I've been so freakin' busy... You'll see a lot more of me around here in the next few days as well as the next few weeks.

First off, if you don't know yet, Chris Pronger has just been traded to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for Jeoffrey Lupul and a bunch of draft picks. While the Oilers didn't get full value in return for their star defenceman, Lupul is young, and he is very good. He could really blossom in Edmonton, and will fit right in with guys like Ryan Smyth, Shawn Horcoff, Ales Hemsky and Jarret Stoll. I expect Kevin Lowe will now try really hard to re-sign Jaroslav Spacek, and since pretty much all free-agent defencemen have been signed, I wouldn't be surprised if he tries to get one through a trade. In the meantime, he did manage to re-sign Fernando Pisani and Dwayne Roloson, and both were priorities.

After seeing the Oilers fall to the 'Canes in 7 games, on Saturday I had to witness England fall in penalties to Portugal. I'll tell you that much: it was a heartbreaker. Frank Lampard, perhaps the best european player in the tournament, once again could not convert glorious chances into goals. England could've really used his touch throughout the tournament, but he never quite found it. John Terry also missed the net on an excellent chance in the second half. But in the end, England's lack of a quality goaltender is what gave them in. When Robinson needed to shine, he disapeared and let in 3 goals on penalties, while on Portugal's side, their golaie seemed to be almost on every ball. When you consider that Beckham was out with a foot injury, that Michael Owen had been missing for a couple of games and that Wayne Rooney was out on a red card, England's chances were quite slim entering that shootout (or whatever they call it). 2006 is a year every English fan will look back on wondering what could've been. This was a good team, but they couldn't come through in the clutch.

Saturday was not all bad, though, as France did defeat the Brazilian squad. And since we, at The Dwarf's Musings, hate Brazil, that was pretty sweet. France will now face off against Portugal, and with Thierry Henry, arguably the best striker in the world, and Zidane on fire, they have now become really dangerous. I think France will dominate Portugal and head over to the finals. In the other match, Germany will face off against Italy. And while Italy did clobber Ukraine on Friday, they have hardly faced a worthy opponent since the start of the tournament. I think that with Klose and Ballack playing really well, and with the home crowd on their side, Germany will take the victory and face France in the finals.

That's it for now, dudes and dudettes... I'll se you later in the week.

Dwarf out