I took a look at our 25 man roster a bit ago and saw that Avila was our only catcher listed.  I know that V-Mart can catch some.  Is Avila ready to be our everyday catcher and how did he do during the spring? Do we have anyone semi-decent in Toledo or Erie in case of injury?

Is there any chance that they might put Inge behind the plate at all? or is Brandon more of an emergency 3rd catcher?

I was reading through the transcript of Aaron Portzline's live blog chat on bluejacketsxtra.com this morning.  In that chat, our dear friend Nikita was mentioned.  Portzline brought up that Filatov was stripped of the captain C of Team Russia after running aground of another coach.

I found the following quote on foxsports.com while reading the article titled "Focused U.S. spoils Canada's party":

"Kirill Petrov wore the 'C' in Russia's loss to Finland Monday and, according to Russian reporters, previous captain Nikita Filatov was stripped of his duties after criticizing the organization (i.e. coaching) of the team in a Russian media scrum."

Credit for this information goes to Ryan Kennedy of the Hockey News.

I just had to share this information.  First and foremost, Nikita should have NEVER been given the priviledge of a "C" on his sweater.  Secondly, after his tantrum in getting out of Cbus, wouldn't the Russians have been smart to not give it to him in the first place?