Geez. What can yo usay about Ranger Roman Lyashenko's suicide?
It's just so freaking sad.
Newsday has a weird detail about the death:

Lyashenko's death is considered suspicious because Alexei Traseukh, who coached Lyashenko for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in Russia, was shot to death in January in his apartment in Yaroslavl, where Lyashenko lived. In May, Igor Grigorenko, a former teammate in international competition, sustained a broken leg and concussion in a car crash in Russia. In June, former Lokomotiv teammate Vladimir Antipov was injured and his wife killed in a car crash. Lyashenko's apparent suicide fueled speculation of links to the Russian Mafia.

The Times also looked into Lyashenko's death. You can never really understand suicide, though. It's not something that ever makes sense. But then the Russian Mafia doesn't really make sense, either.

Here in the states, the NFL is starting its own network. And teams only play one game a week! How can that support a network? What are they going to show during the week? Someone needs to start an NHL network. I'd watch that. I'll be honest — no one else in the states would. But I would.

Jarome Iginla is talking trash, baby!
Not really, but kind of. He's saying the Flames will make the playoffs this season.
They probably won't — they don't really have any goaltending or a second line — but it's cool that he's relaxing enough to make predictions like that.

No hockey news today. Believe me, I looked. Here are some other ways to entertain yourself, though:

1) Visit Off Wing Opinion. There's always something good cooking there.

2) Visit Blood Culture, a great comic.

3) Check out Dustinland, another great comic. Plus I went to college with the guy. Plus we both live in the same part of Queens. Weird, right?

4) Visit the site for the new Mandy Moore movie HOW TO DEAL. Hockey is freaking awesome, but sometimes I think we all just want to cry. Am I wrong?

Sorry! Technical difficulties prevented me from posting yesterday (and this morning!).
Now, on with the fun!
Maple Leaf fans have but one thought on their minds:

"What the hell is Robert Svehla doing?"

He's supposed to be deciding on whether he'll retire, but since the Leafs have to pay him if he doesn't, they can't play around with his $4 million salary.
That's making it hard to sign anyone new. Especially Joe Nieuwendyk, who supposedly is pretty psyched about playing for Toronto.
You know. If Svehla ever makes up his mind.
GM/coach Pat Quinn said the Leafs will probably bulk up through trades, rather than through free-agent signings, though.
Still no word on how that GM search is going, either.
I'm sure Quinn is in a big hurry to give up his GM title.

Bruce McNall is best known in hockey circles as the guy who brought Wayne Gretzky to LA. McNall was 1987 NHL owner of the year.
He ended up doing four years in federal prison for embezzlement.
Now McNall is out and about, plugging a book, and trying to earn money producing movies.
McNall says he's done with sports, though: "I could never own another franchise again. Even back when I owned the Kings, I was a dinosaur. The days of the single owner of a franchise are over."
And there you have it. Straight out of prison.

Wow. Poor Steve Reinprecht. The Colorado forward was a part of the Chris Dury deal, going from Colorado to Buffalo to Calgary.
I always feel awful for players who are traded like that. At least it wasn't the regular season, but still. You think you're moving to Buffalo, New York. Then you find out you're going to Calgary. It's a lot to adjust to.

Chris Drury never really clicked in Calgary. Luckily, he's on the move, traded to the Sabres in a three-team, five-player deal.
It's fantastic seeing a talented player join the once-proud Sabres franchise rather than being sent away.
The Sabres' new ownership seems pretty serious about building the team up. They made a go at Todd Marchant, offering him five years at $15 million, before Marchant took six years at $19 from Columbus.
A couple of teams were interested in Drury. The Rangers for one. Colorado, where Drury played for four years, was another.
Nice pick-up for Buffalo, though. Players like Drury are what win games and win playoffs. How much of more of a factor was Steve Thomas for Anaheim, compared to Paul Kariya?
Exactly.

Hmmmm. So you might have heard Colorado made some interesting signings last week. The Denver Post has a really interesting look at how the whole deal went down (the whole deal being Colorado signing Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne for merely $7 million combined).
Basically, Kariya and Selanne took pay hits to try and win the Cup. If they don't win the Cup, though, they're still unrestricted free agents, free to go wherever they want.
Joe Sakic will probably play between Kariya and Selanne. They're all represented by the same agent. Colorado is probably a little worried the three of them will walk off together next season for even less money.
Bill Plaschke at the LA Times blames Duck management for driving off Kariya. Still. To sign with a conference rival for less money seems pretty angry.
Mark Kiszla says the deal should be struck down since it destroys the free agent market. I'm not sure why Commissioner Gary Bettman, a pro-owner guy if ever there was one, would be upset about free agents getting less money.

Not that it's so incisive, but Tim Panaccio says Jeff Hackett isn't enough of a goalie to take Philadelphia to the Stanley Cup.
Of course Panaccio supports his theory with stats — mostly the fact that Hackett is injured a lot. Add to the pot the fact that Hackett didn't really come alive in Montreal, his stop before Boston, until he was challenging Jose Theodore for the starting job. Hackett doesn't seem to get into his zone until a job is on the line. Maybe he and Robert Esche will really push each other to greater goaltending heights. Or maybe one of them will implode in the playoffs — after all, this is Philadelphia.
Interestingly, Philly GM Bobby Clarke thinks offense first. Sadly, his coach Ken Hitchcock thinks defense first. So the GM is building a team that the coach doesn't really want.

NHL watchers are really digging the Islanders plight.
Stuck with Alexei Yashin's oppressive two-hundred year contract.
Sometimes trying to deal captain Michael Peca and sometimes not.
And with goalie Garth Snow unsigned, they only have Rick DiPietro to fall back on. DiPietro, while a solid goalie, is basically unproven in the NHL. That's a lot of pressure.
You don't have to spend a ton to compete in the NHL, but you have to be smart. The Islanders just look foolish, like they've never run a team before.