My first thought on Sidney Crosby's draft rights going to Pittsburgh?
The league is serious about getting the Penguins out of Pittsburgh.
I don't think too many cities would be too excited to welcome the Penguins in their current form. But with Crosby? The Penguins could get arenas built in Portland or in Vegas, desperate for any kind of professional sports team.
Just a paranoid weekend thought from someone who has some difficulty believing a struggling league would trust its future to ping pong balls and a moribund NHL franchise.

So the big hockey blog meme seems to be which team should wind up with Sidney Crosby:
Ben Wright weighs in here.
Jes Golbez gets his in here.
OffWing gets his two cents in here.
PJ from Sharkspage gives his pics here.
James Mirtle checks in here.
Even Reebok wants to know where he'll go.
If I left anyone out, let me know.
I don't think a big market team is necessary for Crosby to be a success. I'm sure ESPN will run a two-second highlight no matter who he plays for. But the reality is, very few sports fans down here in the states know who Sidney Crosby is. Playing in New York or LA isn't going to suddenly make people interested in hockey. And any team Crosby plays on is going to get some extra attention from hockey fans.
The big key to his success is playing in an open, creative system. He's going to have to put up goals and wins, in that order. He can't be on top of 1-0 or 2-1 wins. He needs his wins (and losses) to be 5-3 or 6-4 for anyone to care.
He needs to be in an old school offense, where scoring goals is more important than stopping them.
And that knocks out most of the NHL.
I could see him doing well in Phoenix, which every year comes a little closer to being a real run-and-gun threat. The big down side to the Coyotes?
Sit down.
This is going to shock you.
I don't think Wayne Gretzky as a coach is ready for prime time. He's never run a bench. He's going to be up against some very complex defenses. Defenses he never saw as a player. Obviously, Gertzky can lead on the ice. I'm not sure how effective he'll be from a bench, though. I'd hate to see Crosby wilt under a coach struggling to find his feet.
In terms of hockey, I think Atlanta is pretty hot. Can you imagine a line of Ilya Kovalchuk, Danny Heatley and Sidney Crosby? It's like THE OC meets SLAPSHOT. And Bob Hartley is a coach who knows how to run an open offense.
In fact, and I'm sooooo sure this won't happen, if I were running the NHL, I would visit whoever won Crosby and make sure they knew he was to play in a creative, open system. I would suggest that if Crosby were to play in any kind of trap, or any kind of offense that didn't involve him waiting at the red line for crisp passes out of the defensive zone, that there might be all kinds of problems. The NHL's best chance at winning back fans is for Crosby to have a breakout season. Obviously, a great deal of that depends on Crosby. But that doesn't mean that wherever he plays, the NHL can't make it crystal clear that the offense is to be sculpted to Crosby's skills and comfort.

I have to admit, as a professional hockey blogger you might suspect I'm a bit optimistic about the game.
But I'm really not. I'm sort of shocked they even settled the lockout.
And I'm even more shocked that after being dropped by ESPN, other networks are looking into broadcasting hockey next season (login info.).
Apparently Comcast is considering rolling the dice on hockey. Even more shockingly, they might even set up a state-side hockey network, comparable to the Outdoor Life Network, which seems to only show the Tour de France.
So Comcast is pretty serious about cornering the market on sports Americans don't like to watch. In fact, I'm betting a lot of Paint-Drying Leagues are getting ready to go primetime.
But Comcast isn't alone. The Dallas Star-Telegram reports Spike TV might be interested in the NHL as they try to get a toehold in sports (login info.). Unfortunately, I vowed never to tune into Spike TV after they got rid of Slamball.
It's actually pretty interesting if hockey does end up on Spike. Spike used to be TNN, aka The Nashville Network. So it will have been a journey from banjos to facewashes.
Which is also next season's Nashville Predators slogan.

The Rangers are getting serious about winning back fans. You might remember their ending hockey on a bit of a sour note, trading away everyone, including the legendary defenseman Brian Leetch, for a stunning array of second-round draft picks.
But now, they're trying to make friends.
The easiest way?
Hire the legendary Adam Graves back into the fold, some four years after he was traded away to San Jose, right on the heals of the death of one of his twin sons AND his dad.
Graves is a hero here in New York, though. When the Rangers honored Mike Richter, Madison Square Garden erupted when they caught a glimpse of him. He's about as popular a sports figure as we have. Even people who no longer watch hockey (even when it's actually being conducted) know and love Graves.
So I don't know what his hiring will do in terms of smoothing over that whole lockout thing, but I'm sure glad Graves is back in New York. I really wouldn't mind if they suited him up. He's old. They can overpay him. Then he'll be a true Ranger. Too bad Mark Messier probably isn't coming back.
I'm just kidding. If Messier were to return, I'm sure the Rangers would resume their practice of giving the elderly center 20-25 minutes a night and I'm just not ready to watch that yet.

Wow. I go on vacation for a week and the whole lockout gets solved. I should have done that months ago.
I was really happy to see the NHL didn't get any smarter while I was basking in the beauty of Myrtle Beach. The league is refusing to let TV networks cover their draft lottery. You know. Because the media is soooo interested in hockey. That's why ESPN dropped the league — the league was just too popular.
Ed Snider, founder and chairman of the Flyers, says that's a good thing (login info.). Snider told Marc Narducci "We will have another cable network other than ESPN...ESPN, in the last few years, didn't do a good job for hockey and, quite frankly, I'm glad they are gone. They tried to take advantage of us, and I'm predicting we will go in another direction."
That other direction? Public access.
But that's cool.
Meanwhile, the Wings finally hired Mike Babcock. Babcock, who coached the Mighty Ducks into the Stanley Cup finals two seasons ago, says the Wings will be an attacking team, which is a bit weird of him to say, since he was so conservative in Anaheim. You'll recall Babcock as the man who coined the phrase "manage the puck," a euphemism for not shooting it. So as the league tries to invent itself as a run-and-gun, exciting, edge-of-your-seats experience, one of its most visible teams will be managing the puck, which will probably involve paperwork, filing, and coffee breaks.
Larry Brooks has it right. With all teams paying the same, coaches are going to be even more important in terms of landing players. He recommends the Rangers make a hard play for Scotty Bowman, a coach who can whip a team of superstars into shape in a pretty short time (login info.). It's not a bad idea.
Over in Boston, the Bruins are in good shape in terms of cap space. It seems they've been letting players go for seasons. And does anyone else remember that Joe Thornton was pretty pissed at the Bruins organization before the lockout? Is that all over? Did Thornton and the Bruins forget, too? If they're happy, I'm happy. I'm just asking.
And finally, here's my nomination for craziest statement of the week. It comes to us courtesy of Karen Price of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Here, she's talking about the possibility of the Penguins signing Tie Domi: "And Domi is more than a tough-as-nails pest extraordinaire on the ice. He's also a personality. He's entertaining and a player whom Penguins fans would come to watch every night."
Does she mean people are going to watch him fight every night? Or are they going to watch him hurt more talented players behind the play? Or are people going to sit around hoping for another season like 2002-2003, when he put up a whopping 15 goals? Because that my friends, is entertainment.