This breaks my heart.
Tuesday Columbus Blue Jacket coach Gerard Gallant is being all coy about his top six forwards, with everyone guessing Rick Nash, Sergei Fedorov and David Vyborny on top, and Fredrik Modin, Gilbert Brule and Anson Carter on the second line.
Now Fedorov is out four to six weeks with a sprained shoulder.
The Blue Jackets can't win. It's not like Fedorov is a slam-dunk top center anyway. And one of the main reasons they took him from Anaheim was to be a mentor to Nikolai Zherdev, who's now playing in Russia. So really, Fedorov is doubly useless right now.
Interestingly, the Columbus Dispatch says there have been Devils scouts watching the Blue Jackets. With the Devils just about over the cap with a lot of key players unsigned, you have to wonder if GM Doug MacLean is looking to pick up an experienced center.
I know the blogosphere is aflutter with discussion about the Buffalo Sabres' new logo, but for my money, you're not going to get a better dissection than Uni Watch's. Because Paul Lukas knows uniforms. He is to uniforms what Colonel Sanders is to chicken, you know?
I think you do.
Isn't it perfect that Dallas Star Matthew Barnaby's son has his dad's sense of hockey theater?
I'm planning to watch a lot of Dallas this season. They've got an impressively deep, versatile team. The Dallas Morning News says Barnaby might even get time on the second line with Eric Lindros. Which works well, because Lindros likes a physical winger.
Barnaby's career numbers are a bit uninspiring, but he's played with some talented guys over his career. He did time on a line with Peter Forsberg in Colorado. That's a pretty cool type of player to have on your fourth line.
Now, if the Stars can somehow stop Mike Modano from aging any further, they're really going to have something.
I love athletes because they fixate on the oddest things.
Take the St. Louis Blues. They're coming off an awful season, and if you look before that awful season, you see a team that's been under-achieving and coasting for quite a while.
So what are they worried about?
The towels. That's all they can talk about (at least with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, anyway).
Doug Weight, just back from his rental gig with the Hurricanes:
"We're going to expect a lot from each other. From [something as] simple as promptness to respect to picking your towels off the dang floor."
Coach Mike Kitchen agrees:
"You don't go home and throw your towel on the floor because you're going to suffer the consequences of your wife's wrath, right? I think what happens here, it's the same thing."
So the Blues are set towel-wise. So no need to worry about scoring or goaltending. Because if you take care of the towels, everything else falls into place.
Actually, I can see why the Blues are trying to keep the towels off the floor this season. They sure threw'em in last season.
<rimshot />
Also out of St. Louis: goalie Manny Legace is a fan of the two-goalie system. Not surprising given his history as a backup, but still nice to hear. A successful NHL team needs two viable goalies. Just ask the Oilers about that concept.
Speaking of goalies, the Times had an interesting postmortem on the Rick DiPietro deal. Apparently, when the Isles were trying to sign Alexei Yashin, Yashin's agent pitched the team on an eight-year deal and a 10-year one. I always assumed the Islanders were actively looking for the Yashin decade. Knowing it was sold to the Isles makes the move even crazier. Because it's not like the Islanders were looking for a 10-year commitment. They were just kind of tricked into it.
Which brings us to Larry Brooks and his Sunday NHL column. This week, Brooks defended Flyers GM Bob Clarke for signing Vancouver "property" Ryan Kesler to an offer sheet (login info.). Brooks points out how it's smart because it puts the Canucks just about at the cap, meaning they're out of the running for any expensive, quality players that eventually find their way into the market. Brooks also says:
The wailing from general managers that the going rate for 10-goal scorers has now increased exponentially as a result of the signing is ludicrous. Or have they never heard of the word "no?"And there you have it. Most GMs don't know the words 'no' or 'help' and that's how agents are able to land 10-year deals for their clients. One smart GM is New Jersey's Lou Lamoriello, though. Last Thursday's Post reported the Devils had hired Steve Pellegrini, former NHL Vice President and Managing Director for Central Registry, to help the Devils out of their cap trouble. Pellegrini is said to be an expert on the CBA and the current cap. And I'm guessing Pellegrini isn't on a 25-year contract.
