I'm pretty interested in the Dallas Stars this year, mostly because I'm a big Eric Lindros fan. Mike Heika has an interesting email newsletter column talking about how Brenden Morrow became the new team captain, replacing Mike Modano. Heika says the move was a way of letting the team know they need to dominate this season. Which is understandable, but it kind of sucks for Modano that he lost his job in part because his goalie hasn't been horribly sharp in the post-season. Terry Frei speculates Lindros might thrive in Dallas with lower expectations and less pressure. I wonder if that's why a lot of high draft picks decide to play where they're drafted.

The Journal News recently launched a nice Rangers blog. A day or so ago, Sam Weinman used it to report New York Post gossip columnist Cindy Adams had visited the Rangers' training facility. It was a nice heads-up as Adams yesterday had a shockingly, shockingly, almost unprecendented column about the Rangers. It's especially impressive when you consider both the Mets and the Yanks are in the post-season.
So yeah. Some newspapers are good at blogging. Also, via OffWing, the Washington Post now has a hockey blog. But considering the Post doesn't have a gossip column, I'm really not sure what to do with that information.
And do I even need to tell you the Rangers dissected the Caps last night?

You really have to hand it to Devils GM Lou Lamoriello.
He was way over the cap, everyone knew he was over the cap, the season was minutes aways, and he had a bunch of unsigned players.
I really thought he'd have to give away a quality player to clear cap space. But Lamoriello didn't blink. He hung tough.
And now everyone is signed, and the team is under the cap.
Bob McKenzie says other GMs aren't happy about Lamoriello's maneuvering, saying (behind closed doors) that Lamoriello might have gotten away with something.
The crazy thing is, as smart as Lamoriello is, it really took just two bad signings to almost derail his team for the next few seasons. You have to wonder how things will be in upcoming seasons, when GMs start to feel bolder about their moves. In the new NHL, there's very little margin for error. Lamoriello was lucky in a lot of ways -- not every team has players, like Brian Gionta, who are willing to sit without a contract while they wait for their GM to work out a plan.
Also, the Times checked in on visors in the NHL. There was nothing especially interesting except for a line from the Sabres' Adam Mair: "The only thing I personally don’t like about it is, it tends to create a little carelessness with sticks."
I watched some old hockey on MSG over the summer and you're really struck by how different the game was when the players didn't wear helmets. There's a lot less contact and work against the boards. I'm sure all things being equal, everyone is safer with helmets, but it seems like it might bring out the aggression in certain types of players.

The NHL is opening a retail store in midtown Manhattan, a la the NBA store.
Interestingly, where the NBA store is a chance to turn basketball fans into consumers, the NHL store seems to be an attempt to turn random consumers into hockey fans.
Also interesting, I've seen a ton of articles about Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby, calling their rivalry the NHL's version of Larry Bird/Magic Johnson. Which drives me crazy, because the NHL can't support that kind of rivalry. Players are on the ice for what? Twenty five to thirty minutes at the very, very most? So what are people drawn in by the rivalry supposed to do while they're waiting for the stars to get back on the ice? Pay their bills? Mute the TV? The NBA and NHL represent two different sports (and how sad is it that I have to explicitly say that?). If you reduce the NHL to a star system, you throw away the vast majority of the game. And you end up with devices like NBC's star tracker, that tells you when a star is on the ice, and how long he's been out there -- a cue to stop working on your ship in a bottle and actually pay attention. You know. Until the star is off the ice.
Hockey is a tough sell in the states. I get that. But it becomes an even tougher, if not impossible, sell if you market it as if it's a totally different sport from what it really is. Sure, they've taken out the fighting. And they've got the midtown store going up. What's next? Will the players wear shorts? Will there be a three-point goal line? A red, white, and blue puck?
Actually, I wouldn't mind the red, white, and blue puck. That seems festive.