I don't know why the Predators gave up so much for Peter Forsberg (login info.).
Two draft picks and a prospect for a rental? A rental who announced "Today is not a good day... . It's been a really bad year." And who then said: "I will become a free agent the first of July. And if they want me back, I'm sure I'll hear from them and consider it. I liked it here. I've had some of the best teammates a guy could ask for in Simon Gagne and Mike Knuble for two years. We jelled perfectly, and it's very sad to leave them. In the future, I'd love to play with them again. We'll see what happens."
Sure, Forsberg might re-sign with Nashville, but it sure doesn't seem likely (my money is on retirement after this season since he wouldn't sign an extension with the Flyers). So unless the Preds win the Cup, I'm not sure what Forsberg and his questionable health, is bringing to the table. I know Nashville is just trying to get butts in the seats, but if Forsberg does become a draw, it's just going to hurt tickets even more when/if he splits Music City.
Or does Nashville just want to be able to one day retire his jersey?
Phil Sheridan doesn't see this as a huge loss for the Flyers.
And yeah. Predators coach Barry Trotz is considering rolling three scoring-ish lines, which is pretty cool.

I missed this earlier in the week but it's pretty interesting:
The Devils tend to lose the game after shutouts. The New York Post reported that a third of Devil losses this season have come after Martin Brodeur's now-patented age-defying blankings.
What does it mean? I don't know. Maybe if the Devils are up by more than a goal, then Brodeur should just let in a puck in the last five seconds or so.

The NHL is going to London, England!
It's good that the NHL is finally trying to grow the league internationally, but imagine how cool it would be if they played some games in Russia or the Czech Republic or Sweden. Because unless I'm not mistaken, there aren't a huge number of hockey players coming out of the UK. But I guess some English fans, like this guy, will be happy to see some live hockey.
And I bet some NHL players will enjoy the chance to partake of various boiled meats.

The most interesting part of Brad Stuart and Wayne Primeau going to Calgary for Andrew Ference and Chuck Kobasew? Stuart and Primeau were both part of what San Jose sent over for Joe Thornton, making that deal look even worse over time. I know I would feel a lot better if Boston would just admit it was an awful trade. I really need the closure.
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Off Wing has a nice scoop: the NHL has been leaning on Versus to get a nightly NHL highlight show and it looks like it's going to happen. Next season. You know. No hurry or anything. I know I've complained about the lack of a highlight show on Versus, but given the network's meager reach, I wonder if the NHL shouldn't just produce something itself, hire a cool host, and just post it on YouTube every day. To be extra meta, the show could just be the best highlights fans have posted on YouTube. Because this was Versus' Sunday night primetime lineup:

7:30pm HOLY @#%*!
8:00pm PBR BUILT FORD TOUGH SERIES PRESENTED BY WRANGLER
10:00pm ROCKY IV

I know what ROCKY IV is, but I couldn't even tell you the genre of the programming from 7:30 to 9:59. I'm not even sure those aren't typos. Or that the Versus site hasn't been hacked or something.
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I kind of had a feeling Brendan Shanahan and Jaromir Jagr didn't always get along (they've publicly disagreed about how the Rangers should run their powerplay), but Tim Panaccio gets a lot more specific (login info.):

The Rangers wanted a nasty guy to help them in their playoff push, so they picked up Sean Avery last week. But Avery doesn't get along with Brendan Shanahan, who doesn't get along with Jaromir Jagr... .

Interestingly, the New York media have been reporting that Shanahan signed off on Avery's move to New York and that Avery really looks up to Shanahan. So who knows. But Panaccio has a good track record.
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Helene Elliott had a great column on the movie BREAKFAST WITH SCOT, which is the fictional story about a gay ex-Maple Leaf who adopts a kid with his partner. She brings it around to the often homophobic culture of the NHL and then brings that around to John Amaechi, the former NBA player who came out this week (login info.). As one might expect, Elliot comes down in favor of using the movie as a teachable moment, and in the spirit of expanding the conversation, you might want to give it a read.
Obviously, this would all be a much cooler thing if the movie didn't start that idiot from the TV show ED.