I'm a pretty big fan of Mike Heika, who covers the Stars for the Dallas Morning News. His weekly email newsletter had an interesting section:

Honestly, my paper would prefer I not make declarations about firing GMs and coaches. While columnists like Tim Cowlishaw and Jean-Jacques Taylor have the ability to profess their opinions – and have done so – my job is reporting and analysis. The line between analysis and opinion is a fine one – and the more newspapers rely on things such as blogs and newsletters to deliver our product, it gets even more blurred. But the bottom line is that the role I play in this swirling concoction of information release is to get the facts and set them up in a way that best helps you understand the stories.

As more newspapers have pushed more of their beat writers to blog, I've also noticed the blurring of opinion and reporting. Not in the game stories, but definitely in a lot of the online stuff. It's interesting that Heika is taking heat for being too objective.
Speaking of opinions, Jim Kelley, whose work I've really been enjoying lately, has a great post on why Martin Brodeur is overrated.
I don't really agree (Brodeur has pretty much spent the past few seasons playing in front of an increasingly porous defense and an increasingly diminished offense), but you have to admire Kelley for taking a run at a guy as mythical as Brodeur. I don't say this about many people, but I love Kelley's moxie.

Today's Times has three NHL stories!
Take that Knicks and Mets.
The Yankees are in good shape. Firing their training coach actually made the front page of the A section.

It's interesting how many people are complaining about the officiating of Sunday's Sabres-Rangers game.
Even Jim Kelley thought it was pretty bad, and he's pure Buffalonian.
Well actually, not everyone disagrees with the officiating.
Scott Burnside thinks the officiating was OK, but also that players should be allowed to kick in pucks.
Of course, that then raises the question of if players really need sticks. And if the game might move faster if the players were kicking a ball, rather than a puck. And of course, if there's a ball, you don't really need ice. You can get away with a surface like, I don't know, maybe grass?
It's something to consider.

Wow. Larry Brooks is good. His Sunday column was all about how the NHL Competition Committee is considering changing the playoff overtime format. Acknowledging playoff overtimes don't always highlight the greatest hockey, they're thinking about something like one five-on-five twenty minute overtime that would then change to four-on-four, with the idea the four-on-four is more fun to watch and more likely to lead to scoring.
Brooks is good because Rangers-Sabres went into double overtime yesterday, with the Rangers finally winning in the 16th minute of the second OT. After killing six consecutive power plays and having a goal waved off in regulation.
But the league doesn't want Buffalo to win or anything.
Also, Mrs. PuckUpdate and I DVR'd the game and didn't actually get to see the end because the DVR kicked off after the first overtime. So overtime obviously affects everyone in very powerful ways. I'm not sure four-on-four would have actually helped in our case, but I like to think it would have.
Also, here is a game based on Ville Peltonen's ambulance adventures. Didn't the original STREET FIGHTER game have a level like this?