Hey! If you have a second, give Bo Diddley a thought.
He's actually doing better, which is good news, but it couldn't hurt to send him some positive vibes.

This is pretty interesting. ESPN.com did a an article on Chris Chelios (blah blah million years old blah blah chili).
Detroit coach Mike Babcock has a neat quote, though:

Who led Vancouver in the playoffs in scoring? Trevor Linden did. The playoffs are like the fountain of youth. If you think they're jacked up in exhibition, if you think they're jacked up for Game 65, they're not. They might be borderline asleep...But they're jacked up now and they're competitive people. The reason they've been so good is they're so competitive and their instincts when the game is on the line are as good as anyone.

I'm wondering if that's part of the problem in Buffalo. Everyone seems to have noticed a lack of intensity in the Sabres. Sure they have the increasingly elderly Teppo Numminen, and the intense Chris Drury, but they don't seem to have a real dominant personality in the room. They don't have a Linden or a Chelios or a Niedermayer. That might be the piece of the puzzle Buffalo seems to be missing.

This is pretty funny.
The Edmonton Sun's Terry Jones is covering Ducks-Wings in California and he couldn't see the games from Detroit because his hotel doesn't get Versus.
Also, speaking of Versus, I'm not a huge Ray Ferraro fan, but this is an interesting idea: Bevel the posts on the nets so any shot hitting the post goes in.
I'm not sure if the physics of the suggestion would work, but it is a quick, painless way to add a few goals to a game.

This weekend, the Times had a nice look at the Buffalo Sabres and their owner, billionaire Tom Golisano. Golisano said something very interesting:

We can remain profitable as long as we play decent hockey...If the team were to evolve into a lower-echelon team, I think there would be significant concern about losing money.

How can teams survive in this kind of environment? Realistically, successful teams are much harder to keep together since the players are obviously performing at a high level, meaning they can command greater value on the free market, once they're free agents. So not only do teams need to be good, they need to draft well and have a strong talent pipeline so they can continue to be good. Obviously, it's not impossible, but it is very difficult. So basically, it seems the NHL is setting up the smaller-market teams to fail.
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Speaking of failure, William Rhoden had a Sunday column (and sadly behind the Times paywall), about the NBA reaching out to China. I'm constantly shocked that the NHL isn't doing more of this kind of outreach in Europe. It probably doesn't have the same kind of revenue potential as China, but it would have to be better than not doing anything at all.
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Also, thanks to Leafer Sutherland, who posted a cool interview with yours truly over on The NHL Arena Program blog.
Also, since I haven't mentioned this in a while, don't forget to show some Twitter love.