Kind of a mixed bag of stuff:

• Jerry Sullivan had a nice column exonerating Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff for the Sabres' troubles. Sullivan points out the coach doesn't have much input in terms of a GM refusing to sign key players. My pet theory is that GM Darcy Regier has watched and admired Lou Lamoriello of the Devils, a GM who's let more stars go than he's re-signed. Of course, the Devils have always re-signed some stars, not no stars, so maybe Regier missed the subtle distinction.
• Alyssa Milano has an NHL clothing line, which means she does read my emails. And letters. And blog posts.
  Thanks to Watchdog for that nugget.
• Congrats to Brian Leetch for having his number two retired by the Rangers. I was just saying to someone yesterday that the amazing thing about Leetch is that you never see clips of him at the blue line. He's always down low. Yet he was a pretty solid defenseman, too. It'll be nice to see his sweater up in the rafters, along with everyone else from that 1994 Cup team. The Rangers will probably be out of numbers in the next 10 years. Even sooner if they ever win another Cup.

Wow. The Blues have lost six games in a row. Obviously, they're sitting outside of the playoff zone right now.
What's with the Blues? As Jeff Gordon points out, the crazy thing is, on paper they're doing OK. They're healthy. Paul Kariya is effective (although with a -6 for January). They lost Doug Weight but picked up the younger, puck-dishing Andy McDonald. There's really no reason for the slide.
One thing about the Blues is that they're not afraid to make a deal. They're five points out of the Western eight-slot. While they might not go after Marian Hossa, I suspect they might take a strong second-tier player from a team trying to clear cap space to land a top player like Hossa. I'm thinking someone like Petr Prucha from the Rangers. A lot of potential upside, but also some kind of fatal flaw. For instance, Prucha weighs like 80 pounds.

San Jose Shark Patrick Marleau is supposedly on the block? He's been rumored to be out of San Jose since the Sharks got Joe Thornton. I always kind of assumed the Sharks forgot they wanted to trade him.
Also, Neil Best reports Mike Milbury learned why most analysts try not to be too honest. After making some comments about the fragile psyche of Jaromir Jagr, Jagr wouldn't sit for interviews with NBC Sunday. I can't think of a better way to prove your psyche isn't fragile then not doing something that's part of your job.
Finally, congratulations to Cliff Fletcher, the Leafs' new interim GM. The nice thing about this gig is that he really can't make the Leafs any worse. And it's got to be low-pressure to only have to trade players away, without the expectation of getting anything back. Nothing against Fletcher, who no one seems to think should run the Leafs in happy times, but they probably could have gotten an intern to handle this.

Crazy stuff in Buffalo. Other than their inability to win.
The NHL is investigating accusations Daniel Briere started negotiating with the Flyers before he was officially a free agent. So far, the NHL has nothing indicating anything below-board went down. And as Bucky Gleason points out, it's not like the Sabres didn't have a ton of time to sign Briere themselves. They never even got their bats off of their shoulders. Gleason also reports Chris Drury wanted to sign a four-year, $21.5 million with Buffalo and they never responded. Drury then signed a five-year, $35.25 million deal with the Rangers.
Briere, meanwhile, is mega-happy to have Simon Gagne back in the Philadelphia lineup (login info.). The Sabres are probably trying to see if they can somehow ban Briere from playing with Gagne.

I'm surprised Martin Brodeur's leaving the NHL's competition committee wasn't made a bigger deal. When you have one of the game's best (ever) criticizing the league and its treatment of goalies, that's a pretty powerful statement.
Dallas (for now) goalie Marty Turco is expected to take over for Brodeur on the committee. If I'm Turco, and I really want to protect goalies, I'm giving up the farm to protect the crease. I'd tell the committee I'm prepared to dramatically shrink down goalie equipment, like to early 90s levels, in exchange for considerably more protection in front of the crease. That would mean goaltender interference calls on anyone who causes it. If someone from my team takes down an opposing forward in front of me, knocking him into me? Guess what? Goaltender interference gets called against my forward. Three goaltender interference calls against a forward in a season would result in some kind of suspension, and that would escalate.
The thing is, Brodeur is right. No one cares about protecting goalies. I would argue the worst offenders are forwards and defenseman from the goalie's own team. But if the league took strong steps to actually protect goalies, they wouldn't need so much equipment. Not so much equipment means more goals. Safer goalies, more scoring, worse stats. It's not all win-win for goaltenders, but it's not bad, if I do say so myself.
Also, kudos to NBC for a fantastic job on Rangers-Bruins Sunday. Eddie Olczk and Pierre McGuire were better than I've ever heard them on NBC, calling out players (especially Ranger Chris Drury), breaking down plays, and just being an interesting, honest listen. I'm still not clear on former Islander GM Mike Milbury's role on the telecast, but McGuire took a great shot at him for trading current Bruin Zdeno Chara and that was pretty funny. It was the first national telecast I enjoyed in quite a while.
Finally, my fantasy column is up. This week, I coin the phrase "Great Gonchar's Ghost!"