Blake Wheeler’s arbitration hearing with the Bruins is set for this morning.
Wheeler, heading into just his third NHL season, has been remarkably mature and solid.
He seems to have found a groove as a 20ish goals per season player, who helps out on special teams and can handle plenty of minutes.
For whatever reason, the Bruins and [...]

As a public service to both Ilya Kovalchuk and hockey fans, I’m going to list some things Kovalchuk could have done to prevent his extended stay in NHL Free Agent Purgatory.
Free Samples
At the end of the 2007-08 season, Marian Hossa left Pittsburgh to sign a one-year deal with Detroit. Hossa could have gotten a longer [...]

The playoffs are over so of course, eyes turn to next season.
The Flyers, who lost in six games, are left with quite a few roster questions, from what to do about goaltending to how to where to find defensive depth.
But the most intriguing question Tim Panaccio asks is what to do about Scott Hartnell, so [...]

I don’t remember a finals quite like this one.
When is the last time you saw such average-to-poor goaltending?
Flyers goalie Michael Leighton should have had at least two of the four goals he gave up, including the game-winner. Chicago goalie Antti Niemi continued to surrender some of the worst rebounds I’ve ever seen. His defense did [...]

John Madden of the Blackhawks is finding time to stir things up.
Right in the middle of the Stanley Cup finals, he managed to take a shot at the Devils, his old team, calling the 2009-10 Blackhawks the best team he’s ever played for:
This team is way deeper. Just take a look at the lineup…This is [...]

To be honest, I hadn’t noticed this myself, but apparently the Blackhawks are blocking a lot of shots.
It’s not that surprising, though. The Blackhawks are doing a great job keeping Philadelphia to the outside. A lot of times it seems fairly obvious where the Flyers’ shot has to come from, making it easy to block.
Peter [...]

Context is everything.
The Sun-Times has a small item talking about how well Marian Hossa is playing in the playoffs, despite scoring just two goals.
And Hossa’s game really has evolved. He’s gotten much, much more physical, which he attributes to his year with the Red Wings.
But would everyone be content with Hossa’s performance if the Blackhawks [...]

Rick Morrissey’s column this morning is about how the Blackhawks finally re-discovered their killer instinct in beating Vancouver to move into the Western Conference finals.
That’s certainly part of what helped Chicago move past Vancouver, but the Canucks also looked slightly out of sync during the series.
Vancouver would control the puck for long stretches, cycling the [...]

So the past few weeks have been a bit of an emotional roller coaster for Thrashers fans.
Before the Olympics, the team traded away Ilya Kovalchuk. That was a little sad.
Then, GM Don Waddell said the team would be buyers at the trade deadline, rather than sellers. And that had to make the fans happy.
But then, [...]

Fourth-liner Byron Bitz has been seeing some time on the first line with Marc Savard (and Blake Wheeler) and is expected to play up there tonight against Montreal.
The Bruins just re-signed Savard. I hadn’t considered this, but part of the reason they wanted to lock Savard down is to give them long-term depth down the [...]