Everyone is looking at Atlanta, wondering where they’re going to trade Ilya Kovalchuk.
But don’t forget to keep an eye on New Jersey, a team that also might be active before the trade deadline.
Not so much for Kovalchuk, but for a goal-scoring center who can help out on the powerplay.
I don’t think Kovalchuk is enough of [...]

David Pollak had an interesting take on the Sharks’ recent troubles, via coach Todd McLellan: The team simply wasn’t playing frequently enough to establish a rhythm.
The Sharks have won their last two, with a victory over Anaheim Thursday and a win over Dallas last night. Since there were quite a few days between the games, [...]

Dallas coach Marc Crawford is mellowing and maturing.
He realizes his overplayed his angry coach hand in Los Angeles, and it caused him to first lose his team and then his job.
So now in Dallas, he seems to be on more of an even keel.
Which has to be a little bit frustrating sometimes, given the Stars’ [...]

I love that the NHL owns the Coyotes. Now, whenever NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman talks about the viability of the team, it has the desperation of someone trying to unload a used car they can’t afford to keep for any extended amount of time.
Bettman was in Phoenix this week, just so he knew at least [...]

Mike Heika did his weekly question-and-answer session with his readers and while it’s all usually really good, I wanted to spotlight one of this week’s answers from Heika:

Q: What do you feel are the reasons for the Stars’ road success this year? And why hasn’t that success been duplicated at home?
HEIKA: Those are two [...]

The Devils seem to agree with the conventional wisdom that the Caps aren’t the same team without Alex Ovechkin.
New Jersey beat the Capitals 3-2 at home, where the Devils have been pretty awful.
The Devils had a lot of comments relating to how the Capitals seem bummed about playing without their star.
About the only downside [...]

It looks like Martin Havlat will play on a line with Petr Sykora, as they did in Tuesday’s win over the Ducks.
Every season, more and more GMs have been filling as many slots as they can with younger players rather than more experienced ones. There are a lot of reasons to do so: younger players [...]

The start of the season is tough, because you always want to make grand statements about teams when you’re really just working off of a small data set.
Watching last night’s Rangers-Devils, on Versus (I’m one of the 50 people left with Versus), I was very impressed by the Devils. They didn’t look like a typical [...]

In a surprise move, the Devils cut Brandon Shanahan, a decision which was apparently mutual; Shanahan wanted to be a top-nine forward and the Devils didn’t have an opening.
Shanahan hasn’t announced his retirement, but it’s going to be tough to find a place for him. If you recall, he landed in New Jersey last year [...]

Patrik Elias is out 3-6 weeks with groin surgery and the Devils are being coy about finding help via a trade or free agency.
The Devils are already pretty thin. There’s no second line center. Brandon Shanahan has been spending time on the top line. It’s starting to feel like if one more top player goes [...]