I have to say, and say completely without sarcasm, that I think Tampa does a nice job with their young players.
Victor Hedman was starting to look a little overwhelmed and outmatched on the ice. Coach Rick Tocchet could have yelled at him or coddled him or told him to figure it out. But instead, he [...]

When a GM supports a coach, that’s usually the surest sign the coach is about to be fired.
Down in Tampa, GM Brian Lawton is supporting coach Rick Tocchet, even as the team struggles to find consistency.
One thing that’s forgotten about Tocchet is that he’s a new coach with an inexperienced coching staff. Rookie coaches and [...]

Some interesting coaching from Tampa Bay’s Rick Tocchet last night.
Despite a strong-if-ultimately-ineffective game from Vinny Lecavalier, Tocchet wound up benching his top two lines for most of the third.
Tocchet was probably upset that the Caps have pretty much owned Tampa Bay since 2007. He also couldn’t have been happy about his team dropping five of [...]

What a crazy season.
Jeff Gordon says he’s already hearing trade chatter from certain NHL GMs, with many already thinking about giving up their season and trying to dump salary.
What separates NHL GMs from most other sports, is that NHL GMs only seem to think about salary implications after a contract is signed.
Vinny Lecavalier, under [...]

Are we too impatient with first-round draft picks?
Maybe.
Even though he finished last season relatively strong, Steve Stamkos was written off as a bust, or at least as someone with the potential to be a huge bust. Now, 10 games into Tampa’s season, Stamkos has nine goals and five assists and looks like a real [...]

After the lockout, everyone talked about the new NHL, and how a premium would be placed on offense.
In the new NHL, we were told speed and talent would matter. Players would be free to actually play, and wouldn’t spend entire periods with sticks embedded in their abdomens.
It seems that crazy-sounding idea continues to blossom.
We’re [...]

The Long Island Press is reporting Charles Wang, owner of the Isles, has walked away from the Lighthouse project, apparently feeling it would never get done.
The project would have resulted in a new arena for the Isles.
One interesting, if completely unconfirmed, wrinkle is Sam Fischler’s assertion during last night’s Rangers game that the Islanders don’t [...]

Not that he’s horribly objective, but Jeff Halpern expects the Lightning to be much more successful this year.
Tarik El-Bashir caught up with him in DC and it’s interesting to hear Halpern talk about how hard it was for him to leave the Caps. Halpern also talks about the pressures of being in a contract year.
Speaking [...]

Tim Panaccio says the Sedin twins are supposedly looking for $7 million each per season.
I don’t begrudge anyone their money, but what team can afford $14 million for two players?
Someone needs to explain the salary cap system to the twins. Unless they’re no longer that into playing with each other. Maybe that’s the whole point [...]

Two fun facts to start today:

The Blues have one first period goal in their last 11 games. But they’re also 7-3-1 during that stretch, so maybe that’s working for them.
Flyers coach John Stevens enjoys baking. I had him pegged as a griller, not a baker.

The baking thing comes up in Anthony J. SanFilippo’s column on [...]