Kevin Allen has an interesting piece on something I’ve been noticing: There doesn’t seem to be any market for or interest in Ottawa’s Dany Heatley.
Obviously, a lot of the disinterest is posturing by GMs, but Heatley’s contract just doesn’t make sense, financially, in a lot of places. And when you consider players like Jay Bouwmeester [...]

What a crazy night last night.
The Blues beat Detroit, the Blues on the second half of a back-to-back and the Wings coming off of three days of rest.
The Blues are now in the playoffs. I don’t think anyone saw that coming a few weeks ago. The bottom of the Western Conference is crazy. It’s [...]

The thing I love most about NHL coaching is that in a lot of ways, it’s really more about persona and performance than Xs and Os. You can have no understanding of hockey and still motivate your players, probably relying on your assistant coaches to handle the tactical issues, and you can probably have a [...]

Some more semi-random notes:

The Flyers sold their Philadelphia-based AHL team and are looking for a new affiliate near Philly. Having an AHL affiliate across town is a tremendous advantage for a team. It makes call-ups much easier, but also makes scouting incredibly simple. The Phantoms played in the Spectrum, which is about to get knocked [...]

Craig Hartsburg was fired as coach of the Senators and the consensus seems to be it wasn’t an Xs and Os coaching issue so much as a psychological one.
Hartsburg had a solid enough team, albeit one with one line and unspectacular goaltending. All he had to do was keep his top line going and he [...]

Are Senators coach Craig Hartsburg and GM Bryan Murray both out in Ottawa?
Maybe.
Le Journal de Montreal reported they’ll be replaced by Hockey Canada’s Bob Nicholson (as new GM) and Pat Quinn (as coach).
Eugene Melnyk, the owner of the Senators, says no decision has been made.
Quinn has got to be close to an NHL return. Any [...]

The Maple Leafs don’t have a ton going for them but one thing they do have is cap space.
According to Damien Cox, a lot of NHL GMs are nervous about the global economy and about future caps, and that might make them open to dumping a huge contract and some picks for the peace of [...]

Brian Burke stepped down as GM of the Ducks and Bob Murray is taking over. Burke is expected to take over the Leafs.
Both GMs will have similar issues: capped-up teams with a lot of obvious holes and not a lot of salary maneuverability to fix them. Burke is a smart guy, though. He really pushed [...]

Trade rumors are finally starting up again. The one thing I hate about the start of the NHL season is that there aren’t a lot of rumors as everyone pretty much stands pat to see what they’re dealing with:

The Ducks, Canucks, and Rangers are all still interested in Mats Sundin. I don’t see how the [...]

Wow. Jim Kelley really came out swinging against Ryan Hollweg, the Toronto forward recently suspended for a nasty, from-behind hit on St. Louis’ Alex Pietrangelo :

Check the stats: In the first four years of his NHL career, Hollweg contributed a grand total of 12 points, a plus-minus figure of minus-26, and 326 penalty minutes. In [...]