Larry Brooks’ Sunday column was all about how dull most of the season has been. This has been a slow season. The Olympic break took a lot of momentum out of the playoff chase. The trade deadline was quiet. This season has felt longer than previous ones. But that doesn’t mean there haven’t been some [...]

Oh wow! The Leafs finally won! The Leafs finally won! Who knew goaltending was such an important position? Jonas Gustavsson earned his first NHL win with his second solid NHL start. But credit Anaheim, too, for playing a very dull game. It’s almost like they wanted to give the Leafs their first win of the [...]

What are we? Two weeks into the season? And already the Doug Weight trade rumors are starting. This has to be some kind of trade rumor record. The Islanders are still waiting for their first win of the season and are in a challenging situation. Coach Scott Gordon has some talented, but undeveloped forwards and [...]

David Pollak had a piece discussing how much competition the Sharks have for their third- and fourth-line slots. This seems to be the new GM move: spending an excruciating amount of time, and to a certain extent, money, on guys who will play 10 to 15 minutes a night. At least San Jose GM Doug [...]

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 [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]