Yikes! I’m not sure Kings GM Dean Lombardi got the memo not to upset your up-and-coming franchise defenseman. Lombardi made some comments about Jack Johnson’s play in Michigan, where Johnson played college hockey. Lombardi also made comments about the quality of the Michigan program. Did I mention they were negative comments? Now, Johnson is pretty [...]

What can you say about “Evgeni Malkin’s performance last night? There were stretches where he looked downright Ovechkin-esque, doing everything but playing goal. And shoving Sidney Crosby. He’ll get there, though. I thought Malkin’s potential seemed to have plateaued, but after last night’s game, I’m curious just how much he’s capable of. Over in the [...]

The Denver Post’s Adrian Dater is becoming alarmingly disgusted by the Avs, but he does have the team’s back a little bit today, agreeing that they got a raw deal in their 7-4 loss to the Leafs when Milan Hejduk’s game-tying goal was waved off for a goaltender interference call on Ryan Smyth. I can’t [...]

Don’t worry if you missed last night’s Blackhawks-Senators game. Apparently a lot of Canadians did, too, as the game was shown on the not-widely-available TSN2. Can you imagine if the Blackhawks still didn’t broadcast their home games? This might have been a game practically unseen by anyone outside of the United Center. Obviously, the Senators [...]

The Kings are probably one of the NHL’s bigger surprises this season. The team has a young, almost anonymous roster, yet somehow the Kings are still in the thick of things. Now, with billions (OK,millions) of dollars in cap space, the team has to start considering if it wants to grab some high-priced talent to [...]

The Flyers blew out the Thrashers 7-0 last night in Atlanta. The Thrashers have horrible attendance. Coincidence? Well the Thrashers have set-up certain all-you-can eat sections. Awful hockey + depression eating = messy recipe for disaster. I’m glad I wasn’t at Philips Arena last night. I think you can have all-you-can buffets or you can [...]

The Times has an interesting story this morning about the NHL leaning on its stars to market itself. The article quotes Bob Stellick, the president of a Toronto-based marketing company: Stellick says that the N.H.L. would be wise to augment its reliance on Crosby by trying to promote players born in the United States to [...]

What do you do if you’ve got two expensive starting goalies? If you’re you or me, you’re probably going to figure out which one is the best and then trade the other one. And you’re probably going to start the process as soon as possible. If you’re the Blackhawks, you’re going to let them both [...]

So apparently Wild coach Jacques Lemaire thought about retiring at the end of last season. The fun had gone out of the game for him, which I think is probably the craziest thing about Lemaire. He really does love that stifling, trapping style. GM Doug Risebrough talked Lemaire into staying. Meanwhile, Marian Gaborik remains unsigned [...]