So the past few weeks have been a bit of an emotional roller coaster for Thrashers fans.
Before the Olympics, the team traded away Ilya Kovalchuk. That was a little sad.
Then, GM Don Waddell said the team would be buyers at the trade deadline, rather than sellers. And that had to make the fans happy.
But then, [...]

Over the break I read BALL FOUR, Jim Bouton’s famous tale of his 1969 season pitching for the Seattle Pilots and the Houston Astros.
The book is famous because it was the first one to destroy the mystique of the professional athlete. We learned guys like to drink and curse and look at women.
The book is [...]

Forbes released their annual NHL franchise valuations and things actually look pretty good for the league. Or at least for some of the franchises. The average operating profit was $6.1 million, aggregate income increased, as did average franchise value.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t an across the board thing for the all of the franchises. While successful teams [...]

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 [...]

As I mentioned yesterday, it’s still early in the season, so it’s still hard to make observations about team problems and team successes. But having said that, some interesting ideas are already starting to emerge.
Like will the Sharks play defense this season? They went down four goals to the Kings, managed to come back, but [...]

The Thrashers signed Maxim Afinogenov to a one-year, $800,000 deal. It’s certainly a cheap price for a forward with a lot of potential upside, until you consider that Afinogenov has spent the past two seasons being more about his potential than about the realization of his potential.
I was a little surprised the Thrashers held onto [...]

Defenseman Mark Popovic is in Thrasher training camp, trying to earn a contract. He spent last season playing in the KHL and he wasn’t very impressed by the quality of play there.
Popovic played for Atlanta before deciding to go to Russia, so he has a connection to the team, but part of me wonders if [...]

First of all, I would like to formally apologize to the St. Louis Blues. Back in February, I teased Jeff Gordon for suggesting the Blues were heading toward a playoff position. This morning, the Blues are just two games out of a spot, helped by last night’s huge win over San Jose. Imagine if the [...]

I think this is the saddest thing I’ve read in a while (actually, this is, but stay with me).
Steve Stamkos’s weekly diary is about how he’s started collecting sticks and pucks. It concludes with this sad note:
I asked for [Alex] Ovechkin’s at the All-Star event but I didn’t get a chance to get it. Hopefully [...]

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 [...]