Wow. Over in Anaheim, Rob Niedermayer is in coach Randy Carlyle’s dog house. You don’t often see a respected veteran benched like Niedermayer was. I’m most surprised because of Niedermayer’s connection to his brother, Ducks defenseman Scott Niedermayer.
It’s well-documented that Scott joined the Ducks to play with his brother. If his brother isn’t playing, [...]

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 [...]

A few quick things:

Bobby Clarke visited the Flyers to give the team some faceoff tips. Players were a bit surprised that he kept saying “Here’s another tip. You don’t need goaltending. It’s overrated. So is speed. You’ll see. You’ll all see…”
SportsHubLA has a great interview with Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times. The talk [...]

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 [...]

Actually, I wonder if Leafs coach Ron Wilson would want a second NHL team in Toronto.
According to Damien Cox, Wilson is working hard to break the spirit of the Leafs, who are treated like rock stars, even as they consistently fail as a team. A second team could be a great de-motivation tool for an [...]

Wow. What’s with the Flyers?
They blew a lead to the Sharks Saturday night, leaving them winless in their first five games.
I haven’t watched a ton of the Flyers yet this season, but it’s hard not to notice how thin their defense is. Coach John Stevens has messed with his defensive pairings, but it really hasn’t [...]

What are the Blackhawks going to do? They got their first win of the season last night, with “backup” Nikolai Khabibulin in goal. While the Chicago victory had a lot more to do with the offense finally clicking and defenseman Brian Campbell shaking himself out of an early malaise, Khabibulin had a very strong game. [...]

While the weekend games in Europe were the official start of the NHL season, last night sure felt more real to me. Maybe because there were actually night games. Goaltending was a big theme of the evening. For instance, Despite giving up four goals, goalie Tim Thomas earned a win for Boston (login info.). It [...]

I know it’s early, but I’m always curious about what lines are going to look like when the season starts, so here’s a quick look around the league:

In Phoenix, it looks like Olli Jokinen won’t be playing with Shane Doan, in an attempt to spread out size, and probably, to help protect rookie Kyle Turris.
Over [...]

I have no idea why I’m so obsessed with Mathieu Schneider this whole pre-season, but I am. Luckily, for all of us, our long national nightmare is over: the Ducks finally traded him. He’s going to the Thrashers for defenseman Ken Klee and forwards Brad Larsen and Chad Painchaud.
I’m a huge Klee fan. He’s a [...]