Geez. The Isles had to know that after losing three in a row, the Penguins were going to be looking for a win in a big way.
And the Penguins had to know the Isles have been struggling, pretty much from minute one of the season.
But I don’t think anyone saw last night’s 9-2 blowout coming. [...]

I’d love to know the Versus ratings on last night’s Red Wings/Penguins game. It seemed liked everyone was watching it. The Wings blew a three-goal lead and were pretty much single-handedly beaten by Pittsburgh’s Jordan Staal.
Staal has a lot of offensive talent for a natural shut-down center and he struggles with balancing the offense [...]

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 appeal to [...]

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 [...]

Todd Bertuzzi made his debut with new linemate Jarome Iginla. I was really excited about this combination because I love huge finesse guys. Not that Bertuzzi has so much finesse anymore. But he once did and I like to think he can eventually access it once again. Especially now that he’s back in western Canada.
Anyway, [...]