It's the end of the blog as we know it Introducing From The Rink

I'll certainly miss this place.

After almost four years and 3,967 posts, this site is joining SB Nation and will be relocated to fromtherink.com for the foreseeable future. I'm taking on the title of manager of NHL blogs, with the goal of building up the site's small offering of hockey sites into a community of 30+ bloggers producing quality content for every team.

So if you love blogging on the Florida Panthers, drop me a line.

Moving was a very difficult decision, but I honestly believe that SB Nation is going to be a big, big deal when it comes to hockey blogging and I'm ready for the challenge of helping it get there. There are some very smart, talented and motivated people at the helm of the company like Jim Bankoff and Tyler Bleszinski who want to see this take off.

Plus I get a snazzy logo.

Most of all what I want to do in this space is offer a huge thank you to all of the bloggers and commenters who embraced this site and helped it grow into what it is today. It's been fun — and I sincerely hope everyone keeps coming out to the new site.

Even if there are dancing monkey ads on it.


Thank yous
Eric McErlain, Lowetide, The Battle of Alberta, Tyler Dellow, Seth Rorabaugh, The Pensblog, Greg Wyshynski, Habs Inside/Out, Kukla's Korner, Tom Benjamin, The Battle of California, Lyle (Spector) Richardson, Japers' Rink, Pension Plan Puppets, Daniel Tolensky, the Oilers wing of HFBoards, Greg Drinnan, Battle of Ontario, Will Leitch and Deadspin, Ben at Blueland Blog, BfloBlog, the gang at NHL FanHouse, Chris, Dave and Mike at Covered in Oil, Joe Pelletier, Jonathan Willis, Five Hole Fanatics, Sharkspage, Neate Sager, Craig Custance, On the Wings, On Frozen Blog, Canes Country, Hot Oil and all of the many, many other sites that have sent traffic my way throughout the years.

If I had a master list of my top commenters, they'd be listed here, too. Thanks for keeping me on my toes and adding your collective wit to the conversation the past four years.

Traffic
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The Mario-Boots relationship

"We have talked about it. I think Mario feels similar to the way I do. We feel bad about the situation because we trusted Boots and got along very, very well with him. Mario is a very bright man. He was as shocked as I was when this whole thing happened."

— Olympic hockey great Mike Eruzione

Another very good piece on the Del Biaggio situation from The Tennessean. Reporter Brad Schrade has done solid work piecing together what exactly Boots's relationship was with the NHL, and it seems he was very tight with former players and owners.

It also appears he was much closer to buying the Penguins than I'd thought previously.

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The blog police

If you missed the hullabaloo at Covered in Oil over the weekend, there are certainly quite a few places to check out the discussion.

I liked what David Staples from the Edmonton Journal had to say, if only because he does a nice job incorporating the Oilers' perspective on things here:

The issue of bloggers being treated as mainstream reporters is not a simple issue for the Oilers, or any mainstream organization, to cope with.

For example, there will soon to too many Oilogosphere blogs for the Oilers to issue press passes to all of them. Even if the organization wants to embrace this new form of media, it's going to be a challenge.

If you disagree, consider this: Dave Berry is an Oilers fan, a journalist and a fairly well-known hockey blogger.

At some point, the designations become pretty unclear. If I was in the Oilers press box on an assignment for the newspaper and happened to post a little 'how do you do' on this site, would that be allowed? Is blogging on Oilers Nation if you're already in the media circle okay?

Where's the line, and what's the policy on this?

I can see why the Oilers wouldn't want a member of Covered in Oil blogging from a team-sanctioned location, even if their brand of wit is effectively harmless. But the proper response here was simply to let him know that type of coverage wasn't appropriate for the press box and leave it at that.

I don't agree that that's the case, but the team is certainly within their right to do that. What I object to is treating bloggers, regardless of what they write, like the scourge of the earth.

Here's Greg Wyshynski:

It's pure bullying, based on a belief that anyone with "blogger" affixed to his or her name is a reckless amateur with no business sharing the same free popcorn with the pros in the mainstream media.

What teams like the Oilers should see in Covered in Oil is the value of intelligent hardcore fans providing offbeat coverage of a team they adore.

What they do see is a threat — and that's a sad situation indeed.

UPDATE Apparently Finland is on the case. As far as I can tell, he calls Kevin Lowe "clammy man."
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Quote o' the day

"I don't know how many — 18,000, 19,000 here — and in Russia it's never like this. I was really excited and maybe a little bit nervous before the game. After warmup, I was OK."

— Nikita Filatov

Consider that one vote against the KHL.

Filatov potted his first NHL goal last night against the Predators and looked like he was having a great time out there. He only played just more than nine minutes, but looks like a keeper.

Columbus has some excellent young talent that's starting to come together this season: Derick Brassard, Jakub Voracek, Kris Russell, Alexandre Picard and Rick Nash (he is only 24). Filatov is the eighth player under 25 to crack the Blue Jackets' lineup so far this year.
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Greene signs extension

The Los Angeles Kings have signed defenseman Matt Greene to a five-year contact extension that will carry into the 2013-14 season, Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi announced today.

>> team release

Greene's been getting quite a bit of ice time for the Kings so far this season and they're apparently happy with his play to this point.

He came to the team along with Jarret Stoll in exchange for Lubomir Visnovsky this summer.

UPDATE Greene's contract is for $2.95-million a season, which seems like an awful lot given his experience and talent level.
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Melrose approaches Code Red

Very funny post today over at Barry Melrose Rocks, where the blog's namesake is advised like so:

So be warned, dear reader. You must proceed with caution if your name is Barry Melrose. But then again, Barry likes to throw caution to the wind. So maybe proceeding with caution is out of the question. Ah, hell with it. Let's take this thing head on. Bull by the horns. Stuff like that.

It's getting ugly for the Lightning, who have yet to pick up their first win and have scored only eight goals in four games. Three of the team's next five games are against three of the four remaining undefeated clubs: Minnesota, San Jose and Buffalo.

Tampa gets Atlanta on Tuesday and Toronto a week later, but has a very difficult November schedule and could be bottomed out a few weeks from now.

Melrose has his work cut out for him.
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Mason has appendectomy

St. Louis Blues President John Davidson announced today that goaltender Chris Mason underwent emergency appendectomy surgery on Thursday night. He is expected to miss approximately two weeks.

>> team release

Either Marek Schwarz or 6-foot-7 Ben Bishop will be called up to backup Manny Legace.

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Calder race opens up as Stamkos sits

Normally I wouldn't delve into something like the year-end awards this early into the season, but it's becoming crystal clear who probably isn't going to win the Calder Trophy this year.

Steven Stamkos.

Even against the Islanders on Thursday night, coach Barry Melrose parked his prized rookie at the end of the bench, where Stamkos twiddled his thumbs for all but 9:22 of a game that ended in overtime. The only Tampa Bay players to see less action were Gary Roberts and Adam Hall.

Stamkos looked fine in the limited minutes he did play, although he saw very little power-play time and was seemingly out there with a different linemate every shift. And it's hard to say whether or not he was sheltered from difficult opposition given, well, they were playing the Islanders.

Unless you're a goalie, point production is generally the main criteria for winning the Calder. The award has been handed out 71 times in NHL history and forwards have won it two-thirds of the time.

But the other thing that's really a necessity is that you spend a decent amount of time on the ice, something that's just not happening for a lot of freshmen this season.

Take recent history for example. Patrick Kane won the Calder last season while playing 18:21 minutes a game. A year earlier, Evgeni Malkin won and he averaged 19:09 and Alex Ovechkin won the year before that while munching up 21:37 minutes per game.

Prelockout winners were Andrew Raycroft (a goalie), Barret Jackman (20:02), Dany Heatley (19:53), Evgeni Nabokov (goalie again) and Scott Gomez (16:20). If you go back far enough, you get to Chris Drury and Sergei Samsonov, who played smaller roles but still logged 13:15 and 15:23 per game in their Calder-winning seasons.

So far this year, 58 rookie skaters have played in at least one game, and the large majority have had relatively minor roles. Stamkos, who was picked by probably 90 per cent of preseason pundits to be the rookie of the year, is 48th in ice time at just 9:41 per game.

Luke Schenn, the Maple Leafs defenceman, is first at 20:59 per game.

Only 10 rookies have averaged 16 minutes played (in more than one game) this season, and it's a pretty interesting group: Schenn, Steve Wagner, Drew Doughty, Luca Sbisa, Alex Goligoski, T.J. Oshie, Kris Versteeg, Mikhail Grabovski, Alex Pietrangelo and Mikkel Boedker.

So they're in the mix. Derick Brassard in Columbus should be, too, as he's managed a point a game in 14:56 a game. Fabian Brunnstrom's big debut with a hat trick Wednesday night was an eye-opener, but he has been very sheltered in Dallas and may not continue to put up big numbers.

Two more names to consider are Patrik Berglund, the fourth St. Louis rookie I've mentioned, and Kyle Turris, although their ice time has been limited to 13:30 and 11:28 a game.

As I said, it's incredibly early, and it makes sense that players are being relatively sheltered the first few games into their NHL careers. But at some point, either due to injuries on their teams or a sudden adaptation to this level of hockey, some rookies are going to start playing larger roles and putting up more points.

Heck, even Stamkos could turn it around. But you don't win the Calder playing 11 or 12 minutes a night, and I don't see him getting more than that any time soon. At this point, I'm beginning to wonder if both he and the Lightning wouldn't be better served by him playing in junior again.

In any event, what we aren't likely to see this time around is the big rookie totals that we've been spoiled with postlockout. Among this group, it's wide open.


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Savard out in Chicago Quenneville named coach

The Chicago Blackhawks have named Joel Quenneville the 37th head coach in franchise history, replacing Denis Savard, who was relieved of his duties earlier on Thursday.

“This was an extremely hard day for this organization and for me personally,” Blackhawks General Manager Dale Tallon said.

>> team release

You wonder why they even let him coach four games.

The Thrashers firing Bob Hartley six games into last season at least followed an embarrassing playoff exit a year earlier. Savard led the young 'Hawks to a pretty impressive run to a near playoff berth last season.

Once Quenneville was brought in as a pro scout this summer, however, the writing was on the wall, even for a popular former player like Savard, who helped establish some pride in the franchise since taking over 20 games into the 2006-07 season. Savard made "Commit to the Indian" a catch phrase across the league, but he wasn't regarded as much of a technical coach and there were rumblings much of last season that he was on the bubble.

Expectations are sky high in Chicago these days, in terms of payroll and a growing buzz around the city, and a playoff miss would be a big hit given the forward momentum the franchise has. Quenneville is an excellent coach with a long history of success and is a good choice to come in here, but it would have made more sense to make this move in training camp to let him establish the team identity early on.

The good news is that he's been in the fold, knows the team and will be anxious to prove himself after being fired in Colorado following back-to-back 44-win seasons.

UPDATE Barry Rozner at the Chicago Daily Herald says Savard never should have had the gig in the first place:

"He didn't earn the job, he didn't deserve the job, and he couldn't do the job."

Don't let anyone ever tell you the Chicago press isn't tough.

Rozner goes on to say that this comes back to new team president John McDonough, who came over from the Chicago Cubs and is anxious to see the team win:

McDonough may still be learning hockey, but he can smell incompetence a mile away and Thursday's events are proof enough that he can tolerate such nonsense for only so long.

If I'm GM Dale Tallon, the fact there are two Bowmans sitting in the press box beside me has to be a wee bit worrisome.
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Goal and shot differential

It's early, with Edmonton, Minnesota and Florida having only played two games, but here's a peek at goal and shot differentials for all 30 teams through the first week of the regular season:

	Team	GP	G/G	GA/G	Gdf	Rk		S/G	SA/G	Shdf	Rk
1	BUF	3	3.67	1.00	2.67	1		29.7	24.0	5.7	8
2	SJS	4	3.25	1.00	2.25	2		31.5	24.0	7.5	5
3	MTL	4	3.75	2.00	1.75	3		29.2	31.8	-2.6	19
4	MIN	2	4.00	2.50	1.50	4		26.0	31.5	-5.5	22
5	WSH	3	4.33	3.33	1.00	5		37.3	20.7	16.6	1
6	NYR	6	2.83	1.83	1.00	5		30.0	24.2	5.8	7
7	VAN	3	4.00	3.00	1.00	5		22.3	29.7	-7.4	26
8	EDM	2	3.00	2.00	1.00	5		23.5	34.0	-10.5	29
9	DET	3	2.67	2.00	0.67	9		38.0	26.3	11.7	3
10	CAR	3	3.67	3.33	0.34	10		32.7	32.7	0.0	15
11	PHX	3	2.67	2.33	0.34	10		28.0	31.3	-3.3	21
12	BOS	3	3.67	3.67	0.00	12		30.3	31.0	-0.7	16
13	ATL	3	3.67	3.67	0.00	12		30.0	36.0	-6.0	23
14	OTT	3	2.67	2.67	0.00	12		28.0	34.0	-6.0	23
15	STL	3	3.67	3.67	0.00	12		24.7	31.7	-7.0	25
16	LAK	3	2.33	2.33	0.00	12		19.0	28.7	-9.7	28
17	CHI	4	2.50	2.75	-0.25	17		27.0	30.0	-3.0	20
18	PIT	4	2.25	2.50	-0.25	17		26.0	35.2	-9.2	27
19	NJD	3	1.67	2.00	-0.33	19		35.0	21.7	13.3	2
20	DAL	3	3.67	4.00	-0.33	19		26.3	26.0	0.3	14
21	FLA	2	3.50	4.00	-0.50	21		36.0	28.5	7.5	5
22	NSH	4	2.75	3.50	-0.75	22		25.0	23.8	1.2	11
23	COL	3	3.33	4.33	-1.00	23		33.7	24.7	9.0	4
24	TBL	3	1.67	2.67	-1.00	23		23.0	42.0	-19.0	30
25	PHI	3	2.67	4.00	-1.33	25		30.0	27.3	2.7	9
26	CBJ	3	2.67	4.00	-1.33	25		29.7	28.7	1.0	12
27	TOR	3	2.67	4.00	-1.33	25		31.0	32.3	-1.3	17
28	NYI	3	2.33	3.67	-1.34	28		28.0	30.0	-2.0	18
29	CGY	3	3.00	5.00	-2.00	29		29.7	28.7	1.0	12
30	ANA	4	2.00	4.25	-2.25	30		31.2	29.0	2.2	10

Washington, New Jersey, Detroit and Colorado are all on the right side of the outshooting scale, not that necessarily begets wins.

And even though it's really, really early, some of the league's stronger teams are already separating themselves in terms of goal differential. Anaheim has really struggled, however, and as Earl Sleek points out, that's all on their big guns up front.

Keep an eye on Florida, who have cut down the shots against after letting Vokoun/Anderson just get shelled last season. The defence core look remarkably different there and it's going to have an impact.

Tampa Bay is just getting shelled; at least they get the Islanders tonight.
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Brunnstrom nets hat trick in debut

Talk about quieting his critics.

Fabian Brunnstrom didn't exactly light the NHL on fire in the preseason, scoring one goal, adding two assists and going minus-3 in six games, and the Stars stuck him in the press box for their first two games of the regular season. Down 0-1-1 and heading into a game against the Predators tonight, however, they deployed their secret weapon.

Brunnstrom scored a hat trick in the game (which Dallas won 6-4), announcing his arrival emphatically despite playing in just more than 14 minutes.

He becomes just the third player in NHL history to score three goals in his debut, joining Alex Smart (1943) and Real Cloutier (1979).

And I was just about to write that there was no clear Calder favourite this season.

The Dallas Morning News' blog has more.
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North Americans could avoid KHL Death raises questions about league's safety

"Definitely, thinking about it now, they don't pay attention to a lot of the little things that are an everyday thing in the NHL. You always see an ambulance here. They might have been there, but I can see something like this happening. For a [Canadian] guy like me, you'd think about it a little it harder now if you're going to make that choice to get over there."

— Jamie Lundmark

But [TSN analyst Pierre] McGuire's "negotiation tool" comment and other KHL critics who are using this death as affirmation of the Russian league's inferiority are being irresponsible ... for McGuire to claim the KHL is somehow invalidated as an option for professional players because of this tragedy is complete hyperbole.

— Greg Wyshynski

I'll say this much: North American players are certainly going to think twice about taking the money and playing in Russia.

There is ample evidence that there was extreme negligence in the Cherepanov case, from the lack of a working defibrillator to the absence of an ambulance at the game. What does it say when it's a life-threatening situation that required immediate action and there's not even a stretcher to carry him out of the arena on?

Now, there's even questions about what caused his death.

Former NHL star Igor Larionov is part of the KHL board of directors and has had experience with these sorts of issues. He was in the stands on the night Red Wings defenceman Jiri Fischer collapsed at the bench and knew something similar could potentially happen in Russia:

"I was sitting in the stands that night when it happened. I will never forget it. And I warned the KHL about things like this."

The fact of the matter is that medical treatment, in general, is not up to North American standards in Russia, and it likely would have taken something of this magnitude to improve emergency situation conditions for players in the KHL.

Even so, for a lot of players playing in North America, I don't think the KHL gets its second chance.
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Steen falls short in MP bid

As former Winnipeg Jets go, Thomas Steen is way, way up there in terms of notoriety. He put up the second most points in franchise history (817) and is the only Swedish player to have his number retired.

Given his popularity in the city, even all these years later, a career in politics makes sense.

The former Jets captain ran for the Conservative Party in yesterday's federal election in the Winnipeg riding of Elmwood-Transcona, and despite being a huge underdog to veteran Manitoba politician Jim Maloway, came within 1,702 votes of the NDP candidate.

Not bad for an upstart rookie.

Steen had made his case for election on his personal website, which is long on hockey references and short on political platforms:

For many years I have called Winnipeg my home. I first moved here in 1981 to play hockey for the Winnipeg Jets. It was an honour to represent an organization where you could feel the community support simply by walking down the street. During my fourteen seasons with the team I had the privilege of serving as team captain, a role that will serve me well as I attempt to make the transition to political office.

Following my hockey career I chose to remain in Winnipeg and become a Canadian citizen.

The riding was considered an NDP stronghold, held by Bill Blaikie since 1979, and the Tories had apparently been asking Steen to use his star power to try and win the seat for quite some time.

Steen's son Alex, a member of the Maple Leafs, offered his support on the weekend. Sort of:

"I'm not too involved in it, but obviously, I support him as a son."

Steen had the support of a few other former Jets on the campaign trail, with Bobby Hull and Dale Hawerchuk lending their names to the cause. Steen had been a pro scout with the Coyotes until resigning to try his hand at politics.

His performance at the polls is a pretty strong testament to the pro-Jets feelings still out there given his obvious shortcomings on the campaign trail:

Then there's Steen, who only answered questions when he had a tabbed page in his briefing binder he could flip to for a pre-written answer. When he didn't have one, he either declined to speak or apologized with an "I'm new at this." He read virtually every word he uttered, with a bemused and gentle smile.

He is by all accounts and appearances a lovely and honourable gentleman — he made a bee line for Maloway after the debate to shake his hand. But he is radically out of his depth, muzzled by his party and unfamiliar with the issues.

Hey, it's worked elsewhere.

Hockey and politics go hand in hand in Canada, and I'm actually surprised this doesn't happen more often. Doug Gilmour or Wendel Clark would be shoo-ins in Toronto-area ridings, as would someone like Trevor Linden in Vancouver or Lanny McDonald in Calgary.

At least there'll always be Ken Dryden.
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Congratulations to the Kings

You have to hand it to Los Angeles and new coach Terry Murray, who managed to pull out their first win of the season against Anaheim tonight despite icing a defence core that looked like so (with minutes played):

Tom Preissing 23:56
Sean O'Donnell 22:03
Peter Harrold 17:55
Matt Greene 16:06
Denis Gauthier 15:56
Drew Doughty 15:52

Doughty apparently left this one with flu-like symptoms, which at this point could mean absolutely anything. In case you missed it, Jack Johnson's out for quite a while with a bum shoulder, so this is going to be the crew going forward.

You also have to feel pretty good for Jason LaBarbera, who has been phenomenal so far this season despite the fact the Kings came into this one winless. There was an awful lot of nonsense written in the off-season about how Los Angeles needed better goaltending than he provided last year, but that's simply not the case.

It was the backups that let this team down in 2007-08. LaBarbera posted a save percentage (.910) equal to Vezina finalist Evgeni Nabokov last year and remains one of the league's most underrated backstops.

The Kings' team save percentage was just .900 last season but is at .919 after three games.
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Edmonton's crowded crease

The Oilers, of course, will open the season with three goaltenders: Garon, Dwayne Roloson and Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers.

Roloson and Garon are both in the final year of their contracts, while Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers is in the first year of a two-year, one-way deal. Drouin-Deslauriers has yet to play an NHL regular-season game, but did turn heads during the pre-season.

— Edmonton Journal

Aside from teams that have an injured 'tender, Edmonton is the only team in the league carrying three goalies. It's not a desirable long-term solution, but with the team convinced Drouin-Deslauriers will be claimed if waived, the likely solution would seem to be Roloson moved out.

Except that he has a $3.667-million cap hit this year, is 39 years old and is coming off of a pretty weak season in 2007-08.

It'll be interesting to see how this one's sorted out. I can't see any way a team bites on Roloson's contract, but maybe there's a move to be made that involves taking back some salary in a deal.

Otherwise, the Oilers will have their fingers crossed that the youngster sneaks through waivers at some point down the line.

The bottom of this list is a decent game-by-game look at who might be interested in adding a goaltender. Colorado, Washington and the Islanders may need another body between the pipes soon.

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The Wings at the White House

Kukla's Korner points us to a live streaming feed of Detroit's visit with George W. Bush today at 2:30 p.m. at the White House.

Ty Conklin and Marian Hossa, who played for Pittsburgh during last year's finals, won't take part in the ceremony but plan on hanging around.
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All eyes on the dollar

The Canadian dollar has been going cuckoo lately, along with a lot of other things, and at one point on Friday afternoon was below 83 cents — its lowest point since the spring of 2005 when the NHL was still locked out.

In the past two weeks, the dollar has dropped more than 10 cents. Heck, on Friday, it fell by 4.5 cents at one point, the first time in 47 years that it had decreased by more than three cents in one day.

Yesterday, it was back up to about 88 cents again.

Commissioner Gary Bettman on the issue:

"This has been a fascinating journey. When the Canadian dollars was in the 60s, it was a disaster. When the Canadian dollar was at $1.09 (US) it was a disaster because it meant everything else was out of sync. Our system is designed to account for the fluctuations of the Canadian dollar. It would make everybody's life easier if it would stabilize, but it's not a concern."

Even if the loonie sits where it is currently, it should be a concern. A report in The Globe and Mail on Saturday highlighted just how much of the league's revenue-sharing plan hinged on Canadian teams' input last season, with $50-million of the handouts coming from the six franchises north of the border.

Toronto and Montreal forked out about $12-million apiece in regular-season funds, while Vancouver paid $10-million and Calgary paid $6-million. Ottawa and Edmonton lagged behind, but still chipped in about $1-million each.

All six were, again, among the NHL's 10 highest revenue generators.

The dollar teetered around par almost all of last season, and a 10- to 20-per-cent dip in the currency could represent some serious rejigging of the league's givers and receivers. The Leafs and Habs can easily withstand a 15-per-cent haircut, and would remain league leaders in revenue, but Vancouver would likely fall into the 10-15 range and Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa would likely be 15-20.

Outside of the "givers" range, anyway.

It's going to be an incredibly interesting year from a revenue standpoint. Bettman is still smelling all roses, but the increasingly ugly situation in the U.S. combined with the dollar drop could seriously weaken what's become a huge part of the league's financial backbone.

If there's any good news for some of the franchises struggling on the low end, it's that the cap will finally slow its climb next year. Where it stops, however, is anyone's guess at this point.
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