To the surprise of few, the Columbus Blue Jackets recently fired coach Ken Hitchcock. You've probably read all about it, but the basic problem was that (much like fellow Central Division ex-coach Andy Murray) Hitch managed to lead the BJ's to an unexpected playoff berth last season only to see the bottom fall out this year.

People blamed Steve Mason's disturbing sophomore slump or assumed that Hitch simply cannot adapt to the post-lockout NHL.

Frankly, I think that's hogwash. Hitchcock has been a success with three different franchises (a Cup in Dallas, making the Eastern Conference Finals with Philadelphia and leading hapless Columbus to its first-ever playoff berth) even if his teams rarely lead the league in thrills and exclamation points.

I think Hitchcock was the easy scapegoat as is often the case in the NHL. Horrible GMs such as Glen Sather and Don Waddell keep polluting the on-ice product while competent coaches get canned. However I feel about the decision, the plain truth is that both Hitch and I have one thing in common at the moment: unemployment.

With that in mind, these are the teams that I believe would benefit greatly (and could realistically make a move) to add Hitchcock.

(Click read more)

I've followed Kovalchuk's polygonal heroics for quite some time.

So, with Ilya Kovalchuk (somewhat surprisingly) being moved to New Jersey for bits'n'pieces, it might be safe to assume that there won't be any more blockbusters until the Olympic Break. I could be very wrong, but Kovalchuk is the biggest name to be moved since Marian Hossa and considering how important Kovy was to the Thrashers ... it might be the biggest trade since Joe Thornton was shipped to San Jose.

(For the record: I think Jumbo Joe and Hossa are both more valuable players from a "big picture" sense.)

One area in which the Devils TRULY won was the digital realm. Generally speaking, big names get the benefit of the doubt in video games. With Kovalchuk, Phaneuf, Giguere and Jokinen changing teams, there might be a slight shift in the world of NHL '10.

Let's take a look at these teams' digital developments.

New Jersey

Video games (and Glen Sather) always overvalued Bobby "Caveman" Holik

Best digi-players: Kovalchuk (rating: 90), Zach Parise (rating: 86), Patrik Elias (rating: 86) and Martin Brodeur (91)

Strengths: first line offense, goalie

Weaknesses: defense, depth?

Trend: WAY up

Appraisal: It's funny that this was the first year the Devils were no longer a strong team in NHL games. Without John Madden and Bobby Holik, the Devils no longer were ridiculous on faceoffs and generally lacked depth at center and in the forward ranks in general. They still have that flaw, but man-oh-man is Kovalchuk-Parise-Elias an awesome first video game line or what? They're still short of Pittsburgh and San Jose in pixel-land but the Devils are once again a contender for the polygonal throne.

When all you really lose in the video game arena is Johnny Oduya (80) and Niclas Bergfors (79), it's an even bigger steal than in real life.

Toronto

Best digi-players: J.S. Giguere (85), Dion Phaneuf (84), Tomas Kaberle (85) and Phil Kessel (84)

Strengths: defense?

(obviously this was first featured at Puck Daddy)

Weaknesses: offense

Trend: Slightly up

Appraisal: I'm in the "not quite convinced" club when it comes to the real-life effects of Burke's moves, but the Leafs' digital outlook isn't that different. Blake (83), Stajan (82) and Hagman (80) were all pretty solid in NHL '10. The Leafs got a boost in net with Giguere, but overall the team is basically just for Leafs fans to enjoy/be saddled by.

Calgary

Best digi-players: Jarome Iginla (93), Kipper (88), Jay Bouwmeester (85)

Strengths: hmmm ... depth maybe?

Weaknesses: offense outside of Iginla

Trend: Slightly down

Appraisal: With the HUGE amount of movement in Calgary, it will probably require a roster update to truly judge the Flames in video games. However, the Flames have fallen far since being a one-time overrated video game team. Now, they're a lot more like they are in real life; Calgary's a mess of a group that depends on a whole bunch on Iginla and Kipper.

The moves might make Calgary a little deeper, but you're basically going to depend a ton on Iggy.

New York Rangers

Best digi-players: Marian Gaborik (90), Hank (88), Olli Jokinen (85)

Strengths: hmmm ... depth maybe?

Weaknesses: Not much to like beyond Hank and Gaborik.

Trend: Lateral move, although Jokinen becomes New York's second best forward.

Appraisal: The Rangers are another team that will be selected often in online play because they have a large fan base. But really, aside from Gaborik and Lundqvist I can't see why you'd choose this team.

I feel like Hank's been underrated in video games for quite some time. Even though Kipper's had an admirable bounce-back season, there's no doubt in my mind that Lundqvist is a better goalie yet Kipper has always had a better (or at worst equal) rating. Psh.

Atlanta

Best digi-players: LOL

Strengths: If you win with them, you have every right to mock your opponent (unless it's their first time playing the game)

Weaknesses: Plentiful

Trend: WAY down

Appraisal: Kovalchuk was basically the only reason to choose the Thrashers and he's gone now. Is Atlanta now the worst team in the game? You could make a serious case that they are. Plus their jerseys are really dumb looking.

Anaheim

Best digi-players: Ryan Getzlaf (88), Scott Niedermayer (87)

Strengths: hmmm ... depth maybe?

Weaknesses: A lack of elite players beyond Getzlaf and Niedermayer

Trend: Slightly up

Appraisal: Since Hiller (84) and Giguere (85) were nearly identical ratings-wise, the Ducks made out pretty well in the video game world. Actually, with Blake (83) the Ducks have some solid forward depth now. Video games might be the one realm in which Vesa Toskala (79) isn't TOTALLY useless as his rating is more or less on par with other backups.

Still, trading away Pronger robs the Ducks of what made them a unique choice in video games. We may never see two D with 90 ratings on the same (non All-Star) team again considering cap constraints. *sniff*

So after a little 3 week hiatus, the NW links are back! And I'm branching out, so this weeks links include some from the Pacific Division as well

The View From My Seats looks at the 10 most hated players in the NHL, that you would secretly want on your team. Jibblescribbits then does one better and writes a poem about those asshat punks

The Royal Half thinks that if Kovy gets traded to the Kings, the introduction will be like Uma and Oprah meeting. And if you missed it earlier this week, their recap of the Boston Claw

Now that Vesa Toskala has been traded to the Ducks, Ryan Classic has done some investigating in to where in the world Vesa actually is as he hasn't shown up in Anaheim yet. Ryan may or may not be the only one that actually cares.

The day after Sheldon Souray fractured his wrist, An Oilers Refiney writes their season in review and say "Such an failure in the Heartland of Hockey is unprecedented"

MYFO explains that the trade of Brandon Prust to the Rangers was just part of the larger picture, the larger picture of the Sutters' mind f-ck of Prust

And the my favorite of the week so far: the Battle of California gives you the Patrick Marleau Facts

We're the boring one!  No, seriously… no awesome trades, nothing fun… just Nashville beating up on the Thrashers in front of 400 Atlanta fans who braved snow and ice for a roadtrip.  THANKS.  Asses.

DJ King is back.  Let's see if he can break his season best ice time of eight seconds.  Best of luck to you, Deej.  Thanks for completing the circle of DJ, BJ, EJ, and TJ.  The world is right again.

Speaking of road trips, Blackhawks fans are invading the Scottrade Center here soon… you've been warned.

The Forechecker looks at the Preds and who they can give up if they need to add some big guns come the trade deadline bonanza… you know, because apparently the rest of the league's behind on all of this.

Jim at Paint it Blackhawks looks at Dave Bolland and where he fits now.  Square peg, meet round hole.

I can find exactly jack and squat on the Blue Jackets this week… if anyone knows if they did anything, point me in the direction of said news.  Thanks!

The chin that wrecked many lives ...

A lot happened since CLS has been updated, but the biggest events occurred most recently: Olli "Hokey Pokey" Jokinen was traded to the Rangers, Dion Phaneuf finally was dealt to Toronto along with J. S. Giguere.

Obviously, those trades involved many other moving pieces but those were the pivotal parties. So why don't we take a look-see at how these trades altered the landscape for all four teams? Maybe we'll get more in-depth later, but for now I'll just hit the high points.

First, the "centre" of the hockey universe in Toronto ...

• It's been about a season of The Brian Burke scowl, but only now can we truly begin to look at the Maple Leafs as "Burke's team." He traded for the team's three biggest contracts: Phaneuf ($6.5 annual cap hit through 2013-14), Giguere ($6 million cap hit for the remainder of this season plus 10-11) and Phil Kessel ($5.4 million hit until 2013-14).
• Add Mike Komisarek's hefty $4.5 million hit and Francois Beauchemin's $3.8 million cap hit and that means that Burke's Boys account for a staggering $26.2 million in cap commitments for 5 players.
• According to Cap Geek's numbers, the as-of-this-moment Leafs would include 6 forwards, 7 defensemen and Giguere for a combined cap hit of $47.6 million! (Naturally, a lot can change but it's obvious that aside from Tomas Kaberle and Jeff Finger much of the Leafs' possible moves have already been made)
• Giguere is the short term goalie in Toronto, no doubt about it. Apparently Burke treasured the security blanket of nostalgia in Giguere rather than the fresh start opportunity of Vesa Toskala's contract expiring after this season ...
• Then again, Burke had to make some bold moves since ... you know, he traded what could have been hugely beneficial draft picks for Kessel.

• Somehow, Sather managed to move two of his many blunders off the team's cap in some (dare I say?) one-sided trades for him. While ridding the Rangers of Ales Kotalik is nowhere near the miracle of hypnotizing Bob Gainey to accept Scott Gomez's ludicrous contract, it still shows that Sather isn't the only GM with a few screws loose.
• It's probably wrong of me to look at Olli Jokinen as nothing more than an expiring contract, but the Rangers could be looking at a win-win situation. Wait, no, scratch that idea because if Jokinen plays well then they'll probably sign him to a motivation-killing 10 year contract and he'll play horrible hockey while Scotty Hockey plots the firing (like, burning flesh not pink slipping) of Sather. So maybe we should hope for a poor season for Jokinen ...
• More thoughts on the cap implications once Cap Geek does the work for me.

Now, the wildly different Calgary Flames

If given the opportunity, I will always use the "how to draw Jokinen" graphic. ALWAYS.

• Jokinen's name can be added to the growing list of players who couldn't cut it as Jarome Iginla's center. This list includes such luminaries as Chris Drury, so let's not lay this failure at Iggy's feet.
• It seems like Elisha Cuthbert's adorable cleft chin destroys everything it touches, like an alternate universe version of an airplane's black box. One moment, Phaneuf appears to be the next Chris Pronger and is on the cover of one of the best hockey games ever yet a couple years later he's not even one of the Flames' top two defensemen. I must ask, Cuthbert/Cuthbert's chin: who's next? You destroyed your own career, Phaneuf's career and indirectly neutered Sean Avery. No doubt about it, I fear what you're capable of in the future.
• Really, the Flames seem like they've hit the "reset" button on their franchise. Once again the team is basically a random mismatch of players alongside Iginla, Regehr and Kipper, only now with the expensive Jay Bouwmeester. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for this confounding franchise.

Finally, the cancer-fighting crew in Anaheim

• You can say that the changing of the goaltending guard actually truly took hold when Jonas Hiller started in the playoffs and out-played Giguere the past two regular seasons but this confirms those well-founded suspicions. One must wonder if Hiller will be as impressive now that he makes a standard No.1 goalie's salary going forward.
• With Pronger and Giguere shipped out in trades and Scotty Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne on the verge of retirement, this Ducks team is trading in its gray hairs for peach fuzz. (Braces for standard practice Getzlaf-inspired "but they'll still have similar hair lines!" type joke)
• It's great that Anaheim finally got rid of Giguere's problematic contract, but they also had to take on dead weight in the form of Jason Blake.

Now, the team is basically left with this nucleus:

The Good

Getzlaf-Perry-Hiller (about $15 million cap hit)

To Be Decided, but Quality Player

Bobby Ryan

Bad

Blake, Ryan Whitney (about $8 million cap hit)

So if Ryan makes Getzlaf-Perry type money the Ducks will have spend a little under $30 million for Ryan-Getzlaf-Perry-Blake-Whitney-Hiller. On one hand, there are some decent pieces in there. On the other hand, the Ducks are desperately thin on defense (a pretty shocking statement considering how they were among the league's best just a couple seasons ago).

Overall, I'd say that the biggest "winners" in that wild flurry of trades were the Ducks and the Rangers. Toronto is the team that just bet the deed of their house on [insert shaky poker hand] and Calgary is living in a broken home.

Someone asked if this is the "new" trade deadline and, to be honest, these trades are more exciting than anything that happened in last year's deadline.

So what are your thoughts, brave returning readers?

I think I'm just kind of all excited to get them up here, that's all.  Or, well... maybe I'm just all excited to have 2.3 nanoseconds in my week to attempt to find stuff on-line that's exciting about the Blue Jackets.

Speaking of the Beejays, Light the Lamp's advocating going after Phaneuf if he becomes available.  He might just well be one of the most overpaid defensemen ever, but it wouldn't kill Columbus.  That, and I will enjoy seeing Crombeen or Janssen wailing on him after every inappropriate hit 6 times a year.  It could work out ok, because with Hitch at the helm, it's not like Columbus'll be winning any time soon.

Preds 101 takes a look ahead by looking back.  Pretty cool idea, this "Week in Preview."

Babcock's Death Stare rips Osgood a new one for his attitude.  Are you just now catching on to Mopie Opie?  I really can't say I disagree here, though.  Either own his season suckiness, or suck it up an improve.  He's always been an average goalie hiding behind a good team, and this is becoming more evident every passing season.  Speaking of Howard, well, Nightmare on Helm Street - YES.

Blackhawks links are not omitted on purpose (hey, I put Detroit up here, did I not?) - work's blockers still think that SCH is an underground arms dealing site, and I'm not really seeing anything else noteworthy - I'll look when I get home.

The Blues can't hold on to a 3rd period lead.  And, in other news, the world is round and it's cold in Toronto.  How do we actually win after we blow our lead?  Stop shooting first in the shootout.

Tapeleg of Jerseys and Hockey Love invited me to a (tremendously fun) Texas Brahmas game and then we discussed a wide variety of hockey subjects on his awesome The Rink Podcast. Make sure to check it out and also make sure to listen to his other PC's (in which people with actual knowledge come on).

Feel the *excitement*.

Jimmy Howard's getting a bunch of praise for his play recently, which still has the Wings outside of the playoff bubble, but less so.  Actually, Darren Eliot thinks that their playoff hopes and dreams lay squarely on Howard's shoulders.  No pressure, kid.

The Cannon's looking for ways to help out with the situation in Haiti.  Please check it out (though nothing can compare to last night's epic GDT at Pension Plan Puppets - good one on ya, guys!).

Babcock's Death Stare takes a gander at who deserves to wear the winged wheel next season, and who probably needs to hit the road out of Detroit, like so many others.

Can someone please find me something doin' with Nashville and Columbus?  Please?  I know they still play hockey there.  Would media coverage kill you?

Mr. Ralph (which I find funny, because Toews... oh, never mind) looks at some questions the 'Hawks need to look at for next season.

Blues nabbed a new goalie consultant to replace Ed Belfour... same guy who has worked with Carey Price.  Weeeeee.

It's odd that Marty Turco's future is the hot button topic in many circles today because TapeLeg and I were discussing the subject on his (yet to be released) Podcast Saturday. This is actually a dumb idea that came to me last week, I've just been a busy beaver who somehow lucked into good timing.

As we all know, it's been a rough couple years for Turco. At one point it seemed like the playoffs would be the only thing that would bedevil the puck moving, flamboyant goalie but nowadays it's unclear if he'll even remain the starter in Dallas. These struggles lead to questions from bloggers and MSM'ers alike.

The DMN's Mike Heika wrote a story that indicated some of the young goalies the Stars may eventually target (his piece is far more credible than the just-for-fun trade concept you'll see in this post) and Defending Big D also discussed the Turco question a bit as well.

In Anaheim, a great playoff run and superior play this season allowed Jonas Hiller to usurp former Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe winning goaltender J.S. Giguere for the Ducks' starting job. Amid trades, injuries and soon-to-be-retirements, the Ducks seem eager to completely hand the keys to younger players such as Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Bobby Ryan.

Giguere's poor play and expensive contract mean that it's only a matter of time before the Ducks grow desperate to deal him. Turco's inconsistent, sometimes hare-brained antics and expiring contract explain why people are wondering about his future.

It may not be the most glamorous plan, but let's see why (and how) a deal could make sense - for both teams - after the jump.

JUMP!