On Frozen Blog

It was a bittersweet Saturday night: the Capitals offered a much-improved effort at the Joe, getting superb goaltending from JT and competing for pucks in a much more impressive fashion, but ultimately were undone by costly and senseless penalties. They took five, the more disciplined Wings took just three, and Detroit converted the differential into a 3-2, hard-fought triumph.

• The Wings still possess a roster well stocked with elite talent, but do they appear scary-good to you as they have for much of the past decade-plus? The ACL injury to Johan Franzen last Thursday is a major setback, but prior to that the Wings lost some serious offensive production in the offseason (Hossa, Hudler). Nik Lidstrom turns 40 in a few months. Just sayin.  

• It’s just October, the calendar bane of the Washington Capitals, and the schedule this month I’m told is “tough.” Meh. Very obtainable standings points have already been squandered. 

• Meanwhile, our American League affiliate administered one serious beatdown on the road in Binghamton last night. The junior Senators scored the game’s first goal in the first period and then surrendered the next eight in the Bears’ 8-1 mauling. Andrew Gordon has been skating the right flank on Hershey’s top line with Alexandre Giroux and Keith Aucoin, and he’s been doing more than holding how own: His seven points in three games are good enough to lodge him in a tie among four other skaters at the very top of the ‘A’s’ scoring list. Apparently his terrific training camp in D.C. last month has carried over to his efforts in a Hershey sweater. The undefeated Bears finish up play this weekend with a return date home tonight against Manchester.   

• This story Saturday really caught my eye — what is Gary Bettman doing meeting with the mayor of Quebec City, and why is former Nordiques owner Marcel Aubut in the meeting?

“Quebec City is a hockey city . . . much more than certain American cities with NHL teams,” said Pierre Karl Peladeau, CEO of Canadian media giant Quebecor. Having a CEO of a giant media company champion hockey’s return is intriguing. Quebecor was in the bidding for the Canadiens not long ago. And back in July the Fourth Period reported that Quebec City had moved forward in securing a set of European investors to help bankroll a new rink. Now the commish is meeting with the city’s puck principals. The timing is most interesting, isn’t it?    

Quebec City’s candidacy is thoroughly intriguing, and romantic. It has a population (1.5 million) at least double that of Winnipeg. Even better: it boasts the tantalizing allure of a remarkable rivalry with the Habs. Even better, perhaps: the ongoing rumor mill of at least one Southeast division team desperately needing to move, money in hockey is hemorrhaging so in the South. Winnipeg desperately wants a team, Quebec City apparently does too, and we know there’s a Canadian Blackberry billionaire also interested in getting in on the relocation action.

I’ve suggested before that we need but one SouthLeast skate to drop as catalyst to blowing up the entire tragedy-and-doomed-from-the-start SouthLeast, and at long last realigning the Caps with their natural rivals. We may be getting a lot closer to that happy day this autumn.