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What would a band of hockey bloggers be without predictions for the new NHL season?

We don’t claim to possess either a crystal ball or spy’s eyes inside the training camps of 29 other clubs, but we thought it might be helpful to our readers to compile a list of offseason (and late last season) player movement, in a concise file, and have a little fun offering up none-too-accountable “Thumbs Up” or “Thumbs Down” forecasts for all 30 teams.

Basically, a team earned a “Thumbs up” if we thought its manuevering and maturation suggested that it’d improved upon its 2006-07 points total. Clubs that “stayed pat” or engineered boneheaded signings and/or inexplicable, high-end free agent farewells were awarded “Thumbs down.”

So we’ve provided everything “primer” a puckhead could need here.

Except the beer.

Team	Comings	Goings	Youth is Served	Verdict
	Mathieu Schneider	Selanne and Neidermeyer (for now?), Dustin Penner	Bobby Ryan
	Eric Perrin, Ken Klee, Todd White	Scott Mellanby, Shane Hnidy, Glen Metropolit, Keith Tkachuk, Denis Hamel, Eric Belanger,	Bryan Little (?)
	Glen Metropolit, Aaron Ward, Peter Schaefer	Shane Donovan	Matt Lashoff (?)
	Jocelyn Thibault	Almost everyone	Dan Paille, Drew Stafford
	Adrian Aucoin, David Hale, Cory Sarich, Owen Nolan	Tony Amonte, Jeff Friesen, Roman Hamrlik, Brad Stuart, Andrei Zyuzin	Eric Nystrom (?)
	Matt Cullen	Jack Johnson, Anson Carter, David Tanabe	None	Hmm . . .
	Brent Spoel, Robert Lang, Sergei Samsanov, Andrei Zyuzin, Yanic Perreault	Michal Handzus, Adrian Aucoin, Peter Bondra, Jason Cullimore	Jonathon Toews, Patrick Kane, Jack Skille
	Scott Hannan, Ryan Smyth,	Ken Klee, Pierre Turgeon, Ossi Vaananen, Patrice Brisebois	None
	Michael Peca, Jiri Novotny	Brian Boucher, Bryan Berard	Gilbert Brule, Derick Brassard (?)	Hmm . . .
	Todd Fedoruk	Matthew Barnaby, Jon Klemm, Eric Lindros, Ladislav Nagy, Patrik Stefan, Darryl Sydor	Niklas Grossman
	Brian Rafalski, Dallas Drake	Robert Lang, Todd Bertuzzi, Kyle Calder, Danny Markov, Mathieu Schneider	Igor Grigorenko
	Sheldon Souray, Joni Pitkanen, Dustin Penner, Denis Grebeshkov, Dick Tarnstrom	Ryan Smyth, Joffrey Lupul, Petr Sykora, Jason Smith	Sam Gagner, Ryan O’Marra (?)	Hmm . . .
	Richard Zednik, Radek Dvorak, Tomas Vokoun	Ed Belfour, Alex Auld, Martin Gelinas, Chris Gratton, Todd Bertuzzi	None
	Brad Stuart, Tom Preissing, Kyle Calder, Michal Handzus, Ladislav Nagy	Mathieu Garon, Jamie Heward, Tom Kostopoulos, Jamie Lundmark, Aaron Miller	Jonathon Bernier, Jack Johnson
	Eric Belanger, Sean Hill,	Manny Fernandez, Todd White	Benoit Pouliot (?)	Hmm . . .
	Roman Hamrlik, Bryan Smolinski, Tom Kostopoulos	Sheldon Souray, Radek Bonk, Sergei Samsanov, Mike Johnson	Carey Price, Kyle Chipchura, Andrei Kostitsyn
	Martin Gelinas, Radek Bonk	Almost everyone	Ville Koistinen, Kevin Klein (?)
	Dainius Zubrus, Vitali Vishnevski, Kevin Weekes, Karel Rachunek	Scott Gomez, Brian Rafalski	Nicklas Bergfors (?)
	Bill Guerin, Mike Comrie, Ruslan Fedotenko	Almost everyone	Sean Bergenheim (?)
	Scott Gomez, Chris Drury	Michael Nylander, Karel Rachunek, Matt Cullen, Kevin Weekes, Brad Isbister	Marc Staal, Ryan Callahan (?)
	Shean Donovan, Luke Richardson, Denis Hamel	Mike Comrie, Tom Preissing, Peter Schaefer, Oleg Saprykin	Nick Foligno, Brian Lee
	Daniel Briere, Joffrey Lupul, Jason Smith, Martin Biron, Scott Upshall, Kimo Timonen	Peter Forsberg, Joni Pitkanen, Kyle Calder, Robert Esche, Todd Fedoruk, Mike York	Braydon Coburn, Ryan Parent
	Alex Auld, Radim Vrbata, Niko Kapanen, Mike York	Owen Nolan, Jeremy Roenick, Curtis Joseph, Mike Ricci	Peter Mueller
	Darryl Sydor, Gary Roberts, Petr Sykora	Eric Cairns, Joel Kwiatkowski, Jocelyn Thibault, Michel Ouellet, Nils Ekman, Josef Melichar	Kristopher Letang
	Craig Rivet, Jeremy Roenick	Scott Hannan, Bill Guerin, Vesa Toskala	None	Hmm . . .
	Paul Kariya, Keith Tkachuk	Radek Dvorek, Dallas Drake, Glen Metropolit, Jamie Rivers	Erik Johnson
	Michel Ouellet, Chris Gratton, Jan Hlavac	Cory Sarich, Ruslan Fedotenko, Eric Perrin	Karri Ramo (?)
	Jason Blake, Mark Bell, Vesa Toskala	Jeff O’Neill, Michael Peca, Yanic Perreault, J.S. Aubin	Jiri Tlusty (?)
	Brad Isbister, Ryan Shannon	Bryan Smolinski, Brent Sopel, Jan Bulis, Rory Fitzpatrick,	Luc Bourdon (?)
	Michael Nylander, Viktor Kozlov, Tom Poti	Dainius Zubrus, Kris Beech, Bryan Muir, Jiri Novotny	Nicklas Backstrom, Mike Green, Tomas Flesichmann

Japers’ Rink let the Capitals’ limited season ticket survey out of the bag that once again broached the subject of “Ice Girls”. Neither OrderedChaos nor I received the season ticket survey, so we don’t know if it included more than the five questions mentioned by Japers’.

Although we have pondered the idea of Washington Capitals’ Ice Girls, we don’t know if this is a done deal or not. Most of the other teams have already held their tryouts. Is Washington behind the curve, so to speak? Or have super secret auditions already been held and ice girls are ready to hit the ice on September 8th?

In any case, we were curious as to how many other teams have such squads. The answers may surprise you.

• Anaheim Ducks - Power Players
• Atlanta Thrashers - Blue Crew
• Boston Bruins Ice Girls (the link to the Ice Girls main page was lost after migrating to the NHL servers)
• Calgary Flames - Ice Crew
• Carolina Hurricanes - Storm Squad
• Chicago Blackhawks - Ice Crew
• Columbus Blue Jackets (who actually have 2 groups) - Power Patrol & Ice Crew
• Dallas Stars - Ice Girls
• Florida Panthers - Ice Dancers
• Nashville Predators (who also have 2 groups)
• Goal Girls
• Dancers
• NY Islanders - Ice Girls
• Ottawa Senators - Power Patrol (more of a spirit group rather than ice girls/cheerleaders)
• Philadelphia Flyers - Ice Team
• Phoenix Coyotes - The Pack
• Pitsburgh Penguins - Pens Patrol (more of a spirit group rather than ice girls/cheerleaders)
• Tampa Bay - Lightning Girls
• Vancouver Canucks - Ice Team

[update: Dan Steinberg is at Kettler and has not seen any “ice-based cheer persons”.]
[update 2: Dan Steinberg received confirmation from Nate Ewell, Director of Media Relations, that there will be no ice-based cheer persons roaming the Phone Booth this season.]

Some tight-checking, defensive hockey over the weekend, including the rise of a player I’ve never been a particular fan of.

• Say what you want about his diving and his off-ice antics, but Sean Avery has been playing excellent hockey for the New York Rangers, in many cases being their best player on a given night. I’ll never be a fan, but props to his remarkable playoff performance so far.



• The Red Wings surprised me on Saturday. I thought for sure that San Jose had asserted themselves, but the play of much-travelled Dan Cleary has them tied in a series I thought was definitely going the Sharks’ way.
• It was close, but I think the video judges made an error on the disputed goal at MSG yesterday. The calls, in general, have been very odd in that series, and in the Sabres’ favor. I’m not an indulger in conspiracies, and I don’t think there’s any bias in the officiating, just some bad calls are being made, and they’re being called on the Rangers. The Sabres are a skilled, fast team, and that creates opportunities for the refs to call a penalty with only a split-second to make a decision. Buffalo Coach Lindy Ruff complaining about the officiating was out-of-line, if predictable.
• Zubrus has really been throwing the body this series, though his hit on Jagr looked a little low to me.
• I’ve liked Jonathan Cheechoo’s effort in the Detroit series.
• Anaheim is big, physical, and skilled. Vancouver did a fantastic job stealing a game from them, but I can’t see them taking it from the Ducks. The Canucks got good games from Luongo, the Sedins and Naslund and still lost. That doesn’t bode well.
• Martin Broduer looked like his old self on Saturday, which is bad news for Ottawa. The series is too close for me to strongly favor either team, but goaltending makes and breaks playoff series.

A fun hockey weekend, and it’s always nice when there’s an early game and an evening game, so you can catch both without staying up to 1 am. Back to the late-night grind tonight.

And a fresh reminder why the NHL postseason is the most exciting and most grueling time in sports — and that’s just for the fans. Two overtime games, including a ruining-of-the-next-workday fourth overtime game in Vancouver, a more ‘tame’ second overtime game, a defensive contest and a goal-fest comprised the second season’s opening night.

A few thoughts from the night’s contests:

• The Ottawa Senators’ breakout could be used as a teaching video. Quick, crisp, and decisive.
• It’s hard not to wonder how Marc-Andre Fleury will react to his first playoff start. He could go a long way to ridding himself of his reputation for cracking under pressure if he bounces back the rest of the series.
• Speaking of goalies making their first playoff starts: Roberto Luongo of Vancouver’s evening? 76 shots faced, 4 goals allowed. It’s okay, Rob, they usually aren’t all this long.
• Talk about knee-jerk: Scott Hartnell’s knee-to-knee hit on Jonathan Cheechoo — which undoubtedly merited Hartnell’s ejection, and a suspension is not out of the question — did serious damage to Cheechoo. He left the ice without putting any weight on that knee. Cheechoo would be a huge loss for San Jose. The Preds-Sharks rivalry just got uglier.
• Chris Pronger logged a Herculean 30+ minutes last night, in a non-OT game. Ride your horses, indeed.
• I do have a minor quibble with Versus’ coverage last night — they didn’t show the replay of a penalty in the Ottawa/Pittsburgh game in order to show their ‘Keys To The Game’ graphic. I know there is a storyline to sell, but coming out of a break might have been a better time to run that.
• Always good to hear Joe B. calling a game.

An eventful night to start things off and help everyone reset their sleep patterns. With goalie heroics and letdowns, defensive lockdowns and offensive explosions, it’s the most wonderful time of the year.

The latest issue of The Hockey News has ranked all 30 NHL team’s prospect systems. They have defined prospects as players under 22 years of age as of January 31, 2007. This ranking does not take into account any movement of players at the trade deadline. Note that three of the Caps’ Southeast Division rivals bring up the bottom-5 rear.

1. Pittsburgh [Last Year’s Ranking - 1]
2. Washington [7]
3. Nashville [6]
4. Los Angeles [10]
5. Chicago [8]
6. Boston [12]
7. Anaheim [2]
8. St. Louis [28]
9. Montreal [17]
10. N.Y. Rangers [19] (Continued)

Mrs. Gustafsson just returned from Las Vegas and brought me the Bellagio’s Odds to Win the 2007 Stanley Cup. I’ve combined that sheet with the one I picked up in November.

I recently returned from business travel to Las Vegas. While exploring the MGM Grand, I picked up a sheet titled Odds to Win the 2007 Stanley Cup. I’m not sure how frequently they update the odds, but this sheet from last week has the current line dated 7 November 2006.

Oh… and doubling down on 11 doesn’t always work.