The number of teams who have a realistic chance of claiming top spot in the upcoming Olympic Games runs as deep as the opinions in the THN office

Theres a lot of head shaking going on over the Ottawa Senators attendance struggles and Toronto Maple Leafs on-ice woes. - Everywhere in Canada except one place, not a single seat has gone unsold since the lockout

The rebuilding Belleville Bulls have made another trade, moving one of their veterans to the Kitchener Rangers. Read more »Original post blogged on b2evolution.

It was another close and spirited affair between the Nashville Predators and Columbus Blue Jackets. Yet again, the home team won. 13,790 looked on as these teams took the game to the max, finishing in a 4-3 Predators shootout victory. Felderâ &tm;s FICKLE Five: 1. The New Dad Leads The Way - Wha

Blair Betts dislocated his right shoulder during the Flyers 3-1 loss to Phoenix tonight in the desert. Hell miss at least a month, according to GM Paul Holmgren. And Darroll POwe has a "significant left shoulder" injury, Holmgren said, from the San Jose game. Thats two centers down in two gam

Leafs 2 - Caps 1(SO) - Highlights - 1 point out 4 from two teams that are likely to miss the playoff is bad news. - The Caps left Semyon Varlamov out to dry tonight. 65 minutes of play, 38 saves on 39 shots...where did all the Capitals scoring go? - Alex Ovechkin(6), Brooks Laich(6) and Chris

Im sick and tired of ignoring the 1,000 pound gorilla in the room. The Buffalo Sabres have a crisis in their crease on nights when Ryan Miller is resting. Lindy Ruff and Darcy Regier had better address this matter ASAP as their Sabres have frittered away a sizable first place lead that they had b

So who do you believe? Danny Briere says his fight with Marc-Edouard "Pickles" Vlasic on Friday night in San Jose was his third, official NHL fight of his career. hockeyfight.com had Briere with just one career fight going into the game. "No, Ive had a few," Bruiser Briere told me before tonight

Wednesday, the Kings admitted they didnâ &tm;t play their best, they were sluggish and tired from a long road trip. This afternoon, the Kings didnâ &tm;t play their best, they were sluggish and they had two days off since the long road trip. Apparently nobody woke them up. Jonathan Quick was cau

Below is a video of David Perrons second goal Saturday vs. Islanders. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq7nkbvn1Ic Earlier Story........ The best place for Alex Pietrangelo right now is to be playing pro hockey in Peoria, Illinois. We all know by rule that canâ &tm;t happen so the organizatio

If there was any glimmer of hope that this yearToronto Maple Leafs was just a club that started off the season in a bad slump and actually not as bad as theyâ &tm;ve appeared to be, that hope was extinguished on Thursday night with the disgraceful 6-5 shootout loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. The ba

With the news of struggling attendance around the league, one has to wonder "how do you market the game of NHL hockey, especially in Football-and-Baseball-centered US? There are five steps I would do to make the game of hockey more watchable for the average fan: 1. Get a national network I am one

Slowly but surely the Penguins injured birds are returning to the waddle. First Evgeni Malkin, then Max Talbot and Sergei Gonchar...and finally tonight, Brooks Orpik. Orpik, who was cleared for contact earlier in the week, has been practicing with the team and is ready for action. There was a sligh

Caps Bailed on Neuvo, Need to Wake-up @ Toronto The Washington Capitals have had a lot of success against the Canadian teams over the last two seasons, but, as last nightâ &tm;s lacklustre pointed out, perhaps the Caps are getting soft on their opponents from North of the Border. The Montreal Can

The Hawks face off against the Edmonton Oilers tonight at 9:30 Eastern at the Rexall Center. On the surface, this would look like 1-2 relatively easy road points for the Hawks, coming off a 7-1 blitzkrieg of Albertas other NHL team, the Flames, Thursday night, and facing a banged up Oilers squad

The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics are 83 days away and counting. And as the games get closer with each passing day, speculation is getting stronger on which players might be named to play for their country. The impression that you get from the list of forwards that could be named to play for Team

Last nights game had all the makings of trouble after the first period. Goalie fighting the puck, iffy PK work and general timing issues after a 6 day break all provided the Avalanche with a 2 goal lead after 20 minutes. Into the second the Canucks got a PP and new hero to Canucks fans everywhere

I will be updating this mini blog via the box below all day. *Talking to sources there appears to be nothing to the Gomez for Umberger and Vermette Rumors. *There is big unrest in Calgary right now. Dion Phaneuf. Looking into it. * Also two days ago I said David Booth was ice cold and many of y

Quick Note...I will have my rumor update to follow where I discuss what I have found out about yesterdays rumors that I was chasing. There is also some very interesting news breaking out of Calgary that I am chasing. I am juggling family vacation with blogging again today as we embark on Aquatica

Just got a heads up from the Buffalo skate. Drew Stafford will not play tonight. Tyler Ennis will not be recalled for tonights game. Lemonade! That cool, refreshing drink. No Miller. *** The Sabres hopped their charter directly following the Boston OT loss Friday night. Next stop: Kanata. 12

Lets flash back 4 years ago and put together a little scenario. Lets say a 1st round pick by the name of Nikolai Zherdev cried about playing time and wanted to go back to Russia. What would have happened? General Manager Doug MacLean would have thrown a phone through the wall and cried to the NHL

*Note on the JT vs Clutterbuck sideshow at the bottom. The Excel Energy Center is one a great building. With so many family members and friends of Okposo, Hillen and Jackman, there were plenty of Islanders jerseys to be seen last night. But while the homecoming for the Minnesota boys may have been

MINI-PREVIEW (1:30 AM) The Flyers will need to quickly forget about their 6-3 loss in San Jose and battle through potentially tired legs as the club travels to Phoenix to take on the hard-working Coyotes. For Philly, it marks the fourth game of the week (in three different time zones) as well as th

TORONTO (Nov. 21) â " Though itâ &tm;s understandable why followers of the Maple Leafs are angry and disheartened by the clubâ &tm;s dreadful showing in the first quarter of the season, Iâ &tm;m astonished with the number of people that are essentially writing off the Brian Burke-Ron Wilson tandem.

Maybe its just because "Star Trek" came out on DVD this week or maybe its because my good friend Rob Ryan wrote a great article, reviewing "Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan" but lately, the Canucks-Avs games feels like that movie. For years, the Avs have beat up on the Canucks. At one point they h

Habs 3 - Caps 2 - Highlights - Carey Price is on fire. His save % is above .940 in his last 5 starts and he owned the Caps tonight. - Michal Neuvirth got the call in nets tonight in what was a last minute decision of sorts by Head Coach Bruce Boudreau. It appeared that Semyon Varlamov was goin

The New York Islanders visited St. Paul on Friday night for a rare appearance against the Wild with familiar faces from the past and a face for the future, a face of a once great Islanders franchise that has struggled mightily in yearsâ &tm; past, but is destined for better times not at some point i

When the Avs take the ice for their rematch vs. the Vancouver Canucks, theyll have reinforcements in the form of T.J. Galiardi and John-Michael Liles. Both will be great to have back but Galiardi in particular, as the team went 3-5-1 without him and 0-2 vs. Vancouver. Galiardi was supposed to be o

OT: Patrice Bergeron launches the dagger through the heart.Charas twisted wrister found Beregerons stick. For the second game in a row, the Sabres are unable to take command and control of a wobbly opponent. Bergerons re-direct found the back of the net. Game over. The Bs outshot the Sabres

Calgary got waxed last night so expect them to rebound against the Kings tomorrow afternoon. Rob Scuderi isnt going to play and theres no replacement for Ryan Smyth. The Kings will have no depth and Peter Harrold, a defenseman/utility player and his whopping one point will skate as a forward. Te

By Ken Beckett At Team Canadaâ &tm;s summer orientation camp in Calgary, 46 were players were invited. Two of those players were Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis. Both Lecavalier and St. Louis are of course teammates on the Tampa Bay Lightning and have been so for ten seasons now. They were

Listen in for a discussion of the Leafs troubles, the Hawks possible big signings, Dion Pheneufs troubles in Calgary and the NHLs best and worst after 20 games at 5PM....

Jâ &tm;étais vêtu de mon chandail bleu, blanc et rouge. Accompagné de plusieurs personnes qui me sont chères, je me dirigeais vers le Centre Bell pour ce qui allait probablement être ma seule partie LIVE des Canadiens cette saison. « Les Hurricanes, easy! On va avoir droit à tout un spectac

Hockey Den: The Premier Hockey Card and Memorabilia Destination Visit us at www.hockeyden.net and check out the 2008-09 Upper Deck Series 2 box break! Then enter to win your choice of a card from the break (Patrick Roy Jersey card anyone?)! Itâ &tm;s a Mitch Fritz-tastic break!! ____________________

Heres a debate for everyone out there in Flyerdom. We all know how much Matt Carle has "grown" in his game since coming to the Flyers last November. I thought his play was atrocious at the start, but gradually got better and agree with the coaching assessment that over the final quarter of last s

-In case you missed it, please check out my Washington Capitals Quarter-Season Review. Carlson Makes his NHL Debut â " Varlamov to Start The Capitals will welcome the Montreal Canadiens to the Verizon Center tonight at 7pm. This will be the first of 2 games in 8 days between these teams as the C

I was going to write this blog yesterday and talk about being prepared for a team you humiliated and the ramifications of a 5 day break at home. Im glad I didnt as what happened last night in Calgary really shook my reality. If the Flames were a team looking for revenge and such it certainly did

PREVIEW (11:30 AM) Winners of seven of their last eight games, the Philadelphia Flyers will face off tonight against a San Jose Sharks team that is 9-1-3 in its last 13 games. Last month, with backup goaltender Brian Boucher in net for the Flyers, the Sharks came into Philly and won convincingly. T

Greetings from the Orlando airport for the annual family jaunt to the in-laws. I just landed and went through my texts and two sources, from different ends of the continent have told me that they are hearing that the Oilers are putting a huge package together to try and draw either Alexander Semin

My Take: What can you do? The New Jersey Devils started off 9-0-0 on the road and now are 0-1-1 in the last two road games. Not to fear, this is a little bump in the road for the first place Devils. The Nashville Predators played a solid game and Pekka Rinne was outstanding. It was good to see t

When John Tortorella took over as coach last year from Tom Renney, much was made about the change in style from a dump-and-chase to puck control fromat. In addition, the defensemen would be more involved in pinching at the blue lines while forwards would have additional backchecking responsibilities

Going into last nights game it would have been pretty hard to imagine any scenario that would have been tougher on the team than the events of October twelfth when the Flames lost after taking a 5-0 first period lead. That shouldnt be an issue anymore. To be fair, the first period was an incredi

Is the game plan too complicated to figure out? The Canadiens have two options against the Capitals tonight: Limit them to two or less goals somehow (probably would require another tremendous performance from Price, and at least 25 shot-blocks from the players in front of him), or break it open and

This is a fun fantasy game! Simply pick a player who you think will register a point out of each nights lineup of games. Kopitar? Crosby? Kane? You can even enter players days in advance if you arent able to get to the site each day. The current longest streak (which just ended) is 20 games.

A lots being made of the Blackhawks impending signings of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith. Various reports have the Hawks needing to complete trades in order to sign the players, Duncan Keith (contrary to his own recent quotes) not completely onboard, etc. Now, the picture is not co

West Coast games always present me a challenge these days. Last night, I stood no chance. With that, I wont pretend to be qualified to provide any sort of comprehensive recap or critique of the Tampa Bay Lightnings 4-3 overtime loss to the Ducks in Anaheim last night. But I will take the blame