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Scotty Bowman was just awful when it came to the draft. I'm not sure if he ever picked a first rounder who wasn't a bust.

My wish list: (based both on how much I want the Red Wings to draft them and the chance they'll still be around at the 21st pick) 1. Jon Merrill 2. Mark Pysyk 3. Nick Bjugstad 4. Derek Forbort 5. Kirill Kabanov 6. Jack Campbell 7. Alexander Burmistrov 8. Austin Watson 9. Dylan McIlrath 10. Emerson Etem 11. Jeff Skinner 12. John McFarland 13. Evgeni Kuznetsov 14. Calle Jarnkrok 15. Ludwig Rensfeldt

Disagree. I like Jimmy better.

Question: What is the tie-breaker for the Richard?

I don't see how having the Penguins in another game is helping the league. The whole US hates Crosby after the Olympics.

I'm pretty sure that NCAA rules forbid playing in any other organized league, if if the player is not compensated. So I think the only way he signs an ATO is if he plans to play for the Griffins next year, which is not what I've been hearing.

Here's my crazy theory: The NHL is actually way smarter than we think. They bought the Coyotes when they were the worst franchise in the league, knowing that they'd be due for a breakout this year. So now they're going to sell them at the peak of their value.

That and the draft pick that would go on to be Mike Green.

I'd be willing to bet it will be Kesler. These awards usually end up going to the most popular candidate, and even though it wasn't the NHL, the olympic tournament got Kesler a lot of momentum in the media. Datsyuk's reduced offensive numbers will be enough an excuse for the voters to pick Kesler.

If you're interested in things like these, a good site to check out is http://sportsclubstats.com. They run a massive number of simulations to the end of the regular season to calculate the probabilities that a team will make the playoffs. What's great about this is that it takes into account things like two teams that are both battling for a spot playing against each other. So it seems that mathematically, we need to go about 13-3-2 to guarantee a spot in the playoffs. The worst we could do and still sneak in seems to be 5-11-2.

For a qualification game, this has actually been really exciting.

The good thing about Canada losing is that no one would be in any hurry to steal Yzerman away from the Wings.

I'm just waiting for Roenick to bring up NYI when Milbury makes a stupid point.

If they really need money, just put on a few more commercials during the intermission. No one's really going to miss Larry Murphy's analysis.