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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.

Exactly. When you're Cam Janssen, there's probably no one on the Caps you're afraid to fight, so that's where this theory breaks down.

What is this giant ad?

All things being equal, you take the guy who regularly plays on an NHL-sized ice surface. The guy from Europe, as good as he might be, will still have to make an adjustment at some point, which some guys (Liv) are never able to do well. McCollum and Markstrom were pretty much equal in the scouts's minds, so I don't blame the wings at all for drafting McCollum, who could still turn out to be a great goaltender.

Certainly there's a lot of luck involved, but you don't see George Parros scoring goals like that, so it lso takes a lot of skill.

My gut prediction is 3-1 final for the Wings. But, that being said, my request to the team is, PLEASE just blow them out. 4-0, 8-0, 19-0, 34-0. I don't care. My nerves just can't take much more of this.

Replace "gamesmanship" with "cheating and poor sportsmanship" Oh, and replace "Ran out of real estate" with any other phrase synonymous with "ran out of room." It was probably funny the first few times, but now it's like that guy who still thinks "That's what she said!" jokes are funny.

I'd be interested to see if anyone could pull that video.

Tyler Kennedy plays for the penguins and is doing nothing in these finals. I think Tim Kennedy is still in school, busy doing nothing in the CCHA.

The NHL is allowed to review any play after the fact and issue a suspension if they feel it is necessary. But if suspending a player is going to be the exception rather than the rule, don't write it in the rulebook. Just leave it up to post facto discretion like every other play.

Scotty had absolutely no problem benching a player who did something stupid. I'd say first of all, any player who played for him would be afraid to get a dumb penalty. Secondly, they wouldn't likely get a chance to get a second dumb penalty in a game like yesterday's.