Around the Rink 09.20.06

By now, you have heard about the Evgeni Malkin situation. Malkin went down with a seperated shoulder and will have a second opinion of his status this coming week. The result could be a couple weeks to a couple months to the whole season, depending on how severe it is and how much the Penguins want to risk his services.

Somehow, my belief is that the Pens will get as many second opinions as needed to get the answer they want. If it comes to down to Dr. Nick Riviera giving the thumbs-up, they'll do that. If Malkin is deemed out for an extended period of time, you have to figure that this whole adventure he has been on would seem all for nought.

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The New York Rangers and Florida Panthers played in Puerto Rico this evening with the Rangers winning 3-2. James Mirtle said that the pans of the crowd showed less than desired results. Of course, in a place where the sport is foreign, you wouldn't expect much out of there.

There's a time in every plan to expand the game where you just have to look and figure that hockey and hot weather don't really mix that well, especially that close to the Equator.

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Tie Domi retired from the NHL, but fear not-- he'll be in the TSN broadcast team for this season. Domi's retirement pretty much ushers out another heavyweight fighter. With all the rule changes, the role of players like Domi have taken a backseat to that of finesse players and skilled guys. You can see guys like Chris Neil and Brian McGrattan having to switch up their games because of the rule changes and to have a job from year to year.

Domi was a big player in a small frame. I know one thing though, fans behind the penalty box in Philadelphia will feel a lot safer now.

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I know you can tell a lot from the pre-season, but the Nashville Predators and Atlanta Thrashers have really impressed me. The Predators are in their old run and gun style, while the Thrashers seem to get it done high scoring or low scoring. The Predators have been playing fairly elite style hockey in the past couple of season and this could be the climax of all those years of underachieving. I can't leave out the Boston Bruins, either. Their undefeated record shows they could be a force in the Northeast.

After a quickstart, the Blue Jackets have started to fade a little bit. Maybe the loss of Sergei Fedorov hurt them, but I'm sure the AHL roster they have been putting out hasn't helped either. The defending champion Carolina Hurricanes haven't looked overly impressive either, but like I said, good or bad-- you can't really predict anything coming from the pre-season.

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