News And Notes From Around the NHL, 9-2-11

Brandon Worley leads off our News and Notes by asking his readers:

Who Is Your Favorite All Time Dallas Stars Player? - Defending Big D
One thing that was asked of me really made me think twice a little bit and ask myself a question I don't think I've ever been asked: Who is my all-time favorite Stars player?

Who cares?  Let's talk about our least-favorite player ever to don a Dallas Stars uniform.  This isn't even a difficult question for me.  It's Derian Hatcher.  As I said in the prospect article last week:

I will admit that I've hated, genuinely hated with malice in my heart, two players in the thirty-plus years I've been observing the sport:  Derian Hatcher and Dale Hunter.  Hatcher and Hunter played a game best described as a number of dirty plays concealed by a couple of minutes of legitimate play...Hatcher was a giant elbow and knee looking for a person to injure on every shift.  He was a despicable player.  Had he played in a league that actually cared about the health of its players, he would have been suspended as often as he played.

He hasn't played in the Western Conference in seven years and I still can't stand him.  Look at him in that picture - he's smug because he just elbowed the awards presenter, knocked him out for a month with a concussion and there's not a chance he's going to be suspended.

"Kind of beer bellyish"? - Jewels From The Crown
I have a new favorite hockey writer -- Quisp from JFTC:  "A guy volunteers his time, and his name, to support a charity event raising money to fight brain cancer, and you take the opportunity to snap photos of him with his shirt off and publish them on the internet because you think he's fat?"

An Intro to Scoring Chances - In Lou We Trust
Another site joins the scoring chances project!  "Even though scoring chances are used by the Devils and probably many other teams it is not a stat that is publicly available. This is why a handful of fans decided to start recording and sharing scoring chances online."  If you'd like to laugh, wade into the comments of the article.

Season done for Marc Savard, career in doubt - Puck Daddy
"Based on what I see, what I hear, what I read, and what I'm told, it's very unlikely Marc will play again." Quickly buried by the death of Wade Belak was the news that Marc Savard's career was in doubt. Meanwhile, the men who've deliberately targeted his head with various implements of destruction - elbows, shoulders, elbow pads, forearms - will soon happily rejoin their teammates to begin a new season after a light slap on the wrist. 

Retro Live Blog: Roberto Luongo's 42 Saves in NHL Debut Nov. 28, 1999 - Lighthouse Hockey
"It was the NHL debut of some goalie -- you may have heard of him -- who was then the highest-drafted goaltender in NHL history. Seven months after his debut, Roberto Luongo would be gone."  Imagine how differently the landscape of the NHL would look today if someone would have placed a shock collar on Mike Mibury and set the boundary just short of his telephone.

Rangers Analysis: Season Scoring Chance Summaries - Blueshirt Banter
Imagine saying this about the Oilers:  "We see that for the season, just over 52% of the recorded chances at even strength were in the Rangers favor."

Does Ilya Bryzgalov Make The Flyers A Better Team? - Houses of the Hockey
"The Flyers radically shifted their approach to building a hockey club this summer, and they centered this change in direction on one man: Ilya Bryzgalov, generally acknowledged as the finest goaltender available via unrestricted free agency."

Moneyball – Baseball, Hockey and Edmonton - Sunil Agnihotri
"During Billy Beane’s reign as GM of the Athletics, the organization had a minor league affiliation with the now defunct Edmonton Trappers."

The Case for Columbus, part 1a: Ownership - CBJ Blog
Here we will look at how the ownership and franchise stacks up compared to the rest of the league and try to understand the ownership’s role in what amounts basically to a failed first ten years of the franchise. --Two words for you - Doug MacLean.

Will Alex Ovechkin Have an Ovechkin-like Season in 2011-12? - Russian Machine Never Breaks
"Last season I got some flak for projecting Ovechkin would score on average 42 goals, plus or minus 8 goals over the 82-game season. The former two-time Hart winner ended up setting career lows in goals (32) and points (85), while once again suffering an early exit in the postseason."

Nashville Predators analysis: How to replace Sullivan, Dumont, Ward and Goc? - On the Forecheck
If anyone besides Darcy Regier can do it, David Poile can.