Sean Bergenheim vs. Fernando Pisani

One of my friends used to play hockey growing up. According to him, this makes him far superior to me in understanding how hockey works, because he played in games and tournaments and coaches right up until his 17th birthday.

A "debate" we routinely get into is the effects of momentum on the game. Naturally, I agree with Kent Wilson on the issue and a number of things struck me as odd in the first season that I started watching hockey with a more analytical eye--certain things have more of an effect on the game than others. I posted on his Facebook wall after the Sharks shook off their three-game losing streak and closed out Detroit:

Momentum: [n] 1: force or speed of movement; impetus, as of a physical object or course of events. 2: a bullshit sports premise.

A good shift usually results in a goal, a powerplay or an offensive zone faceoff, so success directly after the good shift can be attributed to "momentum" even though the immediately preceding period before a goal set the team up to have a direct positive benefit. I can point to a long possession by the Canucks in the offensive zone in Game 7 of the Chicago series, however, the faceoff ended up in the Vancouver zone at the end of it, so any positive effect was wiped, despite a cheering crowd.

The Good Old Hockey Game - A look at the NHL season

The NHL season starts tomorrow, and every blog likes to put together a gimmicky look at the season. There's no reason The 'Eh' Factor can't get involved in this. Here are some lulz and predictions to get you ready for the season.

Simon Gagne, expensive hypochondriac, traded for two problem contracts

As per TSN, Simon Gagne has waived his no-trade clause to play for Steve Yzerman and Tampa Bay. Him and his $5.250 million deal with one year left on it has been traded for a fourth round pick, Andrej Meszaros and Matt Walker.

It's also popping up that Tampa Bay also gets a second round pick out of this deal.

The oft-injured Gagne is still a legitimate scoring threat, completely turning around that series against the Bruins, with four goals after returning in Game 4, with the winner late in Game 7. If he gets hurt, well, you only have him for one more year before you can re-sign him to a much more appropriate dollar-figure.

Andrez Meszaros and Matt Walker, on the other hand, have a combined cap hit of $5.7 million with deals that don't expire until 2013 (Meszaros in 2014).

[NHLnumbers.com]

So a rookie, rebuilding General Manager saves his team money and gets the best player in the deal? Nobody told Darryl Sutter it could be that easy.

UPDATE:

Unfortunately, it does not seem that Andrej Meszaros is part of this deal, meaning that the Flyers don't get a good return defenseman and save $1 million in cap space to fix their goaltending tinker around with their blueline.

DOUBLE UPDATE:

Nope, I had it right the first time. Meszaros is a Flyer. Philly takes on more salary and downgrades.

Steve Yzerman hired as Lightning GM

As you have no doubt heard, Steve Yzerman has been hired by the Tampa Bay Lightning, after a couple of months of speculation.

As great as a player Yzerman is, and for all his accomplishments, to me it doesn't seem like the right thing to do to thrust an inexperienced GM into the organization of considerable fuckuppery that is the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Keep in mind that Yzerman left Vincent Lecavalier off the Canadian Olympic Team. Since the Habs' season is over, if Bob Gainey wakes up and sees his shadow, then we have 6 more months of a possible Lecavalier trade to Montreal.