The long awaited Heritage Hockey Classic should go as planned tomorrow at the Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta, though the temperature might be a problem if it falls below -10C. I watched some highlights of the practice from today and let me tell ya, the Montreal Canadiens alumni are going to be in tough with some of the Oilers (Messier & Coffey) who looked pretty good. [Read More!]

I was just going over the current NHL standings and was somewhat surprised to see the Washington Capitals languishing at the bottom of the standings. You gotta wonder how a team with the likes of Jaromir Jagr, Olaf Kolzig, Peter Bondra, Robert Lang and Sergei Gonchar can only have 7 points in their first 15 games. The one thing to note about the Caps is that they usually get hot in the second half of the season. But the question is, can they afford to stink it up for that long? [Read More!]

In a game against the Dallas Stars this week, Mark Messier surpassed Gordie Howe to move into second place in all-time NHL scoring (he is still about a thousand points behind Wayne Gretzky). Even though the two played in very different eras, the comparisons have begun. Mark Messier has made a huge contribution to hockey and is often regarded as a consumate leader having won 6 Stanley Cup championships. Gordie Howe won 4 Stanley Cups with the Detroit Red Wings and 2 Avco Cups while playing in the WHA. Though Howe was probably more of a fighter than Messier, both could score and handle the physical side of hockey. An interesting comaprison.