Yesterday was the commencement of the formal free-agency signing period in the National Hockey League, and it went off with a bang: A record number of players switched teams, with the usual long-term dollars committed with an eye toward salary-cap impact.

The detailed rundown is available from here to ESPN.com. Here are a few of the more notable player- and team-based developments from the first day of “Free Agent Frenzy”:

- Perhaps reflecting their state government’s fiscal paralysis, all three California clubs were unusually quiet. Not counting the Ducks and Sharks re-signing a couple of their own restricted and unrestricted free agents (notably Scott Niedermayer for Anaheim, along with their previous Draft-day trading of Chris Pronger to Philadelphia), those teams and the Kings made no moves at all. The inactivity was especially puzzling for LA and San Jose, who were both expected to revamp their rosters after disappointing 2008-09 seasons. Both teams are rumored trade-partner possibilities for disguntled Ottawa winger Dany Heatley, but otherwise, it looks like they’ll be picking from the second-wave UFA crop.

- The Habs made waves with their signings and trades, basically foregoing size for skill. This has set up Montreal for considerable ridicule for assembling a forward corps that averages something like 5′9″/170lbs (exaggeration, but not by much). I’d like to take an early stab at nicknaming this shrimpy group of Scott Gomez, Mike Cammalleri, and Brian Gionta: The Smurfs, hearkening to the common term for short-but-steady NFL receivers.

- Based on recent performance, it seems like the Oilers have upgraded in goal with Nik Khabibulin. However, his history indicates that he doesn’t elevate his game unless he’s got serious competition from his backup: That was the case last season in Chicago with Cristobal Huet, and similarly during his Tampa Bay tenure when John Grahame pushed him. Will youngster Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers be able to challenge for the starter’s role enough to keep Khabi on his toes? For four years? Doubtful.

- And speaking of the goaltenders… I’m really surprised that Scott Clemmensen couldn’t capitalize on his stellar substitute stint with New Jersey this year — to me, it validated his starter status. In fact, I was expecting Colorado to nab him and slide him into their vacant No. 1 slot. Instead, the Avs picked up journeyman Craig Anderson, and Clemmensen ended up replacing Anderson as Florida’s new backup behind Tomas Vokoun.

- There was a lot of grousing over several injury-prone players landing multi-year contract. In particular, Minnesota got flack for replacing one fragile winger — Marian Gaborik — with another in Martin Havlat. I would add that the nature of those long-term deals means that many of these players are going to become injury-prone if they’re not already. In addition, the Lightning seemed to get a free pass on this issue when they picked up Mattias Ohlund, who’s spent significant time on the IR during his career.

- On the local NHL front: The Rangers obviously made the most noise, with the preliminary salary-shedding of Scott Gomez to Montreal setting them up for the $37.5-million landing of Gaborik. Adding brawler Donald Brashear will also amp the excitement level at MSG. Comparatively, the Devils and Islanders laid low, notwithstanding New Jersey’s significant re-signing of their incumbent d-men Johnny Oduya and Andy Greene.

- Finally, I’m a little irked over the loose talk about the “cap hit” for each announced signing. In most cases, the dollar figures cited by TSN, Puck Daddy, et al are nothing but the simple per-year average of a contract, arrived at by simple arithmetic. Problem is, most of these big-money deals are either front-loaded or back-loaded, so the true cap hit in any given year is far away from the per-year average.

For instance, Marian Hossa’s trumpeted 12-year, $62.8-million contract with Chicago averages out to $5.23 million — except that it doesn’t. The reported front-loaded deal pays Hossa $7.9 million each season from 2009 through 2016, with declining annual salaries after that (making the older Hossa easier to trade or buy out by that point). Obviously, the Blackhawks carry a significantly higher salary cap figure for the winger in the immediate term than if the total sixty-two mil were more equitably spread out over the contract term. That’s sports biz!

So much for Day 1. From here until October, it’s fill-in-the-blanks time with the remnant free agents, a process interesting in its own right.

I never thought I’d lament the absence of rumor-mongering and mostly-clueless talent assessment, but that’s exactly the void I’m feeling heading into the 2009 National Hockey League Entry Draft, which starts tonight.

I mean, it’s been extremely quiet all week. All that’s cropped up is an iffy Phil Kessel-for-Tomas Kaberle trade proposal from the Bruins to the Maple Leafs, and scattered speculation about the chances of the Islanders not picking John Tavares first overall. No other wheeling-and-dealing in bids to move up or down in selection order, or to tinker with rosters before free agency hits next week.

I know why I’m feeling shortchanged: Comparatively, NBA teams completed a flurry of transactions before and during their entry draft yesterday, including the trading of marquee names like Shaquille O’Neal. NHL teams are more constricted by the roster-based hard salary cap they operate under, but still, why should hoops fans have all the fun?

I suspect the hockey world will see a buzz of activity starting right about now, before the Draft begins at 7PM in Montreal. But it’s been a dull lead-up.

I was hoping my offhand quip about who the New York Islanders should select No. 1 overall in tomorrow’s 2009 NHL Entry Draft would slip past the goalie. But since some other Puck Daddy readers seemed to like it, I’ll reproduce it here, in all it’s crackpot-conspiratorial glory:

The master plan on Long Island: They draft [Matt] Duchene, knowing that the Islander faithful will respond to this anti-[John] Tavares affront by promptly burning down Nassau Coliseum. That will force Town of Hempstead’s hand on the Lighthouse Project arena, and one way or another, the Isles get a new barn!

Probably the most brilliant draft-day maneuvering in the history of the National Hockey League, actually. High time a team fully synthesize its personnel and facility development efforts into one chaos-theory strategy!

No doubt, it takes a load of chutzpah for Cash4Gold to horn in on both the National Hockey League’s and National Basketball Association’s championship seasons by:

- Appraising the Stanley Cup at a “melt value” of $7,500, based on photographic examination and an assumption that it’s made of solid silver. (Obviously, not only did the company not get a hands-on chance to examine hockey’s most hallowed hardware, but it also didn’t bother to do basic research via the Hockey Hall of Fame, which clearly specs the Cup as 34.5 pounds of silver-and-nickel alloy.)

- Similarly valuing the Tiffany-made silver-and-gold Larry O’Brien NBA Championship Trophy at $3,500 in melted form.

Probably the first time in a long while that the NBA came in second to the NHL in terms of financial valuation. At least both leagues know where they could liquefy their fancy assets for some quick cash, should the bottom ever fall out of sports entertainment…

Given these shoddy appraisal methods, I’m not sure I’d trust C4G to give me a fair price for my cast-off jewelry. Still, I’ll admit that they made a decent attempt at manufacturing a little marketing buzz, with a natural synergy between the big-league shiny prizes and the precious-metal salvage game.

Your National Hockey League is on a real roll right now: On the heels of a court victory affirming its control over franchise ownership and relocation vis-à-vis the Coyotes and Jim Balsillie, it got confirmation that the just-completed Stanley Cup playoffs this year featured some of the highest television ratings in 36 years.

NBC’s Game 7 broadcast of the Stanley Cup final between the Penguins and the Red Wings on Friday night drew an average of 8 million viewers, the biggest American television audience for any N.H.L. game since the 9.4 million who watched the Game 6 Cup finale between Montreal and Chicago in 1973…

The size of the Pens-Wings audience is even more impressive, Variety reports, because Friday is customarily the lightest viewing night of the week.

And of course, some head-to-head context with the NHL’s sister league:

Sunday night’s ABC broadcast of Game 5 of the N.B.A. finals, in which the Los Angeles Lakers won the title against the Orlando Magic, attracted an average of 14 million viewers. That means the N.H.L. telecast drew an audience 57 percent the size of the N.B.A.’s. Traditionally in the U.S., N.H.L. games draw from 25 percent to 33 percent of the audience that watches N.B.A. games.

Yup, hockey fans can take pride in the idea that their sport is half as popular as pro hoops! But good news on the TV front is rare enough that this counts as a resounding victory. The Friday night result gives a nice boost to the final average viewership of 5.6 million for the five NBC-broadcasted games.

So how can the league and the network sustain this strong showing into next year? Some of the ingredients from this year can’t be pre-determined:

- Detroit in the Finals, which always pulls in eyeballs;
- Star-player power in the form of Sidney Crosby;
- The year-over-year rematch;
- Game 7 suspense;
- An unusually unchallenged programming night, with not only reruns on the other channels but also a night off for the NBA Finals;

But one key decision from Stanley Cup 2009 can be preserved going forward: The series-opening ratings juice that came from playing Games 1 and 2 on back-to-back weekend nights. You can debate how successful that would have been for NBC had it been, say, Columbus versus Florida. But I’m convinced that it’s the right way to kick off the showcase series of the playoffs: No opening-night pomp, followed by a day or two off for casual viewers to promptly forget about the whole thing. Saturday night served as the lead-in for a returning audience on Sunday, and the ratings momentum remained sustained from there, right through to Game 7’s breakthrough. So that two-game opener schedule will remain in place next year (and beyond).

I’d like to think that this Detroit-Pittsburgh showing will defuse the constant fretting over “large market” versus “small market” in championship TV ratings. Neither city can be truly considered “large market”, so you’d think that the raw viewer numbers wouldn’t measure up. Then again, they never do, unless you have the ideal population-intense New York-Los Angeles matchup, so it’s a pointless concern. These two cities are recognized as storied hockey towns, which probably helped sell the series; the challenge is to apply that pitch to non-traditional teams that might reach the Finals next year.

Finally, it’s refreshing to not hear about how hockey in June allegedly doesn’t work for a national audience. Summertime pucks seems to have found fans this time around.

So much for the Hamilton Coyotes. Bankruptcy court rejected Jim Balsillie’s attempt to buy the Phoenix NHL franchise and relocate it to southern Ontario:

[Judge Redfield T.] Baum shot down the claim by Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes and Balsillie that failure to allow the team, over the objection of the NHL, to move would violate antitrust law.

“This court can not find that antitrust law, as applicable nonbankruptcy law, permits the sale free and clear of the relocation rights of the NHL,” Baum wrote.

He added, “It is not an antitrust violation for professional sports leagues to have terms and conditions on relocations of its members.”

An antitrust claim requires a “bona fide dispute,” but there is none because Balsillie only sought the NHL’s permission to relocate the franchise after it was brought up in court, Baum wrote.

“This court is unconvinced that it should order that the NHL must decide the relocation application to meet the June 29 deadline,” the judge wrote.

Baum also rejected claims by Moyes and Balsillie that while assuming the contract the Coyotes have with the NHL, they can disregard the portion of the agreement that requires the games be played in Glendale.

The judge compared that claim to “a purchaser of a bankrupt franchise in a remote location asserting that it can be relocated far from its original agreed site to a highly valuable location, for example New York City’s Times Square …”

Basically, this gambit is dead, despite Balsillie’s posturing for further mediation. Frankly, I’d have been shocked had it gone the other way. The bankruptcy maneuver was an obvious attempt to circumvent league process and approval — and not just for hockey, but for the other three major-league sports as well (indeed, other team sports were primed to take advantage of what would have been a new precedent). No way was the court going to upend standard operating procedure for North American professional franchise sports, just so a BlackBerry billionaire can have a team in his backyard.

I think I pointed this out before, but it bears repeating: I don’t know why anyone would want to engage Balsillie in a National Hockey League team sale again. He’s had three chances to buy a franchise, and has not only flubbed them all, but did so in particularly hamhanded fashion. What does his inability to get into the NHL owners’ club say about his general acumen as a businessman — you’d have to think he’d be a disaster if he ever did become a team owner. Why bother dealing with him if it’s practically dead certain that he’ll never get through the approval process, thanks to his by-now transparent intent to relocate any team he’d buy to Ontario? It’s automatically time wasted.

As for the ‘Yotes, their arena situation not only locks them into the Phoenix-Glendale market, but also holds the longer-term key for their viability. Arena operations is a default condition for major-pro team sports success, and the Coyotes have that. Any new owner should be able to exploit that, and build a successful hockey show in the desert from there.

If you’ve got more friends-slash-clients than can comfortably fit into a standard luxury box in Madison Square Garden, good news: The arena is super-sizing one of its suites to hold 300 people, as part of a 2-3 year renovation.

[MSG Vice Chairman Hank] Ratner said no decisions had been made on pricing, including for the 20 floor-level luxury suites and the 5,000-square-foot supersuite. But he said the arena is trying to learn from other sports venues in a tanking economy. The Yankees cut the price of over 100 front-row seats from $2,500 to $1,250 last month after seeing empty rows of the top-priced spots game after game.

The Garden officials showed reporters two mock-ups of a midlevel and floor-level luxury suite, which will soon be shopped to corporate sponsors. The suites behind the 23rd row at the Garden included granite-topped kitchen islands behind stadium seating; the floor-level suite featured formal dining tables, full bars and a fireplace.

The Garden abandoned plans for 19 “ledge suites” on the higher levels and combined 10 luxury suites to create the one supersuite since it introduced the plans a year ago.

I’ve gotta hand it to them, I didn’t think there was another significant way to boost in-arena acreage for profit. When you’ve got no other options but to stay put, you get extra-creative.

I guess this means that Cablevision really is backing out of building a new Garden across the street, since this sprucing-up will cost something north of half a billion dollars.

So the Rangers and Knicks get a leg up on facility revenue streams. Not for long, of course: The arms race in other NHL and NBA cities will jumpstart over this. Soon, swarms of hockey/hoops attendees from Atlanta to Seattle will be able to crowd into these supremo suites and party in a less-than-intimate setting, oblivious to the game action below them.

For all the hand-wringing over the unconventional back-to-back gamenights start to this year’s Stanley Cup Finals, the strong Nielsen numbers from this past weekend indicate that the format is probably now a permanent feature:

The NBC telecast [of Sunday's 8PM airing of Game 2] drew a 3.4 rating and a 6 share. That’s up from the 2.6 rating and 5 share of Saturday’s Game 1. Detroit beat Pittsburgh 3-1 in Sunday night’s game to take a 2-0 lead in the series.

And those numbers are, indeed, a great showing, even compared to last year.

The stated intent in scheduling the start of the series with back-to-backs was to seamlessly sustain momentum, instead of playing a Game 1 and then taking a night off before following into the second match. The unstated intent: NBC doesn’t want to air hockey during the rarefied weekday primetime hours, so a Saturday-Sunday bloc was the only way to get the broadcast network coverage.

But whatever the machinations behind the scenes, it worked: A build-up in ratings points to the first game being an effective lead-in to draw more viewers the following night. For what it’s worth, Game 2 went head-to-head against this year’s MTV Movie Awards, which presumably would have drained away some of that coveted 18-34 year-old audience; despite that, the NHL increased the number of eyeballs.

Anything that kicks up the ratings isn’t going to be abandoned, so expect this formula to stay in place next year. Let’s just hope the league and the network don’t go hog-wild and extend the logic into unworkable illogic: Back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back for the entire seven-game series, hoping that the Nielsens increase each night.

Yup, this year’s Stanley Cup round is, improbably enough, a repeat performance between last year’s finalists, right down to home-ice advantage for Detroit. There’s a reason why this hasn’t happened since 1983 and 1984, when the Oilers and Islanders split championships — with 28 other teams in the mix, the odds are pretty daunting against a Cup rematch in back-to-back years.

So that situation alone makes this 2009 Finals worth watching. And if that’s not enough, there are these storylines:

- The eerie parallels between ‘83-84 and now, including the Penguins’ youth versus the Wings’ veteran dominance, the dynastic possibilities, star-player power, etc. The longer-term difference this time around will be keeping the core of this Pens team together long enough to make a run at multiple Cups, with the salary cap working against continuity (sorta).

- The Marian Hossa factor. The defection to Detroit after his Finals run with Pittsburgh last year, specifically to enhance his chance to win a Cup, only to have to face his former team for that trophy, is the most delicious of ironies. It couldn’t have been scripted better.

- While everyone’s anticipating this as the start of an Oilers-like dynasty for the Penguins, I’m more intrigued by the opposite possibility: A Buffalo Bills-like run of four (or more?) championship appearance in a row for Pittsburgh, and coming up empty each time. Not that I wish bad luck to the Pens or their players specifically — but it would be funny.

Being a hockey fan, I’m well-accustomed to the denigration of the sport in general and the National Hockey League in particular, to the point where they’re not considered to be on the same relevancy level as the major-league editions of football, baseball, and basketball. So it is that, for instance, a dissection of the identity crisis suffered by Columbus (Ohio) lists as one problem the lack of any major-league sports teams in the city — disregarding the local NHL club and thereby underlining the lack of consideration for hockey as a big-league concern.

But when the sportsbiz calls for some time in front of the judge, it seems that the Big Three consider their on-ice brethren to be cut from the same cloth as they are:

The NFL, Major League Baseball and the NBA have lined up in support of the NHL’s court fight to block the sale of the Phoenix Coyotes and move to southern Canada.

The other major sports leagues, including the office of baseball commissioner Bud Selig, filed statements in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Monday in support of the NHL.

All three statements ask the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to “respect the National Hockey League’s rules and procedures regarding ownership transfer and relocation.”

The statements of baseball and the NBA ask that the court “not set precedent that could severely disrupt the business of professional hockey,” baseball, basketball and other major league sports.

The NFL statement had similar wording, asking the court to avoid a “precedent that has the potential to undermine or disrupt the business of professional hockey, football or other major league sports.”

Nothing like litigation to bring family members together. Not that the economies of scale, labor issues, and political-economic arena strategies didn’t already make it obvious.

Just for fun, here’s a brief league-by-league rundown of the last time (to date) that franchises in the National Hockey League, National Football League, Major League Baseball, and the National Basketball Association have left one city/market in favor of another:

NBA - 2008: The SuperSonics leave Seattle in July and become the Oklahoma City Thunder

MLB - 2005: The Expos decamp from Montreal in Autumn 2004 and begin the next season as the Washington Nationals

NHL - 1997: The Whalers officially pull out of Hartford in May and commence the 1997-98 season in Raleigh as the Carolina Hurricanes

NFL - 1997: The Oilers finalize their departure from Houston at the end of the 1996 season and begin the 1997 season in Nashville Memphis as the Tennessee Oilers (and settle into Nashville the season after that, and become the Tennessee Titans)

There’s plenty of context behind each of these moves. I won’t go into detail, but highlights include: OKC hosting the Hurricane Katrina-displaced New Orleans Hornets prior to the Sonics arriving; the Expos being bought out by MLB, considered for franchise contraction, and split-timed between Montreal and Puerto Rico prior to landing in DC; and a spate of expansions/relocations encompassing Los Angeles, Winnipeg, Cleveland, and Jacksonville (among other cities) in hockey and football. Sports leagues don’t function in a vacuum, so all those background circumstances led to the franchise shuffles.

Also note that I didn’t bother to count situations where teams moved into new arenas that remained in their existing market, but just happened to be in a new ZIP code. So, for instance, the New Jersey Devils move in 2007 from East Rutherford to Newark doesn’t apply, as they remained in essentially the same area (northern New Jersey).

And yes, I compile this list with full knowledge that the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes could move to Hamilton, Ontario soon. Although the way that’s shaking out, it doesn’t look too likely that the move will come off; so this post should remain up-to-date for at least another year.

The Vancouver Canucks are out of the playoffs, so now’s the time for team management to make roster decisions for next season.

Particularly when it comes to star forwards — and twin brothers — Daniel and Henrik Sedin, who are unrestricted free agents come July 1:

What makes testing the open market so difficult for the Sedins is that they travel as a pair - and thus, any team interested in securing their services needs to be in a position to make an offer to both. Considering how many teams are pushing up hard against the salary cap, the idea that somebody has an extra $13-million (all currency U.S.) lying around in available cap space limits their options to a handful of choices - staying in Vancouver, possibly moving to Minnesota or most likely, reuniting with their former boss, Burke, in Toronto.

Early indications are that the twins will stay in Vancouver. But if I were in charge of the Minnesota Wild, I’d be making a full-court press versus their division rivals to swipe the Sedins. Because in addition to the on-ice talent they bring, the marketing potential is just too tantalizing: The National Hockey League’s only pair of twin-brother forwards, starring in the Twin Cities!

It’d be too perfect to not come off. Whoever the Wild pick as their next GM should make the Sedins his Number 1 priority for the offseason. It’d make an instant impression in the State of Hockey.

When criticism hit over a Yanni concert in Pittsburgh forcing the scheduling of uncommon (but not unheard of) back-to-back playoff games this weekend for the Penguins and Capitals in their National Hockey League playoff series, I highly doubt that anyone expected the singer musician himself to weigh in on the situation:

Yanni didn’t express apologies or regrets. He instead cited his experience “as a former national champion swimmer” for native country Greece.

“I empathize with the athletes competing in the NHL playoffs and understand the pressures under which they perform,” the statement said.

Early in the series, Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis said it was “a shame” that the teams were forced to play back-to-back games, calling it “bad for the league, both fan bases and for the players.”

Of special note: Ted Leonsis just happens to be Greek American (as am I, incidentally). So I don’t know if his team getting bumped by a fellow Hellene had anything to do with Leonsis’ carping.

As for Yanni, any chance of my ability to take his feta-cheesiness at all seriously ended when one of his videos appeared on “Beavis and Butt-head” long ago. The killing stroke: During a tender scene when Yanni’s lover is walking away from him down a sunset-lit beach as he looks on longingly, Butt-head quips, “She’s leaving him because he sucks, huh-huh.”

Unwilling to let a little thing like the Great Recession keep National Hockey League action out of the Golden Horseshoe, BlackBerry billionaire (C$) Jim Balsillie has pounced upon the Phoenix Coyotes with an offer to buy the bankruptcy-declared team and move it to Canada.

Plenty of reaction since this hit the fan last night. Let me just point out a couple of extenuating circumstances:

- The issue with Balsillie buying the Coyotes out of bankruptcy is key, particularly in this credit environment. Whereas Chapter 11 used to provide a reasonably long grace period for an organization to raise funds while still operating business-as-usual, the current tight lending landscape erases that former advantage. Without money from elsewhere to borrow, the Coyotes had to integrate Balsillie’s rescue plan into their filing, or else risk having their creditors force drastic action, i.e. selling of assets, etc. This doesn’t mean Balsillie automatically wins, but presuming all other options in Arizona and beyond have been tried, he’s positioned very well to have his bid accepted.

Secondarily, Chapter 11 provides a clean exit from the team’s long-term lease situation at Jobing.com Arena, which otherwise would have required a hefty payout to break.

- The league is rightly perceived as being against Balsillie’s latest attempt to muscle into the NHL boardroom. But not so much because of the territorial encroachment that a Hamilton/Waterloo team would represent to the flagship franchise in Toronto (and secondarily, the one in Buffalo). Rather, it’s because of the larger issue of major-league hockey constriction that having three teams (four, if you consider that Detroit’s not that far away) in such a concentrated area creates:

In a nutshell: You don’t tend to the long-term health of a sports league by effectively imploding it thusly. Jim Balsillie’s efforts to move a team north of the border have been seconded by Canadian pundits who argue that hockey’s following is so strong that, not only would a southern Ontario team get support, but so would a second team in Toronto, and so on.

That’s probably true. Just as it’s true that, even today, NFL teams in burgeoning suburban zones would probably do well. But in terms of league macroeconomics, it sets the stage for ultimate constriction of the product. It’s in the same category as league contraction — again, the notion that shrinking the NHL’s footprint would concentrate its energy and revitalize it.

Yes, I know I’ve beaten the no-constriction drum before. My feeling is that if it was a serious enough pratfall for the astronomically-successful National Football League to have avoided three decades ago, then it hardly seems like a good idea for its weak-sister hockey brethren to adopt.

- Finally, assuming that this inside track to relocating an NHL team into the Maple Leafs’ backyard comes off, I’m thinking that there’ll be a unique concession made to the incumbent club: Namely, that the new-look Ontario Horseshoes will be forced to remain in the Western Conference, instead of being realigned to the East. The Leafs are going to want to salvage something of their Greater Toronto monopoly, in the form of being the primary game in town to catch more games versus popular East Coast NHL teams. So they’ll force their new neighbors to stay slotted in the opposite conference.

Which might not be a bad deal for the locals. Remaining in the West would mean that the Western Canadian teams who now visit Toronto only once per season will be scheduled for multiple trips to the area. If the team gets shifted from the Pacific Division to the Northwest, that would mean even more visits from Calgary, Vancouver, and Edmonton. It would also keep in line the existing consolidation of the Canadian clubs into two divisions. Hockey paradise for those fans situated midway between!

I always find the first round of the National Hockey League playoffs (or any sport’s first-round playoff, for that matter) to be the most exciting. With a full field of 16 teams in action, it’s truly got the variety that the subsequent thinning-out by elimination lacks. (On the other hand, I guess quantity gets traded for quality.)

As the Conference Semifinals commence tonight, here’s my brief wrap-up of the noteworthy happenings of Round One, starting with my personal disappointment by the collapse of a certain Manhattan-based squad:

- Yeah, the Rangers performed better than I thought they would versus Washington. And even if they had slipped past the Caps, they assuredly would have gotten swept next round by the Boston Bruins buzzsaw, so really, it’s just as well that they ended their postseason run early.

Still, did they have to implode so spectacularly? Blowing a 3-1 series edge, lapsing back into puck-overhandling instead of shoot-first offense, suffering a high-gloveside chink in King Henrik’s armor, and experiencing a comical meltdown in team discipline from the expected (barely-controllable pest Sean Avery) and unexpected (too-fiery head coach John Tortorella) sources. In some ways, the most disappointing shortcoming in the NHL this year.

- I’m prepared to designate the New Jersey-Carolina series as one of the best ever. The closing-seconds shocker that won Game 7 and the series for the ‘Canes was simply amazing, and will stick in my memory for as long as it sticks in the craw of the Devils and their fans.

- Not one for the ages, but the Chicago-Calgary series was probably the second-most entertaining pairing in this first round.

- Seriously, is anyone at all surprised that San Jose did the early-round bounce yet again? They’ve made an artform out of this. Their season-closing shakiness only reinforced their expected return to form. When the Ducks ticked up as the matchup partner, there was no doubt in my mind that Anaheim would dispatch their cross-state rivals. Frankly, I thought that even St. Louis would have had a fair shot at knocking off Team Teal, had the Blues lost their final regular-season game to land in the No. 8 seed.

- I really thought the Blues would put up a better fight. They gave the Canucks plenty to handle, but not eking out even a single win was surprising.

- I didn’t see anything to unconvince me that the Bruins are going to be lifting the Cup come June. That’s regardless of who comes out of the West.

Tonight’s the opening night for this season’s National Hockey League playoffs. And right off the bat, there are four first-round games on the tube, between league cable partner Versus and — thanks to two of the three local clubs making the postseason — MSG Network.

Toss in NBC’s coverage, and it looks like I won’t be getting out of the house most nights for the next couple of weeks. At least through the first-round action.

For what it’s worth, I’ll predict Vancouver-Chicago for the Western Conference Final, and Boston-Pittsburgh for the East. Furthermore, I see the Bruins hoisting the Stanley Cup come June. As for my Rangers, I think they’ll be lucky to eke out two wins from the Capitals; the only consolation is that I expect/hope the Devils will join them in an opening-round exit.

Life imitates art, a generation and a hockey league removed: Christian Hanson, the son of Dave Hanson of Slap Shot fame, recently jumped from NCAA college hockey to the NHL by signing a two-year deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Damn sight better than his dad could have hoped for, even if the Johnstown Chiefs had been a real minor-league squad.

For the record: I never much cared for Slap Shot, despite it being designated as the definitive hockey movie of all time. It’s got its moments, but overall it’s an amateurish effort at replicating ’70s-era puck.

The New York Islanders have found a relocation option more feasible than their trumped-up Kansas City/Sprint Center canard, and it’s right across the county border: New York City’s Queens borough is dangling Willet’s Point, near the Mets’ new Citi Field, for a new hockey arena complex.

Transportation is key:

The Queens Chamber of Commerce is pitching Willets Point as an ideal spot for the four-time Stanley Cup champions given its proximity to highways and the No. 7 train.

A spokesman for the city Economic Development Corp. said a request for proposals on Willets Point will go out this year, allowing developers a window of about two months to respond.

I’m thinking a location right near mass transit — subways and buses more than commuter trains — would do loads to pump up attendance. If nothing else, the Isles would be practically guaranteed sellouts when the Rangers visit, and possibly the Devils too. In fact, New Jersey’s recent move from the Meadowlands, which is chiefly car-accessible, to downtown Newark, which is on the PATH line, has a lot to do with that NHL team’s uptick in ticket sales.

Can the club still call itself “Islanders” after moving to the five boroughs? Sure can, because political-perceptional divisions aside, Queens really is part of Long Island, and even resembles Nassau County in terms of suburban/urban blend.

I’m sure this term’s been around since the twilight of Gordie Howe’s extended career; but I’ll still give credit to the announcers for tonight’s Versus NHL game for invoking it:

The conspicuously 40-something player still hacking it in the National Hockey League? Dub him the “elder skatesman”.

His on-ice role may or may not involve statesman-like diplomacy informed by wizened experience. More likely, the elder skatesman just has a wealth of knowledge made up of a huge bag of dirty tricks.

Washington Capitals winger Alexander Ovechkin caused a predictable NHL talking-heads ruckus over his 50th-goal “hockey stick on fire” celebration during the 5-2 Caps win over the Lightning:

Here’s what I’m wondering:

Taking into account that this happened on the road at Tampa Bay, do you think that, somehow, Ovechkin knew that the name “Tampa” is derived from the Calusa Indian word for “sticks of fire”, and thus intentionally chose that “stick on fire” motif?

Unlikely, I know. But if that’s somehow true, I’m duly impressed that Alex O would take the time to research the local history, and incorporate it into his on-ice choreography. Makes the premeditated NFL-endzone dance vibe more palatable.

Not to get overly carried away with Martin Brodeur’s NHL-record 552nd goaltending win last night, but during the game broadcast, a newspaper headline flashed onscreen, and I liked it:

LE NOUVEAU ROY

I know only enough French to get my face slapped, but I could translate this phrase easily enough: THE NEW KING.

But that’s only the surface meaning. The double-entendre, in good sports-journalist tradition, had to do with who’s career-wins total Brodeur bettered: Patrick Roy’s. So the compact pun: Brodeur is not only the new record-book king, but also, in a sense, the new Roy. Only works in French, and that language-specificity makes it that much cooler.

Wish I could confirm which Quebecois newspaper that was. The only online trace I could find was this re-use by Fanatique.ca; it’ll have to do.

Bonus blog-reader points to anyone who can translate my all-Gallic title for this post