After only two games, the Penguins look like the class of the league. (Will Schneekloth/Icon SMI)

By Allan Muir

• The parade goes through Pittsburgh. Road wins over the Flyers and Rangers have me feeling pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good about picking the Penguins as my Stanley Cup favorites. And they managed the sweep without a goal from Evgeni Malkin or Sidney Crosby. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

• The man behind the curtain. Forget about dumping Gary Bettman. Until the NHL Board of Governors gets out from under the bitter, svengali-like influence of Boston owner Jeremy Jacobs, we’re just killing time until the next lockout.

• Here he can watch the ice instead of his back. Columbus’ roster might be just a step up from a second-year expansion side, but Todd Richards and a revamped coaching staff bring the Blue Jackets a step closer to respectability ahead of tonight’s home opener vs. the Red Wings. I think this is the first time I’ve seen the loudly whispered rumors of Martin Havlat’s Wild dressing room subterfuge in print, which serves as a gentle reminder that Dany Heatley could play Sit ‘N’ Spin on the bench and that deal will always be a winner for Minnesota.

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Alex Ovechkin has a new coach to get used to, and the Rangers may pay a price for their reliance on blocking shots. (Will Schneekloth/Icon SMI)

By Stu Hackel

Every NHL season starts with expectations and conjures up predictions about where teams might finish, but this is a season like no other. You can’t even compare it too closely to the lockout-shortened 1995 campaign, one played with a 26-team NHL, a different conference alignment and playoff format, no shootout or “loser’s point,” and far less parity. And even in a normal season, there is so much uncertainty in sports that preseason predictions are a waste of time.

SI.com colleagues Brian Cazeneuve, Sarah Kwak and Adrian Dater have their thoughts on the upcoming season and you can find them here:

Power Rankings | Milestones | Central | Northwest | Pacific | Southeast | Atlantic | Northeast

Our favorite preseason pastime at Red Light is trying to boil down each team’s success or failure to one or a few essential themes. Each club has them and the answers to these questions, theoretically at least, should go a long way to determining if it plays up to expectations and potential. Keep in mind they all take place within the framework of the shortened season imposing its own unique characteristics on the playoff chase, which we pondered in this post.

Below are the essential questions for each team in the East and here’s the link for teams in the West:

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One year after a tragic plane crash decimated the KHL team, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl returned to the ice. Colorado’s Semyon Varlamov (left, greeting former Capitals teammate Alex Ovechkin after a game) has been tending goal. (Photo by Yury Kuzmin/KHL Photo Agency via Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

A big dark storm cloud lingers over any celebration of hockey in 2012. It’s the NHL lockout and it has been showering grief on the game and its fans for over three months. Now, it also makes my job here a bit easier compared to my colleagues who are covering other sports because so little has happened between June and December that the range of choices for my favorite stories of the year has been sliced dramatically. Still, I’d rather be burdened by having to choose from a full plate.

That said, here are my 10 highlights. (You can read other SI.com writers’ picks here and view a gallery of the 112 most amazing sports moments of 2012 here.)

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The gorilla in the room: Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs (right) is a lockout hardliner who some observers fear will make progress impossible at CBA talks even without Gary Bettman and Don Fehr present. (Elise Amendola/AP)

By Stu Hackel

In this corner, meet the six owners who will sit at the bargaining table on Tuesday: Ron Burkle (Penguins), Mark Chipman (Jets), Murray Edwards (Flames), Jeremy Jacobs (Bruins), Larry Tanenbaum (Maple Leafs) and Jeff Vinik (Lightning).

In that corner: Uhhhh….

Who will be in the players’ corner? That’s a tricky question. TSN says Sidney Crosby and Jonathan Toews will be in New York, but it’s not confirmed that they’ll be at the talks. Yahoo’s Nick Cotsonika tweeted, “A number of players will be in New York tomorrow. Before the meeting with the owners, they will decide who will attend.” So we wait to find out officially who the NHLPA will select to represent it in this unusual session of these CBA talks to end the 79-day lockout, this time without each side’s lead negotiators, Gary Bettman and Don Fehr.

Will the union want to mirror the composition of the owners team with some hardliners, some who are more moderate and some who are less interested in principle and want to play now? Will it want players who work for the owners on the other side, like Sidney Crosby sitting across the table from Burkle? Will Marty St. Louis go face-to-face with Vinik while Ron Hainsey pairs up with Chipman, and someone from the Bruins, Andrew Ference perhaps, chats with Jacobs?

Or maybe the PA would want six enforcers on its side of the table. Can you imagine George Parros, Kevin Westgarth and Paul Bissonette staring down Jacobs and Edwards? That might be fun.

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The Islanders’ future home was designed for basketball and concerts, not hockey. (David Dow/NBAE/Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

Gary Bettman is not worried. The seating capacity for hockey games at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center could be the smallest in the NHL. The commissioner said, as far as he’s concerned, “It’s not an issue.”

But it may not entirely be a non-issue, either.

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With CBA talks dragging, Commissioner Gary Bettman is under fire from angry fans who see a lockout coming. (Jeanine Leech/Icon SMI)

By Stu Hackel

The Thursday meeting between NHL owners and players was a short one, only 90 minutes, but it seems that’s all that was needed. An impending stalemate in CBA negotiations (discussed here in Wednesday’s post) looms with each side’s position in danger of ossifying. It’s hardly unanticipated; you had to know that amidst all the talk about being focused on reaching an agreement, there’s long been a sense that each side would dig in its heels over some fundamental issue and those heels now seem to be sinking into the earth.

This isn’t to say that the sides aren’t trying to negotiate a deal at the moment. They’re still talking and plan to resume on Tuesday. According to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman in his remarks after the most recent discussion, the league had tried to craft a revised position of its own — incorporating elements of the NHLPA’s “alternate proposal” that offers the owners’ some concessions on player salaries — that would be the basis for whittling down the difference between the sides. But Bettman said the NHLPA didn’t have much “receptivity” to what the league devised, despite a couple of attempts to engage the union on it. Then the players presented the owners with the remaining parts of their proposal, those dealing with the NHLPA’s views on contract issues: free agency, salary arbitration, contract length and the like, things the NHL wants to restrict. The owners didn’t much like what they heard. “The union,” Bettman said (video), “is looking for a system that has more flexibility and we’re looking for a system that has less flexibility.

“The bigger point, I think, we made today goes to the fact that whether or not we are talking about the contract or system issues or we’re talking about revenue sharing, it’s clear that we’re at a point where it’s going to be very difficult to move this process along until we deal with the fundamental economic issues. And certainly as it relates to the fundamental economic issue, we are far apart, both in terms of magnitude and structure. And that’s something we’re trying to get a handle on.”

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Both the Stars and Flames are in for some serious evaluation — in Dallas, it starts in the front office; in Calgary with a veteran roster that may require turning iconic captain Jarome Iginla into trade bait. (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

While everyone is talking playoff matchups and predicting the number of stitches that doctors will need to close the combined wounds of the Penguins and Flyers, there are 14 other clubs who are packing up for the summer and planning for next season. Here’s a roundup of the NHL’s also-rans and what might be in store for them during the offseason. We’ll start at the bottom of the league and work our way up.

Columbus – Yes, the Blue Jackets won seven of their last 11 games and ownership continues to back the hockey department, but the team’s dreadful start when so much was expected, its last place finish, the coaching change, the fan protest, and the Rick Nash mess all made for a dreadful season. The future of interim coach Todd Richards is uncertain, but the huge question mark is Nash’s fate. If he is traded — which is widely expected — what will embattled GM Scott Howson get in return? Will it be enough to reverse this club’s direction and win back the many discontented fans? Michael Arace of The Columbus Dispatch summed it all up over the weekend.

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The passion and wit of Jets fans have made MTS Centre the league’s toughest arenas for visiting teams. (Marianne Helm/Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

In large part, it has been a “Woe Canada” season for the NHL’s northern clubs. The Canadiens have sunk to their lowest point in many generations, and their hockey department paid the price. The Maple Leafs, very sadly, continue to be an overexposed, overrated and overhyped disaster. The young Oilers have yet to experience their promised liftoff. The Flames seem to have again burnt out in pursuit of their first playoff series victory since the lockout ended. Yes, the Canucks (who’ve had their ups and downs) and Senators have met and exceeded expectations respectively, but sights are set higher in Vancouver. In Ottawa, the Sens have been a joyful, if sometimes jittery, surprise.

Then there are the Jets, whose on-ice performance almost didn’t matter this season. The mere fact that the NHL returned to Winnipeg 10 months ago was a massive victory for the city, the region, and for hockey.

Still, falling short of the postseason (not yet mathematically, but practically) in their first season back  stings their fans, especially because the Jets had a chance. If only, the fans say, they had won that game against the Hurricanes at the end of their last homestand….

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NHLPA boss Don Fehr’s reputation as a tough negotiator has many hockey observers spooked. (Charles Dharapak/AP)

By Stu Hackel

There is much hand wringing and concern about the NHLPA’s non-consent to the NHL’s much-publicized, highly touted and radical realignment. A widely held belief is that the union’s refusal to agree to the plan was all about the upcoming negotiations on collective bargaining agreement. The current CBA expires in early September and, yes, there are reasons to believe a new one won’t be reached easily. Some observers believe the 2012-13 season won’t start on time.

But, to my mind, the NHLPA’s refusal was less about the upcoming negotiations per se and more about living under the current CBA, which gives the players various rights concerning the conditions of their employment. For longer in its history than not, the NHLPA didn’t do much with these rights and rubber-stamped the NHL’s proposals or didn’t even bother to question them. But by insisting on raising realignment issues that troubled the union, the NHLPA has indicated it’s not going to function that way any longer.

For that, you can thank or blame (depending on your orientation) Donald Fehr. The NHLPA’s executive director has more experience with issues like working conditions than anyone on either side of the labor-management divide, having begun his association with baseball’s players union almost four decades ago. He also has a better handle on how to rally and communicate with the troops — no easy task — than any of his predecessors. That’s why the NHL players, who had been in chaos since the lockout ended, wanted him to lead them. Because of that chaos, they’re likely to play closer attention than they did before.

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The Red Wings have long wanted to move east, but losing the gate attraction of Detroit’s stars and excellent teams would be a huge financial blow to Western franchises. (Andrew Weber-US PRESSWIRE)

By Stu Hackel

As the NHL Board of Governors meets today in Pebble Beach (the Govs never meet in garden spots like Bismarck, ND, or Gary, IN, or Trenton, NJ, do they?), it will have two crucial items on the agenda: realignment and the collective bargaining agreement.

We discussed some issues related to the CBA on Friday, so let’s look at realignment today.

UPDATE: The Board approved the proposal for a four-conference league on Monday evening, based primarily on geography. Two conferences will have eight teams and the other two conferences will have seven teams. When passing the proposal, the Board authorized Bettman to get input from the NHLPA prior to implementing it.
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