By Allan Muir

A guide to this morning’s must-read hockey stories:

• Zach Parise’s 200th career goal puts him and his father J.P. in unique company.

• The Ducks’ 30-year-old rookie, Viktor Fasth, made 25 stops in a 2-1 win over the Sharks, then promptly declared that Anaheim is “an elite team.” Off to the quietest 6-1-1 start ever, the Ducks might be. Don’t miss this sick Johnny Bower save that Fasth made while Anaheim was on a five-on-three power play.

• P.J. Stock says there are big problems in the Montreal room since the return of P.K. Subban. Dave Stubbs of the Montreal Gazette says it ain’t so. I’m guessing Dave is right on this one.

• St. Louis winger Vladimir Tarasenko was named NHL Rookie of the Month for January. Don’t worry, Dougie. Still three more chances to win.

• It felt like a retirement ceremony, but Milan Hejduk isn’t quite done after his 1,000th NHL game. He managed to score in the milestone contest, but the Avs fell, 3-2, to the Stars.

• No Spezza, no problem for the Ottawa Senators! Um, wait. The Sens have scored just once in losses to Carolina and Montreal since their their offensive leader went down last week. Coach Paul MacLean is altering his lines in an effort to find some goals.

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Hockey starved Flyers fans get to open the season by welcoming the hated Penguins. (Len Redkoles/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

Yeah, I heard you last September. “Wake me up when the lockout’s over,” you said.

No one’s blaming you for nodding off while the finger-pointing, name calling, line-in-the-sand-drawing lawyers cost us nearly four months of NHL hockey. In fact, I got a little blurry myself listening to all that talk about  cap escalators and salary variance and rose ceremonies, but here I am with that call you’ve been waiting for. Time to rub the sleep out of your eyes, pull the team sweater out of mothballs, settle into that lucky couch groove and pop the top on your favorite frosty beverage. (And while you’re waiting for the first puck ro drop, some suggested reading..)

The abbreviated 2013 NHL season finally begins Saturday afternoon. And it’s gonna be a good one. (Kings raise banner in style.)

Make that really good. The 48-games-in-99-days, intra-conference schedule isn’t just “better than nothing.” This impossibly compressed timeline actually magnifies the importance of every moment, every slump, every streak, every injury. With so much on the line and no margin for error, it even makes an Islanders game worth watching. On a Tuesday. In February.

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Zach Parise is just one of the players voicing their anger at NHL owners and Commissioner Gary Bettman, who have contributed to the corrosive atmosphere that now surrounds the ongoing lockout. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

As we’ve waited for the NHL’s CBA negotiations to resume, we’ve also been waiting for something else. That something else came first with the inevitable announcement by the NHL on Thursday that the first whack of 2012-13 regular season games has been canceled.

How did we get here? How did it ever come to this? There are those who believe that the owners always intended to have the talks go nowhere, lock out the players and keep them out until they cave in and accept whatever terms the league gives them in a new CBA. That’s how things worked last time.

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New Jersey Devils owner Jeff Vanderbeek (center) has found a way to buy himself more time to wriggle out of his financial mess and find a way to keep the team competitive and its fans happy. (Andy Marlin/NHLI via Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

You’ve got to hand it to Devils owner Jeff Vanderbeek. The man has the escape ability of Houdini. Although Tuesday’s deadline for him to pay his creditors $77 million has come and gone and he does not have all the money that he had agreed to pay them, it appears he’ll keep control of his team, get more time to refinance his club and seek new partners.

Now, if you or I owe money to someone, chances are we don’t get to slide as easily. But you and I are not Jeff Vanderbeek and when you owe a massive amount of money, allowances are made. That’s one advantage of being wealthy, or at least understanding how to manage wealth, in our society. Those to whom Vanderbeek is indebted recognize that if they declared him in default and set the wheels in motion to force him into bankruptcy, they might end up with lots of pennies instead of lots of dollars. Giving him more time — as much as two more years according to reports — to either raise the needed funds or sell the team and pay off what he owes means that they stand a better chance of recovering their cash. We should all be so lucky.

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Unfortunately for free agent Alex Semin, his reputation precedes his impressive statistics. (Jerome Davis/Icon SMI)

By Stu Hackel

Goal scoring in the NHL is down, the thin free agent market is depleted of top offensive talent, and the trade market seems frozen, so one name in particular stands out: unrestricted free agent Alexander Semin. Theoretically at least, he could be the solution to some team’s scoring woes, but there he sits by the phone, waiting for his agent Marc Gandler to tell him which club wants to sign a supremely talented 28-year-old who has put up seasons of 38, 34 and 40 goals during his NHL career. His numbers are comparable to Zach Parise’s, but no one is throwing a 13-year contract worth $98 million at Semin. Not even close.

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After losing out to the Wild in the free agent sweepstakes, the aging Red Wings may be forced to fill holes by relying on younger players, such as blueliner Brendan Smith, next season. (Photo by Dave Reginek/NHLI via Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

When free agents Zach Parise and Ryan Suter surprisingly signed with Minnesota last week, Al Muir wrote on SI.com how the two stars suddenly made the Wild relevant. I noted the ramifications for their former clubs, the Devils and Predators respectively. But the duo’s decision had a huge impact on another franchise:  the Detroit Red Wings.

Of the teams in the hunt for the two premier free agents, the Wings were considered their most likely destination and may have been most adversely affected by failing to land even one. The Flyers, Penguins and Blackhawks were in the running, but they all still have good young cores of talent, including some of the NHL’s top superstars. You can’t say that about the Red Wings’ roster now, as talented as it may be. With the exception of goalie Jimmy Howard and forward Valtteri Filppula, Detroit’s best players are all over 30 years old and the team lost its top defenseman, future Hall of Famer Nick Lidstrom, to retirement. Injecting a pair of elite 27-year-olds like Parise and Suter into the lineup would have mattered greatly.

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It’s ironic that the Predators lost Ryan Suter and may be unable to keep his star defense partner Shea Weber (right) at a time when tight finances are no longer a big issue for the franchise. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

The earth didn’t exactly shake and the sun didn’t rise in the West, but something pretty unusual has transpired since the opening of free agency on July 1. None of the NHL’s high profile, high revenue clubs made off with the best players available.

We’d all become conditioned to the big clubs getting the big names. The list always begins with hockey’s premier franchises — the Original Six, plus the Penguins, Flyers, Canucks, Sharks, Stars and maybe one or two others. As Billie Holiday wrote and sang long ago, “Them that’s got shall get, Them that’s not shall lose,” a colloquial way of saying the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It’s pretty much true in life and that’s how we expect it to go down in the NHL, too.

But here are Zach Parise and Ryan Suter dressed not in the sweaters of the Penguins or Red Wings or Blackhawks, but the Minnesota Wild! Add the Oilers’ signing of college defenseman Justin Schultz, a Western Canadian product hotly pursued by numerous NHL clubs once his draft rights with Anaheim expired. And, on Wednesday night, the Lightning joined the party by inking former Flyer Matt Carle who, right after Suter, was in the next tier of ardently sought d-men with Schultz and Jason Garrison.

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If corrnerstones Zach Parise (left) and Martin Brodeur leave, the Devils will be forced to remake their roster. (Travis Golby/NHLI via Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

The gun goes off at noon on Sunday for the start of NHL Free Agency and we’ll be here that morning to begin our live blog of the day’s action. Considering the high volume of rumors and conjecture this year, it could be one of the wilder July 1′s for hockey in a while.

So here’s a quick look at what spots each team is seeking to fill going into the offseason, some of which they’ll try to address on the open market. We’ll do the Eastern Conference teams here. The Western Conference is here. To see the players available in free agency, go to TSN.ca.

BRUINS —  With Tim Thomas sitting out next season and probably done as a Bruin, Boston may seek a more experienced backup goalie for Tuukka Rask than Anton Khudobin. With Benoit Pouliot traded, Nathan Horton’s health uncertain, and Marc Savard definItely out of the picture, Boston will likely look for depth at forward.

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In new Hall of Famer Adam Oates (right), the Caps hired a superb teacher. (Shelly Castellano/Icon SMI)

By Stu Hackel

You won’t see a guy have a better day than Adam Oates had on Tuesday, being officially announced as the head coach of the Washington Capitals and an honored member of the Hockey Hall of Fame (video) within the space of a few hours. “Obviously an absolutely fantastic day,” Oates said. “I don’t know if that’s ever happened before. I have to go out and play Lotto, I think.  Two huge honors.”

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Former Team USA mates Zach Parise of the Devils and Ryan Suter of the Predators (seen here in 2009), are said to be hoping they both sign with the same club in July. (John Russell/NHLI via Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

The NHL season is over, yes, but the news doesn’t stop, especially when it comes to potential player movement. The message boards and hockey gossip websites will be buzzing, many filled with unfounded rumors, wishful thinking and just plain distortions. Sometimes, a factual report sneaks through.

So here’s an early offseason roundup of what is known — maybe — about who could be changing addresses next season.

The first post-Cup deal went down on Friday, with the Predators shipping to Tampa Bay the goalie the Lightning hope will provide an upgrade in Anders Lindback.

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