Welcome to a new era in Hockey blogging

 As with any new relationship, I understand your reticence.  Questions abound about my qualifications as a hockey guru.  My name is not synonymous with Mark Messier, Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin or Jaromir Jagr.  You have not been a part of my phenomenal success in fantasy hockey; though admittedly I did not realized that San Jose's Jonathon Cheechoo would have only 4 goals in 28 games.  Luckily I traded him before he got injured for Maxim Afinogenov; another slumping forward who usually gets hot after the New Year.

Putting that aside, if you are interested in the finer points of waiver wire work or want advice on trades, I’m here for you.  If you want to discuss the fact that the New York Rangers have a league low 2.13 Goals per game average, I’m here for you.  The only thing you will never find here is praise for the New Jersey Devils.  Admittedly, I might discuss Brian Gionta’s rebound from his early season slump or how Martin Brodeur has regained his stellar form; but never will I say I even remotely enjoy Devils’ hockey (except when the Rangers hand them a 1-0 overtime loss).

Putting aside my petty prejudices, I will gladly add another distraction to your already procrastination-prone day.

Welcome to Roland’s Hockey blog.

Let’s get right into one of hockey’s biggest stories:  Scott Niedermayer, the great #27’s return!

The Anaheim Ducks must move at least $880,000 of salary to accommodate him.  For those of you with deep fantasy leagues, Todd Marchant has been a healthy scratch and might be finding his way to another team via re-entry waivers.  That would clear $1.2 million of cap space.  Is that enough to also accommodate another free agent, Teemu Selanne?  I would say no.  Selanne is retired, period.  He just had another kid and if any of you readers out there have children, you know that his mind is not on hockey right now.  He’s not coming back.  Sorry, Ducks Fans.

Lastly, I want to talk about trades.  Trades are an important part of hockey for one reason: buzz!  This is something that the hockey world is missing right now.  Last year, we had 11 trades by this time.  This year…zero.  GMs are groaning that it has to do with the collective bargaining agreement, but I have no sympathy.  A year without hockey was the punishment we fans had to endure.  All that to say, the rumors have started to fly; the best being Marian Hossa.  Would Atlanta really let this guy go?  They just picked up Mark Recchi off the waiver wire.  If Recchi scores goals on the powerplay for them, Hossa might be in a new sweater before the end of January.  Likely contenders: The New York Rangers!!! The New York post spoke of the deep development system now in place and Atlanta would love to have some young blood.  Gomez, Hossa and Hossa??  It is too sick on paper, therefore as all New York Ranger fans know, it will never work.

Until the next time, keep your sticks on the ice and your head up.  No one wants to see All star Scotty Stevens drilling Eric Lindros to the ice again, right?