from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

- Why don’t we love Joe Thornton more? All he’s doing this year is staying tied with Sidney Crosby in scoring and ahead of Patrice Bergeron, Claude Giroux, Ryan Getzlaf, Matt Duchene, Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Toews and Jeff Carter. And you almost know he won’t be among the 16 named to Team Canada this week.

- Time to start trying to quantify just how great a goal scorer Alexander Ovechkin is: In the most difficult era to score goals, Ovechkin now has eight 40-goal seasons. That ties him with the Hulls, Brett and Bobby, with Phil Esposito and Luc Robitaille. Only Bobby Hull scored as well in as challenging an era to score.

- When the Winnipeg Jets traded their captain Andrew Ladd, the belief in many places is they made a great deal with Chicago.

The reason people think that way: The historical overrating of late first-round draft picks — the hockey equivalent of fool’s gold.

The truth on a first-round selection in choices from 20 to 30 is this: Over a recent 10-year period, from 2004-2013, less than 11% of players selected late in the first round became NHL players of significance....

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