from Randy Sportak of the Calgary Sun,

-The general belief at the start of the season, when everyone could see the dollar was going to fall thanks to the oil prices going down, was all would be fine as long as the dollar stayed above 80 cents compared to the U.S. greenback.

Now it looks like a dream the dollar will hover above 80 cents, with economists expecting it to fall to 75 cents, or likely even lower before bouncing back, and a return won’t be until the end of 2016.

With luck, it won’t fall to 62 cents like we saw in ’02.

The preliminary salary cap for the 2015-16 season was around US$73 million — and there are plenty of teams that will have an interesting time dealing with that (hello, Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins) — but now the talk is it could be at $71 million....

- Could it actually be the year the St. Louis Blues hoist the Cup? That team sure isn’t lacking anywhere and now has the offence to go with the grit and size.

- What’s the bigger surprise: The Flames have the best intra-divisional record among Pacific clubs (14-4-1) or the Los Angeles Kings are 2-12 in overtime/shootout decisions?

more salary cap talk and other hockey topics...