from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet,

- One coach told me his team’s internal metrics indicate that no one spends more time in their own zone than the red-hot New York Islanders. He wondered how that was possible, so he took a look. Answer: “They let you go where they want you to go — on the outside.” You get time, but you don’t get quality.

- There’s a story Ken Holland loves telling about his mother. It was 1985, and after his eighth AHL season, he was considering the next phase of his life. Lee Holland saw a job advertisement for an Electrolux vacuum salesman and pleaded for her son to take it. He starts laughing when delivering the next line: “She told me I’d be her first sale.”

Of course, Holland passed on that career option and took a different fork in the road as a Red Wings scout. Wise choice. Thirty-five years later, he’s got four Stanley Cup rings and is on a new mission in Edmonton. The Hollands have plenty of hockey tentacles. Ken’s brother Dennis is an amateur scout for the Stars, and his son, Brad, is a pro scout in Edmonton. This week, they are mourning Lee, who passed away at age 87. All the best to the family.

- It’s very hard to explain the seismic nature of the last 72 hours. We jokingly called Ron and Don “The Circus” when they travelled. Together, they were larger than life — I won’t work with anyone else in my career who commanded the attention and had the profile Don has. There were a few of us watching together last Saturday, and we were slack-jawed in amazement. The whole thing is sad. There are no winners. The aftershocks will continue for a long time, exacerbated by this media tour. I felt horrible for co-workers hurt by it, for viewers who felt targeted, for the ugly never-ending social media battles, for Ron, and for any career to end that way. There but for the Grace of God go I.

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