from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

- Kyle Dubas had his introductory press conference in Pittsburgh the other day and thanked no one. Not Brendan Shanahan, who rescued him from junior hockey and later promoted him over Lou Lamoriello to GM, and Tanenbaum, who treats his upper executives as though they are his children. Not a good look for Dubas.

- It takes 16 wins to lift the Stanley Cup. It takes 16 wins to carry the Larry O’Brien trophy. So where exactly did this — Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win nonsense — come from?

- How do you take the Foster Hewitt Award for Hall of Fame hockey broadcasting seriously when Dave Hodge, Don Wittman, Don Cherry, Ron MacLean, Chris Cuthbert and Scott Oake have yet to be honoured?

- This is just the second season for NHL hockey on TNT. And already, it has the best overall national hockey package on television. The TNT panel in basketball, with Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal, trumps everything else available. The TNT hockey panel with Henrik Lundqvist, Wayne Gretzky and Paul Bissonnette, is better than anything we see on Canadian TV.

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