FanHouse Columbus

Darren Dreger of TSN reported today that the Tampa Bay Lightning have alerted center Brad Richards they're trying to deal him. Richards has given management a list of teams for which he'd be willing to waive his NTC; GM Jay Feaster will take the offers he's received -- allegedly from Vancouver, Columbus and Dallas -- to ownership, and a former Conn Smythe winner making $7.8 million per season until 2011 could be gonzo by the trade deadline.

If you go by the hockey rumoristas, Richards has been on the block longer than a septuagenarian prostitute. But this time could be different, if Dreger's on point with this line from his TSN.ca piece: "Tampa Bay's incoming owner Oren Koules is said to be heavily involved." Koules has taken over a losing team with the gross national product of Guyana tied up into three players; snipping a valuable but under-performing Richards would, I imagine, be something he might be interested in.

There are several teams rumored to be in the hunt for Richards. But would he improve any of them in the short term or the long run?

If the Columbus Blue Jackets were going to challenge for their first berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs this season, Rick Nash was going to have to be a leader and a much better player than his 27 goals in 75 games last season. So far, so good: He scored his 12th goal in 18 games and added an assist in last night's win over Chicago; more importantly, he completed the Gordie Howe Hat Trick with a third-period fight with the Blackhawks' Jim Vandermeer.

Nash didn't have a fighting major last season, even though he's 6-4, 215 and can play a physical brand of hockey. He went after Vandermeer because he claimed the 'Hawks goon (304 career PIM in 206 games) was throwing cheap shots at his Jackets teammates. Michael Arace of The Columbus Dispatch had a great recap of the fights in the stands between fans and Nash's fight on the ice, including this review from notorious Columbus tough guy Jody Shelley:

"The other guy's a fighter, and an experienced one at that, and he plays dirty and gritty," Shelley said. "Rick Nash is a goal scorer, a first overall pick and a Rocket Richard Trophy winner, and he stands up and gives it to the other guy. That just goes above and beyond. That's character I can't even begin to describe."

If you want to truly be a leader in the NHL, if you want to earn that level of respect, you have to occasionally do what Rick Nash did last night. Messier did. Scott Stevens did. And we all know where those guys ended up. It was an important moment for a young player still finding himself in this League, and a vital one for his team. If Nash's actions, and Shelley's reaction, don't speak to what it is that makes hockey the greatest damn sport on the planet, I don't know what does.