It's officially the offseason, meaning the time is right to look into the future. We continue our division-by-division preview of the potential wheeling and dealing with the Northwest Division.
It appears we are setting up for an offseason of significant change in the Northwest Division. Only the Vancouver Canucks will have the same coach as last year, and there could be some real upheaval in terms of personnel. Not only that, but two teams (Minnesota and Colorado) have changed general managers.
The Edmonton Oilers have made a major splash in their efforts to make it back to the playoffs.
Three non-playoff years have followed Edmonton's magical run to the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals, and that was enough to cost longtime coachCraig MacTavish his job. Tuesday afternoon, the Oilers turned to a couple of familiar names to help them turn around their fortunes.
Red Wings 4, Sharks 1: In the fourth -- and final -- regular season installment of Western Conference Finals Preview '09, Detroit picked up a 4-1 win over San Jose on Wednesday night. Henrik Zetterberg scored a pair of goals in the win, including a shorthanded marker early in the second period to give the Wings a commanding 3-0 lead.
Marian Hossa and Ville Leino also scored for Detroit, while Ty Conklin turned aside 34-of-35 shots in net. The loss snaps San Jose's four game winning streak, while the two teams split the season series.
Typically in the sports world, coaches get too much credit when things are going well, and too much blame when they aren't. When a team isn't meeting expectations, the easy thing to do is fire the coach and bring someone in who will "change the message" or something like that.
On it's surface, the coaching change made Monday by the New York Rangers smacks of this type of desperate management.
Sharks 1, Stars 0: The only game on the schedule Monday night was a goaltending battle as San Jose's Evgeni Nabokov turned aside all 29 shots he faced to lead the Sharks to a 1-0 win in Dallas. Devin Setoguchi scored the game's only goal at the 7:55 mark of the third period, giving San Jose its fourth straight win.
Marty Turco was strong for Dallas, stopping 24-of-25 shots in what was his 30th consecutive start in goal. He's been outstanding the past three months.
According to McKenzie, the Rangers and former Lightning coach John Tortorella already "have an agreement in place" that would make him the 34th head coach in team history. However, the Rangers would need to contact the Lightning about his availability, something McKenzie said has not happened yet. The key word there is likely 'yet'.
Each Wednesday, two of our bloggers will take on one league-wide topic. A mediator keeps orderly. It's quite a bit like the shootout, actually.
This week's lineup features Eric McErlain's and Ted Starkey's takes on the NHL coaching carousel in the wake of Pittsburgh's firing of Michel Therrien. Yours truly will be the guest referee. Let's get started!
Blues 2, Rangers 1: A day after getting crushed on their home ice, the New York Rangers dropped a 2-1 decision in St. Louis, losing for the eighth time in their past nine games.
At this point, it's anybody's guess as to how long Tom Renney remains behind the bench, as the Rangers continue to slide down the Eastern Conference standings.
Things are getting ugly in New York as the Rangers continued their recent slide with a 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday afternoon, their seventh loss in the past eight games, putting them in the quagmire that is the bottom of the Eastern Conference playoff picture.
Aside from getting booed much of the afternoon (the only emotion the Madison Square Garden faithful showed) the Rangers were also getting crushed by NBC analysts Pierre McGuire and Mike Milbury for their lack of effort and intensity.
It's officially the offseason, meaning the time is right to look into the future. We continue our division-by-division preview of the potential wheeling and dealing with the Northwest Division. 
Typically in the sports world, coaches get too much credit when things are going well, and too much blame when they aren't. When a team isn't meeting expectations, the easy thing to do is fire the coach and bring someone in who will "change the message" or something like that.
UPDATE (8:30 PM): The 
With 21 games left in the regular season, the struggling New York Rangers have decided to make a change. No, this one doesn't involve 
Each Wednesday, two of our bloggers will take on one league-wide topic. A mediator keeps orderly. It's quite a bit like the shootout, actually.
