Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

Teams are built in the summertime. But shouldn't they be augmented in March?

The fallout from the trade deadline is so conflicted, so utterly speculative and seen through hometown glasses, that we wish the playoffs would start tomorrow. That way, we wouldn’t have to wait so long to see who made the right moves.

In Ottawa, Bryan Murray added two veteran players in Matt Cullen and Andy Sutton heading into the deadline. They were two quiet brush strokes that cost the Senators a pair of second-rounders and a minor-league player but could be very impactful if the Sens put together a playoff run.

In Calgary, Darryl Sutter painted with a push broom, walking the line -- and perhaps falling over it -- between tuning up his lineup and conducting a total revamp.

While the Leafs and Oilers were both successful with the bailing bucket, Montreal and Vancouver did next to nothing. We’re trying to think of the last successful Stanley Cup team that passed over a deadline and did nothing. Sure, teams are built in the summertime. But when teams as solid as Washington and Pittsburgh are finding ways to augment their lineups in March, shouldn’t everybody who isn’t quite as good as the Caps and Pens be doing the same thing?

We’re just saying ...

------------

Heads Up

We’re hearing the general managers will finally come up with something tangible on head shots at their meetings that begin Monday in Boca Raton, Florida. Like down-sizing goalie pads, this topic has suffered through enough rhetoric and study.

They are ready to mandate language that will stiffen fines and/or suspensions for hits on vulnerable, unsuspecting victims.

“I do think it’s time to get closure on it,” said San Joe GM Doug Wilson.

------------

Not Very Khabby

There’s a whisper making the rounds that the Edmonton Oilers might try to use Nikolai Khabibulin’s recent DUI in Phoenix to try to get out from under the final three years of his contract.

The theory goes that being charged with blowing over .15 -- an “extreme DUI” in the state of Arizona that can come with jail time if found guilty -- invokes the section of the Standard Player’s Contract (SPC) about “conduct detrimental to the team.”

The SPC states: “The Player agrees to conduct himself on and off the rink according to the highest standards of honesty, morality, fair play and sportsmanship, and to refrain from conduct detrimental to the best interest of the Club, the League or professional hockey generally.”

So allegedly driving plastered does not live up to that agreement. (But the SPC also demands that a player, “keep himself in good physical condition at all times during the season.” If that were the case, would Kyle Wellwood or Dustin Penner still be working?)

There is no way the Oilers would consider pursuing this. If any team attempted such a move the NHLPA would, as one agent said, “go ballistic.”

No, the Oilers are stuck with the remaining three years and $3.75-million cap hit for Khabibulin, while Dwayne Roloson -- whom they could have had at half the term and two-thirds the cap hit -— could well be the New York Islanders MVP this season.

And for the record, when asked if there was any smoke to this fire, GM Steve Tambellini sent a one-word text: “No.”

------------

So-so on Sochi

The good news is that the Olympic tournament was fabulously successful for the NHL, and an absolute treat for all hockey fans.

The bad news? All of Gary Bettman’s concerns about Sochi are well-founded. There is absolutely no chance that a tournament played seven time zones east of Toronto packs as much punch here at home as did Vancouver 2010.

NBC reported an average audience of 27.6 million for the gold-medal game, the most since that Miracle on Ice team beat Finland to secure the gold medal in 1980. But would the numbers be anywhere close to that for a game that began at 8:15 eastern, 5:15 pacific on a Sunday morning?

And what about the recent history that tells us the USA and Canada have only met in the gold-medal game on North American soil -- in Salt Lake City and Vancouver? How many North Americans would watch an all-Euro final? Yet the NHL still shuts down for two weeks, regardless.

My bet is the NHL will end up going to Russia. But it will be part of the CBA negotiations in 2011.

There was a time when former NHLPA head Bob Goodenow negotiated the extension of a players-friendly CBA, in return for the players submitting to taking part in the Olympics.

We’re wondering, now that the players are uniformly in favour of either playing in the Games or having a nice two-week, mid-season vacation, if the shoe is on the other foot now?