John Shannon

John Shannon is an analyst on Hockeycentral.

Will Gary Bettman and Bill Daly be getting new jewelry in the spring?

Looking ahead and looking behind at the world of hockey this winter.

With the playoffs in everyone's sights, one can only marvel at the amount of hockey that some of the games' greats play. Look at the Pittsburgh Penguins, who have been a focal point for all of hockey for more than two years now. Consider they have already played more than two seasons of 100 games or more (exhibition, regular season and playoffs). Also consider, all the attention around the Winter Classic in Buffalo, and the post-Cup victory celebrations. Now tack on the time and energy of the Olympics for Crosby, Orpik, Malkin, Gonchar and Fleury and you have some players potentially on the verge of exhaustion. If the Pens, ever got to three straight Stanley Cup Finals, it would be a remarkable accomplishment. To that point, in fact, I would be shocked if they can pull it off.

And speaking of the playoffs, I am afraid we are all going to be disappointed with the playoff races this season. Remember how wild the last three seasons were, with 24 or 25 teams in the race until the last two weeks? Well this season just doesn't appear to being working out that way. It appears to me, that we have all but settled the eight teams in the East. The Capitals, Penguins, Devils, Sabres, Senators, Flyers, Canadiens and Bruins will advance. The only things to be settled are who plays whom, and where. In the West, Nashville, Calgary and Detroit will battle for the last two spots with Chicago, San Jose, Vancouver, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Colorado playing only for seedings.

In talking with Colin Campbell about the recent GMs meetings, it was interesting to note that the managers wanted tougher suspensions for repeat offenders. Campbell noted that the group really didn't care about the extra fines the players would be forced to pay, but were adamant that these players should receive heavier suspensions, even double-digit games. You see, when it comes to the fines, the teams pay the salaries anyway, whether it be to the players or to the emergency fund. So what is gone is budgeted for and gone for good. A remarkable thought when you consider the fines can be more than six figures.

I guess the best pure hockey story of the year has to be the play of the Phoenix Coyotes. Don Maloney's player evaluations have given the team some hope for the future and Dave Tippett and his assistants have given the team a great deal of structure. It will be interesting to see how they fare in the playoffs, where this franchise hasn't been in eight seasons, and how long they will be there, considering the franchise last won a playoff series in 1991. It will also be interesting to see how many playoff tickets will be sold at Jobing.com Arena, and at what price. Also, if the Coyotes win the Cup, and the league still owns the team, will Bill and Gary get Stanley Cup rings, and their names on the Cup? Just curious.

And while there are some meetings this week in Phoenix to help bring the Ice Edge bid for the club back to life, there are some encouraging numbers including 24 games over the 10,000 mark, as well as seven of the last eight home games over 12,000 fans. Also consider some other positive news: the Coyotes will be selling season-ticket packages for next season starting next week. Doesn't sound like a team bound for Kansas City to me. And maybe, just maybe, this team's performance on and off the ice will attract new and serious bidders.

July 1 is free-agent day in the NHL. I guess at this point Ilya Kovalchuk and Tomas Plekanec are the best of this summer's lot. However, I want to suggest that there is another, more important free agent out there. There is someone who can change a franchise quicker and more effectively than any player. That person is Steve Yzerman. And before you jump on me to say that Yzerman is in no hurry to leave Detroit, let me just set up the details. You see, there are owners, powerful owners, who want to rub elbows with the game's elite (Yzerman would qualify). These same owners also want to win, and need some one to guide their teams to the Stanley Cup (again, Yzerman would qualify). And like any businessmen who fancy themselves as great sportsmen, they also believe in wanting to keep the best people away from the competition. In order to keep Yzerman away from the other guy, an owner might be forced to be proactive. Based on the above theory, there will be at least six to 10 owners whose teams have or will have underachieved by June 1, 2010. And the bidding war will begin. Steve Yzerman will have a new address, and the game of hockey will be better for it.

As my co-hort Mike Brophy wrote last week, there is hardly a bumper crop of great goaltenders around the league, even with the Cup contenders. And why is that? Could it be that the 11-inch pad, and the limited glove and blocker rules as well as the smaller sweaters are finally making a difference? Has the compacted schedule forced tired goaltenders to play more, and they just can't respond as well in back-to-back games or three match-ups in four days? Or has the speed of the game increased so much in the past few years that the goalies can't react as quickly? Don't know. But I do know that I've enjoyed that lack of whining that the hockey community has done about that size of equipment and how great goaltending is ruining the excitement of the game.

And finally, like most in the hockey world, I am still a little numb about the greatest hockey tournament ever played. In Vancouver, I watched and enjoyed a lot of games, even without NHL players playing in them. And I did like no-touch icing. It deserves some consideration for the NHL. I also loved the four-on-four overtime in the gold-medal game. So much so, I think it should be adopted for the Stanley Cup playoffs. It would make overtime games shorter. Too often, BOTH teams who get dragged through those four-period overtime games don't recover for the next playoff round, let alone the next game. I am not proposing to end any playoff game with a shoot-out, but do think the excitement of the brevity that four-on-four would create, would benefit everyone in the game.

Happy Hockey Everyone.