Linkorama...

Brad Ragen the Wild Blogger from Hockey Buzz had this blog post about Russo's appearance on KFAN and discussing the Marian Gaborik situation. I wonder if other Wild Fans are getting tired of this whole drill? Either sign Gabby or ask to be traded. I think that he is are beginning to portray himself the spoiled selfish athlete.

One has to wounder if Gabby is waiting to see if this is going to be Lemaire's
last season or not. Come on Lemaire you don't need the money, you can go ahead and retire.

Gaborik's agent, Ron Salcer, has a history of ground breaking contracts in the NHL;

-to keep Gaborik, the Wild will have to seriously overpay him;

-he believes the offer the Wild have made to Gaborik is somewhere in the $8.5 million per year range;

-he does not believe this is about Gaborik not wanting to play in Minnesota as he believes that there is a good chance that this is Lemaire's last year and any contract that Gaborik signs with the Wild would go well beyond Lemaire's anticipated tenure;

-it may be hard to move Gaborik right now given each team's cap space or lack thereof. The longer the Wild wait to move him, the more teams that can afford him, but it comes with serious risk in the event that Gaborik gets injured and can't be moved prior to the trade deadline;

A couple of former Gophers are now Bruins

When the Bruins and the Wild play on Saturday at Xcel Energy Center in the Wild’s season opener there will be two former Gophers in the Bruin's line up. Phil Kessel and Blake Wheeler. It will be interesting to see how the two are recieved by the Minnesota crowd.

Chicago mussings

Young guns Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane took the hockey world by storm last season but now will probably feel more pressure as the fans and the city of Chicago will expect more from the dynamic NHL sophmores. Look for the Chicago Blackhawks to be much better this season.

TSN.CA STAFF 10/8/2008 --- The One year ago, the Chicago Blackhawks were a struggling franchise with the second lowest attendance figures in the entire National Hockey League, averaging less than 13,00 fans. And with little to no exposure on television is recent years, the fanbase was eroding.

But last season, super rookies Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane breathed new life into the franchise and things are looking up in the Windy City.

Toews and Kane have the hockey world by the tail. They're on the top line and the first-unit power play and in charge of a team that looks to be making a major comeback after years on the scrap heap.

"Coming into last year, there weren't really any expectations," said Kane. "Maybe the expectations were for myself and Jon to do well and try to bring this team back and it's amazing what can happen in one year."

Kane scored 21 goals and added 51 assists for 72 points in 82 games and was rewarded with the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year.

But now that the Blackhawks appear to be a team on the rise, the expectations become higher and the pressure increases.

Talk about a couple of morons, Ben Eager was suspended for three games for trying to intentionally injure NHL bad boy Sean Avery. First thing I would have told the guys is, its a preseason game. Now Eager has to miss the first three games of the season.

TSN.CA STAFF--- Chicago Blackhawks left wing Ben Eager has been suspended for three games, without pay, as a result of being assessed a match penalty during a game against the Dallas Stars on Thursday.

As a result, Eager will forfeit $9,677.43 with the money going to the Players' Emergency Assistance Fund.