TWO MONTHS IN, TIME FOR TEN BOLD STATEMENTS

1.) Brendan Shanahan has done an admirable job in an impossible role. His gig is akin to heading up the patent police in China.

2.) Blocking shots is the "obstruction" of the post lockout NHL. It's killing creativity and offense.

3.) The Minnesota Wild are more Jacques Lemairey under Mike Yeo than they were under Jacques Lemaire

4.) The rash of concussions in hockey has to have more cause at its root than just on-ice contact.

5.) The Vancouver Canucks have been called the most hated team and individuals in the league and I'll bet they don't give a rats fat fanny, or maybe more accurate: they relish it.

6.) No NHLer has the right to complain about increased travel ahead of next years realignment. Chartered and catered first class planes, five star hotels, and door to stairway bus transit IS NOT what the millions of other business travelers 'endure'. Nor is it anything close to what past generations of NHL players fought through.

7.) Fans with creative signs help make College Gameday and WWE (and Occupy ____ protests). Hockey needs to celebrate fan signs more and video board nonsense less. Poster board and Sharpie crowd, unite!

8.) Kevin Dineen has done a most remarkable coaching job in Florida. He has taken a bouillabaisse of players and made them a team, in short order. They play hard, fast and determined. Just like their current coach did.

9.) I'm trademarking $9buckpucks.

10.) When the NHL and NHLPA get together and hammer out a new CBA (This is the final year of the existing agreement) I emplore them to change the practice of having agreements expire just prior to training camps, and instead switch to the NFL, NBA and I think MLB models where the agreement ends at the conclusion of their championships. Use the offseason to negotiate, not posture.