For those who don't know, Puck Daddy over at Yahoo has a running feature called "5 reasons I love hockey". Well a while back Sean Leahy asked me to write up my five reasons, and today they were published over at Puck Daddy. Check them out.

When you do, check back here, because I have something I wanted to add after the jump.

More After the Jump

As you may, or may not, know the NHL is hosting it's Research and Development camp, where they test out potential future rules changes. Ever looking for an advantage, NHL teams take notes and see how it could affect their teams. Luckily I've gotten a hold of some of the notes that NHL teams have taken, and I'm going to share them with you.

5 Minutes of 3 vs 3 OT

Washington Capitals scout- Imagine an Ovechkin-Semin-Green line. Or we could be radical and use two forwards and a defenseman

A Minnesota Wild scout- It'll be difficult, but I think we could still suck the life out of this.

A Philadelphia Flyers scout - Plays right into our hands, since we're kind of used to playing 3 vs 5 anyways

A New York Rangers Scout - Of course the NHL would actively try and find a way to make missing the playoffs on the last day of the season even more excruciating than losing in a shootout.

Calgary Flames scout - I'm just writing something so I look busy and don't get fired. It's not like Sutter pays attention to a damn thing any of us say anyways

24 inch blueline

Detroit Red Wings scouts - Our players may finally be able to see it

Ottawa Senators scouts - More defensive zone to protect? At least it won't change Jason Spezza's game

A Vancouver Canucks scout - Wait they're testing 24 inch blue lines? You don't say. I just thought Wellwood fell on it.

Bigger Crease

New Jersey Devils scout - Not one but two "Marty Brodeur" Rules (come on, you all knew that one was coming)

New York Islanders scout - Can we line it with bubble wrap for Ricky?

Pittsburgh Penguins scouts - Now they just need a trap door Fleury's off nights

Calgary Flames Scout - lksjbfksd jbflkasj bflksad jbf vkljs adbvk  lksjblak lasjbdkas alksjdbf

San Jose Sharks scouts - a Hybrid, now we can act condescending and smug like our San Francisco brethren.

Buffalo Sabres scouts - We'll just call this the Craig Rivet mercy rule

Calgary Flames scouts - But we traded for Staios just for the entertainment of watching him panic as he realizes he may lose the icing race even though he's got a 30ft lead on a guy.

On a delayed penatly, teams must clear the zone, not just touch the puck

Colorado Avalanche scouts - We're boned

Edmonton Oilers scouts - Wait, we're allowed to clear the puck out of our own zone. This will completely change our tactics.

So I said I'd get around to doing a Top 10 of '09-10 and here it is, more than three months after the season ended for the Avs. I'll be counting down all 10 of the top 10 Avs moments of the season. I thought about breaking this into 2 posts, but then realized I could easily milk it for 10. Without further adieu, here we go:

More recaps: NHL.com, St.Louis Gametime game thread, Mile High Hockey

Confession time: I did not throw my hat when Stewart had his hat trick that night. You see with my seats, and my puny arm, my cranial cover was never going to make it anywhere near the ice. Had I miraculously made it over the glass, well I was behind the netting. I was also an idiot and wore my good new hat to the game that night, instead of my old throw able one. I have been to dozens of hockey games and I had never seen an Av end up with a hat trick (and I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone do it live). In fact I couldn't even remember the last time an Av did it. So you'll forgive me if I didn't go to the rink thinking that I might be losing my hat that night.

It had been exactly 200 games since a member of the Colorado Avalanche had scored three goals in one single game, which was the longest active streak in the NHL. (In your face, Anaheim, Edmonton or Atlanta, not sure which one has a longer drought, but they are the only three who didn't score one last season.) In a game in early March, Chris Stewart finally got one against the St. Louis Blues. A team he had mild success against this season. And by mild success, I mean, St. Louis is his bitch.

More after the jump

I have the will to write something and.... nothing.

I could write about the Avs off-season moves... oh, right.

I could write about Kovi... umm done to death?

I could get uneccesarily angry over some perceived slight, but I'll save that for the professionals.

So umm... is it October yet?

If there is one thing the NHL is consistent on, it's their inconsistent enforcement of rules. Whether it's headshots, suspensions, contracts or just plain ol hooking and holding the NHL is consistently maddeningly inconsitent in their rule enforcement. It has lead to some unnecessarily embarrassment for the league. Other leagues can have backed themselves into corners (see MLB: Steroids) but the NHL has turned it into an artform. The NHL is the Picassos of corner-painting, the Cezannes of self-infliction. Hell if the NHL did any more damage to themselves they'd be emo.

If you haven't heard by now, the league rejected Ilya Kovalchuk's 17 year $102M contract, on the grounds of salary cap circumvention. In a vacuum this is a no brainer decision, as the last 6 years of this 17 year contract pay less than $1M/year, which is nothing but ridiculous tomfoolery. It's as obvious an attempt to circumvent the cap as you can get. Rejecting the contract isn't what makes the NHL look foolish.

What makes the NHL look foolish is that they stood by and let contracts get to the point where they had to wait until a ridiculous contract was written before stepping in. On January 28th 2009, a year and a half ago, the Detroit Red Wings signed Henrik Zetterberg to a 12 year $73M contract that takes him to his 40th birthday, and keeps his cap hit a $6.08M. Taking one look at his contract and it was obvious that his contract was structured clearly to circumvent the salary cap, and give the Red Wings cap room to sign guys like Johan Franzen and Pavel Datsyuk. Since then at least 1/2 a dozen contracts were signed that actively go out of the way to circumvent the salary cap. The most frustrating part was that any idiot could see that this contract was just the beginning in a long line of increasingly daring contracts where the inevitable conclusion was a contract so ridiculous that the NHL had to reject it or be seen as a farce.

Which brings us to the Ilya Kovalchuk New Jersey Devils contract. I don't know how the NHL can justify cancelling this contract, but letting Marion Hossa's stand.

The most frustrating part of this whole debacle is that it is typical of the NHL. The NHL's problem is that they are reactionary to the point of lunacy. Players can get blindsided and concussed ad nauseum (literally) but the NHL has to wait until a 95+ point forward gets his brains scrambled by noted cheap shot artist before deciding to institute a blindside hit ban. The NHL waited until the games became a wrestling match before cracking down on clutching and grabbing. And the NHL waited until goalies looked like Bibendum before instituting goalie pad limits.

My father has a theory about life, in that we all get taps on the shoulder. You make a small mistake, and there's a little tap on your shoulder in the form of some small consequence. As you continue to make the same mistake over and over the taps/consequences get stronger and stronger until one day they get to a point where they smack you upside the head. You can avoid this by recognizing the taps and changing your behavior. You have to wonder how many black eyes the NHL needs to get before they start looking for those taps a little earlier.