Game On!

• While Gary Bettman unequivocally rejects the idea of wider rinks, Tom Renney offers another view: "The game is almost getting in its own way a little bit," says Renney. "You don't see real good plays from the blue line. You don't see good attack and counterattack, three good passes and a pass to an open net or anything like that. It's, 'Get it up, get it in and everything funneled to the net.' The way goals are scored it's almost like a rugby scrum."

• One of the best melodrama movies of all-time was Watch On The Rhine. Now we have an Ottawa NHL version called "Watch On The Rideau (As In Canal)."
  
  The issue is how long Senators owner Eugene Melnyk will tolerate an underachieving team. Will Bryan Murray trade (not easy) Jason Spezza? (Edmonton is said to be a possibility.) Will Murray go the Tampa route and can Craig (Hardly Inspirational) Hartsburg? How safe is Murray? The Sens are home Thursday (Montreal) and Saturday (Rangers). By Sunday Melnyk will have had enough time to pick his route, especially if his club is in a rout!

• Now that Brian Burke is about to take a new GM job, his detractors have unsheathed their knives. Thankfully, The Toronto Sun's Steve Simmons offers a nifty rebuttal to those who charge that Burke inherited his Stanley Cup champion in Anaheim: "For the record," notes Simmons, "Burke replaced all six defensemen, nine of his 12 forwards, including his top five scorers, and hired Randy Carlyle as coach in the two post-lockout seasons leading to the Cup. If that's inheriting, the Leafs should hope he inherits here."

• While it's fashionable to guess at any number of future venues for Brian Burke, all signs indicate that it has to be Toronto. Since Burke explicitly asserts that he wants to be near his New England family, Boston was mentioned as a possibility. But Bruins Executive VP Charlie Jacobs rejected that idea as swiftly as the Boston Globe's Kevin Paul Dupont suggested it last week.
  
  As for Toronto, Cliff Fletcher has done a swell job –i.e., hiring Ron Wilson, fielding a competitive team – with the Leafs. There's no reason to move Cliff, but he'd be fine working alongside Burke. Andas for Brian, as one club owner puts it, "Burkie is the best self-promoting GM in hockey!" (And who says there's anything wrong with that?)

• Just for the record, both Burke and Wilson studied under Lou Lamoriello at Providence College.

• While Toronto remains the odds-on favorite to capture Brian Burke, there are those long-shot bettors who insist that both Chicago and the Rangers are also in the picture. But just because Burke and Glen Sather are buddies, it does not mean that Slats has any intention of retiring!

• The Edmonton Journal's Jim Matheson tells a neat story about how the late Hall of Famer, Ed Chynoweth saved Mike Babcock's Junior coaching career. This was more than a decade ago after the current Cup Champ's mentor had been fired in Moose Jaw. "I thought about quitting hockey and [Ed] growledat me, 'Quit being so soft, get your act together, get another job," recalls Babcock. "He was a good man." Mike took the advice, got a job in Spokane and eventually moved up the ladder to Anaheim and, now, Detroit.

• Brilliant Observation Dep't.: This from Dupont: "I still don't understand why players choose not to remove their helmets for the shootout. The league is in desperate need of improving player recognition, especially if it ever hopes to deliver personality features to its minuscule national TV base in the United States. When the shootout was instituted, players were concerned that goalie poke-checks or poor ice could lead to slip-and-falls, and possible head injuries when crashing into the boards. Ya know, if that's their degree of safety concern, better that they all opt for double-runners and round-the-waist rubber bumpers!"

MORE:

• Key to Success for Rangers
• Rangers Comeback Against Boston
• Hockey Night Live Answers Your Questions