A Few Things I missed.

The Flyers named Mike Richards captain for the upcoming season. I feel this is a good decision on their part. The way he carried himself and his team in the playoffs was impressive. And with the twelve year contract he signed last year, you can bet he will be the face of the Flyers franchise for a long time. I look forward to watching the Ovechkin v. Richards rivalry grow. It's less talked about but much more fun to watch than the Crosby/Ovechkin rivalry.

Tampa Bay also named their new captain to replace the departed Tim Taylor. Vincent Lecavalier will wear the 'C' for the upcoming season. No surprise really. Vinny has basically been the Lightning's captain ever since Dave Andreychuk retired. He's the teams all time leading scorer and recently signed his own long term deal to stay with the club. And he too, is the face of his franchise.

Buffalo has signed Jason Pominville to a five year extension. The deal is worth $26.5m. Not bad for a guy whose put up point per game numbers his whole career. Good to see Buffalo finally resigning a few of their star UFAs. The other 29 teams definately won't get a chance at what would have been this year's Campbell, Briere, or Drury to come out of Buffalo.

Lastly, I won't go into too much detail because it would take way too long to explain. The NHL has announced that the 2010 Vancouver games will be the last international competition NHL players will participate in. I said all throughout this year's summer games that I like winter games a lot more than summer. Can you guess why? It's certainly not for the skiing. I think it's fun to watch players I recognize represent their countries In my opinion the olympics should have the best athletes at their event. NHL players are the best in the world.

The reason the NHL is taking this measure is because they can't afford to pay player insurance. Nor do they want to stop the regular season for a month for an event that does little for their revenue stream. I feel the NHL has gone too far on this one and I really hope the NHLPA fights this on behalf of the players.

I recall an interview I read with Alex Semin maybe a year ago where he said that his ultimate goal was to win gold for Russia at the World Championships. I remember this because I was baffeled that his goal wasn't to win the Stanley Cup. Nevertheless, you think he isn't upset about this? What about Ovie wearing his Sochi 2014 t-shirt during the Beijing games? I could easily see players moving to the KHL in order to play in the olympics.

It's interesting that the NBA can afford player insurance on Kobe Bryant and Lebron James but the NHL can't pay for players who make half of their salary. Olympic Basketball is entertaining because all the best players on the planet are playing. Olympic soccer, on the other hand, is a joke. No one cares about it. If the NHL actually forbids its players from playing, olympic hockey will be the same way, a joke. I think I have made my position clear. That's all for now.