The San Jose Sharks will look to Joe Thornton in their battle for a Stanley Cup. (Source: AP)

Has the NHL found its own LeBron, DWade and Carmelo?

If Malkin works out as planned the NHL should have its answer to the NBA’s young superstar triplets of Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony with Malkin, Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin. If the NHL can take anything away from the NBA it should be their expertise in marketing stars.  The NHL now has their muses; its just a matter of letting everyone outside of the core fan base know how special these three youngsters are. But before we proceed with the marketing literature can we get a ruling on the proper way to spell Malkin’s first name – is it Evgeni or Evgeny?

What’s the most disturbing fantasy hockey trend entering this year?

Already, the NFL has given us endless fantasy headaches with several teams adopting a run-by-committee approach. Now Mike Shanahan’s philosophy has crept into hockey and has caused the disturbing trend of goalie tandems. There’s Vesa Toskala-Evgeni Nabokov in San Jose, Ilya Bryzgalov-JS Giguere in Anaheim, and Ray Emery-Martin Gerber in Ottawa and that’s just from the elite teams.  Draft the wrong goalie and you can look more foolish than the guy who green lighted the new Robin Williams movie that sees him play a comedian that is elected as president. Didn’t Chris Rock already do this movie? And are we supposed to suspend belief that Robin Williams is playing someone that’s supposed to be funny?

What if the NHL were run by WWE’s Vince McMahon?

It seems like a storyline too good to pass up: Evgeni Malkin bolts Russia to join the NHL and in the process infuriates his Russian club Metallurg Magnitogorsk  who vows revenge. Then in his first pre-season game Malkin dislocates his shoulder after colliding with a teammate.

Couldn’t you just picture John LecLair after inadvertently injuring Malkin stand over top of him and rip off his Pens jersey only to reveal a Magnitogorsk jersey underneath? This of course would be followed by the Magnitogorsk GM walking out on the ice screaming expletives at Malkin and then raising Leclair’s hand as they walk off the ice to the Russian national anthem.

How many media requests will the Leafs have to reject from a certain Kazakhstani reporter?

Jagshemash! My name is a Borat. I come to Toronto to interview Nik Antropov, a man who has ranks only behind my sister and Corky Bucek for popularity in Kazakhstan.

Which goalie is this year’s trendsetter?

Hands down, Ray Emery was last year’s noteworthy netminder when it came to mask design. Emery, an avid boxing fan created a stir when he changed his Jack Johnson/Marvin Hagler mask for a Mike Tyson inspired design. The design was only modeled during practice and was subsequently changed for a George Chuvalo mask. This year’s newsmakers include Martin Biron who has opted for a plain white mask in response to being on the trade market, Kari Lehtonen who has clinched the NHL’s geek award by designing his new mask with characters from the ‘Final Fantasy’ video games and Dan Cloutier who has finally joined the 21^st century by ditching his old birdcage for the more common and standard goalie mask.

Outside of Malkin, who will be the best rookie this year?

Malkin is the obvious choice for the Calder but Anze Kopitar of the LA Kings is without a doubt the next most talented rookie this year. His World Hockey Championship performance for Slovenia last May was nothing short of outstanding. He finished the tournament tied for 5^th in scoring with 9 pts, matching the outputs of Ovechkin and Malkin. Anze (pronounced Ahn-Jay) is 19 years old, stands around 6-3/6-4, and has deceiving speed and impeccable offensive instincts. The only reason he won’t get the necessary attention this year is because he plays on the west coast. But before the end of this year you can bet Kopitar will help put Slovenia on the map for a reason other than the movie ‘Hostel’.

Who is this year’s sleeper team?

The Minnesota Wild looks like a team that’s ready to open it up offensively this year. Provided Marian Gaborik and new addition Pavol Demitra stay healthy they should be one of the league’s top scoring tandems. Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Brian Rolston and Mark Parrish round out a competent group of forwards. Under Jacques Lemaire’s tutelage the team is already well versed in their defensive responsibilities, the added competent of a dangerous offense should make the Wild a much better team this year.

Who’s going to win the Stanley Cup?

The San Jose Sharks over the Ottawa Senators. The Western Conference is extremely deep with the likes of Nashville, Calgary and Anaheim but there’s not a team in the conference, let alone the league, that has the size to match up with the Sharks’ top two lines of Bell-Thornton-Cheechoo and Bernier-Marleau-Michalek. Yes, the defense looks like a bit of a sore spot but San Jose has tons of cap room so picking up a couple of defensemen at the deadline is a distinct possibility. Whoever survives the goaltending battle between Toskala and Nabokov will be more than capable of backstopping this team to a championship.

The Senators experienced a huge turnover this season with the departures of Martin Havlat, Dominik Hasek and Zdeno Chara and the additions of Tom Preissing, Joe Corvo and Gerber.  I would expect with those key departures that the team would regress a little bit in the regular season in terms of goals allowed and points but it won’t matter. This team has not been judged by their regular season performance for quite some time now. As evidenced by the success of Buffalo, Carolina and Edmonton last year, the playoffs are largely about balanced scoring and the Sens have plenty of that. Aside from Jason Spezza, Daniel Alfredsson and Dany Heatley the Sens have plenty of secondary scoring from Patrick Eaves, Mike Fisher, Antonie Vermette and Peter Schaefer. I know it’s been said for a while, but it just seems like its Ottawa’s time.

The only disconcerting thing about my prediction is that Glenn Healy from TSN made the same prediction. This is perhaps the one and only time I will agree with something Healy says.