Friday Five: Eastern Turmoil

Another week, another F5 because I like gimmicks.

1. Marco Sturm was traded, then not traded, but still injured. Whaaahappen??

It seemed like a slam-dunk, and with the major analyst calling it a done-deal, we all thought it was going down. It appears that the Kings let it fall through because they didn't know when Sturm would be ready to play, so they could have gotten a lemon. Sturm is 3-4 weeks away from playing after major knee surgery, so who knows what condition he'll be in. Odds are, he will be the first one to go to clear up some cap space; but I doubt it'll be to LA now since they kind of balked on this whole deal to start off with.

2. The Edmonton Oilers went through the eastern Canadian teams like it was nothing; shouldn't the Oilers move to Quebec City to dominate the East??

It would seem that way, yes-- but the Oilers just showed how much better the crappiest team in the West does against the crappiest teams in the East. The Oilers are 4-2-1 this year against the East, including 3-0-0 against the Northeast. They still have time to screw it up if they bomb in Buffalo and Boston, even so-- we could be starting to see the young guys on the Oilers really coming into their own, especially Taylor Hall; who has three goals in his last three games, including a two-goal game last night in Toronto. They may not make any more moves upward in the standings.....but brick-by-brick, they're getting better.

3. Speaking of, two of the Eastern Canadian teams seem to be in peril, but is there going to be any changes made to stop the bleeding or will it happen when it's too late??

In Toronto, Brian Burke has said there isn't much going to happen in change, definitely not in the coaching position. Considering Dion Phaneuf is out, Burke could see it as just a bad bump without the captain in the line-up. There could be much more than that, as the Leafs weren't doing much with Phaneuf in the line-up before he got injured. Don't know if there's much to save Leaf-land, so we'll just have to see what happens, as it seems Burke and Wilson are safe....for now.

Yet, in Ottawa-- I could see stuff going down quickly. Bryan Murray could be feeling the heat if he doesn't make a move soon enough. I don't know what move he could make or if there's anything of any desire for a team to take; but he's going to have to make something out of nothing if he expect to keep his job. Cory Clouston can only do so much with a 2nd line and three 3rd lines in his line-up. Since the Pascal Leclaire experiment seems to be a bust, it could be time to shop him and see who's going to give up some prospects for him.

At least the Canadiens are reppin' for the Eastern Canadian teams.

4. Staying in Ottawa, they "welcomed" back Dany Heatley to the ScotiaBank Place and then got trounced. However, it seems the fans weren't too pleased with Heatley or the Senators. Comment??

Sure, it's been a few years, but thanks to scheduling-- the Sharks finally rolled into town. As silly as it sounds, the fans should feel a bit bitter, because they've seen their team turn to crap because of the trade....amongst other things. But they got their pent-up rage out and now it's time to move forward with everything involved. It's over and done with, you can't change anything, so just time to move along. The fact the Sens got shutout is just icing on the cake for Heatley in his return.

5. December 11th, CBC will do a 3-D broadcast of the Canadiens and Maple Leafs. What can we expect and has 3-D stuff FINALLY jumped the shark??

While it was announced in August at the Heritage Classic, the fact that CBC is doing this seems a little odd. I honestly don't think 3-D is going to be the wave of the future of broadcasting like HD has been, so to put something out there like that is going to almost seem like a waste of money. That said, it's pretty fancy to see them try something like this and maybe give people the feel of being at the game from the confines of their home. Yet, this makes me wonder if there's actually going to be a 3-D effect if you watch on a HD TV or if you'd have to get one of those new fangled 3-D TVs in order to truly respect the quality that is being presented. The idea jumped the shark when the dance movie "Step It Up" was put into 3-D, so this is just jumping it further.

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That's another week done-- huzzah. If you have any input or any suggests on topics-- email me at Scotty.Wazz@Gmail.com and I'll see what I can do for ya. Odds are it'll make the cut because I scour the landscape for things and come up dry most times.