Colorful characters, revered championships, staged fights ... the rink shares plenty with the squared circle. So here at Puck Daddy, we've decided to preview the 2010-11 NHL season with the help of old-school wrestling icons, images and lingo. It's a slobber-knocker, Mean Gene ...

Last Season (40-32-10; 90 points. Third in Northwest, 10th in the West)

At the start of the 2009-10 season, the Calgary Flames were coming off a 98-point season and a fifth-place finish in the conference. They lost Michael Cammalleri as a free-agent, gained Jay Bouwmeester as a prized blue-liner. They also had a new coach, Brent Sutter, that hadn't missed the playoffs during his brief tenure with the New Jersey Devils.

By Jan. 31, whatever optimism there was about the Flames had been erased by a 1-8-3 tailspin, including a 7-game losing streak. That's when GM Darryl Sutter pulled the trigger on a trade that saw Dion Phanuef and two others go to the Toronto Maple Leafs for a collection of salary dumps and complimentary players. The Flames would linger near the playoff bubble, but fall short with a 3-5-1 finish.

Also, Olli Jokinen's wife yelled at us after he was traded to the Rangers. That happened, too.

This summer, the Flames attempted to calm their fans and silence their critics giving both their beleaguered coach and GM votes of confidence and by reacquiring a fan favorite (Alex Tanguay) as well as one of the most abhorred players in recent team history in the aforementioned Mr. Jokinen.

It wasn't a good summer, PR-wise; but what might happen on the ice?

New Additions

The return of Jokinen as a free agent was met with shock and ridicule during the free-agent frenzy, as he came back to the team that traded him for a 2-year, $6 million deal. The thought from Sutter, in part, was that Jokinen putting up 35 in 56 games as a $3 million player might be more palatable to fans than as a $5.5 million player.

Tanguay spent last season moving around the Tampa Bay Lightning lineup; Sutter brought him back to Calgary to play left wing with Iginla. Is he still the player that put up 81 points in 2006-07 with the Flames?

In Raitis Ivanans, the Flames signed a solid brawler who can't really play "hockey" per se. In Tim Jackman, they signed another tough guy and a solid checker for $550,000 per season

Key Subtractions

The loss of Eric Nystrom could hurt if he finds an offensive game to go along with his grunt work for the Minnesota Wild, who signed him to a 3-year deal. He was a fan favorite in Calgary, even if he never lived up to the promise of a 10th overall pick in the draft. 

Christopher Higgins continued to be an enigmatic offensive player and left for the Florida Panthers. Jamal Mayers, acquired in the Phaneuf trade, went to the San Jose Sharks for 1 year and $600,000.

Wrestler That Best Personifies the Team

Giant Gonzalez. Lumbering, clumsy, overpaid and underwhelming ... although dressed to look more impressive than he really ever was.

Forwards

Losing Cammalleri may not have been the only factor, but Jarome Iginla's points dropped by 20 year-to-year, finishing with 69 in 2009-10. It was the lowest total in a season with 80 or more games since 1998-99 for the captain. So Sutter signed Jokinen, the center Iginla couldn't mesh with, and Tanguay, who played well with Iggy during his time in Calgary.

Matt Stajan (16 points in 27 games) saw time with Iginla last season, but should be slotted on the second line; potentially with Rene Bourque (58 points in 73 games), who broke out with a 27-goal season last year. Niklas Hagman couldn't repeat the torrid offensive game he had with the Leafs, but is a versatile forward.

The ageless Craig Conroy will be back for another season at the pivot, and Curtis Glencross should contribute his gritty offensive game again. The untradeable contract of Ales Kotalik means he could be a Flame again this season; which is, at the very least, good news for the shootout.

Two X-factors: Top prospect Mikael Backlund, who had 10 points in 23 games last season but should see increased ice time this year; and Daymond Langkow, the standout center who is trying to come back from fractured vertebrae in his neck.

Defense

Bouwmeester wasn't a bust in the first year of his 5-year contract with a $6.68 million cap hit, but he was certainly underwhelming. His point total was the smallest since his sophomore season in 2003-04, and his power-play numbers (12 points) were the lowest since 2006-07. He was paired with Mark Giordano and with Cory Sarich last season before playing with veteran defensive defenseman Steve Staios, who was acquired in a controversial move at the deadline.

Robyn Regehr had to deal with another offseason of trade scuttlebutt that never came to pass. He's a solid as they come, though he'll never get full marks from critics because it's difficult to quantify his intangibles. The same could be said of Ian White, the former Leafs fan favorite who signed a 1-year extension with Calgary and can play both defense and up front.

Adam Pardy's sophomore season saw him average 15:51 in ice time, and his consistency was more all-over-the-place than a puck bunny after her seventh SoCo shot on the Red Mile.

Goaltending

It was a quiet comeback season for Miikka Kiprusoff after his stats (and his body) ballooned in 2008-09. Better conditioned, better focused, Kiprusoff posted a .920 save percentage and a 2.31 GAA, his best numbers since 2005-06, to go along with four shutouts. Impressive when you consider the personnel changes and lack of offense in front of him.

Swedish import Henrik Karlsson could be the guy who gets the 10 games Kipper won't play next season.

Match We'd Pay To Watch

THE SUTTER BATTLE ROYALE! Flames GM Darryl Sutter, Coach Brent Sutter, scout Ron Sutter, director of player personnel Duane Sutter, forward Brett Sutter ... as well as Phoenix scout Rich Sutter, Carolina forward Brandon Sutter, former NHL coach Brian Sutter ... and a masked man who later in the match is revealed to be Ryan Suter of the Predators, tired of being mistakenly lumped in with this family.

Breakout Player

Backlund, if only because he has so much offensive upside (32 points in 54 games in the AHL last season). He skated with Kotalik and Bourque last season, as saw time with Iginla to get his skates wet in the NHL. He averaged 1:12 on the power play in 23 games; will he see more special teams time this season?

Potential Flop

Tanguay. It all depends on whether his season in hell with the Lightning was a fluke or the continuation of a steeper decline. The good news is that he played 80 games after an injury-filled year in Montreal. Can he hit at least 50 points again with Iggy and Olli?

Finishing Move

We'd call Rene Boruque's toe-drag, fake shot, spin-o-rama bank shot unstoppable, but "un-repeatable" might be just as applicable a term.

Special Teams

The Flames were 26th in the NHL on the power play (16 percent) and 15th on the kill (82.3 percent). If Bouwmeester rebounds and the Flames can find a bit more offensive chemistry up front, the former number can improve; the latter is probably about right for this collection, although Langkow's health could affect both units.

Coach/GM

That Darryl Sutter received a vote of confidence from ownership made some Flames fans enraged, and the team's roster and cap situation at the moment gives them ample justification for those feelings. It's not that Sutter made a mess of the Flames' roster; it's that there's little confidence he can repair it.

Brent Sutter squeezed a lot of offense out of the Devils' rosters he coached, but last season's Flames team couldn't repeat the feat. He likes the offseason moves they made offensively, which is probably a more proactive move than throwing an empty beer bottle against a wall and screaming "we're so [expletive'd]."

2010-11 Preseason Report Card:

Forwards: C+
Defense: B
Goaltending: A-
Special Teams: C-
Coaching: B-
Management: D+ (If only for headlines like this.)

Main Event or Dark Match? (Prediction)

Iginla will be better. Bouwmeester will be better. The locker room will be better. Kiprusoff will be Kiprusoff.

The Flames will not be as bad as their offseason moves make one believe they'll be. But they'll also not be a playoff team. If nothing else, the Flames are still better than the Minnesota Wild and the Edmonton Oilers, so third place in the division by default isn't outlandish. If the Colorado Avalanche come back down to earth, that's even more possible points to pad the total.

So it should be the bubble again for the Flames. And, again, they'll be on the outside looking in.

Entrance Music: Flames? You want Flames? Well, nothing accompanies flames better than the entrance theme for Kane, the Undertaker's fake brother and a former dentist.

There are two groups that will really enjoy the following clip from Switzerland, featuring young Silvio Schöb scoring a rather unorthodox goal: Those who ascribe to the "by any means necessary" school of hockey scoring, and would allow for creative tallies like this to count; and, of course, soccer fans:

Holy Miroslav Klose, Batman!

Give the guy credit: He worked hard to set-up that goal, even if the finish didn't actually involve his stick. But the clip ends with a cliffhanger, as players from the opposing team appear to swarm the referee for an explanation, as the header appeared intentional. Perhaps they're familiar with the way the NHL would treat such a goal:

78.5 Disallowed Goals - Apparent goals shall be disallowed by the Referee and the appropriate announcement made by the Public Address Announcer for the following reasons:

(i)  When the puck has been directed, batted or thrown into the net by an attacking player other than with a stick.

Color us ignorant of Swiss hockey rules, however. We all know Europeans love soccer more than North Americans; maybe this sort of thing is kosher.

Heck, we're just happy to see a head-shot in hockey didn't result in an opposing player suffering a concussion ...

If the objective for a sports provocateur is to garner attention, whether it's positive or negative, then it's been a banner couple of weeks for Damien Cox of the Toronto Star.

On Aug. 22, his blog The Spin openly questioned whether Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista's offensive surge this season was due to steroids, without providing any evidence behind speculation. It's the nearly same thing blogger Jerod Morris did in writing about Raul Ibanez of the Phillies last year, only Cox wasn't summoned to ESPN's "Outside the Lines" for a spanking like Morris was -- even as his column was pummeled by mainstream and alt-media. He got the buzz without the repercussions.

This week, Cox managed to piss off Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis, which in itself isn't a rarity: Leonsis has been known to use his blog Ted's Take to voice disapproval of others' behavior and attitudes before, including this very blog for a Ross McKeon "contract the Caps" post.

But Cox's comments about the 13-year contract Leonsis saw Alex Ovechkin sign with the Capitals, and Leonsis's response, have an added bit of intrigue: Cox has a book he co-wrote about Ovechkin coming out this fall.

A book Leonsis doesn't appear too pleased about, either.

Here's Damien Cox in a column about the NHL and the NHLPA agreeing to amend the Collective Bargaining Agreement on long-term contracts, and how Gary Bettman's "friends" had been betraying him with cap-circumventing deals:

Ted Leonsis, to name another, was a hawk during the last labour struggle and now drinks deeply and gratefully from the revenue-sharing trough. The president of his Washington Capitals, Dick Patrick, is part of one of hockey's most famous families and a committed league man.

But when they wanted to give Alexander Ovechkin a 13-year, $124 million contract, one they knew Bettman wouldn't approve of, they did it anyway. That encouraged others, like the bizarre Tampa twosome of Len Barrie and Oren Koules, to engineer a deal with Vinny Lecavalier that started with a $10 million salary and wound down to $1 million.

Why? Why did all these powerful owners, largely devoted Bettman supporters, repeatedly ignore his advice and pleadings?

Grouping the Ovechkin contract with those that circumvent the cap is, of course, patently absurd. A quick and dirty comparison between the Capitals star's contract and the 12-year deal for Vancouver Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo, for example (via NHL Numbers):

Head here for the Lecavalier deal that Cox mentions. Like Luongo's and unlike Ovechkin's, it plays around with numbers late in the deal to influence the overall cap number, something the NHL has attempted to snuff out with the "Kovalchuk Amendment."

On that point, Leonsis was justifiably angry; only within his blog post defense of the Capitals and that contract, he made things a little personal with the writer:

It was all done in the light of day - honest and transparent. By the rules. The writer of this article knows that. He is just mad because he didn't have access to Alex Ovechkin when he wrote his book. We don't agree with his point of view in his book and we won't have anything to do with him and his book now. He is on his own.

Alex's contract was NOT a long term front-loaded contract structured to achieve artificial low contract value for the purpose of achieving certain advantages under the salary cap. Nor was Backstrom's deal. That is why they were approved and why we played by the rules. Alex will still be young enough when his deal ends to sign another contract too! As will Backstrom. The writer knows that. Why he lumps the deal in with these other deals is just mean-spirited and inspired by other factors known only to him.

Caps blog Japers' Rink ran two excerpts from "The Ovechkin Project," the forthcoming book by Cox and the delightful Gare Joyce. Judging from them, and only them, we're not exactly sure the Capitals would have been selling this thing on the lobby of Verizon Center anyway.

Colorful characters, revered championships, staged fights ... the rink shares plenty with the squared circle. So here at Puck Daddy, we've decided to preview the 2010-11 NHL season with the help of old-school wrestling icons, images and lingo. It's a slobber-knocker, Mean Gene ...

Last Season (45-27-10. 1st in Northeast, 3rd in Eastern Conference)

The Buffalo Sabres rode the momentum of eventual Vezina Trophy winner Ryan Miller all the way to a Northeast Division title. Big things were thought to be coming from Buffalo in the playoffs, but a Thomas Vanek injury in Game 2 against the Boston Bruins in the first round, coupled with a backbreaking double overtime loss in Game 4 helped, spell the end of the Sabres' campaign for Lord Stanley's Cup.

This summer saw two of Buffalo's top defensemen leave via free agency, and they hope their replacements can eat as many minutes as they did.

Key Subtractions

The odd saga of Tim Kennedy's time as a restricted free agent ended when he signed a one-year deal with the New York Rangers. Kennedy took the team to arbitration and was awarded a one-year, $1 million deal and was later waived, then bought out of that deal soon after.

Buffalo's defense took a bit of a hit when they lost minute munchers Toni Lydman and Henrik Tallinder to free agency.

New Additions

Center Rob Niedermayer joined up in July after spending last season with the New Jersey Devils and pairing him with either Patrick Kaleta or Mike Grier will make for a formidable checking line.

To try and reload their blueline corps, the Sabres brought in Jordan Leopold and Shaone Morrisonn. They won't fill the skates left behind by Lydman and Tallinder, but both are competent defensemen that Ryan Miller won't need to be a hero every single night ... for the most part.

Forwards

Buffalo was 10th in the NHL last season with 231 goals scored, thanks to productive seasons from Derek Roy (26), Thomas Vanek (28), Jochen Hecht (21) and Jason Pominville (24). Assuming the likes of Drew Stafford and Tyler Ennis continue their development, there's no question the Sabres should once again be in the top-10 goals scored category in the NHL.

Continuing good health will be the question mark surrounding Tim Connolly this season. After having only played only 98 games from the 2006-07 season to 2008-09, Connolly appeared in 73 games last season and was second in team scoring with 65 points. When in the lineup, Connolly has shown he can produce, but it's been a while since he's shown consistent good health.

Oh, and did we mention he's in a contract year? Even more incentive.

Wrestler(s) That Best Symbolize the Team

There's some talent there, but surrounded by the likes of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals, they're stuck in the shadows and often looked over.

And like Marty Jannetty, they have some experience with broken glass.

Defense

Replacing Tallinder and Lydman will be a challenge, but bringing in a veteran like Leopold to help mentor Calder Trophy winner Tyler Myers could help ease their losses. There's also the worry that the dreaded "sophomore slump" could hit Myers. His outstanding rookie campaign sets the bar high for another productive season from the 20-year old.

Myers was outstanding last year, even garnering some Norris Trophy talk before eventually settling with the Calder, but can he replicate his production again? He led all Sabres in time on ice by three minutes (23:44) and was 23rd in the NHL in that category. Not bad for a 20-year old kid. Myers also supplied most of the offense from the Buffalo defense (48 points), something that the Sabres would love help with from youngsters Chris Butler and Andrej Sekera.

Goaltending

How will Ryan Miller answer a Vezina Trophy winning season? Likely with more consistency.

Miller notched career highs in wins (41), goals-against average (2.22) and save-percentage (.929) last season. He's also played a lot of hockey in the past year considering Team USA's run to the Olympic gold medal game.

Re-signing Patrick Lalime was a surprise to some Sabres fans that had thought it was Jhonas Enroth time. Miller has averaged 64 games the past four seasons, with his backups getting a decent amount of playing time. If Lalime can't handle the slack, Enroth should get a quick call up from Portland.

Match We'd Pay To Watch

Shaone Morrisonn against Andrej Sekera in a "loser has to lose the extra letter" match.

Breakout Player

Small in stature (5-9), but high on talent, Tyler Ennis is expected to compete for a roster spot and potentially surprise some as he enters his first full season with the Sabres. Ennis joined the team down the stretch and, including playoffs, scored 13 points in 16 games.

Potential Flop

Because of his injury history, it's hard to bet on Tim Connolly playing yet another injury-free season. If he does, that's a huge boost to the Sabres lineup from a guy who's potted 35 goals in 121 games over the past two seasons.

Finishing Move

For a boy who's 6-foot-7, Tyler Myers has some hands:

Special Teams

Buffalo was 17th with the man advantage (17.6 percent), but second on the penalty kill at 88.6 percent, just 0.2 percent behind the St. Louis Blues.

Thomas Vanek and Derek Roy (10 power-play goals each) led the way last season, but Vanek's tally was cut in half from the 2008-09 season.

Tyler Myers will have to get accustomed to a new shorthanded partner now that Henrik Tallinder is gone.

Coach/GM

When nuclear winter comes, all that will be left are cockroaches, Chris Chelios and the tag team of Lindy Ruff and Darcy Regier still running the show in Buffalo. At least that's what we think ...

One would tend to wonder how much longer the Ruff and Regier show will last in The Queen City should the Sabres pack up their lockers in April as opposed to late-May/early-June.

2010-11 Preseason Report Card: 

Forwards: B
Defense: C+ (The emergence of Myers last year bumps them up a bit...just a bit)
Goaltending: A
Special Teams: C (penalty kill was second last season, but that power play is so-so even with Vanek)
Coaching: B+
Management: B

Main Event or Dark Match? (Prediction)

The Sabres are one of those teams that, for as many times that you want to count them out, they'll prove you wrong. It's easy to think that the defense will take a step back with the losses of Tallinder and Lydman; and that Ryan Miller may not be as awesome as he was a season ago; and wonder if the balanced scoring continue.

After reaching the conference final the first two years after the lockout, the Sabres have just won two playoff games since. They'll always be in the mix as long as Ryan Miller is Ryan Miller. The blue line will be shaken up a bit this season, but the Sabres are hoping that Myers can continue where his rookie season left off.

Buffalo is a team that will challenge for a playoff spot as long as they can remain healthy. One injury could really expose their lack of depth.

Buffalo Sabres' Entrance Music to the 2010-11 Season

Because there's nothing more that we would have wanted to see than Ryan Miller win the gold medal for Team USA and then play a patriotic guitar in a cheesy, "Super Bowl Shuffle"-esque video salute to the American team.

News of a peace accord between the NHL and the NHLPA on long-term contracts hit the media at around 2:30 p.m. ET on Friday afternoon, with paperwork just needing to be finalized by the 5 p.m. ET deadline that was set earlier this week to approve Ilya Kovalchuk's contract with the New Jersey Devils.

Then deadline was moved to 7 p.m. Then 8 p.m. Then 10 p.m. Then 1 a.m. on Saturday morning. Then 3 a.m.

According to Tom Gulitti of the Bergen Record, who did exemplary work on this ordeal all summer, the deal was finally struck at 2:53 a.m. ET. Hey, they beat the deadline! Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Here's the official word from the NHL and NHLPA on the CBA amendment, which sounds very much like the details that leaked to TSN with some additional specifics and some analysis to follow:

NEW YORK/TORONTO (September 4, 2010) - The National Hockey League Players' Association and National Hockey League today announced an agreement that will implement new rules governing the parameters of long-term contracts and how they are valued within the NHL Salary Cap System.

As part of the agreement, the NHL will register the contract between the New Jersey Devils and Ilya Kovalchuk that was filed with the League on August 27, 2010. The NHL also will terminate its circumvention investigations into the contracts signed in 2009 by Marian Hossa of the Chicago Blackhawks, Roberto Luongo of the Vancouver Canucks, Marc Savard of the Boston Bruins and Chris Pronger of the Philadelphia Flyers.

Under the terms of the agreement, the new rules will apply only to long-term contracts, defined as those with terms of five years or longer, and only to contracts executed after September 4, 2010. The new rules apply to contracts signed between now and the end of the CBA, as well as all contracts signed that begin in the 2012-13 season. The parties have agreed that the new rules do not automatically carry over into a new CBA.

For the purpose of Salary Cap calculations, any long-term contract that extends past a player's 41st birthday will be valued and accounted for in two ways: The compensation for all seasons that do not include or succeed the player's 41st birthday will be totaled and divided by the number of those seasons to determine the annual average value (AAV) charged against the team's Cap for those seasons. In all subsequent seasons, the team's Cap charge will be the actual compensation paid to the player in that season (or seasons, as appropriate).

Additionally, in any long-term contract that averages more than $5.75 million for the three highest-compensation seasons, the following rule shall apply: Solely to determine its value for purposes of the Salary Cap, a player's compensation for any season in which he is age 36, 37, 38, 39 and/or 40 shall be valued at a minimum of $1 million.

"We're pleased to be able to establish clearly-defined rules for these types of contracts going forward and just as happy we can turn the page on uncertainties relating to several other existing contracts," NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said. "From start to finish of this multi-week process we were able to work closely and cooperatively with representatives of the Players' Association, who shared our belief that the creation of definitive rules and guidelines in this area would be beneficial to everyone - Clubs and players alike."

"We are pleased to finalize an agreement which ends the League's circumvention investigations and also establishes rules on long-term contracts that will provide players, their certified agents and general managers clarity for the negotiation of new contracts," said Roland Lee, Director of Salary Cap/Marketplace & Associate Counsel for the NHLPA. "Turning the page on this process is something that will benefit all parties involved."

Meanwhile, the Devils can finally market their star for the 2010-11 season ...

Devils GM Lou Lamoriello released the following statement this morning:

"We have been advised today that the NHL has approved the contract between Ilya Kovalchuk and the New Jersey Devils. We are very pleased with this decision which will see Ilya Kovalchuk remain a valuable member of the Devils.

"The New Jersey Devils acted in good faith throughout this entire process and operated solely on the assumption that our negotiations and both contracts reached were fully compliant with the CBA, as written and applied. Arbitrator Bloch reached that same conclusion in his August 9 decision. We are pleased that this matter has finally been concluded to all parties' satisfaction."

That second paragraph could have been shortened to: "Please don't fine us or take away our draft picks."

A few quick thoughts:

• The release specifically mentions Chris Pronger's contract, which Larry Brooks of the NY Post had reported had already been accepted by the NHL. So perhaps it hadn't been quite yet.

• We expected to see the 5-year deal established as the benchmark for something "long-term"; interesting to see "any long-term contract that averages more than $5.75 million for the three highest-compensation seasons" as the trigger for the new CBA rule. It doesn't really apply to any of the deals in dispute, nor would any superstar contract likely dip under that number on average for three years, but that's now the benchmark.

• Interesting that any deal that begins in the 2012-13 season will be governed by this rule, considering that season could be under an entirely new CBA. And please note that these rules aren't automatically carried over to that new CBA, so this is just a band-aid for now. 

• It's still hard to stomach the NHL putting up this fight only to allow five contracts it feels cheat the CBA; but then again, they've been approving these contracts for the last few years anyway, and no more going forward. When cheating becomes a bargaining chip ...

• Thank the hockey gods this is over. Until someone attempts to exploit a loophole no one's considered yet ...