Hart N Soul Hockey Talk

I'm back again for another segment of no one's favourite quick take segment. When I write this blog I promise to do a few things. I will not bore you with stats that you will no doubt just graze your eyes over, or not even look at. I will not make trade rumours up. Anyone can simply look at a team's strengths and weaknesses. then find another team in the NHL that matches it well. boom you have yourselves a trade rumour. I'm not an insider and I would never pretend to be. The closest I've been to the inside was asking a female worker at the A.C.C how she was doing. Moving on ill try to keep things short and sweet . Not to mention ridden with punctuation errors that will no doubt be shredded in the comments. Enough fluff lets get some hockey talk rolling.1)There has been a ton of transactions made this summer. So much that a lot of people have forgotten or put in the back of their minds which players switched jerseys. one player I wanted to specifically touch on is TJ Oshie. I already thought that the caps played a very heavy game last season. No doubt Troy Brouwer played a role in that system. Lets not kid ourselves here , TJ Oshie is going to make a much bigger impact on the roster than Brouwer ever could. He is used to playing a tight checking game for the blues and will fit right in under coach Barry Trotz. It took about 30 games for the team to gain a full grasp of Trotz stye of play. When they did I thought they were one of the hardest teams to play in the east. With Oshie now in the fold they have a scary top line and another good foot soldier in their fight to get Ovi his first cup. Maybe Oshie is missing piece they have been looking for. If not maybe he can help solve the mystery of where in fact Barry Trotz has hidden his neck. 2) Every year fans, bloggers and analysts make predictions of teams that will be rising and falling . How about predicting a team to stay in the same spot. Not as exciting is it? Last year they barely made the playoffs and I anticipate the exact same result this season. Boston moved Milan Lucic who had a down year but still was a large part of the forward identity They moved future number one blue liner Dougie Hamilton out and resigned a bottom pairing Adam Mcquaid to a new deal. Zdeno Chara did not find the fountain of youth this offseason and is bound to slow down more this season. They signed Matt Beleskey to the next coming of David Clarkson's contract. The B's still have some good players and great goaltending in Tuuka Rask. I just don't think its good enough to get them over the hump this season. No one will confuse the Atlantic Division with the Metro over in the west but there are still have teams poised to play good hockey. Tampa bay, Montreal, Detroit, Ottawa and even Florida have better rosters in my opinion. The Bruins had their time in the sun and were a scary and fun team to watch. I'm sure a few fan bases will be happy to see the big bad bruins become just the bad Bruins over the next few years.rnrn3) I can't be the only one who think Columbus is primed for a good season. If They can stay healthy that is. last season the Jackets lead the NHL in man games lost . When a team loses former Vezina winner Sergei Bobrovsky, second year future top d-man Ryan Murray and super pest Brandon Dubinsky for more than 23 games each its hard to make points back in the metro div. This season they added Brandon Saad to be on the top line with 6'3 pivot Ryan Johansen. If they can gel together which shouldn't be a problem it could be a very effective duo for years to come. They also added Gregory Campbell . Yes I know that's a small add, but he fits the Columbus mould quite well. This team screams blue collar and he will be a good mentor and contributor on the bottom 6 for this team. If things line up properly the fans will be seeing their famous goal cannon firing in the post season instead of wondering what could have been. that's all for now. I have tried several different methods to get my paragraphs to separate. it simply will not work for me . I have msged hockeybuzz and didn't receive much help. I want people to know im aware of the problem but there isn't much I can do on that front right now.