HOCKEY LAST NIGHT: DAVE NONIS, TELLIN' IT LIKE IT IS

Before we get started, much obliged to Covers.com for the link they gave us last week.

It's a little jarring to find out Vancouver Canucks GM Dave Nonis, who usually comes off as a bit of stiff corporate type on TV, has such an acid tongue. It's like finding out that Stephen Harper grooves out to early Peter Tosh records or something.

Nonis grabbed some headlines yesterday with a talk in front of a bunch of chamber-of-commerce types where he blasted the league's scheduling format and called the free-agency system a "joke," noting that it could mean the Pittsburgh Penguins could lose Sidney Crosby just as he's turning 25 and entering his prime. (Hey, the Oilers had to trade a 26-year-old Paul Coffey and a 27-year-old Wayne Gretzky when there was no salary cap or free agency.)

The real sore point for Vancouver is probably the scheduling. Tom Benjamin did some really good work on this last spring, comparing travel-advantaged Eastern teams with travel-disadvantaged Western teams. He found there's a big difference in their regular-season records that evens out during playoff time (hence the Oilers' "improbable" playoff run last spring).

The free agency at 25 question is a little too heavy for today. As for the scheduling question, Nonis is right: Eight games against each team in your division sounds better in theory than in practice. This space believes the NHL should cut back to a 72-game regular season, and do something interesting to jazz it up, a hockey version of the Champions League in soccer.

You could easily borrow the NBA's balanced schedule, where you play everyone in the conference four times. That's 56 games, and that would leave 16 games -- one against everyone on the other conference, and one extra game. In the Canucks' case, that could be used to have one of the Eastern Canada teams make a visit to B.C. each year.

Granted, then you would have Bob Gainey in Montreal, John Muckler in Ottawa or John Ferguson Jr. in Toronto whining.

Leafs 4 Thrashers 2: It looked a bit like last year as the Leafs got outplayed 5-on-5, but got three power-play goals in 86 seconds late in the first and coasted home with the win. And we do mean coasted -- try 10 shots on goal in the final 40 minutes. As noted on Saturday night, the Leafs are using up their quota of games you win in spite of yourself.

Capitals 4 Flames 2: Usually the only Z's you catch in Calgary come when the Flames are on the power play; this time, Richard Zednik and Dainius Zubrus each scored twice for the Caps.

Flyers 3 Blackhawks 0: The Hawks have injuries, but getting outshot 17-5 in the first period? That's not good. Robert Esche got the shutout for Philly, but somehow Derian Hatcher still ended up minus-2 for the game.

Ducks 6 Blues 5 (shootout): Don't worry, Chicago, you're not alone in your woe -- the Blues have scored first only three times so far this season, and lost all three of the games in overtime or a shootout.

Kings 4 Rangers 1: L.A., who got two goals from Jaroslav Sopel, needed this one like a dead man needs a coffin, as it snapped a five-game losing streak. People who have Henrik Lundqvist in their pools are going to be trying to dump him like he was Sony stock -- he was snakebitten on a pinball goal (shot off Blair Betts' skate) for the first goal, but his save percentage remained well below .900.

Back with more later. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.