Blue Jackets

Per Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch has reported that four teams have sent scouts to the game in Columbus tonight versus the Oilers. Those teams are Colorado, Los Angeles, NY Rangers, and Ottawa. There was also a report out of Pittsburgh from Rob Rossi of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that the Penguins may be interested in Jack Johnson.

Ryan O'Reilly Update

The Colorado Avalanche have matched the Calgary Flames offer sheet for Ryan O'Reilly. The Avalanche will have him under contract for the next three years. The Avalanche will not be able to trade O'Reilly away during the next calendar year. This could pose a problem for Colorado if the league decides not to partake in the Olympics because next season's trade deadline may be less than a year away. Calgary does not forfeit any draft picks.

BREAKING: @avalanche announced tonight that the team has matched the Calgary Flames’ offer sheet for forward Ryan O’Reilly. More to follow..
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) March 1, 2013

Evgeni Malkin

If you've been wondering what Evgeni Malkin has been doing, here you go. Malkin has 21 points (4 G; 17 A) on the season for the Pittsburgh Penguins. He is second on the team in assists and third in points. The reigning Hart Memorial, Ted Lindsay, and Art Ross Trophy winner is currently on the injured reserve due to a concussion he suffered Friday, February 22 against the Florida Panthers. There is no time table of return at this time.

Ryan O'Reilly Update

Below is the tweet by Darren Dreger of TSN breaking the news of the Flames filing offer sheet on Ryan O'Reilly. Calgary will  now forfeit a 1st and 3rd round draft pick to the Colorado Avalanche, as is the case with Restricted Free Agents. Colorado and Calgary face-off tonight. Dreger later went on to say that GMs around the league have said that Colorado could have gotten more for O'Reilly if they would have traded him away.

 

Breaking:Told thhe Flames have filed an offer sheet on Ryan O'Reilly. #TSN
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) February 28, 2013

NHL Realignment

Over the past few days, the NHL has been trying to realign the league. This issue came about when the Atlanta Thrashers became the Winnipeg Jets. The league wanted to realign for this season and came up with a similar format last year, but it was declined by the NHLPA for use as a bargaining chip in the impending lockout.

The league has now modified their proposal from last season and is bringing forth a new plan; one that sends Columbus and Detroit to the Eastern Conference. The previous proposal also had four conferences instead of the two we see in the current proposal. The current divisions is as follows

National Hockey League
Western Conference		Eastern Conference
Pacific	Mid-West	Central	Atlantic
Anaheim	Chicago	Boston	Carolina
Calgary	Colorado	Buffalo	Columbus
Edmonton	Dallas	Detroit	New Jersey
Los Angeles	Minnesota	Florida	NY Islanders
Phoenix	Nashville	Montréal	NY Rangers
San Jose	St. Louis	Ottawa	Philadelphia
Vancouver	Winnipeg	Tampa Bay	Pittsburgh
		Toronto	Washington

With the proposed format, the playoffs would include the top three in each division along with two wild cards from each conference; with the second wild card winner playing the team with the most points in the conference. This could allow for five teams from one division to be in the playoffs. The four division winners will play the four wild card teams in the first round. All the 2 seeds the 3 seeds from the same division in the first round as well. This will create a division playoff within the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The second round will see the divisional championship games. These will be played between the winners of the 1 vs. 4 series and the 2 vs. 3 series from the same division.

The winner of the Central and the Atlantic division playoffs will play for the Prince of Wales Trophy (Eastern Conference Champion) while the winners of the Mid-West and Pacific division playoffs will play for the Clarence Campbell Trophy (Western Conference Champion). The winners will play in the Stanley Cup Final.

Pavel Datsyuk Electrifies

Pavel Datsyuk has had some stunning goals this season, but he may have scored the goal of the year last night against the Nashville Predators. His goal came at the 13:30 mark in the 3rd Period. The goal ultimately sent the game to overtime. The Nashville's Shea Weber scored 44 seconds into overtime to win the game for the predators.

Sabres' Coach Fired

NHL.com reports that the Buffalo Sabres have relieved coach Lindy Ruff of his duties today. The Sabres lost 2-1 last night at home to the Winnipeg Jets. Buffalo has 13 points at 6-10-1 and are currently sitting at 13th in the Eastern Conference.  Ruff was the longest tenured head coach in the league and took the Sabres to their Stanley Cup Final appearance in 1999.