Wow. If there was an alternate universe in which Darryl Sutter and Mike Keenan were closely guided by my ramblings on this site, well, last night would have looked a lot like the one in this universe.

Keenan started out playing Moss with Tanguay/Conroy and Nolan with Boyd/Lombardi. Then somewhere past the halfway mark of the first, Nolan goes back to the Conroy line, and I see Moss back with Lombardi and... Yelle? Sure enough!

Go ahead and accuse me of seeing what I wanted to see, but: for the last ~50 minutes of last night's game, did it not look like the Flames had three legitimate lines, that could be effective at both ends? With an upcoming week off, Keenan sensibly parked Smith and Godard on the bench after three shifts, spotted Boyd in a couple of times, and the team was solid up front all night.

And on the back end, from the department of Well, I Guess It Could Be A Coincidence: Anders Eriksson was in the infirmary instead of playing 25 minutes, and the Flames gave up fewer scoring chances than just about any game this season. Phaneuf/Aucoin and Regehr/Sarich were basically flawless; Warrener and Hale each made one brutal play in their 11 minutes (only Warrener's led to a goal), and were otherwise sound.

And the GM did his part, too. He sent Nystrom back to the AHL -- a fine call -- and spent a few minutes yesterday dropping some science on the assembled hordes:

"The two best forwards on our team in everybody's view in the hockey world, by a long shot, are Jarome and Alex -- that is clear," said Sutter.

"The rest is simple. You can't keep everybody."
[...]
"He's been a great player for us for two years and we're lucky to have him."

And to top it all off, the Oilers lost to the worst team in the Eastern Conference. Goooood times.

And just a quick word on the Leaves... I find it very strange, the way the task at hand for them is being framed. I've heard a lot of, "Blow it up... draft top 5 for 3 or 4 years... young, cheap talent" as well as a good dose of "enough band-aids & stop-gaps... just making the playoffs isn't enough".

This isn't the 80s Norris Division, folks: if you're consistently making the playoffs, you're doing something right. If the Leafs had been good enough to make the playoffs the past two seasons, they wouldn't be in this mess, certainly not to this extent. The problem is not that they've been trading elite tomorrow for OK today; the problem is that they have been much worse than OK for too much of the post-lockout period.

And in case you haven't noticed: this "young, cheap talent" is very nearly mythical. Most rookies are no better than a veteran AHL-type, and in many cases (certainly 1st-rounders) make twice or more in salary than said veterans. If you're lucky, they earn their money in Year 2 and outperform their salary in Year 3 -- and then Boom, you have to pay them full market value.

Tyler has been the best at reinforcing this, but managing an NHL roster is essentially about making a continuous series of bets, and if you are good and/or lucky, you'll make more smart ones and fewer dumb ones than your competitors. There is general value to be found, and general pitfalls to be avoided, but there are no hard-and-fast rules and there is certainly no magic formula.