The Fifth Liners

The other day I was presented with a very interesting question from Mike regarding the coaching changes in the NHL, “With all the coaching changes going on the league right now; instead of hiring and firing the same group of coaches, is it time to bring in some new blood?”   The question here is an interesting one and with the latest groups of hiring and firing it does make us think whether newer and younger talents are required? Let’s analyse this in more detail, Alain Vigneault has recently been fired by the Vancouver Canucks , but as of a couple of days go it appears that he has now taken the vacant post at the New York Rangers while John Tortorella was fired the same post and now seems odds on favourite to take charge at the Rogers Arena! Why didn’t they just swap jobs in the first instance? Both coaches are proven winners and they both possess fairly excellent records, but I can tell you for a fact that neither is really the right choice for those clubs and ...

Soon the 2013 NHL Draft in New Jersey will upon us and experts are already lining up their top prospects and so far young US Defenseman Seth Jones currently tops the list of young guns and in the European category, Finnish centre Aleksander Barkov is looking like being the top European pick and his outstanding stats playing for Tappara confirm this fact. But there is one name ranking at number 2 on the list of mid term rankings that deserves serious attention and it comes in the form of Canadian centre Nathan Mackinnon who plays for Halifax Mooseheads in the Quebec Major Junior League, and his stats so far are quite simply incredible! Last season his picked up 78 points which included 31 goals and 47 assists! Based on why I've seen so far, this 17 year old possesses all the key ingredients for succeeding in the NHL- speed, skill and most importantly a goal scoring touch! I know you can never predict how a young man's future will turn out- all I can say I hop...