Nicholas J. Cotsonika's weekly Three Periods column will appear on Thursdays. This week's topics include the search for the real San Jose Sharks; Marian Hossa’s quick recovery; the Devils and David Clarkson continue to surprise; Lindy Ruff’s legacy in Buffalo; and, the latest on NHL realignment.

FIRST PERIOD: Are the Sharks a great team, an awful team, or somewhere in between?

Patrick Marleau, like the entire Sharks team, had a red-hot start and then went off the rails. (USA Today)Who are the San Jose Sharks? Are they the team that started 7-0-0? Are they the team that went 0-4-3 in their next seven? Are they Jekyll, Hyde or somewhere in between?

“I’d like to think that we’re a little closer to the first seven games rather than in the middle, but we have to prove that,” said Sharks coach Todd McLellan on Thursday. “We can guess and speculate and talk about what’s on paper and what we’re supposed to be, but we are what we are when we play. We’re either an efficient team that can be real effective, or we’re inefficient and we lose games. So the next little bit will tell us what we

Two years ago, Terry Pegula introduced himself as the new owner of the Buffalo Sabres. He choked up as he called Gilbert Perreault his hero. He declared the team’s reason for existence was now to win the Stanley Cup. He also quoted the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Art Rooney on stability and success.

The Sabres fired Lindy Ruff after nearly 16 years as the team's coach. (AP)“Panic doesn’t seem to work,” Pegula said at that news conference on Feb. 22, 2011. “Our feeling is that you pick good people and you stick with them. If you have the right people in place, you always have a chance to be successful.”

Pegula stuck with coach Lindy Ruff and general manager Darcy Regier, a tandem since 1997. He gave them the financial support they had lacked before. He even gave them contract extensions.

When Ruff was fired Wednesday, it wasn’t panic. It was the opposite of panic. The man outlasted popes and presidents – in pro sports. Ruff was the longest-tenured coach in the NHL. One hundred and seventy coaching changes were made in the league while he was in Buffalo.

But

The key moment for Nazem Kadri came not with the Toronto Maple Leafs, but with the Toronto Marlies, their minor-league affiliate. It came in a meeting with Dallas Eakins, the kind of meeting coaches often have with skilled players about the other side of the game.

The Leafs have given Nazem Kadri a chance, and he's responded by leading the team in scoring. (USA Today)Simply telling Kadri what to do wasn't working, so Eakins started asking questions: "If you were your opponent in this situation, what would you want Nazem Kadri to do? What would you not want Nazem Kadri to do?" Kadri discovered that he knew the answers – where to go when you don't have the puck, how to manage the puck when you have it, and why.

"I would say to Naz, 'You should be the best defensive player on our team, because you know every offensive trick there is,' " Eakins said. "Then suddenly it started to click. We just had to teach him a different way."

So when was this epiphany? When Kadri played for the Marlies during the lockout? Is that why the seventh overall pick in the 2009 draft looks like he's now in

Nicholas J. Cotsonika's weekly Three Periods column will appear on Thursdays. This week's topics include Matt Cooke’s culpability on Erik Karlsson’s devastating injury; the latest on NHL realignment and Olympic participation; Blues’ goalie watch; and Ryan O’Reilly vs. the Avs.

FIRST PERIOD: It’s tempting to blame Matt Cooke, but it was an accident

The NHL reviewed Matt Cooke's hit on Erik Karlsson and concluded no action was necessary. (AP)“It’s Matt Cooke,” said Bryan Murray, the general manager of the Ottawa Senators. “What would I say? Look at the replay.”

OK. Let’s look. In slow motion, it’s sickening. Cooke, the Pittsburgh Penguins pest reputed to be the dirtiest player in the NHL, comes up behind Erik Karlsson, the reigning winner of the Norris Trophy as the league’s best defenseman. Cooke lifts his left leg as they battle in the corner for the puck. He brings his skate blade down on the back of Karlsson’s left leg. He draws it across and down.

Karlsson suffered a lacerated Achilles tendon. He howled in pain and hobbled off the ice, headed for surgery and what is

DETROIT — So many players have come through the Detroit Red Wings’ dressing room already this season, they’ve had to find a new facility.

The Wings' roster has taken some hits, but they're still dangerous with Pavel Datsyuk . (USA Today)In, ahem, the facilities.

Across the hall from the main room, tucked underneath the stands, behind the Wings’ bench, there is a bathroom. It is a women’s bathroom for concerts at Joe Louis Arena. It is makeshift TV and radio area at times, affectionately dubbed “Studio P.”

The Wings have built temporary stalls in the vanity area – in front of the mirrors and sinks, on the other side of the wall from the other kind of stalls – to handle overflow in training camp and the playoffs. This is the first time veteran equipment manager Paul Boyer can remember having to do it in the regular season.

But despite all the injuries and call-ups, on top of the retirements of Nicklas Lidstrom and Tomas Holmstrom, on top of the loss of Brad Stuart in free agency, do the Wings stink? Is their 21-season playoff streak swirling down the toilet?

Nope. Not

The captain of the Stanley Cup champions slumped with his back against a cinderblock wall, his eyes staring into space, a sore limb wrapped in plastic and ice. Dustin Brown and the Los Angeles Kings had looked so good, dominating the play, firing 47 shots on net. Brown could have had a hat trick. None of the excuses or explanations applied here – the injuries, the lockout or the hangover. The Kings had shown the kind of team they were, the kind of team they can be.

The Kings have barely resembled the team that steamrolled to the Stanley Cup last spring. (AP)“That was probably our best 60 minutes in a long time,” Brown said.

And it still wasn’t enough. Just when they had thought their effort would be rewarded with at least a point, just when Alec Martinez had tied the game with 52.8 seconds left on Sunday, they gave up a goal with 4.5 seconds left in regulation and lost, 3-2. Jonathan Quick, the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as the playoffs’ most valuable player last season, lost sight of the puck for a blink and couldn’t stop it from slipping underneath him and dribbling

Nicholas J. Cotsonika's weekly Three Periods column will appear on Thursdays. This week's topics include the rise of the 'Hawks; the Canucks' crease options; a coach's rare praise for Bruins rookie Dougie Hamilton; and Maple Leafs' Mike Kostka's long-awaited NHL arrival.

FIRST PERIOD: Look out NHL, the league-leading Blackhawks are only getting better

Patrick Kane has had plenty to celebrate with the 'Hawks off to a flying start. (Getty)Joel Quenneville is in an odd position for a coach. He has no complaints. His Chicago Blackhawks are 8-0-2, atop the NHL, even though they have played eight of their first 10 games on the road in the Western Conference, collecting points in places like Los Angeles and Vancouver and San Jose.

“We’re pleased with basically most every aspect of our game,” Quenneville said. “It’s been a fun start.”

Attitude? Conditioning? Health? Everyone came to training camp in shape, despite the four-month lockout – or thanks to the lockout, in the case of Marian Hossa and his recovery from a concussion. Quenneville said there “seemed to be a

Boston’s bellwether is Milan Lucic. The power forward is the personification of the big, bad Bruins. When he is skating with a snarl, driving to the net and dropping the gloves, he sets the tone for the team. Nathan Horton, his buddy and linemate, calls him “Ultimate” because he can do everything – skate, score, hit, pass, fight.

Bruins power forward Milan Lucic always makes his presence known.But when he doesn’t do those things, that can set the tone, too. And when he showed up to training camp out of shape, it raised questions. How would Looch look? How about Horton coming back after missing almost a full calendar year? How about the team coming off a first-round playoff loss and a four-month lockout layoff?

Well, here you go: The Bruins were 6-1-1 entering Wednesday night’s game against the Montreal Canadiens. Only the Chicago Blackhawks had a better points percentage in the NHL. It might have been a good thing that Lucic wasn’t in shape, a good thing that Horton couldn’t play for so long, a good thing that the team returned under these