"A great tragedy has befallen my nation today"
-(Ret.) Gen. Colin Powell, 9/11/01

September 11, 2001 was day that affected not just Americans, but the entire world. It changed our way of life and for many, their view on the world. Among those lost on that fateful Tuesday morning eight years ago were two members of the hockey world, Mark Bavis and Garnet "Ace" Bailey. Both were part of the Los Angeles Kings scouting team and were aboard Flight 175 from Boston, which crashed into the South Tower that day.

(Washington Capitals head coach Bruce Boudreau wrote in his book that he was supposed to be on that flight as well, but he was asked to be a pre-training camp meeting for the Kings a day earlier.)

Bavis played his college puck at Boston University under legendary head coach Jack Parker before being drafted by the New York Rangers in 1989 and playing several years of minor league hockey. After giving up playing, Bavis turned to coaching where he was an assistant at Harvard University and

"I don't care... I'll go play in the Olympic Games for my country. If somebody says to me, 'You can't play,' see ya."

The NHL and the Washington Capitals are certainly going to be in a dicey situation should the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi not feature League players. Alexander Ovechkin's(notes) comments to ESPN.com on Wednesday (hours before he took a Zamboni for a spin in New York City) could be the start of another Russian revolution, and one that could be a PR disaster for the League in four years time.

As Fanhouse's Bruce Ciskie brought up, should the scenario play out that the NHL is no longer involved in Olympic play, yet Ovechkin (and possibly other Russian NHL'ers) go AWOL, what do the Capitals and the NHL do in that situation? Does Washington owner Ted Leonsis let his $124 million investment risk serious injury wearing the red of the Russian National Team and not the Capitals?

How do Gary Bettman and the NHL marketing staff spin one of the League's star players becoming a

Canada could probably ice two medal-worthy teams this coming February in Vancouver, so there were bound to be cases made for certain players that didn't make the initial cut.

When Team Canada announced its roster for last month's Olympic orientation camp, one prominent name was a notable omission: Boston Bruins center Marc Savard(notes).

Savard spoke yesterday at the Bruins annual golf tournament, and expressed his disappointment at not being one of the chosen 46 that met in Calgary.

From Joe Haggerty's Big Bad Blog at WEEI.com:

"I was pretty upset about it," said Savard, who then cast his head down toward the ground as he talked about it. "I feel that I had a chance to at least go to the camp. I didn't really come out and say anything. I had a lot of calls for a couple weeks after that. It's something I didn't want to talk about. I was pretty mad about it. I've had to prove myself over and over again. I'm hoping to get off to a good start. I still haven't counted myself out, so I

NHL season previews often sell you an impressive bill of goods before you realize, at the end of the season, you're holding an empty box. Which makes using advertisements and infomercials the appropriate template for Puck Daddy's 2009-10 NHL Season Previews, presented each day throughout September.

Last Season's Ad Copy: Fifteenth in the Western Conference and fifth in the Northwest Division (32-45-5, 69 pts.). Good enough to get their name pulled for the third overall pick in the NHL Entry Draft. It was a disaster of a season that concluded with an off-season of much change that signaled a new beginning.

An entire new regime is in the front office, led by Greg Sherman, an inexperienced general manager who hired inexperienced head coach Joe Sacco to run the show. Couple that with the retirement of the team's heart and soul, Joe Sakic(notes), after two decades with the franchise and the trade of co-leading scorer Ryan Smyth(notes) to the Los Angeles Kings, and you've got yourself a team

There was a loud groan emanating from the city of Edmonton when news broke in July that unrestricted free agent goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin(notes) signed a four-year, $15 million deal, at age 36, with the Oilers. The Cult of Hockey's David Staples is getting over the terms of the contract and now commends Khabibulin in his choice of mask art that was released over the weekend.

Honoring the franchises best goaltender, Khabibulin's new mask will feature the standard eagle that's been on his masks in Tampa Bay and Chicago clutching the mask of the great Grant Fuhr.

The mask was designed by Ray Bishop who's done artwork for Dominik Hasek(notes), Ryan Miller(notes), and Manny Legace(notes) among others in the past.

Khabibulin's new look is a nice way to honor an Oilers legend, maybe not as artistic as Ray Emery's(notes) pugilistic endeavor, but it certainly beats Carey Price(notes) paying tribute to country legends George Strait and Garth Brooks. Of course, all good feelings about the

NHL season previews often sell you an impressive bill of goods before you realize, at the end of the season, you're holding an empty box. Which makes using advertisements and infomercials the appropriate template for Puck Daddy's 2009-10 NHL Season Previews, presented each day throughout September.

Last Season's Ad Copy (See also Flames eulogy): Fifth in the Western Conference (46-30-6, 98 points) and second in the Northwest Division. Lost in the conference quarterfinals to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games.

The second half of last season wasn't very kind to the Flames. They slipped out of first place in the Northwest Divison, saw Rene Bourque(notes) -- who was having a breakout season -- miss half of February and all of March with an ankle injury, and found themselves so riddled with injuries on some nights (and capped out) that the team couldn't ice a full lineup at the end of the season.

One coaching change and top-line defensive addition later, the '09-10 Flames are hoping a

Shop NHL has provided us with plenty of material in recent history. Please recall when the T-shirt signifying Alexander Ovechkin's(notes) 2008 Hart Trophy triumph leaked online shortly before the NHL Awards, as well as the poorly secured pages for the 2009 Stanley Cup champions gear.

For the upcoming CompuWare NHL Premiere Games in Sweden and Finland on October 2nd and 3rd, the NHL online store has once again released merchandise promoting the Detroit Red Wings-St. Louis Blues games in Stockholm and the Florida Panthers-Chicago Blackhawks tilts in Helsinki. And once again, the pun-machine was in full spin.

See what they did there?

I can understand saying "How Swede It Is" for the Red Wings-Blues games, with all the Swedish stars involved, but what exactly is happening "When Helsinki Freezes Over"? Is it when the NHL includes a team from Florida among three former Norris Division members?

If the "Swede" shirt sounds familiar, that's because it's the same pun used on last year's shirts

NHL season previews often sell you an impressive bill of goods before you realize, at the end of the season, you're holding an empty box. Which makes using advertisements and infomercials the appropriate template for Puck Daddy's 2009-10 NHL Season Previews, presented each day throughout September.

Last Season's Ad Copy (See also Bruins Eulogy): First in the Eastern Conference, (53-19-10, 116 points); lost in the conference semifinals to the Carolina Hurricanes in seven games.

The Bruins rolled through the first half of the regular season, hit a speed bump in the midway through, but finished the season on an 8-2-0 run in their final ten games to capture the East and fall a win shy of claiming the President's Trophy.

The Bruins would find themselves in a rematch of last season's first-round series with the Montreal Canadiens and quickly dispatched them in four games. Aside from the sweep, the more interesting subplot to the series was seeing Milan Lucic's(notes) stardom shoot into the