Trending Topics is a column that looks at the week in hockey, occasionally according to Twitter. If you're only going to comment to say how stupid Twitter is, why not just go have a good cry for the slow, sad death of your dear internet instead?

One of the major problems with the NHL is how often you can predict things that will happen long before they do.

The Red Wings being great was something to which you could set your watch every August, and you could always bank on phenomenal performances from Sidney Crosby. There's very little fun in it, so when something unexpected happens, like the Coyotes quickly becoming a top-notch team when they hired Dave Tippett, or the Blues coming out of nowhere last season, or the Blackhawks returning to power a few years back before winning a Stanley Cup, it's always genuinely great to see.

And that's how I feel about the Blue Jackets hiring Jarmo Kekalainen as their general manager.

Scott Howson, for all the talk about how hard he tried and how his firing was more about going in a "different direction" than his personal job performance, was simply not a good NHL general manager. That much was obvious to anyone who saw how pathetically bungled the Rick Nash saga was, or his draft record, or most of his other trades, and the vast majority of his free agent signings.

But you have to give Howson this: He just set his successor up for an hilariously successful future.

Howson's drafting and trading over the last few years has accumulated a decent number of prospects that range from "good" to "very good," though to be fair maybe only one can be considered "great." They're mainly defensemen, like Ryan Murray (the benefit of picking second, one supposes), David Savard and Tim Erixon, as well as goaltender Oskar Dansk. No overwhelming prospects, but a good group nonetheless. Grabbing guys like Cam Atkinson hasn't hurt either. But overall there's a reason Hockey Prospectus and Hockey's Future have the Blue Jackets in the bottom half of the league when it comes to prospects.

Which is where Kekalainen comes in.

Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.

• Via reader Jeremy Wright, the Idaho Steelheads have rolled out a customized, life-sized Operation board to be played by fans at their games. Frankly, this guy still doesn't have as many injuries as most hockey players.

• Ian Laperriere clarifies his comments regarding the allegations of sexual assault against Flyers' prospect Nick Cousins: "That is absolutely not what I meant to say. I would never, ever say rape is OK. I struggle sometimes with English, and I was trying to say that these situations have happened before, and hopefully all the players will learn from this, to not put themselves in bad situations.” [Backhand Shelf]

• 40-year-old Michael Nylander is closing out his career in Sweden, playing for Sodertalje SK of the HockeyAllsvenskan. On Tuesday, he played on the same line as his 16-year-old son, William. [RMNB]

• Does Corey Crawford have a concussion? The Blackhawks' goaltender is day-to-day after being run over by Bobby Ryan on Tuesday. [Chicago Sun Times]

• Eric Staal on Alexander Semin, enigmatic room ruiner: ""He has been nothing but great. He's been a great teammate for everyone in this room and the type of guy who competes in practice and in games and that's all you can ask for." Oh. [TSN]

• If the Carolina Hurricanes make the playoffs, their recent 4-1-1 road trip will be considered a big reason why. [The Hockey Writers]

• The hockey dad that acted like a complete asshat at a Winnipeg minor-league hockey game has been banned from his son's games for the remainder of the season. [CBC]

• Child molester Graham James has seen his sentence extended from 2 years to 5, which still isn't long enough, but at least it's longer. [Global Toronto]

• Pierre Lebrun endorses five men he believes are ready to become NHL GMs. [ESPN]

Jersey Fouls is our ongoing exploration of the rules and etiquette for proper hockey jersey creation and exhibition. If you spot what you think may be a foul in your arena, email a photo to us at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com for inclusion in future installment.

As you know, No. 69 jerseys are the scourge of NHL fandom, a bat-signal of douche-o-city akin to wrapping your Tucker Max book in an Ed Hardy T-shirt. That established … well, this is sorta clever.

From reader John, a couple of Minnesota Wild Fouls:

Seen leaving Xcel - I get the sophomoric humor of the "Dyslexic" jersey, but the "bassackwards" confuses me since 66 backwards is... 66

This is an excellent point. Unless they’re going for a ‘99’ jersey, which is just as stupid. But we’re not even sure if ’99’ is ‘66’ “bassackwards” because we’re not entirely what qualifies as “bassackwards” in this day and age.

(Coming Up: Devils fan swallows; epic Dave Steckel foul; Preds fans get Horny; a Van Halen foul; a weird Sidney Crosby DIY jersey; and a sneaky Red Wings ‘69’ sweater.)

You'd think that Jack Johnson might be looking especially forward to Friday night's game in Los Angeles, his first return to the Staples Centre since he was traded from the Kings to the Columbus Blue Jackets last February.

It's always a gut punch to be traded, after all, and in Johnson's case, watching the Kings turn their season around and march all the way to their first ever Stanley Cup the moment he left had to be difficult. For many players, this is a game that would draw a bright red circle on the calendar.

But not for Johnson. "It’s just another game now," he told Jon Rosen of LA Kings Insider.

If there were any strange emotions, they've worn off with time. The trade, which sent Jeff Carter to LA (a place where his frosted tips would be appreciated) in exchange for Johnson and a first-round pick, happened almost a year ago. Since then, Johnson has faced the Kings twice, both times in Columbus. "It’s not a surreal thing anymore or a weird thing," Carter said.

"I’ve already

(Ed Note: Robert Ullman blog over at Atom Bomb Bikini. He can be followed on twitter at @robullman. Anyone interested in contributing an article, column or post to the blog can pitch yo stuff here. Now, here's Robert.)

by Robert Ullman

Ottawa Senators' owner Eugene Melnyk is upset.

You can understand why. On Tuesday night, his club lost their star defenceman, Erik Karlsson, to a brutal skate cut that will likely keep the reigning Norris trophy winner out for the remainder of the season. It's big loss, one that drastically diminishes the Senators' attack. They lead the league with 463 shots, in large part because, at the time of the injury, Karlsson led the league with 63.

Furthermore, it severely damages the Senators' hopes of contending for the Cup in this shortened season.

It's tough to accept, and tougher still considering the injury came via the skate of Matt Cooke, who has something of a spotted history. Cooke will see no discipline for the hit, largely because it was a freak accident, but the Senators and their fans are too busy seeing red to see reason.

On Friday, Melnyk expressed his outrage over the situation and the divisive Cooke's part in it to Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun:

Melnyk wondered why Cooke -- who has been suspended five times -- is allowed to play in the league. All this incident did was reinforce Melnyk's thinking.

"This guy should be kicked ... He doesn't belong in the league. He belongs somewhere where the goons play," said an emotional Melnyk. "Get him in the Central league. He can be a $60,000-a-year guy playing pick-up hockey there.

"The guy does not deserve ... He's got one purpose. I remember when this happened with Spezza. I said, 'If these are the rules, I just want to know.' We'll play with the same rules. Make sure you have one or two goons whose job is to do this either intentionally or unintentionally.

I'm going to assume Melnyk meant kicked out, not just kicked, because I don't want to believe he's advocating a retaliatory skate kick. We'll save assuming the absolute worst out of someone without cause for others.

You can understand where Melnyk is coming from. If Cooke had been suspended forever some time ago, Karlsson wouldn't have been cut.

Of course, just because you can understand it doesn't mean it isn't ridiculous.

In what has to be an historic first, a professional hockey arena has been temporarily shut down after suffering damage in a meteor shower.

The Russian city of Chelyabinsk was hit by a massive meteor on Friday. Hundreds were injured, and the meteor also caused a great deal of property damage, as you might imagine. Arena Traktor, the home to the KHL's Traktor Chelyabinsk pictured above, was among the facilities put out of commission. From the KHL's Facebook page:

The meteor shower which struck Chelyabinsk and its environs has also caused some disruption to the hockey season schedule. The emergency services have confirmed that the walls of the Arena Traktor were among those structures to suffer damage, and therefore large-scale events at the stadium have been postponed.

The sporting facilities will undergo an inspection by experts to assess the readiness of the arena to return to full operational use.

For the time being, the facility shutdown hasn't affected any KHL games. Chelyabinsk

Game action from the Turkmenistan President's Cup, where the local teams are racking up "decisive victories", according to Turkmenistan's state run media.

The United Arab Emirates isn't exactly a hockey superpower, but the nation is working at developing the game within its borders. They've had some success at the IIHF Challenge Cup of Asia, winning gold in 2009 and in 2012, but there, they're playing against other developing hockey nations like Chinese Taipei and Thailand. We can assume that they're not quite ready to go up against, say, a Russian team.

But we don't have to assume. This week, the UAE sent their U17 squad to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, for the inaugural Turkmenistan President's Cup. There, they faced off against the U17 HC Silver Lions from St. Petersburg, Russia. It didn't go well.

They lost by a final score of 60 - 0. From Ria Novosti:

The Silver Lions 95 under-17 hockey squad have produced an amazing score in the maiden Turkmenistan President’s Cup as the Saint Petersburgers put 60 goals past the United Arab Emirates national team.

The regular time of a hockey match is 60 minutes, which means the Russian players scored a goal every minute on average.

Yes, that is what that means.

Way to run up the score, St. Petersburg. Just wait until Don Cherry hears about this.

But don't feel bad for the Emirati team. Their boys may have been severely overmatched on the ice, but at least they were on the ice. The largest issue holding hockey back in the UAE is that there are only a handful of rinks. (Meanwhile, Google Maps shows six rinks in St. Peterburg alone.) National team player Faisal Saeed explained the need for more ice to the IIHF in 2011:

“There are a lot of kids waiting to play this sport, but we don’t have enough ice time for them. If we had more rinks, then we could really move the sport forward. We need to expand and I hope we do that.”

Now the Emirati want to look up to the top nations with the prospect of additional rinks. They think about an entry in the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship program for 2013. The first goal is to qualify for the Division III, but the dream is to become the first Arab team to challenge the traditional powerhouses from North America and Europe in the Top Division one day.

Clearly, that dream is still a ways off.

If it's any consolation to the UAE club, it could have been much, much worse. It would have taken another 32 goals to match the record for hockey's most lopsided loss. In 1998, South Korea defeated Thailand 92-0 at the Asia and Oceania championships.

Follow Harrison Mooney on Twitter at @HarrisonMooney