What's next?

If it wasn't for bad luck, Kings would have no luck at all

Zigmund Palffy had 41 points in 35 games, but will miss the rest of the season after having shoulder surgery on Monday.

Every time another Los Angeles Kings player goes down with an injury, you think that it has to be the last.

Just the law of averages would suggest that this team, which already has been brutalized by injuries over the past two seasons couldn't have another major injury hit a key player.

But then it happens again. And again. And again.

What on Earth did they do to deserve this?

Kings head coach Andy Murray and general manager Dave Taylor are two of the best people in the business, but the injury bug doesn't bow to nice guys. Taylor has had to continually retool the roster, while Murray has had to juggle his lines more often than he would care to.

Los Angeles had gotten used to playing without Jason Allison and Adam Deadmarsh, and Zigmund Palffy had been so good in their absence that he was being mentioned as a possible Hart Trophy candidate. But Palffy dislocated his right shoulder on Jan. 7 when he was tugged awkwardly by Mighty Ducks defenseman Todd Simpson and will miss the rest of the season.

And now Kings center Martin Straka claims that he will need surgery to repair a torn left knee ligament, but the team says more testing needs to be done. Los Angeles wants to wait until the swelling goes down to see the extent of Straka's MCL damage. The Kings note that MCL injuries aren't as likely to need surgery as ACL injuries.

The Kings are on pace to shatter their team record of 536 man games lost to injury from last season.

Things were looking good when the Kings were 16-11-1-3 midway through December, but it's been all downhill since. Los Angeles is winless in its past 13 games (0-3-9-1), its longest stretch without a win since a 16-game run in 1981-82.

The Kings play at lowly Columbus and Chicago on Friday and Sunday, respectively, in games that should give them decent chances to end their lengthy winless run.

Then again, all bets are off with the Kings, the NHL's most star-crossed team.

Which team do you think will fire the first shot over the bow and acquire players for the playoff run? Traditionally, Colorado's Pierre Lacroix likes to be the first one out of the gates. But rumors in Calgary say it could be Darryl Sutter. -- Glenn Black, Calgary

The trading season tends to heat up shortly before the All-Star break, as some teams like to doing their dealing early so that they get more than a three-week regular season rental. By making a deal in late January or early February, there is enough time for a player to assimilate to his new teammates both on the ice and in the locker room.

Lacroix actually has waited until closer to the deadline to make his big gambits. Theo Fleury was acquired from Calgary on Feb. 28, 1999; Ray Bourque from Boston on March 6, 2000; Rob Blake from Los Angeles on March 22, 2001; Darius Kasparaitis from Pittsburgh on March 19, 2002; and Bates Battaglia from Carolina on March 11, 2003. You can almost guarantee that Lacroix has a move in him at some point, but he plays it so close to the vest that other general managers usually aren't even aware if he has any interest in their players until the last minute.

I think the teams that could begin selling off in the coming weeks include the Capitals (Robert Lang and Olaf Kolzig), Hurricanes (Jeff O'Neill and maybe even Ron Francis if he wants one final shot at the Cup) and Blue Jackets (Andrew Cassels and Geoff Sanderson). As for buyers, any of the fringe playoff teams that need that little extra boost would be candidates to go out and try to add an impact player who could give them a lift down the stretch.

If the Flames hang around the playoff race, they'll undoubtedly make a deal, but I don't see Calgary being one of the teams that fires the first salvo in the trading derby.

It's interesting that you ask if it's possible that the Wild ruined their one potential superstar by standing firm on the contract negotiations. Where does the agent's responsibility and the player's responsibility fall? Maybe the agent ruined Gaborik's year by advising him to hold out. Maybe Gaborik is highly overrated. Why are the Wild necessarily to blame for his poor production? Maybe Gaborik's performance validates the Wild's position during the contract negotiations. -- Jon Gerdes, Minneapolis

Holdouts almost always end up hindering a player's performance, so Gaborik's agents certainly deserve some of the blame for his terrible season. His game has suffered from not going through an entire training camp and from having so much attention placed on his salary demands, thereby raising the pressure on him once is became public knowledge how much he thought he was worth.

The Wild talked down Gaborik's skills for much of his first three seasons, always focusing on the deficiencies in his game (defense, hockey sense, consistent effort level) rather than the positive aspects (blinding speed, accurate shot, timely scoring) that he could build on to become and elite player. And I think the team did a disservice to their one potential superstar player but not catering to his natural abilities more than they did.

It's hard to argue with head coach Jacques Lemaire (the best bench boss in the NHL) and general manager Doug Risebrough, who have impressively made the Wild competitive -- well, last year, at least -- while staying fiscally responsible.

I didn't think Gaborik was worth $7 million a season, and his play has proven that he's not. But if the team would've caved a bit more to his salary demands and played up his remarkable skills rather than always focusing on what he needs to work on, it might have a confident, continually emerging star rather than a player who looks utterly lost.

The blame deserves to be spread around to all parties, and I apologize for making it seem as if the Wild should bear the brunt of it. But in a frustrating season for Minnesota, Gaborik's struggles are an easy place to start the discussion of what went wrong.

Do you think that Patrice Bergeron will win the Rookie of the Year Award? He's not the leading rookie goal scorer, but he's only 18 and playing like a veteran. -- Scott, Clinton, Mass.

I don't think Bergeron will end up with flashy enough numbers to win the Calder Trophy, but he'll certainly finish in the top 10. He may not even be the top Calder candidate on his own team, as Andrew Raycroft is also deserving of consideration. There is a long way to go in the season, and many first-year players hit the rookie well because of the difficulty of the adjustment to the NHL level, lifestyle, travel, etc.

Do you think the Lightning are going to trade Nikolai Khabibulin? -- Billy, Tampa

Dealing Khabibulin would allow the Lightning to fill their major weakness by adding a top-level defenseman. But they would leave a gaping hole at the backup goaltender position behind John Grahame, in which case an injury to Grahame could cost them the season. Unless they are bowled over by an offer for Khabibulin, I think Tampa Bay probably will hang on to both Khabibulin and Grahame for the duration of the season, even if it does create some tension in the locker room at times.

Is Brian Boucher that good? Or is he just another goaltender who added six to 10 inches of padding playing on a team that collapses around the net on defense? -- Marty Allen, Vancouver

Boucher isn't a Hall of Fame goalie like he's looked like over the past two weeks, nor is he a third-string goalie as the Coyotes thought he was earlier this season. As is always the case, the truth lies somewhere in between.

Boucher is probably deserving of a chance to be a No. 1 goalie in the wake of his remarkably poised and confident play during his shutout streak. But with the Coyotes claiming they are going to hold on to Sean Burke, it's clear that his shot as a starter won't be with Phoenix unless Burke leaves as a free agent.

I haven't heard any measurements of Boucher's pads, but I don't think they are among the bigger pads in the league. Because he plays a hybrid style (sometimes standup, sometimes butterfly) he doesn't need the enormous pads that many butterfly goalies favor to try to make themselves bigger and fill up more of the net while they are down on their knees. Boucher is 6-foot-2, so he's not a small goalie, but he doesn't appear as physically intimdating as the 6-foot-4 Burke or 6-foot-3 Roberto Luongo, either, despite actually being only slightly shorter.

Phoenix played well defensively in front of Boucher during his run, but it didn't just pack it in the neutral zone and trap teams to death. The Coyotes still go forward in a pretty aggressive, skating game, and they give up some rushes the other way because of their youth and inexperience on defense. So I think it's slightly unfair to credit the big-pad era and neutral-zone trap era for Boucher's streak.

What is your take on the mystery behind Darren McCarty's injury. Why is there no word on his status? -- Mark Kory, Detroit

NHL teams are notorious for giving out as little information as possible regarding injuries, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that McCarty's slow-healing back injury hasn't been given daily updates in the papers and on TV in Detroit. But I don't think there is any funny business going on. From everything that I've heard, McCarty should be back by the end of the month. So this certainly isn't a mystery to the point that we need to bring in Perry Mason.

Will the Blues be able to garner an impact defenseman at the trade deadline? -- Scott Joachimstaler, St. Louis

I'm sure Blues general manager Larry Pleau is going to work the phones furiously to try to get some help for his blueline corps, but St. Louis doesn't have a abundantly rich minor league system to deal from to garner help for its depleted defense bunch.

Peter Sejna, Jay McClement, Colin Hemingway, John Pohl and Alexei Shkotov are all solid forward prospects, but none project to be elite-level scorers in the NHL. St. Louis could deal one or two for a solid No. 3 or No. 4 NHL defenseman, but that would leave the minor league cupboard pretty bare. I imagine that Pleau will try to make a savvy wavier wire pickup or two, with the backup plan being to explore a trade.

Do you think the Red Wings will acquire Alexei Zhamnov? -- Scott, Taylor, Mich.

It sounds like Detroit will be among Zhamnov's strongest suitors, and he has made it known that if he is traded the Red Wings would be at the top of his list. The move would make a lot of sense for Detroit, as Zhamnov would give the Wings an excellent playmaking second-line center who could take some pressure off Pavel Datsyuk and the top-line guys.

Even though Kris Draper has been superb this season, the Wings would love to get a true No. 2 center like Zhamnov and allow Draper to move back to the Grind Line, where he can be more of a pest who scores now and again than a scorer who agitates once in a while.

Brett Hull is surprisingly the Wings' team leader in assists with 25, and Nicklas Lidstrom and Mathieu Schneider have been the top setup guys on the power play. Adding Zhamnov's pass-first nature (441 assists in 751 career games) to a team that already has plenty of snipers would be a gold move to position the Wings for another deep playoff run.

What's going on with Pavel Bure and Adam Deadmarsh? Are they going to play this season? And when are the Rangers going to trade Anson Carter and where? -- Bobby, New York

It doesn't look like either Bure or Deadmarsh will play this season. And, in fact, they both may never play again.

The Rangers aren't counting on Bure returning this season, as his right knee continues to heal slowly. There haven't been any recent updates on Bure's rehab, but the last word was that he wouldn't play this season and the chances of him being done for good were about 50-50.

Deadmarsh's concussion problems continue to flare up in practice every time he takes even a moderate hit. The Kings have thought he was close to returning to action several times this season, only to watch him suffer a setback as they got near his anticipated return date.

I just finished reading your awards picks for the halfway point of the year, and I was thinking that Trevor Linden deserves to be considered for the Selke. He's playing some of his best hockey this season, and is a solid forward both in offensive and defensive zones. Or does he suffer from underexposure to be noticed by most of the league? -- Dan Revill, Langley, B.C.

I actually wrote a column on Linden's resurgence with the Canucks earlier this season and mentioned that he has settled in nicely to a checking role in this late stage of his career. But he's not a flashy defensive player and guys who just play good, sound positional defense tend not to be rewareded with the Selke.

The trophy usually goes to a player who puts up a good number of short-handed goals and has an outstanding plus-minus, because those are the only two stats that can be used to gauge what is largely a subjective award. Linden would likely be in my next 10, but I don't think he deserves to make the top 10, nor do I think he'll garner many votes at all. Last year 44 players received at least a fifth-place vote for the Selke, but Linden was not among them.

The Selke is also based largely on reputation, so the same guys tend to make the list from year to year. While I greatly respect Linden's abilities and realize how important he is to the Canucks' checking line and penalty kill, I don't believe that he is among the elite defensive forwards who deserve strong Selke consideration.

Do you think the remaking of the Miracle on Ice into a movie will be a big hit? -- Brandon Meyer, New Ulm, Minn.

Judging from the previews, Miracle (coming Feb. 6) looks entertaining. I'll be anxious to see if Kurt Russell's attempt at a Minn-e-soooooda accent holds up over the course of the whole movie. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the 1980 Olympic team because I am one of the thousands of American youngsters who began playing hockey as a direct result of the gold medal win. And I also got the chance to wear Mark Johnson's gold medal and have my photograph taken with him at Bob Johnson's Badger Bob Hockey Camps in Madison, Wisc. So I'll be closely watching Eric Peter-Kaiser's (a former hockey player for the SUNY-Potsdam Bears, by the way) performance as Johnson.

I'm finding myself a rejuvenated fan of hockey after a 10-year hiatus. Can you please give a brief explanation of just what a collective bargaining agreement is, and what the main issues are for the NHL and the NHLPA? -- Shashank Upadhye, Naperville, Ill.

The collective bargaining agreement is the contract between the league and the union that stipulates how the business practices will be conducted and outlines certain financial elements regarding contract negotiations.

The current CBA expires on Sept. 15, 2004, and the main issue for the negotiation of the next CBA is cost certainty. The NHL would believes a salary cap is the best way to achieve cost certainy for all 30 franchises, but the NHLPA is adamant that it won't accept one. There are many other issues involved, too, but the fight over the cap is the major battle that could lead to an owner's lockout of the players which could jeopardize the 2004-05 season.

The NHLPA doesn't believe the NHL's claims that it lost nearly $300 million last season. The union probably would accept a luxury tax like Major League Baseball has, as a tax would allow teams to still offer the big money contracts so long as they were willing to pay the piper for going over a certain limit.

The initial belief was that the league was going to seek a $31 million hard cap, but something in the neighborhood of $40-45 million is a more realistic target if the league is going to insist on a cap rather than a luxury tax.

The NHL's figures indicate that 76 percent of total revenues last season went to player costs, compared to 64 percent by the NFL, 63 percent by MLB and 58 percent by the NBA. The league believes that it needs a system in place where around 60 percent of its revenues go to salaries.

Can the Flyers win the Cup with this terrible tandem of Robert Esche and Jeff Hackett in goal? And why, oh why, can't Bob Clarke see that goaltending wins Stanley Cups? -- Scott Richards, Deptford, N.J.

No, I don't think that the Flyers can win the Stanley Cup with their current goaltending duo, but I also don't see them wanting to part with what they'd need to part with to get one of the goaltenders who is likely to be available by trade.

Just hope that this is the Flyers getting their slump out of their system in Janaury rather than in April as they did in two of the past three postseasons.

Do you think maybe Joe Gibbs could give the Caps some help while he's at it? -- Matt Kuzma, Seoul, South Korea

Judging from Gibbs' work habits in his previous stint with the 'Skins, I don't see him having too much time to devote from hockey. And since he's a good ol' boy gearhead, I'm guessing that he doesn't follow the NHL too much. Just a hunch.

The Maple Leafs are still tied for first overall and you have them fifth in the Power Rankings? You suck! -- Geoff Alviano, Toronto

I really appreciate you coming up with a good argument to backup the fact that you disagree with me ranking the Leafs fifth. The old "You suck" argument has been popular on elementary schools playground around North America for years.

Jon A. Dolezar covers the NHL for SI.com.