Poking around the interwebz the past few days, I've caught some of the season previews sneaking out.  I've already looked at the Blues' offense on here, but the previews I've seen the most of on-line have been for the Thrashers since so many previews have been alphabetically released.  The thing that's catching my eye is that they've been mostly positive-ish.  Of course, positive-ish for the Thrashers in the national media is "they won't finish last!" so I kind of take what I can get.

SB Nation's look at the pre-season power rankings is a compilation of the individual blog owners' opinions of where the standings'll wind up.  Take it with a grain of salt since it's a group effort (and don't jump Travis - he just had the duty of getting it together).  I consider pre-season power rankings a wash - they take into consideration all of the bloggers' pre-conceived ideas about the team as well as their compiling of information from media outlets, and let's face it - no one's cuddly with Atlanta.  I picked apart the rankings on SB Nation Atlanta. Usually I don't pay a bit of attention to power rankings because they're just opinion, but I wanted to look at SB Nation's since I write there on a few blogs.

But ranking Southeast Division teams lowly, or at least just blowing them off, is a mistake.  Adam Proteau of The Hockey News has a good point - out of the Eastern Conference divisions, the SE made the most moves and the most effort during the off-season to noticably improve.  Laugh at your own expense, but every team's gotten better, and with the exception of maybe the Panthers, they each have a legit shot of making the playoffs.  You can't look at the SE this year and write everyone off but the Caps, and that should make folks think through their power rankings for once.

Unless you're Jamie Bell of TSN.  TSN completely wrote the Thrashers off in their pre-season preview in a write-up that couldn't be more wrong.  It's a mash-up of assumptions that fails to take about half of the team into consideration. Apparently dropping dough on an "impact player" is necessary for the team to move up in the standings.  This statement comes after Bell lists the players that the Thrashers added.  He might not be a big name, but if you don't think Chris Mason is an impact player, you haven't been watching Western Conference hockey for the past two seasons.

This selection from the article made me actually laugh out loud:

The departures of Max Afinogenov, MacArthur, Colby Armstrong, Slava Kozlov and White means there will be plenty of forward spots up for grabs in training camp.  While there are some promising prospects on the horizon it will be difficult to fill the skates of the departing veterans, no matter how many bit pieces from the reigning Stanley Cup champs are brought in.  This team is going to have a great deal of difficulty scoring.

Ok, I've already addressed this on SB Nation Atlanta - the Thrashers have replaced that scoring and have replaced it with defensively responsible players.  How they're worse off is confusing - if losing Ilya Kovalchuk wasn't that big of a deal to the team, how is losing Todd White?  TSN is usually home of solid reporting, but this is supposition and laziness combined.  The same moves that had the rest of the hockey media sitting up and taking notice, even if for a second, seems to have flown over Bell's head.

Mike Chen of From the Rink is obviously on the ball.  He has the Thrash ranked as next year's breakout team. I'm a homer and biased, and not sure if this is really the case (it might be a bit of hyperbole), but I do like how it sounds.  That, and Mike put forth more effort in his paragraph blurb than TSN did in their preview, so I'm giving the edge to him.

Yes, I chose this photo for the picture of the dude in the front row in the Cards cap. That takes guts to wear that in Philly. Well done, good sir. Well done.

The Thrashers finally re-signed their top line forward Niclas Bergfors today, giving much needed stability to the top six of the team.  Bergfors, you might remember, was the offensive part of the Kovalchuk trade who came over and kept pace with the former Thrasher in the games after the trade up through the end of the season.  The rookie was named to last season's All-Rookie team, and netted 21 goals and 23 assists last season.  Bergfors thrived playing in the Thrashers' wide open style, and it can be fair to say that he should be able to score more than 21 goals this season freed from the shackles of New Jersey's snooze-inducing offensive system.

Bergfors was re-upped for just one year, though, at $900,000.  This can be either good or bad - while most Thrashers fans'd like to see him locked up for more than one season (the term seems short), he will still be a RFA at the end of that term.  If he has a bang-up year this season, he can count himself almost a shoe-in for a payraise and a lengthy contract at the end of the season.

The Blues are off to a bangin' start at the Traverse City tourney, taking out the Tampa Bay Lightning prospects 4-2.  Brett Sonne scored twice, and Jake Allen was solid in goal, blocking 24 of 26 Bolts shots.  The box score can be found on the Blues' site, and no word as to when we'll be able to listen to/watch one of these games - I'm guessing it'll be when the Blues play a Canadian squad, since RogersTV is actually broadcasting the games.  First I hear of anything being available, I'll post.

Also, Thrashers rookie camp starts tomorrow.  Unfortunately I can’t make any of it this year thanks to work, but Birdwatchers Anonymous has it covered with the rookie previews. Three days worth of previewing the forwards (here, here, and here) are done, and Timmyf has moved on to the defensemen.

For the schedule and roster, please see the official Thrashers site.

Things like this are why Barret Jackman is an alternate captain.

The Blues have announced their alternate (or assistant) captains for this season - Barret Jackman (who has been given the A yet again for his awesome "*dumbass*" look he shoots people), Erik Johnson, Alexander Steen, and David Backes.  This is an excellent group of vets and young up and comers who will be getting a chance to grow into their roles presumably over a few seasons.  Eric Brewer is still the Captain (more on that later), but in a few seasons I can see this shaping up to be David Backes' team.

It's ok. We'll still be seeing this on the PP.

In what comes as no shock, Chris Vivlamore has reported that Dustin Byfuglien will be starting camp at defense.  With the recent signings of Modin and Dawes, it left absolutely no room for him up front - especially with the abundance of big forwards who will play a 3rd line role that the team now has.  Expect to see Byfuglien continue his power play role as the Thrashers' version of Tomas Holmstrom, making life a nightmare for goalies.

The defense that we now have stockpiled looks like this: Bogosian, Enstrom, Hainsey, Sopel, Oduya, Valabik, Meyers, Kulda, and now Byfuglien.  There're eight guys for basically seven spots.  Either Kulda's staying with Chicago for another year, or someone's gone.

To keep Kulda in Chicago one more season for development isn't horrible, but after watching him play up here for a few games last season, it seemed that he was more than ready to step in last year. Unfortunately, his playing time was taken away by the call-up of Chris Chelios that we really couldn't see how he would end the season with the big team.

Valabik's been re-habbing all summer, and after a rough start last season was looking really good and comfortable before his season-ending injury.  It seems a bit unfair to prepare for  a trade at D without seeing how he is.

As the team stands right now, we'll have a glut at defense and a surplus of grinders at forward, with our first line and Peverley thrown in.  We'll be tough to play against and we certainly won't be a doormat, but we need someone who can get the puck in the net as an insurance policy if Little doesn't bounce back (and if Bergfors doesn't get re-signed).  I liked Dudley's moves at the beginning of the season, but his recent ones are confusing me.  The depth is nice and not something that I'll ever argue with, but what of scoring?  That's not a good thing to lack.

As his agent Alan Walsh put it on Twitter, "Halakamania comes to St. Louis."  God, that's an understatement.

Recent goaltending acquisition Jaroslav Halak was introduced to the St. Louis media and fans today, with a flurry of high expectations and low common sense - which is fine.  The Blues haven't had a starting goalie since CuJo (who isn't featured on Halak's mask - odd), so the fans need someone to be pumped up about.  Yes, there's some laughing to be had at the Blues' press-release - and Halak's Glamor-Shot worthy photograph.  No, there won't be a jersey retirement/statue dedication for the new goalie here anytime soon, but give Blues fans a minute to bask in the glow of getting the league's "most talked about in a good way" goaltender.  Sure, the reality of the season'll set in here soon enough when we're not first in the league on the back of the golden Halak, but the preseason'll be fun - the positive buzz's great, especially coming off of last year's disappointing (for the Western Conference) finish.

A round up of first hand accounts of the Savior's triumphant arrival in St. Louis can, of course, be found at the Post Dispatch.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be there since I was about 900 miles away, though I did snag this artist's recreation of the event:

I touched on this over at SBNation Atlanta - apparently Rick Dudley is now moving to the elderly third liners to flesh out the team.  I'm not really sure what former player Nigel Dawes will "replace," as while Fredrik Modin has the potential to score, Dawes has never been known as a sniper.  He scored 14 goals in 66 games last season as part of the Calgary Flames, so you could see him as a MacArthur style replacement, save for about six inches.

It's only a one year, two way, $600,000 contract, so there's no gaurantee that he'll "steal" a spot away from a rookie for sure, and at worst he'll be good depth for the Wolves.   It's not bad depth for the Thrashers to have, but we're getting awfully croweded at the back end of the offense. Tim at BWA gives us this guestimation of the line-up (with Buff at defense):

Little - Antropov - Bergfors

Kane - Peverley - Ladd

Dawes - Cormier/Burmistrov - Modin

Some mix including Boulton, Slater, Eager, Thorburn, etc

Other than the top line and Peverley, if you see any scorers, please let me know.  If Dawes and Cormier are together on one line, Modin should start playing on stilts - and maybe he should steal a sumo suit from Thrash.  Cormier's a tank, but he's not tall either.

Of course, if we don't get Bergfors signed soon, we can plunk Burmistrov down in his spot, though the wailing and gnashing of teeth from my end will be loud.  I'm confused why we can't (or won't) get a deal done with one of our top scorers.

The Thrashers have reportedly signed free agent Fredrik Modin to a one year, $800,000 contract.  I looked at the line-up ramifications on SBNation Atlanta, which may be the only news report linking to the original source instead of mentioning it in passing.  My question is this: he's 35, he's been hurt constantly the past three seasons, and Bill Guerin was availible.  If we HAVE to sign an older guy for veteran presence, why not Bill Guerin?  Yes, a lot of his success the past few seasons came on Crosby's wing, but at least he has a better track record of not imploding.

Dudley has stated over and over again that the "youth will play," but this takes a roster spot away from youth - namely Burmistrov.  Burmistrov could score as many if not probably more goals than Modin could, plus he'll be playing in the league for significantly longer, seeing as how many thought Modin's next move was back to Sweden.  I understand Dudley wanting to assemble a team of people he's familiar with, but I think that he's focusing too much on the Modin that played for Tampa and had two 30 goal seasons, and not enough on the newer model that has blown out his knee.

I'm not a huuuge fan of this signing, but then again, I'm not a GM of a hockey team.  Here's hoping that this works out - no one wanted us to take a risk on Afinogenov last year, and look how that turned out.

The Thrashers won't be participating in this year's Traverse City prospect tournament, unfortunately (despite what the Blues' non-updated/copied from last year press release says), but the Blues'll have to take on the Bolts, Stars, and Wings in the first four days of the tournament as part of the Howe Division.  The Gretzky Division consists of the Jackets, Rangers, Canes, and Wild for this season's tournament.

The tourney's always seen as a chance to evaluate the organizations' young prospects in a setting that gives a good idea as to what they can really do.  Prospect camp is useful for evaluating the talents of the local NHL team's prospects in a small setting, and scrimmage games help aid a person in seeing how they exactly can function in a competitive setting.  Of course, an outcome to the competition's a productive way to encourage said competition - and other than the "yaaay, we won the scrimmage!" chat, there's not much in the way of a reward for winning at camp.

Traverse City's a round-robin tournament that pits players against other prospects who they may or may not know.  It diminishes the odds that they'll be playing against the predictable styles of their friends and places them in a competitive setting significantly closer to what they'll be exposed to in NHL play.  Not only will this give the scouts and player development staff from the participating teams a chance to examine the kids in a realistic setting, it's a great chance for fans of other teams to see what the participating squads have in the pipeline.  In theory.  The NHL Network's not airing it this year for some reason, so don't turn it on expecting to get a chance to see Ian Cole and Alex Pieterangelo scoot around the ice.  You'll have to follow it day by day on the Blues' website - right now all that's up are the rosters, which look sharp and extremely not-European at all.  Look for the entirely North American team to put up a good showing this season.  The defensive corps themselves should help the team win a few games.

Work's been a bear - there've been a few things I've wanted to address around here, but people can't figure out that if I'm at my computer typing I need to be left alone, so yeesh.

Tomorrow (God willing) look for an analysis of the Blues' Traverse City roster, as well as my opinions on Japer's Rink's SE Division Goalie Rankings and Wysh's season preview of the Thrashers.

Also, I should have some new something or another up on SBNation Atlanta to break up their college football fest, and the SE Division Preview on A View From My Seats is looming.  I shall be at a tournament all day on Saturday with my laptop and my Clear mobile hotspot that may or may not work, so if I don't get stuff done on Friday, look forward to a ton of stuff on Saturday.*

I know that all twelve readers are waiting.

*If you don't hear from me by Monday, the Cards have continued losing to the Reds and I've drank myself into some sort of stupor.  Just poke me with a stick - I'll be fine.