THURSDAY COMMENTARY – FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME

(Listen daily for the Rod Pedersen Commentary on Cat Country 98, Rock 98.5 FM & LTD Radio)

You’d have to be living under a rock to not know this has been one of the wildest lead-ups to the NHL Trade Deadline in league history.

I’m sure there have been years where there have been more players and picks moved, but the arms race it’s setting up for this spring’s Stanley Cup Playoffs seems historic!

For instance, the top six teams in the Eastern Conference have all made significant moves this week or last and I could see any one of them winning the Stanley Cup in June.

By name, they are the Bruins, Maple Leafs, Rangers, Hurricanes, Lightning and Devils.

But also if you noticed, the Edmonton Oilers schooled the Leafs 5-2 at Rogers Place on Wednesday night and to be honest, skated circles around Toronto.

So we shouldn’t be in a rush to anoint anyone yet.

It’s fun. A heckuva lot of fun! And it brings back a lot of memories.

You may have heard me repeat that Vegas Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon once said they’re not doing anything different in the NHL than they are in the Western Hockey League. It’s just to scale.

So these trade deadlines back in my day were a lot of fun too. We loaded up with trades when I was with the P.A. Raiders and also the Regina Pats but the trouble is, there were other teams loading up too.

Usually it was McCrimmon, in Brandon.

And it was annoying. “Can’t you see we’re trying to win it all here?”

At the other end of the scale, sometimes we had a moderate or rebuilding team and were content to let the heavyweights slug it out and we’d push our chips in next year. I believe that’s called, “folding”.

In the NHL this season, that’s Nashville, Washington, Arizona and any teams below them in the standings.

And for those teams around the playoff cutoff line with 20 games to go – we’re looking at you Calgary, Winnipeg, Florida and Buffalo – it’s perhaps the most nervewracking thing you can ever go through as a team.

It’s why we love the games, and it never gets old.

That’s today’s Rod Pedersen Commentary

(The Rod Pedersen Show airs daily at 12 pm ET on Game+ TV, YouTube Live, WQEE and IHeartRadio)

Photo: Rogers Place