News & Notes

There are quite a few things to get to today: First up is a report from TSN.ca -- via The Boston Globe -- that the Bruins have offered their vacant general manager post to Nashville Assistant GM Ray Shero. (Flyers fans take note: yes, Shero is the son of the late, great Fred Shero.) Second is that -- as first noted on Friday -- the Los Angeles Kings have officially announced the hiring of Marc Crawford as their new head coach. This gives the Kings one of the youngest coach/GM tandems in the NHL, with Crawford and new GM Dean Lombardi both checking in at just 45 years old. I'm not sure what to make of this hiring. On the surface, it looks like a good move -- Crawford is a winner, having won a Stanley Cup in Colorado and being a perennial contender in Vancouver. However, if you look at who he's had on his teams -- Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Patrick Roy, Markus Naslund, a pre-Steve Moore-incident Todd Bertuzzi, among others -- and one has to wonder whether anyone can lose with that kind of talent. I'm willing to give Crawford the benefit of the doubt -- and hopefully Kings fans will, too. Finally, we have word that the front-runner to fill the Colorado general manager vacancy is Dallas Stars Assistant GM Francois Giguere.