Dobber jumping on briefly to promote a worthy cause. There is a groundswell of support for honoring Pat Burns by getting him into the Hall of Fame while he is still around to enjoy the honor. I don’t know if you have seen Burns lately, but when he recently went to a ceremony unveiling plans for a new arena in Stanstead Quebec in his name, in the pictures he looked a shadow of his former self. Let me put it this way – the arena will be finished in 2011 and Burns has been quoted as saying that he “knows” that he won’t be around to see it. There is a Facebook group that you can join indicating your support right here. Burns beat colon cancer and again lung cancer, but when it came back into his lungs he decided not to go through with treatment a third time. And knowing what cancer patients go through when they undergo treatment, I can’t say that I blame him. “Extremely rough” would be an understatement. Burns has 500 career wins, one Stanley Cup, two Cup Final appearances and he won the Jack Adams Trophy three times for three different teams. He’s probably getting into the HHOF anyway, so I think if that is the case then let’s expedite the process.

Leafs draft pick Chris DiDomenico, who suffered a serious injury this season, is currently leading the QMJHL in playoff scoring with 10 points in four games. He had 35 points in only 15 playoff games last year (including 31 helpers).  It will be interesting to see where he goes next season. He probably will need some time to adjust to the pro game, so the Marlies seem like a logical destination. At the low end, he should become a solid third line energy/pest type. At the high end, a playmaking second line center like Joe Pavelski.

I don't know much about Zach Smith on Ottawa, but he impressed me last night. He is big, pretty strong on his skates, and seems to have decent offensive instincts. Any upside there, Sens fans?

Brian Elliott had a fantastic start for the Sens, stopping 41 of 43 shots (making that 102 out of the last 104 fired his way). Expect him to see most of the starts down the stretch, as Ottawa will want to get him ready for the playoffs. I missed the boat a bit on Elliott – had a chance to acquire him last summer, but I had never really been all that impressed with him to that point. He had a fantastic college career obviously, and I guess I just didn’t see him play enough. He plays a lot like Pekka Rinne – big, square to the puck, and very sound fundamentally.

Cody Hodgson scored with under three minutes to go in Brampton’s game last night, and the Battalion eventually won the game in OT. Doug Gilmour, the head coach of Kingston (Brampton’s opposition in the series) said Hodgson is the only player in the OHL that he really worries about when matching lines. As a Canuck fan, I’d personally like to see Brampton lose, so Hodgson can join the Moose. Maybe a sneak preview to Hodgson-Schroeder in a few years?

Nazem Kadri is having a hell of a playoff series for London. He scored a goal and added three primary assists for the Knights last night. At the draft, it seemed like the Leafs primarlly picked him because they wanted to spite Brian Murray and the Senators, as Burke was still fuming over losing Brayden Schenn to the Kings only a pick earlier. Kadri has made the Leaf scouts look smart with his play this season, and he should be pencilled in somewhere in Toronto’s top six for 2010-11. Grabovski and Bozak are the top two centers now, but I could very easily see the Leafs moving Grabovski if they think Kadri is ready to play second line minutes.

I wonder if they'd like a mulligan on the Vermette (leading Columbus in scoring) for Leclaire trade? It just goes to show how hard it is to acquire a goalie without developing one. For every Bryzgalov, there is a Leclaire.

Thanks to Evan reminding me that the Leclaire trade isn’t all bad – the Sens used the draft pick acquired from Columbus to draft goaltender Robin Lehner, who has been sensational this season for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.

In my H2H pool, this is the first week of the playoffs. Naturally, I forgot to put Johan Franzen in my lineup yesterday. He scored two goals, added two assists, and fired eight shots on goal!

Jonathan Ericsson, who I had a bit of a swing and a miss with this season, scored a goal and added a helper. He is so intriguing because of his size and skill combo, but he still has yet to show the consistent ability to play defense at the NHL level.

Check out the photographic evidence of this past Sunday’s DobberHockey event at the Marlies game HERE.

We are looking for sponsors for the upcoming Playoff Pool! A great way to get thousands of hockey fans to check out your product or service! Shoot me an e-mail if you think it may be something you/your company would be interested in.

I have recently joined my first baseball pool in four years – so I’ll be reading a lot over at DobberBaseball. The forum is really picking up, so if you are in any baseball leagues, you may want to bounce some ideas off of the growing community over there. And of course, you should strongly consider picking up the fantasy baseball guide. Unfortunately I don’t contribute to it (although if you want to win your baseball pool, that probably is a good thing).

Mike Fisher was kicked out of the game last night for huffing and puffing and blowing Patrick Kaleta over. Video evidence of the awful call:

Coming soon…