Phew, okay. There was a lot of news in the span of about 90 minutes on Tuesday morning. The day began with some terrible news coming down regarding three TSN radio stations located in Vancouver, Winnipeg and Hamilton. The stations were erased from the history books in a matter of moments. In Vancouver, Bell literally cut the hosts off in the middle of their show, called a full staff meeting and told them they had 30 minutes to collect any personal items before the security-led lockdown was enacted.

Talk about cutthroat. 

These cuts by Bell come on the heels of the massive corporation accepting 122M in government handouts, watching their quarterly profits margins swell, and slashing other air and radio personalities with hardly a second thought. Oh, and let's not forget about the massive publicity the entity receives during #BellLetsTalk Day.

If you're asking me, Bell is speaking out of both sides of their mouth. Out of one side, "Let's care about everyone." Out of the other, "Let's treat our employees like shit."

Sending love and support to all those who have had their livelihood impacted by these ghoulish decisions. This industry can be a real Richard sometimes.

I owe a debt of gratitude to 1040. It was there that I was given my very first radio appearance opportunity. I was just some guy on Twitter with a stupid handle who liked to talk about prospects. That radio spot snowballed into another, and another and here we are. 

**

On the heels of the Patrik Laine benching in Columbus, the Blue Jackets announced that long-time Wild captain, Mikko Koivu has decided to hang them up. This is pretty surprising considering he spoke to wanting to continue playing even though his time in Minnesota ended in the fall. But, his minutes were low and he obviously wasn’t enjoying his experience. 

To add further flame to the CBJ fire, Aaron Portzline, who covers the team, insinuated that he believes John Tortorella also wants out of Columbus. And it also came out that the Laine benching was not for on-ice play, but instead for the way the Finnish winger spoke to an assistant on the bench! 

Something is not right in Ohio. 

There is at least one thing going right in Columbus though and that's Jack Roslovic. The sweetener in the Laine-Dubois deal has been anything but a sweetener early on. He's seeing top line and top power-play deployment and has been making the most of it. He's cashed in all five contests to the tune of seven points – including this disgustingly beautiful game-winner on Monday.

Call me crazy, but I actually believe Roslovic can sustain somewhere near this level of production for a while. He has very little competition for his spot in the lineup, he's a local kid, and apparently, Torts is keen on him.

I'm just mad I didn't take a flyer on him before he was snapped up off of the wire

**

Oh yeah, lost in the shuffle of the Laine benching on Monday was Alexandre Texier also seeing a forward-low 9:38 against the Canes. The 21-year-old has provided strong secondary support for CBJ, recording eight points in 14 games.

A situation to monitor.

**

Thanks to Anton Khudobin‘s apparent tardiness at practice a few days ago, Jake Oettinger has peeled off back-to-back starts and three of the last four. The rookie netminder has been looking more and more comfortable in the crease as the games have worn on.

I was championing Oettinger in the offseason as a potential starter thief. Ben Bishop is old and out with a nasty injury for the long haul. Coming back with a new knee at 34 will be no easy feat. Khudobin is also 34 and his only starter period was in last season’s playoffs. He’s ripe for an injury or a cold spell.

Oettinger, just 22 years old, has the first-round pedigree and the skills to back it up. He’s clearly the goalie of the future, and if he can keep stopping pucks at a high rate, that future could be here a lot sooner than originally expected.

**

Anthony Mantha made his way back into the Red Wings lineup after being a healthy scratch last game. He’s been in the doghouse so far this season for a lack of compete-level. Normally, a lock to live on the top line, the 26-year-old has bounced all over the lineup early on this season.

He re-joined the lineup on the third line next to Vlad Namestinkov and Darren Helm. He still saw action on the top power-play unit and in the end, posted four shots and three hits in 17:43.

**

Not bad, Rocco. Not bad.

**

It's a nightmare out there. Obviously, these are real people who are getting sick and that’s what’s actually important. But somewhere way down the list of importance is my fantasy team which cannot dress a full lineup ever.

If you can win a championship this year, you’re going to be able to brag about it for a long time.

**

I’ve been saying this to everyone who will listen, but please don’t sell you Mika Zibanejad stocks. The regression to the mean is coming and it will be glorious.

**

On Tuesday, Pittsburgh announced that Ron Hextall would become the team’s next General Manager while Brian Burke would step in as President of Hockey Ops.

This job will not be an easy one. The Penguins fancy themselves good enough to give it a couple more gos to find Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin their fourth Stanley Cups. However, the cupboards are bare and the team is looking average.

Overhauling this club will take decisive action and likely will hurt a legend or two’s feelings along the way. There will be pain as they replenish the prospect pipeline. I wish these two gentlemen good luck in their endeavour.

**

What has happened to Erik Karlsson is just so damn sad. The 30-year-old is a shell of his former self these days. Just three assists in 10 games at the time of writing and defensively he's been a trainwreck. 

The Sharks are on the hook for SIX more seasons after this one at a bloated 11.5M cap hit. I just can't imagine a scenario where this ends up going well. I'll be taking bets on how long before he suddenly lands on LTIR and his hit is magically absolved from the books.

But if we're being optimistic, at least we can look at his luck-based metrics and deduce that he's been hitting on some pretty poor juju. His shooting percentage is zero. His IPP – on the PP and in all-situation is just 25 percent. He's only dipped below 50 percent in either category once in his career. The numbers say he's due for a bounceback at some point, but the Sharks are dreadful and it's difficult to imagine that bounce will be all that high.

I used to refer to EK as The White Whale, the rare defender who could propel your fantasy team better than almost every forward. My how the mighty have fallen. 

**

Let's talk about Jakob Chychrun for a moment. The 22-year-old has been playing the best hockey of his young career. His 10 points in 12 games put him on pace to demolish his previous career-high of…26 points.

Now, it's easy to look at the lineup and say, "Well, OEL is out so Chychrun is poaching that PP time and it'll soon go away. Yes, OEL has been out and is back with the team on this road trip – although still not skating. However, The former OHL standout was seeing 56 percent of the team's PP opportunities even before Ekman-Larsson went down with an injury on January 16th.

If we're being honest, the production appears to be at least somewhat sustainable.

Through these 12 games, Chychrun has been seeing the time of minutes that often lead to production.  73 percent of his starts have been in the offensive zone – a massive leap from last season's 47.6. He's seeing 70 seconds of additional power-play time per game over last season. He's seeing less PK time. Furthermore, the left-shot defender is shooting the puck a bit more and seeing his conversion up a tad but nothing demonstrative. 

I'm certainly not expecting a 68-point pace from here on out, but Chychrun has a history of producing points as a junior player. Early on, he was talked about as a potential top selection in his class. The numbers look good, there is pedigree. We could be looking at a breakout.

That said, I'll wait and see what his deployment looks like when OEL returns before buying too much stock.

**

And that folks, is it. This was my final piece for DobberHockey. It's been a hell of a ride over the last five-plus years. Thank you all for reading along and participating in the wonderful discourse on Twitter. It has been my pleasure to provide you with content over the years.

Be well, look out for each other, and don’t sweat the small stuff. So long and thanks for all the fish.

@Hockey_Robinson