HockeyGainey not holding Halak responsible for agent's Tweets

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“I don’t know [about] Halak ... but if this happened to you, you might want to pick up the phone and let your agent know that he’s not doing the best for you.”

Gainey talked about the explosion in social media -- something Hockey Night in Canada addressed on Inside Hockey -- and how teams are still learning to deal with it. But, he seemed more bemused than angry by the whole thing.

Nightmare in Carolina

Jim Rutherford wants everyone to know that Paul Maurice will not be fired. I couldn’t even finish asking him about those rumours before he cut me off.

“We’re having a bad start, yes ... but it’s not as if everyone who helped us in the playoffs has suddenly lost their ability,” the Hurricanes GM said, referring as much to Maurice’s coaching as to any player’s performance.

It’s been a nightmare for Carolina. There is something to the idea of tanking the season and rebuilding for next year, but that’s not going to happen.

“I have thought about the possibility of adding one of those great young players at the top of draft and how they would add to our core, but it’s way too early in the season for that. ... You have a responsibility to your fans as well. I still think we will get healthy and make a run in the second half of the season, just like we did last year.”

Other notes from Day 1:

• By now, you’ve probably heard about the decision to keep the trapezoid, much to the disappointment of Carolina and New Jersey.
• The headshot debate will take place Wednesday morning. It’s unlikely anything huge will happen immediately, but there will be serious debate. Wings GM Ken Holland supports the idea of a head-on hit being clean, with a blind-side shot being penalized. Rutherford is another who supports him.
• The biggest debate will be: What exactly is “The blind side?” Can it be clearly defined? GMs generally aren’t fans of adding subjective calls to rule book.
• Another issue that will come up out of the “blind side” debate is diving. The league feels players take advantage of new rules like these. There is concern players hit from the side will go down easy, trying to draw a penalty. OHL coaches complain that this is a big problem in their league.
• There will be some discussion about the charging rule, and whether it needs to be rewritten to help solve the problem.
• There doesn’t appear to be much support for adding some kind of interference to hold up super-fast forecheckers.
• There was some discussion about playing pucks off the netting, particularly since there have been a couple missed calls dating back to the playoffs. Colin Campbell was against that, because he was worried teams would intentionally lift high over the goal to pin down defencemen even more. “We might need a fair catch rule,” he joked. Most GMs agreed.

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