Anze Kopitar was home Thursday night when news broke that Drew Doughty's summer stalemate finally ended.

In today's 30 Thoughts, a look at the fundraising efforts of the hockey community in Guelph, Ont., in support of one of their alumni, Brendan Shanahan's first week on the job and what drives the reigning NHL MVP, Corey Perry.

 

 

Drew Doughty and the Phoenix Coyotes wield leverage, while Kyle Turris and the Los Angeles Kings don't. It will be interesting to see how long each club and the players themselves, can stick to their line in the contract disputes.

Marty Turco understands what Drew Doughty is thinking today.

"This is when it hits you," Turco said Friday morning. "Your teammates are in training camp and you're not. It's scary. People start saying things. You hear it, take it personally."

Going to keep it pretty simple to open the season. No huge preamble. Right into the first 30 Thoughts of 2011-12.

Forty-eight hours after Wade Belak's stunning and sad death, we really don't know what happened. There's nothing wrong with asking hard questions, but unfortunately there's been a lot of wild guesswork as well.  

About a month ago, I ran into one of the Vancouver Canucks at a golf tournament. As much as we both tried to avoid it, the Stanley Cup Final ultimately came up in the conversation.

One of his comments: "Obviously, Tim Thomas was great. But Patrice Bergeron also killed us."

Think about that when you're considering Sidney Crosby's future

I wasn't in Shea Weber's arbitration hearing on Tuesday, so I don't know what was said.

But I can tell you what other teams/agents are saying: For the first time, they think the Predators are really in trouble with Weber. There was always a recognition that dealing with all three of Weber, Ryan Suter and Pekka Rinne was going to be impossible, but, assumed the captain was priority number one.

This is the final 30 Thoughts for the season, with the blog set to return in September. Sorry it's so late, but sometimes life gets in the way (moving is the worst).

Wanted to end things by saying "thank-you" to you, the reader.

So, here we are, days before July 1, and Tampa fans are apoplectic about Steven Stamkos, worrying some other team will swoop in and steal their franchise player with an offer sheet.