There aren't very many ceremonies like the one we saw last night at Honda Center, but the NHL hasn't seen very many players like Teemu Selanne. The Anaheim Ducks put on a great ceremony Sunday when they retired Selanne's number before playing the Winnipeg Jets. It was very emotional, but it had lots of funny moments and that's just like Teemu. He was a guy who wore his heart on his sleeve, but he has a great sense of humor at the same time. You could tell he was genuinely loved by the people and his teammates. He's one of the greatest scorers the League has ever seen. His numbers bear it out, but if you've ever seen him play he could just flat out score. There aren't many players that have been better, and I thought the Ducks did a great job in showcasing that.

Sometimes you look at the schedule and you see some teams have it worse than others. For example, last weekend the Nashville Predators had to play arguably two of the top five or six teams in the NHL, the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks, on the road on back-to-back days. That's a pretty tough thing to do, but you have to give Nashville a ton of credit, coming out of the two games with three points and pushing the Ducks to a shootout. Even in the Predators' 7-6 overtime win against the Kings on Saturday, in which they blew a three-goal lead late, you have to be amazed that the offense performed the way it did. After all, scoring seven goals on the Kings is nothing to sniff at.

What amazed me most about that game against the Kings is the Predators showed they can win those crazy games that happen once in a while. The Predators can't give up six goals every night and win, no team can, but it used to be that if you scored four goals on Nashville, you had the game won. If you scored three, you probably had it won. Under Peter Laviolette that's no longer the case. Players like Mike Riberio and James Neal have given that team an offensive edge didn't have before, and unlike the Barry Trotz era when the team was completely dedicated to defense, the offense takes chances now. The forwards cheat a little bit. Every great offensive player cheats a little bit, for example leaving the zone a hair early when they think the puck is going to come loose. If the cheats aren't outrageous, you can get away with it and create offense, and Nashville is doing that.

The sports world received devastating news Sunday morning when it was announced that longtime broadcaster Stuart Scott had passed away at the age of 49 after a lengthy battle with cancer. Back when I first met Stuart about 20 years ago, I had just started my move from behind the bench in the NHL to in front of the camera, something that is never an easy transition no matter how easy it might look.

When I heard the news Sunday morning, the first thing that came to mind was back when ESPN2 was starting. It first came on the air in late 1993 and grew over the first few years. I was hired very early on after the launch along with people like Kenny Mayne, Suzy Kolber, and of course Stuart. Everyone was brought in around the same time and if you remember, ESPN2 was going to be the total opposite of ESPN. Guys were going to wear denim shirts on the air; no ties. I remember Stuart's work in particular on the first few nights. He was always a good guy and he loved all sports, including hockey. He came to numerous Stanley Cup Finals, and what I really loved about him is at a time when the NHL was still growing, Stuart worked as hard on an NHL highlight for SportsCenter as he did for the NFL or the NBA.

The Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic is always a major event on the NHL calendar and this season's edition is a spectacular matchup between the Washington Capitals and the Chicago Blackhawks. More importantly? It's just 24 hours away. As always, I think ice will dictate a lot of what we see. You've got two very skilled teams playing, two teams that thrive on speed, and if the ice is heavier or slow, it will affect both teams like these a lot more than it would affect a team like the New York Rangers or Los Angeles Kings. Dan Craig and his crew never cease to amaze me with how good a job they do building an NHL-quality rink in just two weeks, but it's clear that the better the ice this time around, the better the game we'll see.

After a 3-1 win Monday against the Pittsburgh Penguins, I suppose you could say the New Jersey Devils' latest coaching experiment is off to a 1-1-0 start. It will be interesting to see what happens with the arrangement set up by general manager Lou Lamoriello, who brought on Scott Stevens and Adam Oates as defensive and offensive assistants, respectively, after firing coach Peter DeBoer on Friday. I've never really seen anything like this before, but I think if you look at the history of Lou, a guy who hasn't been afraid to make bold or unorthodox news, it's not that crazy.

Obviously, with Lamoriello himself on the bench, it's clear he's the ultimate authority now, and on some level that makes sense. The Devils are not a good team right now and they're at an organizational crossroads. Lamoriello needs to know which players to keep in the fold and build around and which ones should be sent off for draft picks at the trade deadline, and as he's said, there's no better place to find out about a player than on the bench. He's right on that point. You can't as easily learn about your player from the press box. You can't see what he's saying or how he responds in good times and bad times.

For the past four or five seasons, the Boston Bruins have consistently been the best team in the Eastern Conference. This season many of us expected more of the same. Even when the Bruins started off slowly we all thought it was just a matter of time until they got healthy and took over the Atlantic Division.

Well, the Bruins have played 34 games and they're still on the outside looking in, which begs the question: What's going on in Boston?

The thinking for most of this season was to let the injured guys get back in the lineup. Key players like Zdeno Chara and David Krejci have missed significant time. But Boston's injured players are largely back now and even after an overtime win Sunday night, the Bruins are still struggling.

I think a lot of it has to do with the talent that's left Boston in the last season or so. We all know about the trade that sent Tyler Seguin to the Dallas Stars, and you can't underestimate the importance of that move, but this is a team that also traded Johnny Boychuk prior to this season because of cap reasons, thinking a young defenseman could take his place. None of those guys have replaced the grit or snarl of Boychuk. Adam McQuaid and Chara have both been hurt and suddenly this is a totally different defense. Then you take away an injured Krejci and you let Jarome Iginla leave this offseason and suddenly you've got a lot of talent to replace.

On Sunday the Pittsburgh Penguins announced Sidney Crosby was the latest player in the NHL to have contracted the mumps. Now, you didn't exactly need to be Dr. Kildare to figure that one out, but this whole thing is just crazy. I've been in the NHL as a player, coach or analyst since 1979 and I've been in professional hockey since 1976. I can't remember a player getting mumps. Ever. How many do we have now?

It's a totally bizarre phenomenon, but in the case of the Penguins, what I think you'll see is another stretch that is just a tribute to the great depth this team has. Crosby has been out the past few games, but this team continues to win, dig deep and get points in the standings. It's difficult to lose one of the best players in the world, but this team has the players to weather that storm. Patric Hornqvist adds to that depth, but guys like Evgeni Malkin and Chris Kunitz will carry Pittsburgh through.

There are a few individual players who have had a major impact in the NHL recently, either by being in the lineup or by being out of it. Today we're going to take a look at two guys who will have a big influence on the final standings, and another guy who is so good, you wonder if he might make a difference even if his team doesn't.

WOUNDED DUCK

Corey Perry missed the Anaheim Ducks game against the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday with a knee injury and there's some uncertainty as to how long he could be out. Because the differences and the advantages each of the top teams have are so small, I think losing a 50-goal scorer like Perry will have a significant impact on the Ducks. It doesn't matter how good you are -- and the Ducks are certainly good -- Perry is a lot of offense to replace. Not having him out there also affects guys like Ryan Getzlaf and hurts Anaheim's power play.

It's been another wild week in the NHL, from Martin St. Louis returning to Tampa Bay to the power going out in Detroit. Here are some things I've been thinking about.

SURVIVING THE CIRCUS

Each season, the Chicago Blackhawks "Circus Trip" is a litmus test for how that team is going to do, and this year, considering how Chicago was struggling amid big expectations, it might have been a bigger test than usual.

I think they passed.

The Blackhawks won five of six games on the trek, including sweeping the final two games on a back-to-back against the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks. Sometimes teams send a message to the entire League, and that was a message. I don't know that anyone doubted the Blackhawks would be in the mix this season, but after an inconsistent six weeks to start 2014-15, Chicago now looks like it will compete for the Stanley Cup this spring yet again.

We're at the first-quarter mark of the 2014-15 NHL season. While some traditional contenders out West are still having trouble getting their footing, new ones are appearing and we just may be seeing a changing of the guard in the East.

Let's take a look.

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK

The Pittsburgh Penguins might have company. For most of this season the Penguins have looked like the team to beat in the Metropolitan Division, but this past weekend the New York Islanders emphatically put their stamp on the race, sweeping a home-and-home against Pittsburgh and scoring four goals in each game. Not only that, but the Islanders held Sidney Crosby to just one shot and no points during the two games. That's something not many teams in the NHL can say.