Like sands through the hourglass, these are the rankings of our blog

You ever get into a situation where you would rather be doing something you like but you have to work on 10 other things instead? That's what yours truly has been dealing with since I was left jobless a week ago. Ahh the sweet smell of sending out resumes...kickass!

Nevertheless I'm returning, and after reading some of my previous posts I have to admit that I probably shouldn't be dealing in the area of predicting trades...or teams that could win the cup BEFORE the deadline. Oops!

A little more than a week ago I had Phoenix absolutely pegged for the playoffs. They were hot, and Bryzgalov was going to tug them to an upset. Well, a few days later, the Yotes seem to have hit the wall and might not make the big dance along with my Avalanche, who may be getting too little too late from their returning stars.

So let's say I give the picks another shot on Wednesday after the trades are done. Deal?

Speaking of done deals...

In my impression there may not be a bunch of moves this year at the deadline. As Brian Engblom so aptly pointed out on his blog on Hockeybuzz, too many people have no trade clauses and this has GM's completely hamstrung. When you throw in the new fad of giving superstars (Ovechkin) and not so super-stars (Mike Richards, Rick DiPietro) huge long term contracts , that further compounds the difficulty of trading for those put-your-team-over-the-top players.

Yes there is Mats Sundin who now may be stoned to death by aggravated Leafs fans for not readily waiving his NTC. And then there's Marian Hossa who could be pinching the Trashers into trading him for 50 cents on the dollar. But when I look around I just don't see too many teams that seem willing to swing big name guys for future fixes.

Since when is Vinny Prospal, who only shows up every other year, considered a "ringer" come trade time?!

To me this lack of deadline star power is wrong, as hockey to me has always been defined by a nearly universal willingness to trade whomever and whatever to a crappy team to gain an advantage.

I mean, where are those insane six player deals that would be roundly rejected in almost any hockey fantasy league?

Give me the Avs selling off the farm for 14 games from Theo Fleury! At least it would be more exciting than watching them squeak out wins over the likes of the Coyotes after dropping a pair to the Wings and Ducks!

Come on boys! Let's get with the gettin!