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What to watch for in 2009: NHL

2. The March 4 trade deadline landing spot of future unrestricted free agents: Whither high-end players like Minnesota's Marian Gaborik and Florida's Jay
Michael Farber|
What to watch for in 2009: NHL
What to watch for in 2009: NHL

2. The March 4 trade deadline landing spot of future unrestricted free agents: Whither high-end players like Minnesota's Marian Gaborik and Florida's Jay Bouwmeester? Although the Panthers still hope to sign their big defenseman, Bouwmeester likely will be moving to a team willing to give up a package that includes at least one solid NHL player, a prospect, and a No. 1 draft choice. Will he help some Stanley Cup contender? Who knows? Although a member of Team Canada at various levels and times, including the 2006 Olympic squad, Bouwmeester never played a playoff game with either Medicine Hat of the WHL or the Panthers. (He did play for the AHL Chicago Wolves in the lockout season, with no points in 18 games.) Gaborik has all-world skill, but his injury history and so-so playoff résumé (22 points in 29 games) indicate he is no surefire thing, but that won't slow the rental market.

3. The Jan. 14 Pittsburgh-Washington game: This will be the rivals' first meeting since Alex Semin of the Capitals made his unkind remarks about Penguins captain Sidney Crosby: Semin thinks Chicago's Patrick Kane is a more appealing player than Crosby, who is a rival of Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin. Meanwhile Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin, fellow Russians, don't much like each other. Is this an NHL regular season game or High School Musical III on Ice?

4. Boston goaltender Tim Thomas: His save percentage is stratospheric, his Bruins are stupendous, and the NHL didn't even put him on the All-Star ballot. That's the abridged version of hockey's best story. Too many people expect Thomas to have a Humpty Dumpty fall, but they might be waiting in vain. While he is the most unorthodox goalie since Dominik Hasek -- like a snowflake, every Thomas save is one of a kind -- he figures out a way to stop the puck. Now that the Bruins can actually score, the demand for his nightly acrobatics has been reduced.

5. Martin Brodeur's return: Like death, taxes and the shenanigans of the opposing player who referred to him as Fatso in the playoffs last season, the New Jersey Devils goaltender was one of the things you could count on in this crazy world. Only seven wins shy of Patrick Roy's career mark (551) and five shutouts from Terry Sawchuk's (103), Brodeur is scheduled to return from biceps surgery just prior to the playoffs. But no one knows how a 36-year-old goalie who has never missed many games, let alone many months, will respond.

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Michael Farber
MICHAEL FARBER

Along with the pages of Sports Illustrated, you'll find senior writer Michael Farber in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Farber joined the staff of Sports Illustrated in January 1994 and now stands as one of the magazine's top journalists, covering primarily ice hockey and Olympic sports. He is also a regular contributor to SI.com. In 2003 Farber was honored with the Elmer Ferguson Award from the Hockey Hall of Fame for distinguished hockey writing. "Michael Farber represents the best in our business," said the New York Post's Larry Brooks, past president of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association. "He is a witty and stylish writer, who has the ability to tell a story with charm and intelligence." Farber says his Feb. 2, 1998 piece on the use and abuse of Sudafed among NHL players was his most memorable story for SI. He also cites a feature on the personal problems of Kevin Stevens, Life of the Party. His most memorable sports moment as a journalist came in 1988 when Canadian Ben Johnson set his controversial world record by running the 100 meters in 9.79 seconds at the Summer Olympic Games, in Seoul. Before coming to Sports Illustrated, Farber spent 15 years as an award-winning sports columnist and writer for the Montreal Gazette, three years at the Bergen Record, and one year at the Sun Bulletin in Binghamton, NY. He has won many honors for his writing, including the "outstanding sports writing award" in 2007 from Sports Media Canada, and the Prix Jacques-Beauchamp (Quebec sportswriter of the year) in 1993. While at the Gazette, he won a National Newspaper award in 1982 and 1990. Sometimes Life Gets in the Way, a compendium of his best Gazette columns, was published during his time in newspapers. Farber says hockey is his favorite sport to cover. "The most down-to-earth athletes play the most demanding game," he says. Away from Sports Illustrated, Farber is a commentator for CJAD-AM in Montreal and a panelist on TSN's The Reporters (the Canadian equivalent of ESPN's The Sports Reporters in the United States, except more dignified). Farber is also one of the 18 members on the Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee. Born and raised in New Jersey, Farber is a 1973 graduate of Rutgers University where he was Phi Beta Kappa. He now resides in Montreal with his wife, Danielle Tétrault, son Jérémy and daughter Gabrielle.

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