The Canadian Hockey League season has reached the point where the winners of the three different regional divisions (the Ontario, Quebec and Western divisions), plus the host team, compete against each other for the Memorial Cup.

Although this season’s Memorial Cup has started, and is currently at the round robin stage, there is still plenty of time for those interested in ice hockey and sports betting to put down bets on the possible winners of the tournament – but which sides are rated the favourites by the bookies?

The favourites going into the tournament were the Halifax Mooseheads – winners of the Quebec League – and the Portland Winterhawks, who were Western division champions. The Mooseheads in particular showed formidable form in winning the Quebec League, scoring 5.1 goals per game on average, while conceding just 176 goals in the league. They are very strong both in attack and defence, but should be pushed pretty strong by the Winterhawks, who are particularly strong in defence.

The rank outside bet is the Saskatoon Blades, who only qualified for the tournament as the host team, and frankly, you would be better playing online casino games than even considering betting on them for the Memorial Cup.

Indeed more sports and gambling fans than ever before are playing at these sites, presumably attracted by the development of sports themed casino games – including ice hockey slots games like Break Away found in http://www.casinoonline.co.nz.

The best of these games capture the feel of watching and playing these sports through audio and visual effects, but without sacrificing the payouts, jackpots and cheap game play that have always made slots so popular with casino fans. Furthermore with mobile casino games apps that can be downloaded to your phone, you can even play them during breaks in the hockey games, rather than just when you have access to a computer.

Last week when Glen Sather told John Tortorella he was being let go, it represented a marked shift (we hope) in the mentality of Ranger executives and ownership alike. No longer was simply making the playoffs and winning a few series good enough anymore. Torts in 4 years had guided the team as far as he could've taken them and couldn't finish the job. But what happens if this latest coaching change fails to produce its desired results? Should it be time for Sather to finally call it a career?

I was a huge advocate of the Rangers going after Mark Streit when he was a UFA back in 2008. Unfortunately, Glen Sather didn't confer with me and decided to sign Wade Redden for 6-years, $39 million instead, while Streit ended up going to the Islanders for 5-years, $20.5 million. The rest is horrific history for the Rangers.

Now that the 35-year old Streit has rejected the Islanders best offer of 3 years, $4.75 million per and will be headed to free agency again, Rangers fans have already begun dreaming about the former Islanders captain quarterbacking the Rangers dormant power play.

Arthur Staple at Newsday says that Streit, who has 141 career power play points, could command a 4-year deal averaging $6 million per.

...so after passing on Streit for cheap in his prime, we want Sather to overpay him as he enters the twilight of his career? Makes sense.

...would Streit upgrade the Rangers power play? Absolutely, but so could I, so that's not saying much. I know a Richards buyout would open up additional cap space to sign him, but this has pre-lockout Sather signing written all over it.

Carl Hagelin's agent Claes Elefalk recently told Mattias Ek at Expressen that talks with the Rangers on a new contract are going well...

"It looks good, they really want him, so it's a blast."

Elefalk feels that once they formally begin to negotiate, a new deal should be reached in a week.

Hagelin, a RFA, just completed his two-year entry level contract that paid him $875K per year.

...three years, $1.5 million per. Get it done Slats!

...Hagelin was much improved offensively in his sophomore season with the Rangers, but he's still nothing more than a third line player right now and the Rangers shouldn't pay him more than one. If Hagelin can continue to progress the next few years then his first opportunity as a UFA should pay-off handsomely for the speedy Swede.

Hagelin's agent added that his client's shoulder surgery has gone according to plan and will need four to five months of rehab.

Bruce Garrioch at the Ottawa Sun reports that while Rangers are interested in former Canucks’ coach Alain Vigneault, many think if Mark Messier really wants the job and is willing to commit he’ll get it as Glen Sather is said to be seriously considering "The Captain."

A league executive told Garrioch...

“If they surround Messier with a strong staff – a strong associate coach who can help with the X’s and O’s – then it could happen.”

...i know Garrioch is known for his wild rumors, but he was on the Gaborik trade before anyone else, so I have to at least acknowledge this report.

...as far as Messier goes, the only way I'd feel comfortable with him behind the bench is if the associate coach was Scotty Bowman. I really can't believe that Sather would take this leap of faith knowing it could ultimately lead to another Cupless season and Lundqvist signing with another team next offseason.

Meanwhile, Elliotte Friedman at CBC gives us a glimmer of hope that a Messier regime could work by giving us this quote from one of his sources...

The NHL made significant news Tuesday when it announced the League and NHLPA agreed to grandfather visors starting in the 2013-14 season. Any current NHL player having played 26 games or more (regular season or playoffs) is allowed to choose to wear a visor. Any incoming player is required to wear a visor, although juniors and college mandate all players to wear facial equipment to begin with.

- This is news long overdue. You can point to pride, stubbornness, failure to evolve etc., but enforcing some type of mandate for players needing to wear visors was necessary. As was the case with helmets back in 1980.

- No doubt the gruesome injury to Marc Staal and his slowed recovery prompted some within the NHLPA to finally say enough is enough.

Visors were not the only change announced Tuesday.

Andrew Gross at the Bergen Record reports that the Rangers are likely to do everything they can to re-sign Henrik Lundqvist, even if that means offering a max contract of eight years, $80 million.

Under the new CBA, a team cannot re-sign one of their own players for more than eight years.

Lundqvist is 31-years old.

...got to do, what you got to do. The Rangers franchise would literally fall apart without Lundqvist. I don't care how good a job Tom Renney did bringing the Rangers back to respectability or how Tortorella took that to another level, I'm pretty confident in saying that without Lundqvist the Rangers are likely still in a playoff drought spanning back to 1998. Every off-season we hear reports about Lundqvist's ailing knees, but I'm surprised it's not his back from carrying the Rangers franchise all these years.

...as I've stated, with Lundqvist's non-committal about re-signing, Sather's head coaching search this summer could be the single biggest decision he's ever had to make in his career. Because if things go bad next season, Lundqvist is gone. And I bet he'd take less money to go to a legit contender.

...having said that, $10 million per under the new CBA is a big chunk of change. Especially when Callahan and Girardi will be UFAs in 2014 as well. If the Rangers don't win the Cup next season, got to wonder if Sather can sit Lundqvist down and convince him that if he takes less money the Rangers will be more likely to add the missing pieces needed to hopefully bring home that elusive championship. You also have to wonder how a 38-year old Lundqvist with all the wear and tear his body will likely have taken will be worth an eight year contract. We've seen the accelerated declines of Drury and Richards, so if the Rangers do sign Lundqvist to max years we just have to hope he doesn't suffer from the same fate.

Larry Brooks at the New York Post actually gives us an interesting stat that could be used to argue against re-signing Lundqvist....

Next month at this time: NYR prospect camp---7/1 thru 7/5. Latter is 1st day of free agency.

— Steve Zipay (@stevezipay) June 4, 2013

Back in April, TheNYRBlog's James Wrabel reported that the Rangers will once again participate in the Traverse City Prospects tournament which is scheduled for September 5th-9th.

...in the past this event has not been open to the public and takes place at the Rangers practice facility in Tarrytown.

...going to get up on my soap box for a second. An event like this is where the Rangers miss an opportunity to interact with fan blogs. While they have every right deny access to the press box during games and the locker room before and after, I think it would be such a good will gesture to invite a number of the fan blogs to an event like this. It would also allow the Rangers organization to evaluate the level of professionalism of the chosen blogs as well as gain a working knowledge and trust of the writers in the event they ever do decide to open the press box to us lowly bloggers.

...i know the Rangers don't need them the way teams like the Islanders do, but they are woefully behind the times with bloggers. I mean the Islanders have a "Blog Box" where credentialed bloggers have limited access to the team. That's actually pretty cool. I'd like to see the Rangers possibly set something like that up for some of the serious bloggers possibly based on their performance during an event like the prospect camp.

Unofficially considered the toughest interview in hockey, it is unsurprising how the media, constrained by a professional relationship for five years, lined up to give their personal opinions on John Tortorella once he was let go by the New York Rangers after a subpar season. Larry Brooks, a beat writer for the New York Post and Tortorella's archnemesis, if you will, claimed that any media outlet that would hire the fallen coach "should be ashamed." Dave Lozo, formally of NHL.com and who often covered the Rangers, wrote a lengthy memoir of sorts, discussing his disdain for Torts. Unsurprisingly, the general consensus amongst media members was that this was, at least from a journalistic perspective, the best possible thing that could have happened.

Then there is Jesse Spector. Spector covered the Rangers for the New  York Daily News during the 2011-2012 season before moving to Sporting News, where he works as a national writer. But still, only a subway ride away from MSG, he spent plenty of time in the pressbox at Rangers game this past season. I spoke to Spector on March 29th on a variety of topics for a journalism class. And what could be a more appropo topic of discussion than how difficult it must be for him to deal with John Tortorella? I led Spector to that direction, only for him to blurt out a surprising response:

"I love covering John Tortorella."

Lindy Ruff and Dave Tippett are looking less and less like legit options, Wayne Gretzky says it's "very unlikely" he ends up being the guy and I'm still not convinced that Mark Messier is anything more than a Fanatasy Land candidate for the Rangers head coaching position.

So let's take a look at the two guys who seem to have the most legitimate chance of being behind the Rangers bench this fall: Dallas Eakins and Alain Vigneault.

Here's Chris Johnson at Sportsnet on Maple Leafs AHL affiliate head coach Eakins...

The steady stream of players who have arrived at the Leafs doorstep ready to contribute has spoken volumes about the work being done at the AHL level. (Maple Leafs vice-president of hockey operations Dave Poulin) and other members of Leafs management have also had some veterans make a point of pulling them aside to give Eakins a vote of confidence.

“He communicates well with the players, he communicates well with us,” said Poulin. “He’s won and I think that helps. He hasn’t won the ultimate prize, but he’s won (a lot of games). The teams have gotten better and the players have gotten better.”

...while there's a ton of scrutiny coaching within the Maple Leafs organization, it's not even in the same universe as being the head man in New York. So I do have some trepidation about Eakins taking over a team, despite the disappointing year, that will have high expectations for the 2013-14 season.

...conversely, I do like the idea of having a fresh young face leading this team. You know he'll be motivated to prove that he belongs in the NHL and his youthful enthusiasm could be infectious.

Meanwhile, Jesse Spector at the Sporting News feels that the former Canucks coach Vigneault would be a nice fit for the Rangers...