NHL Owner Boycott

The NHL owners aren't worried that fans will sour on the game because of a lockout. That's fair because we probably won't.
What we can do is ensure that we don't give money to anything else that these owners own.
Full list is below, arranged by team. A lot of these are difficult and/or impractical.
There are some easy ones though:

Stores: Walmart, Rexall, Pharma Plus, IDA
Restaurants: Real Sports Bar, Denny's, Moxie's, Chop Restaurant, Little Ceasar's
Others: Secret Stadium Sauce, Comcast/NBCSports/Golf Channel, Regal Theatres/United Artists Theatres
Beacon Theatre, Radio City Music Hall

Full list:

Team	Owner	Company to Boycott	Product(s) Produced or to be boycott
Avalanche	Kroenke	None	Rapids, Nuggets, Rams, Walmart (wife)
Blackhawks	Wirtz	Wirtz Corp	Bulls, United Centre
Bluejackets	McConnel	Worthington Industries	He loses enough money already…and I can't think of any someone would use
Bruins	Jacobs	Delaware North	Secret Stadium Sauce, Concessions at Bills games
Canadiens	Molson	Nothing	None
Canucks	Aquilini	Aquilini Investments	Rogers Arena, Aquillini Development
Capitals	Leonsis	None	Wizards
Devils	Vanderbeek	Lehman Brothers…oh wait…	None
Ducks	Samueli	Broadcomm	…all of technology? Let's skip this one
Flames	Edwards	None	Fernie Alpine Resort, Kimberley Alpine Resort, Nakiska, Stoneham Mountain Resort, and Mont-Sainte-Anne, Kicking Horse Resort
Flyers	Snider	Comcast	Comcast, NBCSports, Golf Channel
Hurricanes	Karamanos	Compuware	Covisint…or more likely nothing
Islanders	Wang	CA Technologies	CA Technologies
Jets	Chipman	True North Sports and Entertainment	Give him a pass...or boycott the MTS Centre and try boycotting Thomson-Reuters
Kings	Anschultz	Anschultz	Regal Theatres, Unit Artists Theatres, Staples Centre, many other sports complexes
Maple Leafs	Rogers/Bell	Rogers/Bell	Rogers/Bell, Real Sports Bar, Raptors, ACC, Marlies, Toronto FC, BMO Field
Oilers	Katz	Katz Group	Pharma Plus, Rexall, IDA
Panthers	who cares	Mpme	None
Penguins	Lemieux	None	Greatness?
Phoenix	Everyone Else on this list	NHL	Official NHL merchandise? If you're reading this I hope you weren't planning on buying any..
Predators	I have no idea	None	None
Rangers	MSG (James Dolan)	MSG	Madison Square Garden , Radio City Music Hall, Beacon Theatre, Chicago Theatre, The Forum, Knicks, New York Liberty ,Connecticut Whale
Red Wings	Illitch	Little Caesar's	Little Caesar's, Detroit Tigers
Sabres	Pegula	…Shell? I guess nothing since he doesn't own anything anymore	None
San Jose	…unclear	None	None
Senators	Melnyk	Biovail	Cesamet, Efudex, Mestinon, Diasta, Ribavrin (though you should consult a physician on this boycott)
St Louis	Checketts	SCP Wordlwide	Scottrade Centre, Rio Tinto Centre, Peabody Opera House, Real Salt Lake, Discovery Times Square Exposition
Stars	Gaglardi	Northland Properties	Denny's, Moxies (…that'll be hard), Sandman Hotels
Tampa Bay	Vinik	None	Boston Red Sox, Liverpool FC
Wild	Leopold	Ameritel	Ameritel Products

Surprising Teams for Free Agents

Let's go through a list of the 15 most sought after skater (in my opinion and not in order) unrestricted free agents and where they've signed (as of July 4th):
Suter, Parise - Minnesota
Jagr, Whitney - Dallas
Hudler, Wideman* - Calgary
Smyth, Schultz - Edmonton
Parenteau - Colorado
Garisson - Vancouver
Carle - Tampa
Jokinen - Winnipeg
Kuba - Florida
Semin and Doan - unsigned

Northwest Division - 8 players
Southeast Division - 3 players
Pacific Division - 2 players
..That's it.

Nothing from the traditional big players in the Northeast, the Central, or the Atlantic.
The top 10 most valuable NHL teams according to Forbes includes all original 6 teams at 1-6, followed by Vancouver, Philly, Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles.
Of these teams only the Canucks have been able to attract a player on that list.
That player was Jason Garisson of White Rock, B.C. who has less than 200 NHL games under his belt in 3 seasons with a grand total of 59 career points. Granted, last year he was 3rd in the league among D-men in goals and tied for 32nd in total points - but at $4.6M per season for 6 years he isn't exactly a superstar coming in.

 From all the rumours I hear all the big market teams are out there looking for free agents but it seems the free agents are looking equally at the smaller markets.
With Detroit, New York, Toronto, Boston, Montreal, Chicago, Vancouver, and Philadelphia losing their long held advantage you can be sure we're headed to a lockout.


 *Wideman wasn't really unrestricted, but he's included.

Colombus Blue Jackets Draft History and Russians

So I keep hearing that Columbus has had "bad luck with Russians" so they won't draft a Russian.
Let's look at their past top 10 picks.
Klesla
Leclaire
Nash
Zherdev
Picard
Brule
Brassard
Voracek
Filatov

I don't think the issue is that they've had bad luck with Russians.
I think the issue is that they're just bad at evaluating talent.