Jochen Hecht of the Sabres is experiencing scary concussion symptoms that have alarmed his team. (Bill Wippert/NHLI via Getty Images)

When we spoke with Ken Dryden for our post earlier this week on concussions, he proposed an annual conference on head injuries that would involve every aspect of the hockey community. The first item on his ideal agenda would be to hear from those who have suffered concussions and give these players a chance to “tell their stories, very simply. This is what it’s like, this is the impact, these are the consequences, these are the stakes.”  That would certainly open the proceedings with an emotional wallop.

That was on our mind when we came across an item by John Vogl in The Buffalo News about center Jochen Hecht of the Sabres being concussed in Saturday’s game against the Blues, but the symptoms not emerging until Tuesday at practice.

“He’s not good,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said after Tuesday’s game in New Jersey. “Wasn’t feeling bad [Monday]. He took a hit from [T.J.] Oshie in St. Louis, kind of an elbow — and came off [Tuesday] and he was a mess. He couldn’t focus. Emotionally, he was really unstable. He’s in a tough place right now. We’re worried. … To come off and be the way he was tells you that there’s something wrong.”

That’s scary stuff. This is Hecht’s second concussion of the season and third in less than a year. As we know, each one makes the victim more vulnerable in the future and potentially makes the reaction more severe.  We wish him well. As Dryden said, “This is an ongoing thing. It’s not something that’s random bad luck. This is tomorrow unless you start finding a way to make a better tomorrow.”

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The Flyers are the most conspicuous of the many teams that were overhauled or made major moves. (Christopher Szagola-US PRESSWIRE)

The new season is almost upon us and there will be stories to be told in the league’s 30 locales. But there are also overarching tales that will affect them all, or at least many of them. It’s the big picture that concerns us today, so here are some of the main themes — listed in no particular order of importance — that will likely provide texture beyond the wins, losses and matches decided by the postgame skills competition.

1. Chemistry Experiments – During the 2007 offseason, after missing the playoffs, the Flyers cleared out copious amounts of cap space and remade their roster by acquiring Danny Briere, Kimmo Timonen and Scott Hartnell. Two years later, the Canadiens did the same on a larger scale. This past offseason, what seems like an unprecedented number of teams made dramatic changes to their rosters in an effort to change their fortunes.
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Red Deer center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is considered the top of a weak crop. (Lionel Switzer/Icon SMI)

The names of Stanley Cup champions Todd Marchand and Tyler Seguin, plus Jeff Skinner — who won the Calder Trophy as top NHL rookie on Wednesday — Michael Grabner, and most of their fellow first-year NHL cohorts weren’t as widely known a year ago as they are now. But being drafted by an NHL club gave them the opportunity to show their stuff at the game’s top level, and that opportunity will be extended to another 210 players this weekend. The seven-round NHL Entry Draft, which begins in St. Paul on Friday evening and continues on Saturday, will be many fans’ introductions to names they’ll be hearing and seeing in the NHL sometime in the future.

Follow the draft as it happens on the SI.com Draft Tracker.

Unlike fans of pro football and pro basketball who are more able to follow the exploits of the top college stars in those sports, the majority of NHL fans only get vague glimmers of recognition or even draw blanks for the names Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Adam Larsson, Jonathan Huberdeau, Gabriel Landeskog, and Sean Couturier. For scouts, draft geeks and fans of junior and college hockey, however, these names are quite familiar as young players whose progress they’ve tracked for a while. And that progress frames the drama — and the tedium — that will play out this weekend on the draft floor.
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The Montreal Canadiens, who were a big surprise story in last spring's playoffs, provided hockey with an amusing moment as the curtain was coming down on 2010. (Scott Audette/NHLI via Getty Images)

The Hockey Gods must have been very amused to hear a league executive raise the possibility of a rain delay during an NHL game. They responded by making a team take a too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty and, while killing it, take a second too-many-men penalty. For good measure in another game, the gods made a team’s player shoot a puck off the crossbar and into the stands where it hit his wife.
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They’re calling it “The Big Chill at the Big House,” and it’s going to draw a big crowd.

Before there was a Winter Classic, even before the first NHL outdoor game between the Canadiens and Oilers in 2003, there was “The Cold War” between long-time rivals Michigan and Michigan State in October, 2001, that  drew 74,544 fans to Spartan Stadium in East Lansing and ended in a 3-3 tie.  The game set a record for the largest crowd at a hockey game until last May when the opening game of the IIHF World Championship between Germany and the USA drew 77,803 to Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

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Logan Couture, who scored twice against the Red Wings on Monday night, is quietly having a Calder Trophy-worthy season. (AP Photos)

The NHL’s rookie hype machine needs a few adjustments because it’s overlooking perhaps the best all-around first year player so far this season: Logan Couture of the San Jose Sharks.

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