Trying to put Nashville's 400th franchise win in perspective isn't easy. After the Predators 2-1 win in Atlanta, head coach Barry Trotz was a bit taken aback. As the only coach the Nashville franchise has had since it arrived on the National Hockey League scene for the 1998-99 season, Trotz took his place among some of the NHL's greatest coaching legends as one of seven coaches to win 400 games with one franchise.

Trotz joined Scotty Bowman (accomplished the feat twice with Montreal and Detroit), Dick Irvin (Montreal), Toe Blake (Montreal), Billy Reay (Chicago) and Al Arbour (N.Y. Islanders) as the only head coaches in NHL history to accomplish the feat.

Perhaps more telling about Trotz's accomplishments, now in his 11th season in Nashville, is that he is the only coach of any NHL expansion franchise that has yet to resign or be fired.

Despite Being Traded from Washington to Carolina, Defenseman Brian Pothier Still Has Playoff Hopes

In the span of one NHL trade call on March 3, veteran defenseman Brian Pothier went from first place to last place and dropped 33 points in the standings. Such is life for a pending unrestricted free agent earning $2.5 million per season.

The Capitals needed to clear salary cap space at the trade deadline to make room for the newly acquired Eric Belanger, Scott Walker, Joe Corvo and Milan Jurcina. Washington general manager George McPhee surrendered Pothier to Carolina in a deal that sent Joe Corvo to the Caps.

Now with his fourth NHL team during his nine-season NHL career, Pothier has remained positive despite going for first-to-last.

"It's part of the business of hockey. Obviously, it's emotional because you're in an organization with your buddies, you've got a house and kids in school, and you're invested in the community," Pothier said. "I was pretty active in the community there. All that stuff is tough to leave but at the very same time it's an exciting time for me because I have an opportunity to come and try to do something real special with this team to try to put a run together to slip into the playoffs, and to play a different role too."

That role includes being paired in Carolina with Team USA Olympian Tim Gleason and getting minutes on both the power play and penalty kill for head coach Paul Maurice. Pothier's time on special teams in Washington was limited.

No rest for the weary as the trade deadline approaches

A mere six hours after Team Canada captured the gold medal in overtime over Team USA, it's back to business as usual for NHL players in all 30 cities. But, before all the players can fully concentrate on the final 20-plus games of the regular season, a 63-hour storm must first subside. In Atlanta, the furious winds accompanying the trade deadline storm blow hardest for the nine soon-to-be unrestricted free agents, who will be able to market their services leaguewide if they don't re-sign with the Thrashers before July 1.

Defenseman Pavel Kubina replaces former Thrasher Ilya Kovalchuk as the most marketable and desireable player as the March 3, 3 p.m. deadline approaches. Kubina, who was acquired during the off-season from Toronto, is a solid defenseman with an alluring offensive skillset. His $5 million price tag might be a bit too steep for the budget-conscious, rebuilding Thrashers, because his numbers suggest a substantial raise is in order this summer. Just back from Vancouver where he represented the Czech Republic in the Olympic Games, Kubina was looking forward to an afternoon off after his first post-Vancouver practice.

"Obviously I spent the last two weeks in Vancouver. I was concentrating on the Czech Republic team over there and I would have liked to have seen better results. It came down to one game and we lost to Finland and there is nothing you can do it about it now," Kubina said. "We have 20 games left here and all I am worrying about is focusing on the game on Tuesday (against the Florida Panthers), and making the playoffs with this team.

Commentary: Annual International Competitions Should Be Held In Late Summer

The men's Olympic tournament demonstrates that international hockey is as intriguing, if not more so, than the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It also demonstrates the need for moving the Olympic tournament, the annual IIHF World Hockey Championships and the World Cup of Hockey to late August-early September every year, rather than disrupting regular season schedules worldwide.

Players residing on successful NHL and international teams could play as many as 120 games in the current format in the span of nine months. Moving the two-week international competitions to my suggested time frame will provide every player a minimum of two months off (others not qualifying for the Stanley Cup Finals would get as much as four months off) prior to these international competitions and a three-week break prior to the start of the NHL's regular season.