The NHL isn't holding their Premiere series next season. The popular start to the season obviously got scrapped this year with the lockout, and it'll be scrapped for the time being. Why? Because the league doesn't want it to just be a novelty outreach to the European markets. Instead, it wants a more permanent outreach.

This makes sense; the NHL has more European players than any league other than maybe Major League Soccer. Major League Baseball focuses on their richest non-American market, the Caribbean and Latin American countries, all of the time. While moving the Expos to Puerto Rico for a season is debatable marketing, it still showed baseball's ability to know where the money comes from -- and where a lot of good players come from.

The NHL trade deadline has come and gone, signaling that we are truly in the last stages of the 2013 season. Have teams responded to the increased pressure and urgency by dropping the mitts? Not really. In a somewhat surprising turn of events, there weren't very many fights to judge from last week. As teams battle for just a handful of playoff spots, they're deploying their skill players as opposed to their muscle and grit. 

The end result is that this might be one of the most lackluster Hockey Fights of the Week since the column debuted back in January. Let's hope as more and more teams fall out of the race that we can end the season with a couple of memorable bouts. 

Alex Ovechkin has received a huge amount of criticism over the past few seasons. Most of this heat has stemmed from disappointment over the forward's inability to recapture the elite form we witnessed for the better part of five seasons. A lot of this criticism has been deserved as Ovechkin has looked lost on the ice, seemingly uninterested in giving it his all. 

The pattern persisted into the 2013 seasons, with analysts such as Mike Milbury calling out Ovechkin for his play. Milbury, unsurprisingly, crossed a line by stating Ovechkin needs to "act like a man." It's safe to say other analysts might have thought even worse of the forward's game, but they were smart enough to keep it off of national television. 

How has Ovechkin responded to his critics? He started by calling out Milbury's lack of success as a GM. He then went on a tear, turning his game around and silencing his critics - including Milbury. 

David Backes has had a tough time lighting the lamp this season. Entering his team's game on Friday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets, Backes had just four goals in 35 games. Coming off a 24-goal 2011-12 and a 31-goal 2010-11, fans were wondering why Backes was struggling to find the back of the net.

As it turns out, maybe he just needs to shoot the puck while he's on his back. 

Zach Redmond is pretty lucky to be in a position where he can consider a return to the NHL. In fact, Redmond is extremely fortunate to even be alive. If you recall, Redmond suffered a horrifying injury back on February 21st when a teammate accidentally stepped on his leg during practice, slicing his leg open and cutting the femoral artery. Thanks to the quick actions of teammates and team doctors out on the ice, Redmond not only survived, but is expected to make a full recovery.

Roughly six weeks later, Redmond is back on the ice skating and has one of the ugliest scars in the NHL. 

Be warned - the photo below is not for the faint of heart. 

Fighting Evander Kane isn't usually something people enter into lightly, at least not after his one and done knockout of Matt Cooke a couple years ago. He's not only one of the best forwards in the league (and probably the best player on the Winnipeg Jets), he's also got a little temper on him. Alexei Emelin learned the hard way that chirping and antagonizing Kane usually doesn't end well.

Once in a while a player will switch jersey numbers. This is usually done to accommodate new arrivals to the team. One such instance is Penguins left-winger Tanner Glass, who wore the number 10 until Pittsburgh acquired Brenden Morrow. Morrow was number 10 on the Dallas Stars, so Glass decided he would switch to number 15 to open up the jersey number so Morrow could wear it. 

Nice gesture, right? Well, what about all those fans who went out and bought Tanner’s jersey with 10 on the back and sleeves? 

The 2013 NHL trade deadline is officially in the books. While we all expected trades to be rather hard to come by due to the shortened season and the crowded playoff picture, we were treated to a wealth of activity not only in the days leading up to the deadline but on deadline day itself. 

The dust is still settling on many transactions, but it's never too early to try and assess which teams won and lost the 2013 deadline. 

Keep in mind that in numerous cases it's pretty difficult to assign a clear winner. Some teams helped themselves right now while others tried to build for the future. Still, though it may take years before we can truly analyze some of these trades which involved prospects or future draft picks, we can make an immediate assessment based on our gut instinct on how we think things will pan out. 

After months of constant rumors and speculation, Roberto Luongo remains a member of the Vancouver Canucks after the trade deadline. The news that Luongo will remain with the club until at least the summer even inspired a rare "I haven't been traded" press conference from the goaltender shortly after the deadline passed. 

Why wasn't Luongo traded? The answer likely lies in the fact he still has nine years left on his bloated 12-year, $64 million contract - a contract that Luongo personally describes as one that "sucks."

Ottawa Senators goaltender Ben Bishop was rumored to be on the block today thanks to the impending return of starter Craig Anderson. Bishop's outstanding play this season (8-5-0 with a .922 SV% and a 2.45 GAA) has really inflated his trade value well over what the Senators had to give up to the Blues last year to get him.

This is going to hurt for Blues fans, as Bishop got the Blues a second rounder last year. This year? He's earned the Senators Cory Conacher and a fourth-round pick. Conacher, you might recall, is often mentioned in the Calder Trophy contest. So far in his rookie season the forward has nine goals and 15 assists, which is exactly what Ottawa needs right now considering their top scorers are getting hurt quite a bit.