So … we’re well into July. Most of the big offseason action is over. Things are largely quiet. Pierre LeBrun is at his cottage. Most importantly, my editors are exhausted and not paying attention. And longtime readers know what that means.Welcome to Slow News Summer. It is time to get well and truly weird.OK, sure, a lot of what we do around here is weird at the best of times. I’ll grant you that. But the dog days of summer? That’s when it’s time to reach down deep on the ideas list. If that’s going to bother you, consider this your fair warning to tag out now, and we’ll see you in September. If you’re the sort of person who likes to post “slow news day?” in the comments, then yes, it absolutely is, so kick rocks. But for everyone else, let’s get weird.Today’s question: Which combination of syllables can build the all-time best starting lineup from NHL history?In other words, you count the syllables in both a player’s first and last name, and that’s their team. Wayne Gretzky has one syllable in his first name and two in his second, so he’s the captain of Team 1-2. Mario Lemieux is Team 3-2, Bobby Orr is Team 2-1, and so on.This should be fun. But first, a few ground rules ™:• Each team gets two forward lines, two defense pairings and a goaltender. Beyond that, we’re not worried about wingers vs. centers or which way the blueliners shoot.• We’ll go with whatever a player’s most common name was when they played, which may not be their formal government name. If there’s a dispute to be had about what a player’s “real” name was, we’ll use whatever is on their Hockey-Reference page (with one exception we’ll get to on our very first team).• We’ll do our best in cases where there could be different pronunciations, but will default to what a typical North American fan would use. If that doesn’t help, we’ll probably just skip the guy, because you should have better things to do than argue about this stuff on a hot summer’s day. (I don’t, but you should.)• We’re looking at a player’s entire career here, but for closer calls we’ll lean towards a “peak of his powers” view.This is dumb. I can’t wait.Family, friends and cows: How one player celebrated the NHL DraftPeter Baugh and Madison EadesTeam 1-1Our first team is a challenge, especially up front. We can start with one of the greatest goal-scorers of all time in Brett Hull. But from there, the list starts to dry up quickly.There’s Steve Shutt, a Hall of Famer with a 60-goal season, and Rick Nash, who won a Rocket Richard. But it’s not long before we’re down to Hall-of-Very-Good names such as Rick Vaive and Tim Kerr. Ken Hodge is there, as are Mark Stone and Shane Doan. But given the talent other teams will have available, that may not be enough. So instead, we’ll reach back to the league’s earlier days to find some HHOF names.Somewhat oddly, the back end for Team 1-1 is much easier. We’re all set in goal, with options such as Jacques Plante or Glenn Hall being strong enough that we don’t even really need to consider Grant Fuhr. And on the blue line, we can start with a pair of Bruins legends in Ray Bourque and Brad Park before mixing in a modern-day star in Quinn Hughes. The last spot comes down to Mark Howe, Rob Blake or Brent Burns, all solid options.(One note: Hockey-Reference lists Bourque’s name as Raymond and not Ray, but I’m overruling them. Everyone called him Ray, except for Gary Thorne that one time.)First line: Brett Hull, Steve Shutt, Rick Nash