NHL Morning Papers (Friday Edition): Red Fisher says Brian Gionta is the leader of the Habs, Ryan Kesler looking for contract extension and is Miikka Kiprusoff struggling or not?

• Ducks forward Evgeny Artyukhin has been suspended for three games by the NHL for a slew-foot incident.
• The Thrashers reunited the Little White Russian line on Thursday, but to no avail, as the team came up short 5-4 at home versus Washington.
• The Bruins are admittedly in survival mode, so they’ll take yesterday’s hard earned point against Philadelphia.
• Could the injuries to Milan Lucic and Marc Savard cost them in their Olympic aspirations?
• Meantime, don’t expect Brendan Shananan to appear on the Bruins’ radar.
• Some former Sabres had to wait an awful long time to sign a free agent contract this past summer, writes John Vogl.
• Randy Sportak of the Calgary Sun thinks people who say Miikka Kiprusoff is struggling are dead wrong.

Has Miikka Kiprusoff been good or bad? (Picture courtesy of cbc.ca)

• Rene Bourque is the type of player that Darryl Sutter has focused on acquiring instead of veteran players.
• In Carolina, Cam Ward and Eric Staal both admit to thinking about making Team Canada.
• In injury news in Chicago, both Jonathan Toews and Brent Seabrook appear to be healing well from their Wednesday night injuries.
• Craig Anderson has been on fire for the Avalanche but he gets a rest against the Hurricanes with Peter Budaj starting between the pipes.
• The Blue Jackets penalty killing was tops in the NHL but the Oilers demonstrated that small sample size doesn’t always mean success, as Edmonton capitalized with the man advantage to come all the way back from a three-goal deficit to win.
• Meanwhile, Mike Commodore was expected to play last night in Alberta, but he did not.
• The Stars made a nice comeback effort last night in Los Angeles, but an early overtime goal by Michal Handzus resulted in a 5-4 loss.
• In good news, Stars forward Brad Richards returned to the lineup yesterday.
• That is now two straight games where the Wings have coughed up a late third period lead and ended up losing.
• At least Pavel Datsyuk was back in the lineup last night for Detroit, and he looked good at that.
• One Detroit columnist wonders if the Wings are over the hill?
• Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal compares last night’s comeback excitement against Columbus to that of a game in the mid-80s.
• Ken Hitchcock only has nice things to say about Gilbert Brule.

Ken Hitchcock has nothing but things to say about Gilbert Brule. (Picture courtesy of tsn.ca)

• “But if you are not going to outbattle the guy across from you for the puck or get your nose dirty to score a goal, that is a huge part of the game,” said a frustrated Peter DeBoer.
• The Kings made it harder on themselves than they had to, but they still came away with a 5-4 overtime win, writes Helene Elliot.
• In Minnesota, Brent Burns might do well to simplify his game from the outset, explains Michael Russo.
• Last night was an all-around effort from the Canadiens, as they dominated the visiting Islanders.
• Brian Gionta is the leader of this squad, opines Red Fisher.
• It was probaly more exciting than they would have liked, but the Predators halted their losing skid with an overtime win at Ottawa. 
• The main reason for the Predators’ high-scoring output yesterday was their offensive defensemen.
• Martin Brodeur was happy to break his struggles against the Rangers with a 4-2 victory at MSG.
• The way the Islanders played in their own zone last night, they weren’t going to beat anybody, writes Katie Strang.
• John Tortorella may do something with his forward lines for next game after calling them “stale”.
• The Rangers were outworked last night, writes Larry Brooks.
• “We were excited to come back. It’s unfortunate we lost because it was a great comeback, probably one of the best we’ve ever had,” said Jason Spezza after the Senators’ crazy 6-5 loss to Nashville.
• Alex Picard wasn’t exactly sturdy on the team’s back-end last night.
• It wasn’t the most exciting game, but the Flyers will take any win they can get.
• The Flyers are admittedly tired of practice, as they’ve only played two games in twleve days.
• Martin Hanzal’s line led the comeback against the defending Western Conference champions for the Coyotes on Thursday.
• The injury to Sergei Gonchar means more ice-time for Alex Goligoski and Kris Letang.
• Sure all the talk is about Crosby/Malkin but the Penguins have one of the best third lines in the NHL.
• Once again, the Sharks gave up the first goal to the opposing team and couldn’t come back from it.
• In St. Louis, the Blues are struggling and many are waiting for Brad Boyes to starting rounding into old form.

When is Brad Boyes going to get going for St. Louis? (Picture courtesy of canoe.ca)

• Rookie James Wright scored his first career goal, as the Lightning defeated the Sharks 5-2.
• Meantime, Dan Boyle was glad to be back in Tampa last night.
• James Mirtle wonders if Vesa Toskala is out of chances in Toronto?
• It looks like Luke Schenn may in fact be a healthy scratch in his homecoming game in Vancouver this Saturday.
• In funny news, apparently someone dressed up as Brian Burke for the Leafs’ Halloween party.
• Ryan Kesler is looking for a contract extension and his agent isn’t shy about his alleged value.
• The Capitals usually rely on Alexander Ovechkin to drive the offense, but yesterday in Atlanta it was the organization’s secondary scorers that got it done.