Monday Morning NHL Papers (Western Conference): Scott Howson backs Ken Hitchcock, Chuck Fletcher’s early success in Minnesota and lots of scouts at Ducks game

Atlantic Division

• Coach Joel Quenneville says backup netminder Antti Niemi deserves a little bit more playing time.  Patrick Sharp has no problem with playing center.
• Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson says that Ken Hitchcock’s job is completely safe.  Meanwhile, the Jackets have too many significant players that have a negative plus/minus.
• Chris Osgood knows the Wings aren’t as good as they were last season, so he needs to get his game in shape more quickly.  Kris Draper really rallied the Red Wings with some passionate words.  “Yeah, things were said and we obviously took it to heart,” said Dan Cleary about Draper’s comments.
• John Glennon looks at how many Predators could be representing their countries at the Olympics.
• The Blues have been a pretty good team in the shootout this season, writes Jeremy Rutherford.

Northwest Division

• Brent Sutter’s vision from the summer is beginning to come to fruition, writes Randy Sportak.  Olli Jokinen has been great as of late, especially after being criticized in a number of circles, but he’s not gloating.
• Avalanche rookie Ryan O’Reilly continues to make an impact in Denver, even though he hasn’t kept up his early season pace.
• “We talked about winning four or five in a row. We have to,” said Ethan Moreau about the Oilers, who visit Florida tonight.  “Nobody is folding the tent,” says locker room leader Sheldon Souray.
• Michael Russo of the Star Tribune talks about the early success of new Wild GM Chuck Fletcher.
• The Canucks will only be happy with their road trip results if they defeat Nashville.

Pacific Division

• The Ducks demonstrated good persistence last night, but couldn’t win in the shootout, writes Robyn Norwood.  The Ducks aren’t playing well, so that probably has something to do with there being ten scouts at the game on Sunday.  The Ducks are trying to see what they have in Brett Festerling.
• Dallas coach Marc Crawford knows that teams target the Stars’ young defense so his team needs to play good team defense.
• Anze Kopitar has no goals in his last twelve games, so he is going to try and break that streak tonight as his team hosts Calgary.
• Ilya Brygalov is hiding some of the Coyotes’ mistakes that coach Dave Tippett wants to fix.  Mikkel Boedker is doing his best to try and stick in Phoenix.

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