NHL Morning Papers (Friday Edition)

• With the whole Rick Tocchet issue coming to a close yesterday, Eric Duhatschek says that Gary Bettman has avoided a nightmare.
• Stephen Brunt of the Globe & Mail believes Rick Tocchet did the NHL a favor by pleading out and not taking his case to court.
• Kevin Allen of USA Today believes that Don Waddell may be the best choice to coach the Thrashers.

Here are the Eastern Conference morning papers:

• The Thrashers had a furious third period rally but their play in the first two periods put them in too deep of a hole and they were defeated by Ottawa 6-4. While all the talk surrounding the Thrashers concerns Marian Hossa’s contract coming up on free agency, no one is talking about captain Bobby Holik also hitting free agency this summer.
• Claude Julien wants the Bruins to play to win, not to play not to lose and that strategy paid off last night in the Bruins 4-3 overtime victory over Buffalo. With Patrice Bergeron out of the lineup, the Bruins are attempting to replace their best all-around player by committee.
• Ryan Miller was outplayed by Tim Thomas and the Sabres were defeated by the Bruins in Boston 4-3.
• The NHL will be reviewing a couple of diving calls that went against the Hurricanes in their game Wednesday at Florida writes Lorenzo Perez.
• Olli Jokinen isn’t sure why he plays better at home than on the road but the Panthers need him to make sure he brings his game up a notch away from home as they have the majority of their games on the road in November. In other Panthers’ news, Richard Zednik is looking more like his former self writes Mike Phillips of the Miami Herald.
• The Habs had a dominating effort last night over the Flyers defeating them 5-2 writes Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette. After seeing the Flyers resort to violent play late in last night’s contest, Hickey wonders if the team’s recent violent acts are maybe a product of the way they always play.
• The Devils have been very happy with the play of rookie David Clarkson writes Rich Chere of the Newark Star-Ledger. Mark Everson of the NY Post wonders if Brent Sutter’s attempts to motivate his star forward Patrik Elias may turn out to be quite risky.
• The Capitals were snakebitten in New York last night, but all the credit has to go to Henrik Lundqvist who was brilliant in shutting out the Caps 2-0.
• The Rangers have played shutdown defensive hockey pretty much all season now points out John Dellapina in this morning’s NY Daily News. Larry Brooks of the NY Post thinks everyone is foolish if they try and decide who the leader of the Rangers is and leave Lundqvist out of the equation.
• The Senators completely dominated the Thrashers for the first two periods and hung on to win 6-4 on the back of Daniel Alfredsson’s four point night. Bruch Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun believes whomever loses out on the Peter Forsberg sweepstakes will make an attempt to obtain Marian Hossa from the Thrashers.
• Ed Moran of the Philadelphia Inquirer has the details of a recent meeting between Flyers’ GM Paul Holmgren and Peter Forsberg.
• The Penguins blew a 2-0 lead on the road last night in Colorado, falling to the Avalanche 3-2. Former Penguins’ defenseman Paul Coffey has been voted into the team’s Hall of Fame.
• Ruslan Fedotenko made his former squad regret letting him leave via free agency as he had one of the four tallies in the Islanders’ 4-0 victory over the Lightning.
• With Bryan McCabe on the shelf, the Leafs’ have made Nik Antropov one of their alternate captains. Both Kyle Wellwood and Mark Bell will accompany the Leafs on their upcoming road trip. Mike Zeisberger of the Toronto Sun is reporting that the Leafs looks like they will finally be getting the go-ahead to build their new practice rink.

The Western Conference morning papers are soon to follow…

• Last night’s 3-0 loss to the Predators marks the first time the Canucks have been three games under .500 since the 2001/02 season writes Brad Zeimer of the Vancouver Sun. Not only did the Canucks lose the game but they lost both Sami Salo and Kevin Bieksa to injuries.
• Derek Boogard only served the motivate the Blues last night as they defeated the Wild 3-2 in St. Paul. Brad Boyes is continuing his terrific play for the Blues and is showing no signs of letting up. It looks like rookie defenseman Erik Johnson will be ready to return to the St. Louis lineup this weekend.
• It has not taken Sharks’ rookie Devon Setoguchi long to make an impact for the Sharks up front.
• Jim Gintonio of the Arizona Republic has the details behind Rick Tocchet’s eligibilty to return from league suspension.
• Predators’ netminder Dan Ellis shutout the Canucks 3-0 last night and looks to be making a hard charge after Chris Mason’s job.
• Jacques Lemaire said the top line of Koivu-Gaborik-Demitra was the team’s best by a country mile in their 3-2 loss to the Blues; however, the rest of the team can play a lot better. According to Michael Russo of the Star Tribune, expect rookie James Sheppard to see his ice-time increase.
• Kyle Calder will be out of the Kings lineup indefinitely with a fractured thumb.
• The Oilers’ brass is talking about Fernando Pisani’s return in weeks and months as opposed to if he’ll come back at all writes Robert Tychkowski of the Edmonton Sun. In other Oilers’ news, Robert Nilsson is going to try his best to stay up with the big-club this go-around. Defenseman Matt Greene will be out of the lineup for three months but says the injury could have been a lot worse.
• The Wings swept through their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 record, marking the first time they have done that since the Atlanta Flames moved to Calgary. Wings’ forward Johan Franzen is okay after taking a shot to the head from teammate Brett Lebda.
• In Dallas, Dave Tippett is challenging Dallas’ stars to be better writes J.J. Taylor of the Dallas Morning News.
• The Blue Jackets were defeated by the Ducks in arguably the most physical hockey game played in the 2007/08 season.
• The Chicago Tribune’s Chris Kuc gets the inside look at the mundane non-hockey life of rooke Patrick Kane.
• The return of Mathieu Schneider not only solidified the Ducks defense, but also gave them the shootout victory as Schneider was the lone player from either side to convert his shootout attempt.
• Jarome Iginla thinks the Flames “over-respected” the Wings last night in his team’s 4-1 loss. “We tried to beat the Detroit Red Wings by playing like the Red Wings,” said Flames’ defenseman Robyn Regehr.

For Illegal Curve, I’m Richard Pollock.