Tonight is the first real night of HNIC in Canada this season and I couldn’t be more excited. As written about it before by Illegal Curve’s Neil Rockman, the CBC has made a variety of changes this season. Ron MacLean will be stationed at the CBC headquarters with Don Cherry in order to allow for the duo to pay closer attention to all the other games going on on a Saturday night. Additionally, the pregame show has been re-worked and the Satellite Hotstove has been tweaked. Regardless of all these changes, when I turn on the television at 6pm CST time this evening I will hear the classic HNIC theme song and just sit back and enjoy the best night of the week for hockey. With the Leafs/Habs and Flames/Canucks being the doubleheader, I recommend you do the same.
On to the morning papers:
- Damien Cox of the Toronto Star tells readers who he’d choose between Darryl Sittler and Mats Sundin.
- The Globe & Mail’s Eric Duhatschek with news and notes from around the NHL.
- The Canes received great performances from Eric Staal and Cam Ward, leading the team to a 4-1 win over the Pens on Friday night. Carolina is anxiously awaiting the return of Cory Stillman to the lineup so they can have their entire number one line in order.
- According to Ryan Whitney, the Penguins “didn’t show up to play” versus the Canes last night.
- The Capitals debuted with an impressive 3-1 victory over Atlanta on Friday night. According to Tarik El-Bashir of the Washington Post, there is no reason to read into the team starting Brent Johnson over Olaf Kolzig.
- The Thrashers can’t be any worse tonight in Tampa on Saturday than they were Friday night writes Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. While in Atlanta, Gary Bettman answered questions the state of the Thrashers and the NHL.
- The Stars needed a win and a bounce-back game from Marty Turco and they got both writes Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News.
- The Bruins were defeated 4-1 by the Stars on Friday night and coach Claude Julien explains that, “It’s not about systems. It’s about breakdowns and concentration.” As Fluto Shinwaza tells us in this morning’s Boston Globe, Manny Fernandez believes he has to work on his mental focus in order to perform better on the ice. Meanwhile, Kevin Paul Dupont of the Globe tries to get a few laughs from readers with this piece.
- Jeremy Roenick lead the Sharks to a 3-1 victory over the Canucks on Friday night. When asked whether he preferred his two goals over the steak he purchased last year at The Keg in Vancouver after being a healthy scratch he answered, “That steak at The Keg was really good, there’s no question about that. But I’ll take the two goals instead.”
- The Canucks performance wasn’t pretty last night writes Jason Botchford of the Vancouver Province.
- The Islanders’ off-season acquisitions made GM Garth Snow look very smart after the team defeated the Sabres 6-4 in their season opener on Friday night. Meanwhile, the Islanders have re-signed Radek Martinek to a three year contract extension worth $4.5 million.
- As Bucky Gleason of the Buffalo News explains, the Sabres have the talent, however, they need to improve on their work ethic. Coach Lindy Ruff was very unhappy with many aspects of the Sabres’ game including the large amount of turnovers, 30 by Ruff’s count.
- As Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch explains, the Blue Jackets were just full of energy in their impressive 4-0 victory over the defending Stanley Cup Champion Ducks. We can expect a whole new attitude from this Blue Jackets team than past versions writes Bob Hunter of the Dispatch.
- Dan Wood of the Orange County Register provides readers with the Anaheim perspective as the Ducks fell behind early to the Blue Jackets on Friday night and never could recover.
- The good news out of Chicago is that Martin Havlat will not need surgery on his injured left shoulder, the bad news is that it will be weeks before doctors can determine a course for rehab. Chris Kuc provides readers with more injury news out of Chicago and is reporting that Jonathan Toews will not dress tonight versus Detroit.
- With a four game road swing on the horizon, the Flames are emphasizing the importance of tonight’s home game versus the rival Canucks; Randy Sportak of Calgary Sun has the story. If you look at the statsheet from the Flames’ first game you will see Dion Phaneuf over the 30 minute mark in ice-time writes Sportak.
- The Red Wings face-off in Chicago tonight marking the team’s first time facing former teammate Robert Lang.
- Speaking of playing your former teammates, Joffrey Lupul returns to Edmonton tonight for the first time since his off-season trade; suffice to say that Jason Smith’s return will generate far more positive fan reaction. The fact is, Smith is just one of the good guys in the NHL that teammates gravitate towards writes Derek Van Diest of the Edmonton Sun.
- Another member of the Jason Smith trade, Geoff Sanderson is now 35 years old, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t still have to go out and prove himself writes Joanne Ireland in this morning’s Edmonton Journal.
- Coach Jacques Martin is a big fan of the Jay Bouwmeester/Brian Allen pairing as the team’s number one defensive unit writes Kevin Clark of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. After a summer spent in the gym, Nathan Horton is ready to take the next step and become one of Panthers’ top stars.
- Luc Robitaille is working on bridging the Kings with the Hollywood community hoping for similar results to the Gretzky days.
- Lisa Dillman of the the L.A. Times profiles the first NHL meeting of old friends David Perron and Jonathan Bernier in tonight’s Blues/Kings contest.
- After reading this article by Kent Youngblood in the Star Tribune it is probably fair to call Jacques Lemaire a perfectionist.
- There is nothing better than a Red Fisher article and the legend doesn’t disappoint in this morning’s Gazette with an article about the terrific job the Habs’ community-relations group has done raising money for worthy causes. Fisher provides readers with yet another article this morning, this time with a focus on the story of Kirk Muller and his road to Montreal.
- According to Brent Sutter, Kevin Weekes may get the call in goal tonight versus the Panthers. In other Devils’ news, John Madden and Jay Pandolfo have been reunited on a line together, however, don’t expect them to be matched up exclusively against the Panthers’ top line.
- According to Larry Brooks of the NY Post, Rangers’ coach Tom Renney is considering giving his youngsters Marc Staal and Brandon Dubinsky the night off versus the Senators on Saturday night. You have to wonder why the Garden faithful take to booing Marek Malik considering the big rearguard is a phenomenal +63 in his two plus years with the Rangers.
- The Predators will be without Shea Weber, their best all-around defenseman, for 3-6 weeks. Finnish rearguard Ville Koistinen will replace Weber on the blueline.
- Senators’ winger Daniel Alfredsson has averaged over 25 minutes a game during the team’s first two regular season contests. Hometown boy Luke Richardson is expected to make his Senators debut tonight versus the Rangers on HNIC.
- After an impressive win in Calgary, the Flyers now face the task of playing against the young and speedy Oilers writes Tim Panaccio of the Philadelphia Inquirer. (Writer’s note: I am interested to see how the Oilers’ youngsters will respond after their impressive victory over the Sharks Thursday night. Either way, the Oilers’ foot speed should cause lots of problems for the rather slow Flyers’ defense.)
- The past few days have been a whirlwind for Ryan Caldwell of the Coyotes writes Jim Gintonio of the Arizona Republic.
- Eric Brewer injured his shoulder in a fight on Thursday night and has been placed on ,will which will result in him missing at least the next seven days of action.
- You can’t help but love Chris Gratton’s passion for the game and willingness to stand up for his teammates.
- Leafs’ forward Matt Stajan is in much better shape after his off-season training program writes Paul Hunter of the Toronto Star. After going 0-for with the man-advantage in their first two games, the Leafs concentrated on their powerplay in practice on Friday.
For Illegal Curve, I’m Richard Pollock.