Here are the morning papers for Friday the 14th of November:
- Even with Brian Burke’s deparature from Anaheim, coach Randy Carlyle doesn’t expect much to change.
- The confident Thrashers try for their fifth straight win tonight versus Carolina.
- The Bruins continued their terrific play on Thursday with a dominating performance over the rival Habs. Milan Lucic did his best Cam Neely impression. In other news, you can put any Brian Burke to Boston rumors to bed.
- Patrick Lalime will start one of Friday or Saturday for the Sabres. Tim Connolly (bruised chest) is questionable for tonight’s game.
- The Flames allowed a shot per minute in San Jose during the first period and the game was basically over after 20 minutes, writes Scott Cruickshank. “We were bad,” said captain Jarome Iginla.
- The Hurricanes know they have to start bringing their “A” game, writes Luke Decock. Injured winger Justin Williams was on the ice yesterday for some light skating.
- Denis Savard is now an ambassador for the Blackhawks.
- Avalanche youngster T.J. Hensick is starting to come into his own, writes Adrian Dater.
- The Blue Jackets have an extra goalie hanging around and the three netminders are doing their best to not step on each other’s toes. Here are the Jackets’ projected lines for tonight’s game.
- The Stars lost again last night to Los Angeles and captain Brenden Morrow says, “talk is cheap.”
- Chris Osgood got bailed out by his teammates on Thursday, as the Red Wings defeated the Bolts 4-3 in Tampa Bay. Barry Melrose is impressed with the Red Wings organizaiton as a whole.
- The Oilers didn’t bring it for a full 60 minutes and ended up on the losing end of a 5-2 scoring to the visiting Maple Leafs. Derek Van Diest of the Edmonton Sun tells you more about new Oilers enforcer Jesse Boulerice.
- Greg Campbell may see his ice-time increase in Florida.
- The Wild, on the back of Marek Zidlicky’s three points, thoroughly dominated the Coyotes last night and recorded a 4-0 victory. Sure Wayne Gretzky is the greatest scorer of all-time but that doesn’t mean he won’t preach defensive reponsibility to his players, writes Michael Russo.
- Is there reason to be concerned about the Habs after last night’s terrible loss at Boston?
- Radek Bonk is questionable for the Predators’ game tonight against Anaheim.
- Brent Sutter is fully behind his captain Jamie Langenbrunner, even when people are holding him responsible for some of the Devils’ struggles.
- The Islanders didn’t find a way to blow their third period lead in Ottawa on Thursday and came away with a 3-1 win. The Josh Bailey and Kyle Okposo combination sure made Islanders fans feel good about the future.
- In New York, his Rangers teammates believe you have get to Nikolai Zherdev the puck if you want him to flourish.
- The Senators were dreadful last night. Ken Warren of the Ottawa Citizen wonders just how low the Senators can go.
- The Flyers placed Lasse Kukkonen on waivers on Thursday. On the ice, Mike Richards turned the puck over late in last night’s game at Pittsburgh and the Flyers ended up losing 5-4 in a shootout. Sure they gave up four regulation goals, but coach John Stevens wasn’t discouraged.
- Penguins defenseman Alex Goligolski made up for a poor game last night with the shootout winner. Did you know the Penguins are on a 109 point pace and really haven’t played as well as they can? In injury news, Ryan Whitney may practice next week.
- There were no blown leads for the Sharks on Thursday, as they handed the Flames their lunch with a 6-1 home victory.
- The Blues have sent Alex Pietrangelo back to the OHL. The Blues have to stop falling behind early in games, writes Jeremy Rutherford.
- Gary Shelton of the Tampa Tribune says there is no sense of calm in Tampa Bay. The Bolts tried new line combinations against Detroit last night, but they lost anyways.
- Damien Cox speculates as to how much Brian Burke could make as GM of the Leafs. Apparently Burke is a wanted man in NHL circles. Oh yeah, the Leafs still play hockey on the ice too, as they defeated the Oilers 5-2 at Rexall Place last night. It was nice to see Jason Blake breakout of his slump.
- The Canucks have Kevin Bieksa for at least two weeks with a fractured foot. Here are the pictures of the Canucks’ new third jerseys. (Writer’s note: Look just about no different than anything we’ve seen.)
- It looks like Jose Theodore will start tonight for the Capitals.
For Illegal Curve, I’m Richard Pollock.