Illegal Curve Hockey

NHL Morning Papers (Holiday Monday Edition): Dany Heatley’s dad is happy, Brent Peterson continues his battle and should the Leafs send Vesa Toskala and Jason Blake to the minors?

Eric Duhatschek speaks with Ice Edge Holdings’ Darly Jones about the viability of the Phoenix market.
Bruce Dowbiggen of the Globe & Mail points out that Don Cherry doesn’t like that CBC has a color commentator betewen the benches at ice level.
The Ducks experienced an emotional let down game on Sunday versus the Rangers, writes Eric Stephens.
In injury news, Ducks defenseman James Wisniewski has a sprained shoulder and will be out of the lineup week-to-week.
Thrashers enforcer Eric Boulton knows that enforcers have to be able to play the game in this day and age.
Zdeno Chara knew he had to do more on Saturday versus the Islanders, so he took it upon himself to inrease his offensive responsibilities and it worked.
Milan Lucic has a new contract in hand but now he wants to get back to scoring goals.
Former Sabres forward Brent Peterson has Parkinson’s disease but isn’t letting it get in the way of his coaching responsibilities for Nashville.
Cory Sarich may return to the lineup tonight for Calgary when they take on Chicago.
After last season’s first round exit, Calgary will be looking for some sweet revenge when they play the Hawks tonight.
The Hawks defense not only is adept at preventing goals, but they are very good at creating goals as well, writes Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune.
Avalanche coach Joe Sacco coaches in Boston today, a place where he is fairly well known for his hockey achievements about twenty years ago.
The Blue Jackets love the potential of undrafted Nick Holden, however, the youngster is sitting out at Syracuse because he has mono.
So far this season, Columbus has been killing penalties at a very impressive rate.
The Stars’ record would be a lot better this year if the team could kill penalties or win a shootout.
Meanwhile, new Stars coach Marc Crawford’s family decided to stay in Vancouver instead of move to Dallas.
In Detroit, coach Mike Babcock said that the thinks Saturday’s game against Washington was the best game he’s seen Todd Bertuzzi play in years.
It appears that Sheldon Souray will be lost to the Oilers for at least the next two games with a concussion.

The Oilers will be without Sheldon Souray for at least the next two games. (Picture courtesy of cbc.ca)

It looks like Jeff Deslauriers will get his first start of the season in one of the next two games.
Edmonton is really happy with the progress of Ladislav Smid on the back-end.
With the Panthers struggling, coach Pete DeBoer wants his players to stop trying to do too much on their own.
“We have to get it right in a hurry or we’ll be in big trouble,” said Panthers netminder Tomas Vokoun about his team’s slow start.
Drew Doughty (face) is expected to suit up for the Kings today when they face the Islanders.
Both Cal Clutterbuck and Petr Sykora were injured in Saturday’s game against San Jose, so the Wild is looking at calling up some AHLers from Houston to fill the roster for the remainder of the team’s road trip.
Marc-Andre Bergeron is expected to join the Montreal roster sometime this week.’
Predators prospect Colin Wilson is closing in on a return to the lineup thanks to some new injury treatment.
Mark Everson of the NY Post explains what exactly happened with the Devils and Brendan Shanahan.
With his eye injury, Colin White has decided he will not fight anymore.
The Leafs’ penalty killing unit is just plain atrocious, writes Dave Shoalts of the Globe & Mail.
Sean Avery made the most of his return to the lineup, as the Rangers beat Anaheim for the team’s fourth straight win.
With another good start this season, the Rangers are being more cautious not to get too ahead of themselves like they did last season.
If the Senators defeat the high-flying Penguins on Monday, they will be tied for the most points in the Eastern Conference.
Ottawa’s record is encouraging so far, considering that none of the team’s big guns have really gotten going offensively.

The Senators are winning and Jason Spezza hasn't even started scoring yet. (Picture courtesy of tsn.ca)

The Flyers had a team bonding session on Sunday, in an attempt to bring the group closer together.
Regardless of their Saturday struggles, Sam Carchidi has seen more positives than negatives from Phiadelphia this season.
The Coyotes are confident they can beat the Sharks but only if they play as a group.
The maturation in Marc-Andre Fleury’s game is evident this season, writes Dave Molinari.
Meantime, it has been so far so good for the Penguins’ new line combinations.
Dany Heatley’s dad was probably the happiest guy in the world to see his son so loved in San Jose.
The Blues have to demonstrate a sense of urgency early in games if they want to be above .500.
In Tampa Bay, Antero Niittymaki will get his second straight start on Monday.
Staying in Tampa, Ryan Malone looks to be on a mission compared to last season.
Brian Burke should be bold and send Vesa Toskala and Jason Blake to the minors, writes Damien Cox.
In good injury news, Viktor Stalberg has not had any after effects after being hit by Anton Volchenkov last week.
The Vancouver Canucks were victorious last night, but did lose Sami Salo to injury.
Even though he scored, apparently Kyle Wellwood hasn’t read the scouting report, as he seemed to be caught off-guard by Marty Turco standing sideways to begin the shootout.
In injury news, Pavol Demitra’s rehab from a shoulder injury is not going well.