NHL Morning Papers (Monday Edition)

Here are the national morning papers:

• Jim Matheson of the National Post says you would be foolish if you didn’t expect a lot of tears tonight when Mark Messier takes the podium for his Hall of Fame induction speech.
• Mike Brehm of USA Today takes a look at each of the four Hall of Fame inductees and their respective qualifications.

Here are the Eastern Conference morning papers:

• In this morning’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Bill Tiller wonders if Thrashers’ GM and coach Don Waddell will have a goaltending controversy on his hands when Kari Lehtonen returns from injury.
• The Bruins were happy to end their four-game losing streak on Saturday and, as a result, were given Sunday off. Bruins’ goaltender Tim Thomas has been absolutely tremendous this season writes Stephen Harris of the Boston Herald.
• The Sabres have only scored four goals in their last four games and now sit tied with the Oilers and Capitals for last place in the NHL standings.
• Luke Decock of the News Observer profiles Hall of Fame inductee Ron Francis in this morning’s paper. In other Canes’ news, injured forward Andrew Ladd is hoping to be able to take part in battle drills and practice by Tuesday.
• The Panthers are hoping to get Bryan Allen back from his concussion for Thursday’s game against the Capitals. Meanwhile, Florida forward Brett McLean will be out of the lineup for a while as an Ilya Kovalchuk slapshot broke the metacarpal bone in his right finger.
• Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette details the maturation and progression of Habs’ defenseman Mike Komisarek.
• Rich Chere of the Newark Star-Ledger provides readers with the Devils’ perspective of the Scott Stevens induction to the Hall of Fame tonight. On the ice, Martin Brodeur goes for his 500th career win at home tonight versus the Penguins.
• The Rangers, at least for now, have given up on any Drury or Gomez with Jagr combination, and now have four solid and evenly spread out forward lines.
• Things are looking rosy on the Island right now opines Greg Logan of Newsday.
• Daniel Alfredsson has evolved into quite a leader in the Senators’ dressing room writes Chris Stevenson of the Ottawa Sun. Allen Panzeri of the Ottawa Citizen tells readers to expect Martin Gerber to start at least three of the Senators’ next four games.
• The Flyers’ penalty killing has been impressive in the last few weeks. “Our penalty-killing has really been coming,” says Flyers’ coach John Stevens.
• If the Penguins want to turnaround their season, they have to stop giving up the first goal of the game to their opponent writes Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette. The Pens should be well-rested for tonight’s game versus the Devils after coach Michel Therrien gave the team Sunday off.
• Many teams would have panicked, but John Tortorella and Jay Feaster kept their composure during the early season slumping and injuries incurred by the Lightning and it has paid off in the team’s recent success.
• Pavel Kubina has been lost to the Leafs indefinitely with a injury to his MCL in his right knee. Leafs’ defenseman Wade Belak says that Rangers’ forward Sean Avery will get what’s coming to him eventually and most players in the NHL won’t be sad to see it.

Here are the Western Conference morning papers:

• It took him awhile, but Aaron Miller has finally begun to his his stride, which is just in time to pick up the slack for the other Canucks’ injured defensemen. Meanwhile, feisty forward Jeff Cowan is almost ready to return to game-action after missing eleven games with a hip ailment. For all that the veterans contribute to the team, the key for the Canucks is that the Sedin twins have finally found their legs.
• Jeremy Roenick had a rather tame after-party to celebrate his 500th career NHL goal.
• Predators’ coach Barry Trotz wants forward Jordin Tootoo to play every game like he played Saturday’s game versus Columbus writes John Glennon of the Tennessean. In injury news, coach Trotz said that the earliest Shea Weber could return to the lineup would be Saturday against St. Louis.
• The Wild just didn’t have enough firepower to defeat division leading Colorado last night in Denver losing the game 4-2. Injured Wild winger Marian Gaborik is hoping to play on the team’s current road trip but doesn’t want to comeback too early writes Michael Russo of the Star Tribune.
• After Saturday’s win over the Flames, Oilers’ coach Craig MacTavish made sure to give his team some much needed rest on Sunday writes Robert Tychkowski of the Edmonton Sun.
• The Hawks continued their role as Wings-killer last night ruining Detroit’s chance to win ten games in a row. The Detroit goaltending situation is not as tense as you may think, as both goalies have made it a friendly rotation writes Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press.
• The Stars will not be forgetting their Saturday night meltdown for a while; “Other than embarrassing, it’s a total lack of respect for each other, in my mind,” said goaltender Marty Turco.
• Curtis Glencross was a late addition to the lineup on Saturday and maybe Ken Hitchcock should make that more of a ritual with the youngster as he played a great game against the Predators. Here are the Blue Jackets’ projected lines for tonight’s rematch versus Nashville.
• With last night’s 4-2 win over the Wild, the Avs moved to an impressive 9-1 at home this season. However, it wasn’t all good news for the Avalanche as they lost the services of checking winger Ian Lapperiere for 2-4 weeks with a sprained right knee.
• The Hawks not only impressed the over 19,000 people who came to the United Center last night with their win over the Red Wings, but they also impressed the television viewers who were able to watch a Hawks home game for the first time in years.
• Randy Sportak of the Calgary Sun still thinks the Flames will make the playoffs even though they have squandered an early-season home-heavy schedule.

For Illegal Curve, I’m Richard Pollock.