NHL Morning Papers (Sunday Edition): Tom Renney calls out Rangers, Habs apprarently have interest in Havlat and Kariya appears to be out for season

Here are the morning papers for Sunday the 28th of December:

• Bryan Little is really coming into his own for Atlanta this season, writes Mike Knobler.
• The Bruins may not have deserved their victory over the Hurricanes on Saturday, but they’ll take it anyways.  Kevin Paul Dupont provides readers with his end-of-year observations in his Sunday notes column.
• Bucky Gleason of the Buffalo News admits that he underestimated the Bruins with his pre-season predictions.  (Writer’s note: As did I.)
• The Hurricanes had the chances to defeat Boston yesterday, they just couldn’t take advantage of it.
• The Blackhawks have the utmost confidence in their own abilities right now.
• The Avalanche recorded a big win over the Red Wings on Saturday, in the team’s first game without its top two centers.  Tyler Arnason wasn’t bad in his first game as the Avalanche’s number one center.  Terry Frei says it is unlikely that the NHL will look to Denver as the city to host the next Winter Classic.
• After a terrible loss to Los Angeles, the Blue Jackets bouced back with a 3-0 victory of their own over the Flyers.  Freddy Modin has been a real trooper playing through injury in Columbus.  Some Blue Jackets fans have had enough of their local team.
• Mike Heika is exactly on point, when he says that the Stars won a game last night that they certainly wouldn’t have won a month ago.
• “Let’s be honest, we should have won that game,” said Red Wings coach Mike Babcock after his team’s 4-3 to Colorado.
• Marc Pouliot has been gaining confidence in Edmonton.  Derek Van Diest says it is only a matter of time before Erik Cole breaks out.
• The Panthers lost to the Lightning for the second time in two days last night.  Craig Anderson doesn’t like the shootout.
• Michael Russo pays his respects to Bill Nyrop in his Sunday Insider.  In a less emotional story, Russo also tells readers that Mikko Koivu is the complete package.
• The Habs clearly missed Andrei Kostitsyn, as the young sniper returned to the lineup last night and recorded all three goals in the team’s 3-2 win at Pittsburgh.  Here is Red Fisher’s notebook from yesterday. 
• The Predators are hoping Steve Sullivan can return to the lineup sometime during the month of January.
• The Devils are sure changing the trend of the Rangers’ recent dominance of their Hudson rivals.
• The Isles would have liked a victory on Saturday, but they were at least happy to pull off a late third period comeback and record one point.  No deals appear imminent for the Islanders, writes Greg Logan.
• Tom Renney says the Rangers played “brian-dead hockey” last night versus New Jersey.  The Rangers need Sean Avery, writes Larry Brooks.  Here is Brooks’s Slap Shot column.
• Bruce Garrioch has a lot of interesting tidbits in his weekly Sunday rumors column.  Garrioch also says that the Habs have inquired on Martin Havlat.
• The Flyers are kind of out of sorts through the first two games of the team’s six-game road trip.  The Flyers are currently having trouble with the art of shot-blocking.
• “We weren’t mentally ready to play tonight, and they were,” said Ed Jovanovski after his team’s 4-0 loss at home to Los Angeles.
• The Penguins continue to win a game then lose a game, so their consistency needs to be addressed.  Sidney Crosby is not concerning himself with possibly taking over the scoring lead from Evgeni Malkin down the road.
• The Sharks didn’t win in St. Louis on Saturday, but coach Todd McLellan did make his point to Mike Grier and Jonathan Cheechoo.  A few Sharks talk about their WJHC experiences.
• Paul Kariya has a torn muscle in his hip and could miss the rest of the season for St. Louis.
• The Lightning’s win on Saturday made it three in a row for the controversial squad.  Here is a diary entry from rookie Steve Stamkos.
• Matt Stajan hurt himself in a freak soccer incident and now has blurry vision.  Even with all the controversy surrounding the Leafs’ netminding, Vesa Toskala will get the call tonight.
• The Capitals are going to retire Mike Gartner’s number.

For Illegal Curve, I’m Richard Pollock.