Illegal Curve Hockey

Categories: NHL Morning Papers

NHL Morning Papers (Tuesday Edition): John Madden talks about playing for Brent Sutter, interesting comments from Vesa Toskala and did you know Sidney Crosby leads the league in face-off percentage?

Last season, it took Ilya Kovalchuk twelve games to score five goals, this season it only took him three games to tally the same total.
Andrew Ference misidentified one of his players yesterday in a mixup on the ice and it led to a David Jones goal, and eventually a Colorado Avalanche win in Boston.
Meanwhile, Johnny Boychuk looked impressive yesterday in place of the injured Dennis Wideman.
“They won far more skating races and battles for pucks than anyone else last year,” said an NHL scout who felt that wasn’t the case with the Bruins so far this season.
Did you know the Sabres lead the NHL in shots on goal per game?
“You’re gonna get the truth, no doubt about it. At times, some guys are going to get called out, in the dressing room and in the media, so you’d better bring your ‘A’ game when you’re playing for him,” said John Madden about playing for Brent Sutter.

Needless to say, Brent Sutter was unhappy after last night's loss. (Picture courtesy of Boston Globe)

“If there’s one wake-up call, this is it. It’s stuff that we’ve talked about. It’s stuff we’ve gone through. It’s stuff we’ve shown them. It might only be six games into the season, but maybe it’ll be a blessing,” said coach Sutter after his team’s collapse in Chicago.
“It was a huge lack of mental toughness within the group. This just shows how much work needs to be done with this group,” said Sutter in more harsh criticism after his team’s blown 5-0 lead in Chicago.
If the Hurricanes want to succeed they are going to have to stop taking so many penalties, writes Chip Alexander.
The Blackhawks really controlled the final two periods of play and that’s why they were able to score six unanswered goals to comeback and beat the Flames, explains Chris Kuc.
The Avalanche may be too young to realize that the team is not supposed to be winning games against teams like Boston, writes Adrian Dater.
David Jones dressed last night, surprisingly in place of Chris Stewart, and played quite well.
No one talks about Jan Hejda, but the stay-at-home defenseman is a shocking plus 50, since coming over to Columbus from Edmonton. (Writer’s note: Scott Howson is quietly one of the best GMs out there and he brought over Hejda after watching him during his time in the Oilers organization.)
Meantime, the Blue Jackets expect a physical game against the Flames tonight.
There are a lot of things to like about the Stars so far this season, writes Mike Heika.
Darren Helm (clavicle) may return to the Wings lineup tonight versus Buffalo.
The Wings have lost four of their top ten scorers from last season, but they can still put the biscuit in the basket, writes Chris McCoskey.
While the Flames were blowing a 5-0 lead, the Oilers were doing no such thing, as the team had a dominating 6-1 victory over the Predators on Monday.
Jim Matheson talks about the internet rumored trade of Tom Gilbert for Drew Stafford.
You need wins from your second goaltender to make the playofffs, according to Barry Trotz and the Oilers got just that from Jeff Deslauriers last night.

Goaltending has not been an issue for Edmonton this season. (Picture courtesy of Yahoo!)

Peter DeBoer was happy with the effort of his club on Monday, just not the result.
Are the Panthers going to keep Dmitry Kulikov up with the big club?
“It’s a great feeling, but we don’t want to ride our highs too high and our lows too low,” said Ryan Smyth after the Kings won 2-1 on the Island yesterday afternoon.
The Wild, already without Pierre-Marc Bouchard (concussion) and Petr Sykora (groin), could be without Cal Clutterbuck (ankle) for weeks.
The Canadiens have decided against bringing Mathieu Dandenault back into the fold, writes Pat Hickey.
“We were a little weak-minded and weren’t able to come out of it. It just snowballed from there,” said Steve Sullivan about the Predators after the team’s 6-1 loss to Edmonton.
The result wasn’t what Nashville wanted, but the team was happy with the performance of Colin Wilson.
Jacques Lemaire was very encouraged after his team’s shootout win over Washington on Monday.
Needless to say, Martin Brodeur is feeling confident in shootouts.
The Rangers went through some serious skates in training camp and it seems to be helping in the third period this season.
The Blueshirts learned a lesson last night but it didn’t cost the team a victory, writes Larry Brooks.
The Senators missed Filip Kuba last night against Pittsburgh but also were terrible on the power play, writes Chris Stevenson.
The team lost, but Senators coach Cory Clouston liked the new line of Milan Michalek-Jason Spezza-Jonathan Cheechoo.
With such a long break in the schedule, Flyers coach John Stevens planned a bonding trip for his team this week.
The Coyotes won a boring affair in San Jose last night, but they’ll take any win they can get.
Tyler Kennedy added another game-winning goal last night, as the Penguins defeated Ottawa 4-1.
Meantime, former Penguins winger Jarkko Ruutu thinks the Penguins have more championships in their future.
Sidney Crosby has really improved in the face-off circle this season.

Sidney Crosby has now mastered the face-off dot. (Picture courtesy of Time)

“We did a terrible job of controlling our play, we weren’t very crisp with our passes,” said Dan Boyle about his team last night.
Alex Pietrangelo would like to stay with the big club in St. Louis if it was his choice.
Martin St. Louis is actually the oldest member of the Lightning, but you wouldn’t know it by his play.
St. Louis’ teammates Steven Stamkos and Antero Niittymaki were both terrific last night in the team’s 3-2 win over Florida.
“It’s a two-way street, they (players) have to bail me out and I have to bail them out,” said Vesa Toskala.
Henrik Lundqvist thinks Jonas Gustavsson is going to be a player.
Sami Salo has a knee injury in Vancouver, the 38th injury of his career.
The fact is, the Canucks know injuries are part of the game, so they aren’t getting down about them.
For whatever reason, the Capitals cannot hold onto a third period lead, writes Corey Masisak.

Richard Pollock

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