Here are the Eastern Conference newspapers.
– The Montreal Canadiens continue to be road warriors, writes Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette, after the team won their 10th game of the season on the road Thursday night, 4-1 over Philadelphia. Now, if they could just find some consistency at the Bell Centre.
– The Ottawa Senators won their fourth game in a row on Thursday night, although it wasn’t pretty, writes Allen Panzeri of the Ottawa Citizen. Alfredsson picked up his 800th career point in the game.
– Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun writes about the Maple Leafs upcoming seven-game road trip.
– Captain Jamie Langenbrunner leads the New Jersey Devils back to 1st place in the Atlantic Division, writes Rich Chere of the Newark Star-Ledger.
– The New York Islanders top line of Bill Guerin-Mike Comrie-Ruslan Fedotenko played more aggressively and the defense woke up as the Islanders dropped the Coyotes 3-2 Thursday night, writes Greg Logan of Newsday.
– After a stunning 6-0 loss to the Senators Wednesday night, the Hurricanes went back to the drawing board. Luke Decock of the Raleigh News & Observer wonders if GM Jim Rutherford will go to the Trading Board.
– Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe quotes a team scout as saying the Bruins and Blue Jackets are engaged in active trade talks.
– Craig Custance of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wonders what is ailing defenseman Alexei Zhitnik.
– Damian Cristodero of the St.Petersburg Times says with Palace Sports and Entertainment set to purchase the team, it wouldn’t make sense to start moving key pieces of the puzzle, meaning Vinny, Marty, Brad and Dan aren’t going anywhere right now.
For Illegal Curve, I’m Ezra Ginsburg.