On the Beat: Habs could be without Gionta, Alex Ovechkin excited, to be back, a ‘presidential’ look at Ron Wilson’s first 100, an interview with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman

Today’s word from the team beat writers:

• The ECHL is a long way from the NHL, but Ducks prospect Mark Mitera is hoping that by logging in big minutes with Bakersfield he can get to Anaheim.
• Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal Constitution writes that both Bryan Little and Pavel Kubina took the ice for practice but continue to be listed as day to day.  He also posted the morning lines from practice.
• The Flames lines have been set although noticeably absent was Staffan Kronwall who was sent to the team’s AHL affiliate, the Abbotsford Heat, for conditioning.
  
• The Canes are hoping that they have some good karma in their corner when they roll into Montreal for a date with the Habs as it is the annual “fathers trip” as well they are 7-0-1 at the Bell Centre since 2005-06 season.
• Red Wings center Valtteri Filppula made an on-ice appearance today after Detroit had practiced although he is still wearing the hard cast and isn’t expected back before mid-December.
• Kevin Mio of the Montreal Gazette previews the Canadiens/Canes game and writes that the Habs might be without Brian Gionta for awhile due to a foot injury.
  
• New Jersey Devils coach Jacques Lemaire put the team through a workout today after last night’s loss to the Flyers, to help ensure the team avoids a letdown.
• Steve Zipay of Newsday writes about the re-match in goal between Henrik Lundqvist and Semyon Varlamov, but the more important factor may be the Rangers ability to stay out of the penalty box suggests Ryan Callahan.
• Despite winning last night and spoiling the Devils chances to tie the record for the longest road winning streak, the Flyers ended up losing Arron Asham for 10-14 days to an oblique strain.
• Over at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette they run a feature called Mellon Arena memories and today they take a look back at the short career of Ron Tugnutt, but who could forget that 5 OT game against the Flyers.
  
• David Pollack of the San Jose Mercury News, who will be a guest on tomorrow’s Illegalcurve  Radio show, writes that both Brad Staubitz and Devin Setoguchi will be out of the Sharks lineup tonight.
• Not surprisingly an overwhelming number of Lightning fans feel the team got robbed last night against the Kings when an OT goal was called off.
• Damien Cox of the Toronto Star takes a Presidential view of Ron Wilson‘s first 100 days in office and it would appear that he doesn’t think Wilson will be around for a 2nd term in office.
• The Capitals just got off the ice and Tarik El-Bashir spoke with Bruce Boudreau and Alex Ovechkin and it appears that AO is more than likely going to be back on the ice tonight.
• Macleans Magazine had an interesting interview with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman which covered Canada, the ‘covenant’ with fans, Gretzky and on trying to do the right things.