Sunday Morning NHL Papers (Eastern Conference): Details on the Winter Classic, players of the decade and the NHL’s most overpaid players

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Atlantic Division

• Jacques Lemaire attributed last night’s loss to Washington to his team’s lack of practice.  On the injury front, it appears David Clarkson will return to the New Jersey lineup in the next game or two.
• The Islanders beat the Rangers on the back of Kyle Okposo’s first goal in 18 games, writes Katie Strang.  Arthur Staple of Newsday has some suggetsions for the Islanders and Rangers.
• The crowd at MSG was lively, especially with the play of Sean Avery, but the Rangers could only record one point after an overtime loss to the Islanders.  On the bright side, the Rangers got a late goal from Brandon Dubinsky or there wouldn’t have been one point at all.  Larry Brooks thinks the Rangers lack size and strength.  Meanwhile, Brooks gives out his decade awards.
• Last night’s win in Carolina marked the Flyers first back-to-back wins in five weeks, writes Sam Carchidi.  Ryan Parent sat out last night with back spasms.  If you look at the Flyers lines one through four, there is a lot of potential there.
• The Penguins are a successful bunch on the ice and they give back to the community off the ice too.  The most likable part of Marc-Andre Fleury is that he doesn’t let his success change him as a person.

Northeast Division

• Everyone wants to talk about the Winter Classic, but the Bruins know they have some work to do before January 1st.  Here is the NBC perspective on the Winter Classic.  Dan Shaughnessy tells us that Fenway Park has been host to other significant non-baseball events.
• The Sabres fans were giving it to them at the end of the first period alst night and they know they can blame their horrible first period for last night’s loss.  Lindy Ruff is not ecstatic that his team has to travel and then play tonight at St. Louis but acknowledges that the Blues have the same task in front of them.  In his Inside the NHL piece, Bucky Gleason talks about the NHL’s most overpaid players, among other things.
• With the way Jaroslav Halak is playing, maybe the Habs should consider keeping himself in the fold, as the Habs beat the Leafs 3-2 in overtime.
• Word broke on Saturday that Daniel Alfredsson will be out up to 4-6 weeks so the Senators players played as a group to make up for his absence and defeated the Sabres 3-2 in a shootout.  “We showed a lot of character. We showed a lot of mental toughness,” said Cory Clouston after last night’s victory.  Coach Clouston won’t let the Senators use injuries as an excuse.
• Sound familiar?  The Leafs got off to a bad start and lost in overtime, writes Paul Hunter of the Toronto Star.

Southeast Division

• The Thrashers are a great third period scoring team but that is good and bad, writes Chris Vivlamore.
• The Hurricanes lost last night but at least they had a spirited comeback which earned them a point in the standings, reports Chip Alexander.  Peter Laviolette wants his Flyers to play the type of game his Hurricanes teams played.  Not surprisingly, Paul Maurice is having similar issues to Peter Laviolette.
• Nobody expects Stephen Weiss to be on Canada’s Olympic Team but he is doing a good job of making Team Canada ‘s brass take notice of him.
• The Lightning was very aggressive last night and it paid off.  Kurtis Foster said his season turned around when he was moved to forward.  Here is the latest on the Lightning’s injury situation.
• “I just beat the best goalie in the world. It’s amazing. I used to watch him on TV, so it’s something special,” said Captials rookie Michal Neuvirth.

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