Chad Johnson

Here is the word from the team beat writer's: Bruins beat writer Fluto Shinzawa reporting from practice today says that Boston is holding a rare downtown practice and the only player not on the ice is Zdeno Chara. Despite the fact that Sabres coach Lindy Ruff was noncommittal about his playing status for Buffalo's game tonight against Montreal, Craig Rivet says he is ready to play. It seems that the Florida Panthers Keith Ballard has become enemy #1 to goalies across the NHL these days as he took out Avalanche goalie Craig Anderson last night and George Richards of the Miami Herald wonders if he will go 3/3 tonight against the Capitals. It appears that Jacques Martin will finally give Carey Price a break in net (he had gone 9 consecutive times) and will start Jaroslav Halak for the Habs game in Buffalo tonight. It wasn't quite the showdown of two Team Canada #1 hopefuls last night in New Jersey as Devils coach Jacques Lemaire felt the two goalies weren't really factors his team's loss. The New York Rangers have called up Chad Johnson from Hartford to be the new backup goalie although due to restrictions he won't be able to practice with the team until noon. Apparently the Senators farm team really teaches their young players how to celebrate as Binghamton Senators rookie Erik Condra has been charged with disorderly conduct after police say he urinated on a police car. Perhaps the Mellon Arena isn't quite doomed as some folks in Pittsburgh have put together a proposal to keep the old arena alive. It is Thursday which means more Leafs Mail Bag with the Toronto Star's Damien Cox who this week delves into a number of topics, namely; the need to be anti-Brian Burke, changing Leaf uniforms, should the Leafs pick up the Flyers Daniel Briere, whether the the Leafs will go younger next season and many more. The Caps go for their fourth straight win against the Panthers and it appears that Semyon Varlamov, who came off the ice first this morning at KCI, will likely be between the pipes at Verizon Center, writes Tarik El-Bashir of the Washington Post.

On the Beat (Eastern Conference): Keith Ballard goalie Enemy No. 1, Ocho Cinco day in New York, Senators AHL rookie has interesting way of celebrating