Tuesday Morning NHL Papers (Western Conference): Nothing seems to be changing in Columbus, Brett Hull was a good teammate and Dan Boyle blames himself for injury

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Central Division

• Antti Niemi has proven to be a tough goalie to beat in his limited time in the Chicago net.  Joel Quenneville thinks he has a good “problem” on his hands.
• The Blue Jackets continue to play sloppy hockey so it led defenseman Mike Commodore to wonder how much more the team can talk about changing but continue to make the same mistakes.  R.J. Umberger has been playing well as of late but he needs some help.  Here are the Blue Jackets’ projected lines for tonight’s game.
• The Red Wings were victorious last night but what’s a Detroit game without another injury–as Jonathan Ericsson will be out for two weeks.  With all their injuries, the fact the Wings sit 12th in NHL with the man-advantage is impressive.
• The Blues haven’t been playing well but at least they are in a better position for this Brett Hull night than they were for the last one.

Northwest Division

• Brent Sutter wants the urgency up and the focus back for the Flames tonight versus St. Louis.  First periods have especially been bad for Calgary.  Craig Conroy talks about how good of a teammate Brett Hull was.
• Rookie Matt Duchene is looking forward to lacing up the skates and facing Alexander Ovechkin.
• Dennis Grebeshkov returns to the Oilers lineup tonight as the team goes for its sixth consecutive win.  Pat Quinn has been impressed by the improvement in Lubomir Visnovsky’s play.  Since returning from injury, Robert Nilsson has been a different player for Edmonton.
• Martin Havlat has improved his play of late but he still wants more, explains Rachel Blount.
• Vancouver made it three in a row at home but last night’s win took lots of hard work against the hard working Kings, writes Ben Kuzma.  Ed Willes of the Vancouver Province isn’t much of a fan of Mike Gillis’s work in Vancouver.

Pacific Division

• George Parros did some great work for charity yesterday, writes Curtis Zupke.  Ryan Whitney and Sheldon Brookbank seem to have good chemistry on the Ducks’ back-end.
• A lot of the Stars’ problems would be fixed if they could just score goals, writes Mike Heika.
• The Kings lost at Vancouver last night and Jarret Stoll may have pulled a groin in the process, recaps Helene Elliot.
• Dan Boyle blames himself for the hit that caused his injury.

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