Trending Topics is a column that looks at the week in hockey according to Twitter. If you're only going to comment to say how stupid Twitter is, why not just go have a good cry for the slow, sad death of your dear internet instead?

A thing I've always hated about commercials for sporting events is when the announcer says something like, "Wednesday, Pavel Datsyuk and the Red Wings take on Claude Giroux and the Flyers."

Really, it never made any sense to me. As if you needed to mention the star players for both teams to get me or anyone else engaged in a Wings/Flyers game. If you're a fan of either team, you'll watch because those are your guys. If you're a general hockey fan, that's a game you watch because that's pretty much guaranteed a good hockey game. If you're a casual fan who they're hoping to draw in, you don't know who Datsyuk and Giroux are anyway.

No one on Earth is sitting there going, "Oh jeez, I wasn't interested in this one but that Datsyuk guy is the one with the shootout moves, right?"

But last night I went to see Jarome Iginla and the Flames take on the Boston Bruins, and that actually seemed appropriate. Not just because Iginla is about the only recognizable name on the Calgary Flames roster to 90 percent of hockey fans, and not only because it's been that way since Theo Fleury got traded in February 1999 (or to be a little more generous, when Val Bure left in the 2001 offseason). But either way you slice it, this has been Jarome Iginla's team for more than a decade.

There have been significant enough secondary players in the last several years. Dion Phaneuf as a precocious rookie and then under-performing veteran; Miikka Kiprusoff when he spent about two-and-a-half seasons as the best goalie on earth. But the number of great forwards that Iginla has played with since the turn of the century or so can be counted on one hand. Mike Cammalleri had his best season ever with the Flames. Daymond Langkow was always steady but never eye-popping. Two separate go-rounds with Alex Tanguay have been somewhat productive. Olli Jokinen is underrated, though only because he's viewed as a punchline by most hockey fans for reasons beyond his control, and not because he is some sort of offensive force like he was with Florida.

But through it all, Iginla was a game-changer and a guy who scored with or without support. His best season ever — in which he led the league with 52 goals and 96 points — came with Craig Conroy and Dean McAmmond on his line.

And then, standing on the precipice of his milestone 500th career goal, less than a year after he surpassed 1,000 career points, Iginla and the Flames entered the TD Garden for a road date with the Boston Bruins, who had just played the night before in New Jersey.

So I very much went to see Jarome Iginla (and the Calgary Flames.) (I guess.)

I went hoping to see history, and history I received.

Iginla did not score his 500th career goal in the Flames' 9-0 loss. In fact, he was largely a perimeter player, and only registered one shot on goal in the game, and attempted just two. Despite watching him closely for every one of his shifts, I couldn't tell you when that shot came, though NHL.com says it came midway through the second period. A nine-foot backhander. Sounds innocuous enough, so I'll take their word for it.

The historic stat of the evening came courtesy of Flames defenseman Chris Butler, who tied an all-time NHL record by going — get this — minus-7 in 23:19 of ice time.

There's no context to that. Just a savage beating by a very, very good team against one that's rather poor and playing in the final game of a World Juniors-induced seven-game road trip. Not that the score would have ever been anything less than, say, 6-0 under the best of circumstances.

Iginla will get his 500th goal one day, and probably one day soon. The Flames have been trying to force-feed him the puck for at least a week now as he pursues the milestone only 41 other player have ever reached. His next goal will tie him with another iconic Flame, Lanny MacDonald. And in a way, I'm almost glad I didn't see it last night. The Bruins were up 2-0 only 3:17 into the game and never once even threatened to put one past Tuukka Rask. For Iginla to have scored there in TD Garden in the midst of a mind-bending rout would have been crass and hollow, but it would have at least underscored something meaningful.

Jarome Iginla is an all-time great. Soon he will have scored 500 goals and 1,000 points on mostly awful teams and playing the majority of his career in the Dead Puck Era.

It's only ever been Jarome Iginla and the Calgary Flames. I don't know why I expected different this time around.

On the inevitable extinction of the enforcer role

Colton Orr cleared waivers at noon on Wednesday and that, Brian Burke says, might be the bell tolling for the role of the enforcer.

Maybe it's for the worse. Indeed, respect for one's opponents seems to have dropped off a cliff, especially with a certain segment of the playing population (*cough* dancarcillo *cough* raffitorres *cough*) doing the lion's share of the damage, mostly to other players' brains. A lack of enforcers, Burke notes, could very well cause the injurious hits to spike even more than they already have, leaving only poor, put-upon Brendan Shanahan there to dole out the punishment as he sees fit — a whole other discussion for another time — days after the fact.

There was always a certain menace to seeing guys like Orr or Shawn Thornton or George Parros come over the boards for a faceoff, skating slowly by the opposition bench, staring down every guy in the other sweater who didn't suddenly notice a problem with their skates or stick tape.

That message was, "Hit my guys the wrong way and you'll be spitting chicklets."

There's a certain romance to it, too. How many hockey movies are about ultra-skilled stars? And how many are about largely unskilled, heavily-muscled brawlers?

The "goon" is going away because of the salary cap. If you pay Colton Orr $1 million you're essentially depriving a talented rookie or useful defensive player of a spot on the roster or bench in favor of a guy who plays, what, six shifts a night? Doesn't make economic sense.

Opponents of fighting will consider this sea change a win, but where does the elimination of the enforcer get us, really? Some people think that star players are the ones that are going to have to fight on their own behalf if they want to be protected, and that simply isn't the case.

Burke's right in saying that the lack of enforcers playing every night has led to guys getting targeted — does Rene Bourque go out of his way to elbow the Caps' best forward this season in the face if DJ King's on the bench cracking his knuckles? — and with very few exceptions, guys that are enforcers in the league now also have to be able to play a bit.

Perfect case in point: Brandon Prust. Tied for the league lead in fights at 11 and had 29 points last year. Not setting the world on fire offensively, but he chips in and is willing to back up his teammates.

That kind of player -- the 10-10-20 guy Shawn Thornton, the 4-13-17 Derek Dorsett, the 10-13-23 Tim Jackman, is the new enforcer. He'll beat the hell out of you, but he'll also play 20 shifts a night, 78 times a year or more. You don't need to scratch him if there's no one to go with. You don't need to waste a roster spot.

The problem right now is that there aren't enough of those guys, and if hockey wants to protect its players and itself, it will cultivate more of them.

Pearls of Biz-dom

We all know that there isn't a better Twitter account out there than that of Paul Bissonnette. So why not find his best bit of advice on love, life and lappers from the last week?

BizNasty on the Wizard: "True story. Played a few shifts in a shinny game with Ray Whitney once. I had 2 goals. THAT's how good he is. Literally a miracle worker."

If you've got something for Trending Topics, holla at Lambert on Twitter or via e-mail. He'll even credit you so you get a thousand followers in one day and you'll become the most popular person on the Internet! You can also visit his blog if you're so inclined.

What we didn't know about the NHL's radical realignment plan, approved by the NHL Board of Governors last month and affecting everything from conference sizes to playoff format: That the National Hockey League Players Association would refuse to provide its consent, and kill the plan for 2012-13.

Which, in fact, the NHLPA did on Friday. No four unbalanced conferences. No divisional playoffs. The Winnipeg Jets remain in the Southeast. The Dallas Stars remain in the Pacific, and so on.

What we really didn't know about the NHL's radical realignment plan, until the NHLPA and executive director Donald Fehr's rejection of it: That it was a grandiose power play against the players, as Gary Bettman pushed Fehr for the first time and Fehr responded with a left hook that made the fight fans gasp.

From the NHL:

The National Hockey League announced today that it will not move forward with implementation of the Realignment Plan and modified Playoff Format recently approved by the NHL Board of Governors for the 2012-13 NHL season because the NHLPA has refused to provide its consent.

"It is unfortunate that the NHLPA has unreasonably refused to approve a Plan that an overwhelming majority of our Clubs voted to support, and that has received such widespread support from our fans and other members of the hockey community, including Players," said NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly.  "We have now spent the better part of four weeks attempting to satisfy the NHLPA's purported concerns with the Plan with no success.  Because we have already been forced to delay, and as a result are already late in beginning the process of preparing next season's schedule, we have no choice but to abandon our intention to implement the Realignment Plan and modified Playoff Format for next season."

"We believe the Union acted unreasonably in violation of the League's rights.  We intend to evaluate all of our available legal options and to pursue adequate remedies, as appropriate."

As a result of the League's decision today, the NHL will maintain its current alignment and Playoff Format for the 2012-13 season.

So why did the NHLPA refuse to endorse this plan, besides a clear disregard for the League's rights (OK then)? Simple: They felt realignment was unfair and inconsiderate to the players; they weren't given a chance, in their eyes, to help create it; and it communicated that the NHLPA isn't going to be shoved around now or during the CBA talks.

On Monday, Dec. 5, 2011, the NHL's Board of Governors approved a new four-conference format for the league beginning in 2012-13, with two conferences of seven teams and two conferences of eight teams.

Every team in the NHL would have played home-and-home; the Stanley Cup Playoffs would have started inside each conference, with the top four teams squaring off in divisional playoffs.

According to sources with knowledge of the negotiations, the NHL didn't include the NHLPA in the formation of the realignment plan because there was no mandate in the CBA to do so. So the League created the plan, the Board of Governors passed it and the dare was made: Go ahead, kill off something that the majority of hockey teams, fans and media deemed a positive move for the NHL.

But the League eventually needed the NHLPA's consent. It was never a given despite reports to the contrary. So they sent a letter asking for it, and the NHLPA responded by communicating several concerns they had with the now-passed plan:

• The unbalanced conference format, with two divisions of eight teams and two divisions of seven teams. Combined with the return to a four-team "divisional" playoff format, the players felt there was an unfair advantage to teams in the smaller conferences.

• The NHL trumpeted reduced travel for teams; for example, the Detroit Red Wings would only have to make one long swing to California and to Western Canada each season instead of multiple trips.

What the NHLPA wanted: Specific data on what the schedule would look like under this plan, to better understand duration of road trips, for example. What the NHL provided, according to a source with knowledge of the talks: Mileage charts per teams and other formulas. The NHLPA was not pleased.

• Basically, the NHLPA felt that this realignment plan was created by and for the owners, and not in the best interests of the players. And when they reached out to attempt to reshape the plan to better serve their interests, that input was rejected, according to one source.

The NHLPA and NHL VP Bill Daly had traded letters for the last month, with the PA telling Larry Brooks of the NY Post as early as Dec. 4 that they had problems with the realignment plan. As late as Jan. 6, the NHLPA offered to meet with the NHL to hash out the realignment plan. The meeting never occurred.

Now, the death of realignment for next season — which will anger several fan bases that celebrated easier schedules and more rivalry-friendly conferences under the new plan — has been pinned on the NHLPA. The NHL fires the first cannon in the public-relations war that'll be waged well into next season, as the two sides battle over the CBA.

Perhaps that's why we went from the simple flip/flop of a Central Division team with the Winnipeg Jets to a large-scale reshaping of the NHL. At best, the League would have satisfied a dozen disgruntled owners and excited fans with a new rivalry-based playoff format.

At worst, realignment is delayed for a season and Donald Fehr looks like the Grinch Who Stole The Patrick Division.

The NHL successfully demonized the players back in 2005 during that negotiation, as public pressure increased until the PA crumbled under the weight. (Jeremy Roenick, of course, helped along the cause by telling fans that criticized the players' avarice that "we don't want you to watch hockey.") As the next labor war approaches, this realignment tango has a familiar stench.

Sigh ... realignment was taken from even before we learned the conference names. Then again, it wasn't as if realignment didn't have its drawbacks.

• • •

UPDATE: Donald Fehr and the NHLPA released the following statement:

"On the evening of December 5, 2011, the NHL informed the NHLPA that they proposed to put in place a four-conference format beginning with the 2012-13 season. As realignment affects Players' terms and conditions of employment, the CBA requires the League to obtain the NHLPA's consent before implementation. Over the last month, we have had several discussions with the League and extensive dialogue with Players, most recently on an Executive Board conference call on January 1. Two substantial Player concerns emerged: (1) whether the new structure would result in increased and more onerous travel; and (2) the disparity in chances of making the playoffs between the smaller and larger divisions.

"In order to evaluate the effect on travel of the proposed new structure, we requested a draft or sample 2012-13 schedule, showing travel per team.  We were advised it was not possible for the League to do that. We also suggested reaching an agreement on scheduling conditions to somewhat alleviate Player travel concerns (e.g., the scheduling of more back-to-back games, more difficult and lengthier road trips, number of border crossings, etc.), but the League did not want to enter into such a dialogue.  The travel estimation data we received from the League indicates that many of the current Pacific and Central teams, that have demanding travel schedules under the current format, could see their travel become even more difficult. On the playoff qualification matter, we suggested discussing ways to eliminate the inherent differences in the proposed realignment, but the League was not willing to do so.

"The League set a deadline of January 6, 2012 for the NHLPA to provide its consent to the NHL's proposal.  Players' questions about travel and concerns about the playoff format have not been sufficiently addressed; as such, we are not able to provide our consent to the proposal at this time.  We continue to be ready and willing to have further discussions should the League be willing to do so."

With 4:45 left their game against the New York Rangers on Friday night, the Pittsburgh Penguins witnessed just about the last thing they wanted to see right now: Center Jordan Staal in considerable pain after a knee-on-knee collision with former teammate Michael Rupp, having to eventually be helped from the ice.

The Rangers won the game, 3-1. As for Staal, Josh Yohe of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review offered this update on the incident:

Staal remained on the ice for about a minute and appeared to be in significant pain. He was helped off the ice and did not return. After the game, coach Dan Bylsma said he had no update on Staal's status.

"I'm in a position of turning; I've got my legs out for a wide base, and he's coming by," said Rupp, who was given a two-minute penalty for kneeing. "I try to get a piece of him. I don't move my knee to get contact, but I understand the call. ... I hope he's all right."

Staal's second among Penguins forwards in average ice time (20:23) and plays extensively on special teams. With 15 goals in 34 games, Staal's on pace for the best goal-scoring season of his career. He's one of the primary reasons why the team's been able to handle the absence of Sidney Crosby up front.

Does this warrant anything further from the NHL, or does Rupp's explanation suffice?

s/t Adam Gretz for the video.

No. 1 Star: Semyon Varlamov, Colorado Avalanche

The Avs played well in front of him, but a shutout in Chicago is a shutout in Chicago. Varlamov made 27 saves as Colorado defeated the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-0. T.J. Galiardi had a goal and an assist, while Erik Johnson had two assists.

No. 2 Star: Bobby Ryan, Anaheim Ducks

GM Bob Murray successful lit a fire under this core players,, as Ryan, Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf combined for five points in the Ducks' 4-2 victory over the New York Islanders. Getzlaf had the game-winner; Ryan had two goals including this ridiculous shorty in the second period:

No. 3 Star: Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers

The Rangers struggled in the first period, but Lundqvist stopped 10-of-11 shots. He ended the game with 37 saves as New York defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-1. Brad Richards, Brandon Dubinsky and Derek Stepan had the goals.

Honorable mention: Eric Staal had a goal and two assists in the Carolina Hurricanes' 4-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres. Thomas Vanek scored his 19th in the loss … Patrik Elias scored his 14th in his 100th NHL game, while Adam Henrique, Ilya Kovalchuk (2 goals) and Zach Parise each had a goal for the New Jersey Devils. The Devils defeated the Florida Panthers, 5-2. … Krys Barch scored his first of the season after his one-game suspension for an inappropriate joke. … Ben Lovejoy scored his first goal since last March in the Penguins' loss.

Did you know? According to the Tribune-Review: "The defeat dropped the Penguins to 0-12-2 against the Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Boston Bruins and Washington Capitals in a season and a half at their new home."

Dishonorable mention: Nick Leddy was a minus-4 for the Blackhawks. … Joel Quenneville was especially down on the Blachhawks: "Tonight we didn't deserve anything," Quenneville said. "We got what we deserved. I know we didn't give up a lot of chances, but look at what we generated. We didn't generate enough." … Tomas Fleischmann was a minus-3. … Finally, this was a rather bad gaffe by Marc-Andre Fleury that led to the Rangers' third period goal:

Perhaps it's the collision between politics and sports — in which elections are covered like trade deadline day and the "horse races" leading up to them are covered like game stories — that we're always preparing ourselves for the spin around a well-hyped game.

If the Boston Bruins skate out of TD Garden on Saturday with a victory over the Vancouver Canucks in their first meeting since the Stanley Cup Final … well, big deal, right? They already pummeled them when it mattered most last June. It's been well-established they're the bigger, tougher, stronger team with more consistant goaltending. It adds another exclamation point to a proclamation we already comprehend.

If the Boston Bruins lose to the Canucks on home ice … well, second in the Eastern Conference on Jan. 7 with a goal differential of nearly 70-plus is a nice cushion for that fall. They can go home, take out that glittery ring they won last spring and forget this ever happened.

This game isn't about the Boston Bruins. It's about the Vancouver Canucks. And win or lose, they really can't win.

The spin began earlier this week. Some players called the Boston game a measuring stick. Others called it Game 42 on the season, nothing more. Said Coach Alain Vigneault via NESN:

"It can't be that big of a game, we don't have one of the networks that's delivering the game tomorrow," Vigneault said. "It's a 1 o'clock game. I think like everybody else everybody understands that's it's Game 42. It's a non-conference game. Probably for the players at stake here is the fact that both teams competed real hard for the Cup. Obviously I think both teams will be ready, but I don't think if we go in [Saturday] and win they're going to give us the Cup back. We lost that last year. This is a different year, a different team. It's Game 42. It's a non-conference game."

To summarize: There's really only downside here.

The Canucks lose, and what does it prove? That the Bruins are the superior team? Skate out on the rink, look up, find the banner that has 2010-11 on it. We didn't need 60 minutes of regular-season hockey to reveal, or reinforce, anything.

The Canucks win, and what does it prove? That they can get up for a game in January? They've been called a regular-season champ that can't win the Stanley Cup for the last few seasons. That they can beat the Bruins on the road? Once more, with feeling: In January.

(It's a little contemptible that the same media which downgrades the Canucks' accomplishments in the regular season now places exorbitant importance on a game five days after the Winter Classic.)

Which is why the decision to sit Roberto Luongo on Saturday was genius, no matter the result. It protects him from a building, a crowd and a home team he not only couldn't beat last season, but one that caused him to surrender 15 goals in three games.

He lasted nine minutes the last time he played in Boston. Nine.

So the catcalls rise: He's a coward. He can't win the big game. He isn't mentally tough enough to win in a big spot on the road. To which we'd ask: Does your cable television provider stop broadcasting National Hockey League games after the first round of the playoffs?

If Luongo won in Boston, no one would have declared the demons exorcized. No one's pumping his tires. The same Boston writers calling him "weak sauce" today weren't going to pen soliloquies about his fortitude.

Even if he begged out, it's because he knows he doesn't need this crap in January. There's only one way to quiet the critics: Lifting the Stanley Cup. Maybe he goes through Boston to do this, and maybe he doesn't. Winning today doesn't erase 15 goals in three games.

So Cory Schneider gets the start, giving the Canucks an actual honest-to-goodness chance to win in Boston. But either way, they still lose. Such is life for the team that loses a Game 7 on home ice.

There was no love lost between the Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks this afternoon in their rematch of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final that ended in a 4-3 win for the visitors. The opening four minutes of the game featured 40 minutes in penalties, a line brawl and a potential suspension coming for Milan Lucic.

First, here's the Bruins and Canucks exchanging pleasantries:

Lucic was given two minutes for roughing and a 10-minute game misconduct for leaving the bench. What's still to be determined is whether or not Lucic leaving the bench would be considered a legal or illegal line change.

Via Mike Halford of PHT, here's Lucic right as the scrum was beginning along the boards:

According to ESPN's Joe MacDonald, the officials will confer after the game and figure out how they'll interpret Rule 70 in terms of whether or not Lucic has a suspension coming his way.

The rule states a 10-game suspension is for the first coming onto the ice for the "purpose of starting an altercation". However you determine whether or not Lucic left the bench, the scrum was already involved and Lucic skates in. Seems like, if anything, Lucic will get a fine like Steve Downie did against the New York Rangers last month.

Also of note: Henrik Sedin gets involved in the scrum for about a second and you can count six Vancouver players involved before the Canucks' captain skates off the ice realizing there's way too many guys in white out there.

But Lucic wasn't the only potential video Brendan Shanahan will review this weekend.

Late in the second period, Brad Marchand upended Sami Salo with a hipcheck that drew a five-minute major for clipping and a game misconduct. Marchand came in low. Very, very low:

The Salo left the game with a shoulder injury and did not return.

Marchand was suspended last March for two games for a hit on Columbus Blue Jackets forward R.J. Umberger and fined last month for a slew-foot on Matt Niskanen of the Pittsburgh Penguins, so he's in the NHL's system and would be considered a repeat offender should supplemental discipline be coming his way.

Follow Sean Leahy on Twitter at @Sean_Leahy

UPDATE: The NHL has rescinded Lucic's game misconduct:

The Game Misconduct penalty assessed to Boston Bruins forward Milan Lucic during NHL Game #598 this afternoon in Boston has been rescinded, National Hockey League Senior Vice President and Director of Officiating Terry Gregson announced today.

Lucic was assessed a Game Misconduct 3:54 into the first period for violating National Hockey League Rule 70.1 — Leaving the Bench. However, a video review of the incident revealed that Lucic did not leave the bench to join or start an altercation but rather had entered the ice legally over the boards and was about to step back onto the bench through the door when he changed course and joined a scrum.

"The referees reacted to what they saw," Gregson said. "The only player they saw coming from the bench area from either team was Lucic. But with the benefit of replay, we can see that Lucic had previously entered the ice over the boards legally to join the play and actually was contemplating stepping back onto the bench through the door when the
altercation ensued.

"It should be further noted that a review of the video confirmed that all players on both teams involved in the altercation had entered the ice legally for the purpose of joining the play. None entered the ice for the purpose of joining or starting an altercation, which is prohibited by Rule 70."

Phoenix Coyotes captain Shane Doan had played 1,160 NHL games, all with the same franchise, heading into tonight's tilt against the New York Islanders. He's been an All-Star twice and scored 20-plus goals in 10 of the past 11 seasons.  One individual accomplishment that's eluded Doan has been the hat trick. In 1,160 games, Doan has had 38 2-goal games, but never been able to get that third one.

During the Coyotes' 5-1 win over the Islanders on Saturday night, Doan finally got his hat trick in dramatic fashion.

As time was winding down in the third period, Doan's shot beat Islanders goaltender Evgeni Nabokov as the final buzzer went off. A review of the shot showed that Doan waited until the last possible second, literally, to record his memorable first hat trick:

Please recall the Coyotes were burned by a buzzer beater from the New York Rangers and Brad Richards last month. This time, however, the game was well in hand and the Coyotes were trying desperately to help their captain out in the final period.

As Doan pointed out to NHL.com last month, he did net a hat trick for Team Canada against Belarus during the 2007 World Championships. But doing it for the Coyotes, at the NHL level, in the final second of a win, has to be much sweeter for him.

Follow Sean Leahy on Twitter at @Sean_Leahy

Photo credit: Getty Images

No. 1 Star: Danny Briere, Philadelphia Flyers

It was a pretty memorable day for Briere. First, he engaged in his just his third career NHL fight, this one with Kyle Turris of the Ottawa Senators. Then he capped off the afternoon by completing his hat trick during a 3-2 win by scoring the winner with six seconds left in overtime:

No. 2 Star: Shane Doan, Phoenix Coyotes

In 1,160 NHL games, Doan had yet to tally a hat trick. After 38 career 2-goal games, Doan waited until the final second to nab the hat trick during a 5-1 win over the New York Islanders. Mike Smith made 31 saves for his 16th victory.

No. 3 Stars: Curtis Sanford, Columbus Blue Jackets

Grant Clitsome scored his first goal in 22 games and Sanford made 31 saves for his first shutout of the year and sixth of his career as the Blue Jackets blanked the Los Angeles Kings 1-0.

Brian Elliott, St. Louis Blues

With two goals in the first period and a pair in the second, the St. Louis Blues paced themselves to a 4-0 win over the Colorado Avalanche. Elliott stopped 15 shots for his fifth shutout of the year. Kevin Shattenkirk scored a goal and added an assists against his former team.

Honorable mention: Carey Price made 23 saves and Max Pacioretty scored a goal an added an assist as the Montreal Canadiens downed the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-1 ... Johnny Oduya scored 57 seconds into overtime as the Winnipeg Jets edged the Buffalo Sabres 2-1. Ondrej Pavelec stopped 31 shots for his third win in four starts ... Patric Hornqvist scored a pair of goal and Pekka Rinne made 27 saves as the Nashville Predators beat the Carolina Hurricanes 5-2. Mike Fisher recorded three helpers and Ryan Ellis scored his first career NHL goal ... After blowing a 3-0 lead, Joffrey Lupul saved the Toronto Maple Leafs with a goal with 12:50 left in the third period to give them a 4-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings. Jonas Gustavsson made 37 saves and Phil Kessel scored a wicked penalty shots:

The Dallas Stars got a pair of goals from Jamie Benn and Mike Ribeiro, and Loui Eriksson added three assists as they got by the Edmonton Oilers 4-1 ... Milestone games: Scott Hartnell (800), Mark Streit and Marc-Andre Fleury (400), John Tavares (200) ... The Vancouver Canucks scored four times on the power play to defeat the Boston Bruins in a rematch of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final 4-3. Cory Schneider made 36 saves as the Canucks improved to 20-0 when leading after two periods ... Martin Brodeur made 41 saves and Adam Henrique and Ilya Kovalchuk scored a goal and added an assist as the New Jersey Devils beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-1 for their second win against them in a week ... Patrick Marleau and Dan Boyle had three points and Antti Niemi stopped 28 shots as the San Jose Sharks got by the Washington Capitals 5-2. Torrey Mitchell added a goal and an assist ... During Calgary's 3-1 win over the Minnesota Wild, Jarome Iginla finally reached the 500-goal mark in front of the Flames fanbase:

Did you know? "For the 9th time in 39 games this season, Isles opponent scores on its first SOG." -- Arthur Staple, Newsday.

Dishonorable mention: Jordan Eberle left the Oilers-Stars game with a knee injury and did not return ... Steve Ott landed a shoulder to the head of Anton Lander. Suspension coming? ... According to the AP, the Sharks have not lost to the Caps at home since October 1993 ... Does Brad Marchand have a suspension coming his way after a low bridge hit on Sami Salo?

While the waiving of Colton Orr may not have signified the end of the pure fighter, it certainly signified the beginning of the end.

If Orr can't stick in Toronto, where I wouldn't be shocked to learn that GM Brian Burke has a "truculence" stencil on the wall behind his desk, there aren't many places left for guys like him. But don't think Orr's dismissal marks the end of fighting or the end of toughness. Far from it -- it merely marks the shift. The pure fighter is the past.

The fighter-scorer, however, is the future. He's also among the most coveted player types in hockey right now.

Last year's Boston Bruins were the quintessential example of what can happen if the players providing your toughness are versatile. It wasn't just that Boston had guys that could drop the gloves -- it's that those guys were still plenty effective when they held onto their equipment.

The Bruins had two players finish in double digits in fighting majors in 2010-11 -- Shawn Thornton and Gregory Campbell -- and both those players finished in double digits in goals as well. Thornton had 10 goals and 14 majors; Campbell had 13 and 11.

Let me put into perspective how impressive this is: there were only seven players in the entire NHL that reached 10 goals and 10 majors in 2010-11, and Boston had two of them.

The other five, if you're wondering, were Ryane Clowe (24 G, 12 MAJ), Brandon Prust (13 G, 18 MAJ), David Clarkson (12 G, 14 MAJ), Tim Jackman (10 G, 12 MAJ), and Steve Ott (12 G, 11 MAJ).

As we near the halfway point in the 2011-12 schedule, with most teams having played 41 games now, the numbers of players projected to reach the milestone is even lower.

As of this writing, only four players have 5 goals and 5 fights: David Clarkson, with 15 goals and 6 majors, Wayne Simmonds, with 10 goals and 5 majors, 22-year-old Matt Martin, who has matched the 5 goals from his rookie season in 30 fewer games and has 6 majors to go along with that, and Derek Dorsett of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Dorsett has 7 goals and 10 fights already this season.

There are a few other players that could reach 10/10 with strong second halves, as Gregory Campbell, Steve Downie, Steve Ott, Jordin Tootoo, Chris Neil, Maxim Lapierre and Ryane Clowe are all within striking distance. I doubt all of them will get there, but I wouldn't be surprised to see last year's total of seven repeated.

Seven. Would you believe that it's rarer to post 10 goals and 10 fights than to score 30 goals? There were twenty-nine 30-goal-scorers last season. Heck, fighter-scorers are almost as rare as 40-goal scorers, of which there were five.

And they're almost as vital to deep, successful teams.

What the 2009-10 Chicago Blackhawks and the 2010-11 Boston Bruins have shown us is that there isn't room in a Stanley Cup-winning lineup for a player that can't take regular shifts. You need four complete lines that can score, as those teams boasted, and you simply can't waste spots on one-dimensional pugilists.

Nowadays, if you want toughness (and you need toughness), you either get a guy who can fight and play, or you willfully dress a flaw. Last I checked, the team that wins is the team with the fewest flaws, so starting with a one-flaw handicap is hardly efficient.

The scoring fighter, however, very much is.

Perhaps no other team in the NHL is as accustomed to thriving without star players in the lineup than the Pittsburgh Penguins. After all: Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal have only played together a handful of times in the last year.

Crosby remains out with concussion-related symptoms. Staal injured his knee in a collision with Michael Rupp of the New York Rangers on Friday night. The Penguins updated the status of Staal on Sunday, and bad news got worse: James Neal, having a career offensive year for the Pens, is now also on the shelf.

From the Penguins and Sam Kasan:

Center Jordan Staal is out 4-6 weeks with a knee injury after he collided knee-on-knee with Rangers forward Mike Rupp Friday night, according to head coach Dan Bylsma.

Forward James Neal, who leads the team with 21 goals, will be out indefinitely with a broken foot. Bylsma said it will be "weeks not days."Neal was hit by a shot late in the third period Saturday night against New Jersey.

On top of that, forward Craig Adams "stressed a previous injury during Sunday's practice" and will be looked at again on Monday. Staal and Adams are the top penalty killing forwards for the Penguins this season.

Neal has 21 goals on the season. He hasn't scored in the Penguins' last four games; and Pittsburgh has lost all four.

Crosby, Staal, Neal and the still-injured Kris Letang, all out of the lineup. There are two men that are going to have to keep this team from entering an Eastern Conference tailspin: Evgeni Malkin and, perhaps even more so, Dan Bylsma.

So is Brad Marchand a victim of circumstance or a dirty hitter?

The Boston Bruins forward faces a phone hearing with NHL Department of Player Safety sheriff Brendan Shanahan on Monday for this hit on Vancouver Canucks defenseman Sami Salo:

As is often the case with these things, we already know the extent of Salo's injury: a concussion, according to GM Mike Gillis, and we should all be thankful it isn't a shattered skeleton or an exploding stomach given that it's Sami Salo.

Marchand was given a five-minute major for clipping and a game misconduct in the Bruins' Saturday loss to Vancouver. That plus Salo's injury plus Marchand's previous run-ins with the NHL DoPS — fined $2,500 last month for slew-footing Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Matt Niskanen, suspended two games for an elbow to the head of R.J. Umberger last season — equals a hearing over the phone, which means Marchand's suspension would be less than five games.

That is, if he's suspended. The Bruins and Marchand are asking for penance because, in their eyes, this was an act self-defense in League overrun by concussions.

"It's just very unfortunate someone was hurt on the play," said Marchand on Sunday to Boston reporters, saying much more in his discussion of the hit:

How Marchand saw the hit:

"The puck was going around the boards and I went to pick it up and was kinda looking over my shoulder and saw Salo coming in and I just kind of went down. You look up and you see a guy who's 6-foot-4/6-foot-5 coming in on you, and your instincts are to just protect yourself and it was very unfortunate he was hurt on the play."

… "I've seen the replay a bit. I did go under him but I felt the base contact was about his hip point. That's usually a pretty legal hit from what I've seen in the past. I have no idea about how the League feels about it."

Why Marchand believes it was an act of self-defense:

"I think, in this league nowadays, with the size and strength of guys, everyone has to protect himself and different guys do it in different ways. In a game like last night when there's a lot of emotions and guys are running around a bit, you're definitely watching over your shoulder a little bit more and you want to try and protect yourself as much as you can. When you have a guy coming in on you, you have no idea what his intentions are and what the outcome's going to be. You're just trying to protect yourself in that situation."

These were the words his coach, Claude Julien, also used in defending Marchand after the game. From The Bruins Blog, here's Julien:

"We all have our opinions on what is going on with the game and the hits and everything else. All I'm going to tell you is that I always told my players that they need to protect themselves," said Julien. "The last thing I want my players to do is get hit and then end up with a concussion, and they have to protect themselves. Whether it's the right way or the wrong way, it'll depend on how the league looks at it. I'd rather have a guy take a two-minute penalty than turn his back to the play, stand up straight, and then get his face knocked into the glass and be out for maybe the rest of the year with a concussion, or maybe end his career like [Marc] Savard.

"So I think we have to really look at those kinds of things. In my opinion, if guys start protecting themselves the way Marchand did, maybe guys will stop taking runs at other guys because that's the consequences you end up paying for taking runs at guys, too. Who knows where we're going to go with this? I know we're all trying hard to fix that part of the game, but it's still there, and it's still not fixed."

A few thoughts here:

1. Having watched the replay about 50 times, I'm still waiting to see the cut in which Sami Salo "takes a run" at Marchand. He's going to throw a check as Marchand gains position of the puck. If that's what qualifies as "running a guy" in Claude Julien's book, then the Bruins do more running than a Kenyan marathoner.

(Note: As reader Eric Southward reminded us, you can see Marchand and Salo collide in nearly the same spot and then have a little back and forth in the middle of the zone. Perhaps Marchand thought enough had transpired that Salo was going to cheap-shot him, as if Salo has a rep for that sort of thing.)

2. No one's saying Marchand can't protect himself. It's just the methodology and the reason for protection that are in dispute.

When Mike Richards throws an elbow at Pat Kaleta because that rat-fink is going to hit him from behind, the fact that it's in self-defense probably spared Richards from a suspension. Again, in this case, Salo's going for a check in the offense zone; is size disparity enough of a reason to clip him? Is Marchand saying "I have no idea what his intentions are" enough to validate bringing a gun to a fist fight?

As for methodology … Marchand believes it was the kind of hip-check that Keith Ballard delivers with aplomb. But it's not. It's a clip. At one point it looks like Salo is sitting Marchand's back. He deserved the major.

It's an interesting question for Claude Julien, who's had players suffer from and administer concussions: Is one brain injury in an act of self defense excused by a potential one from the act itself? It's the stuff of "Twilight Zone" morality plays.

3. It's getting a little tiresome to hear the Bruins — the biggest, baddest team on the block — use self-defense as a defense when inflicting harm on an opponent. Marchand wanted to send Salo skates-over-helmet. Milan Lucic wanted to freight-train Ryan Miller. After both collisions, we hear a Bruins play lamenting about his own safety while some guy's taking baseline tests.

It's a classic heel move for sure, but seriously boys ...

4. Should this be a suspension?

The NHL and Brendan Shanahan have continued to suspend to the injury and suspend players with multiple offenses; from that perspective, one can see Marchand getting the gate for maybe two games.

But Shanahan, despite what his critics claim, also has an old school streak. This isn't a hit from behind or an elbow to the head behind the play or a slew foot: It's a hip check that went too low, causing an injury when the player's head hit the ice.

"If that's an illegal hit, I'll take that out of my game," Marchand said.

His was, but hip-checks aren't.

Hip checks have slowly been leaving the game in the last several years, becoming much less frequent. To that end, they're probably not on the Shanahan wish list for "hits we don't want to see anymore." In fact, one might expect them to have protected status as a part of the game: Julien's right that it's a hell of a way to make a statement against a guy running you, provided you get the hip (Marchand didn't) and the guy's actually running you (Salo wasn't).

Which is why I'd leave it at a major and a game misconduct, and wouldn't suspend Marchand.

He was dinged for a slew foot and an elbow, and neither should have a place in the NHL. What he did to Salo is — and you hate to use this term, but Marchand used it — a hockey play gone wrong.

Provided that in 2012 the hip check is still a hockey play.

Going into the 2011-12 season, most assumed that Southeast Division would be a two-horse race. Every member of the Puck Daddy staff predicted the Washington Capitals and Tampa Bay Lightning to finish 1-2, with the Carolina Hurricanes, Winnipeg Jets, and Florida Panthers all presumed to be on their way to the basement, like a blogger after lunch.

Now, the season is still young, and things could indeed shake out that way. After all, the Minnesota Wild were on the top of the conference a month ago. Now they're one point up on 9th place, five points out of 12th, and falling fast. Things can change in a hurry.

Still, through the first half of the 2011-12 schedule, I'm of the mind that the Southeast Division has been the biggest surprise. For years, it's been the laughingstock of the league, known for housing the Capitals and little else of merit. Here are the standings as of this writing:

Really, the only thing that's unfolded as predicted is Tampa Bay occupying the space just below Washington. The fact that Florida and Winnipeg are ahead of both of them, however? That's nuts.

We've discussed, in the past, the way that weak divisions tend to lead to one team jumping ahead of the pack in the conference. The games aren't taxing and the points flow freely. But when you're meeting your match in every divisional game, it can slow you down.

I think the sudden resurgence of the Southeast is something to keep in mind when discussing the subpar first half for both the Bolts and Caps. To be certain, there are other problems with both clubs, but the competitive of the Jets' and Panthers -- the fact that they're no longer a source of easy points -- has to take its toll.

It's not exactly rare to see fans get into with players who are in the penalty box during an NHL game. Not in the Tie Domi sense, but in the verbal abuse sense. It is rare, however, to see a situation get so intense that it delays the game, which is what happened in Anaheim on Sunday night.

In the third period of their 7-4 loss to the Anaheim Ducks, there were three Columbus Blue Jackets seated in the penalty box: Derek MacKenzie and Derek Dorsett serving 10-minute misconducts, and Jared Boll, fresh off a pounding of Sheldon Brookbank and serving a 5-minute major.

With 15:33 left in the third, play was halted for about five minutes as arena security sorted out an incident between the players and some fans near the box.

From Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch:

Four fans were escorted out of the building — the last requiring a police presence — after getting into a skirmish with the Blue Jackets' Jared Boll and Dorsett as they sat in the penalty box.

No word how intense the "skirmish" became. The Fox Sports Net Ohio feed showed a male fan in a hooded sweatshirt being identified by security personnel and off-ice officials, and eventually escorted up the stairs (giving a high-five to another fan before his departure).

By the 12:30 mark, uniformed police officers made their way down to the seats near the Blue Jackets penalty box and escorted an additional fan away.

After the game, Boll denied playing a role in any instigating, telling Portzline "[MacKenzie] wanted a drink, so I squirted some in his direction." (Well that was a very Jared Boll response.)

If you've got more information on how things went down during this fracas, email us at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com.

No. 1 Star: Corey Perry, Anaheim Ducks

The Ducks won by three goals, and Corey Perry had a hat trick. Coincidence!? Probably, since Anaheim was playing the moribund Columbus Blue Jackets, but Perry's fourth career three-goal game was a catalyst in their 7-4 win. He scored the Ducks' second goal of the game, a key power-play goal in the second period to re-establish a three-goal lead and then an empty netter to ice it.

No. 2 Star: Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit Red Wings

He was kept in check by the Chicago Blackhawks all game, but Datsyuk sprung loose when it counted: At 3:08 of overtime, when he shook a Patrick Kane check, collected a rebound and then sent home the winning goal from a tough angle for his 13th of the season. Detroit won in OT, 3-2.

No. 3 Star: Filip Kuba, Ottawa Senators

Kuba's blast through a Daniel Alfredsson screen gave the Ottawa Senators the lead with 1:11 left in their game with the Philadelphia Flyers, eventually winning, 6-4. He finished the night at a plus-4.

Honorable mention: Erik Karlsson had a goal and an assist and finished at a plus-5 for the Sens. Daniel Alfredsson, Nick Foligno and Chris Neil also had a goal and an assist. … Teemu Selanne had two goals in the Ducks' win, while Saku Koivu had a goal and two assists. … Iiro Tarkki, an undrafted rookie from Finland, won his first NHL game in relief of Jonas Hiller, who left with an undisclosed lower body injury. … Rick Nash scored two goals for the Jackets. … Ty Conklin denied a penalty shot taken by Jimmy Hayes in the third period. It was the second straight game Detroit faced one. "Yeah, it's funny, now every game we have penalty shot," said Datsyuk. ... Valtteri Filppula had a goal and an assist. Patrick Sharp scored goal No. 20. … Matt Read had a goal and an assist for the Flyers. … Save of the night right here from Craig Anderson on Brayden Schenn:

Did you know? Blackhawks D Sean O'Donnell played in his 1,200th NHL game.

Fight of the Night: This was a thorough beatdown by Jared Boll on Sheldon Brookbank:

Dishonorable mention: Among the significant injuries on Sunday night were Hiller, Patrick Sharp (undisclosed but sounding ominous) and Jeff Carter (separated shoulder on a Francois Beuchamin hit at center ice). … Matt Carle was a minus-4 for the Flyers. … Replays on NBC showed the Red Wings got away with a too many men on the ice violation just before they scored the game-winning goal. But the game had its share of missed calls overall. ... Another first period meltdown from Steve Mason, who gave up four goals on 16 shots, including one 2:14 into the game. … The Blue Jackets got into it with some Ducks fans behind the penalty box.

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In honor of the weekend's most memorable highlight and heartfelt defense of illegal actions, let's skate back to last June to relive the last time Brad Marchand sent a member of the Vancouver Canucks ass-over-eyebrows in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final:

Outside of occurring near the end boards, which is pretty damn dangerous, that's basically the kind of hit that Marchand was defending after concussing Sami Salo on Saturday with misplaced hip check in the Boston Bruins' loss to Vancouver.

Back in Game 4, Daniel Sedin was taking a run at him and Marchand responded with a hip check in self-defense. Marchand earned six minutes in penalties from the incident and its aftermath.

Here's Marchand from June 2011 on the sequence, which included that roughing play against Christian Ehrhoff:

"I was trying to get to the puck, and Ehrhoff tried to hit me, and I just jumped around him," Marchand said. "I accidentally clipped him, and then Sedin took a run at me, so there's nothing I really should have done differently there. And then, Ballard came at me, so I was just trying to defend myself. I'm not gonna let guys run at me. That's just how it goes."

Marchand, after the Salo hit:

"In a game like last night when there's a lot of emotions and guys are running around a bit, you're definitely watching over your shoulder a little bit more and you want to try and protect yourself as much as you can. When you have a guy coming in on you, you have no idea what his intentions are and what the outcome's going to be. You're just trying to protect yourself in that situation."

As we discussed yesterday, we're not sure if self-defense will fly with Brendan Shanahan when he and Marchand have their chat around noon about the Salo hit. But this is what Marchand was attempting to do, having done it before, and probably doing it again if he doesn't get dinged for, like, four games.

He got a little lower on Salo than Sedin, we think, but it's still a "hockey play gone wrong." And no one was crying about the scourge of clipping in the NHL on the Sedin hit because (a) the Horton hit loomed over every incident in the series and (b) even the refs felt it was a minor penalty.

He'll be suspended for political reasons, but shouldn't be based on the act.

s/t @EskemoJoe for the clip of the clip.

Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend's events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it.

What drama. What nastiness. What a sideshow.

And then the game started.

When the game was played reasonably, which admittedly wasn't often, particularly in the opening period, it was a wonderful example of why hockey is the best sport on earth. These are probably the two best teams in the game, skilled and mean and tough and fast and staunch in their own zone, and they play it beautifully.

Unfortunately, so much of this game — No. 42 of the regular season for Vancouver and 38 for Boston — was played up as some sort of continuation of last year's Stanley Cup Finals, particularly by the local media in both cities, that it became a total circus. They harped on the same tired tropes we'd all tired of in June. The Canucks dive! The Bruins are dirty! Roberto Luongo is mentally weak! Brad Marchand rabbit punched Daniel Sedin! It was, if nothing else, an exercise in trying to cram as many tire-pumping jokes into three days' worth of stories, helped immeasurably by Cory Schneider getting the start instead of Luongo.

By the time the game started enough middle school-level, "Did you hear what he said about you?" talk had flown around that even if there hadn't been any bad blood between the teams still lingering from last spring, things would have gotten chippy in a hurry. So this was always going to be a testy game with higher stakes than the typical regular-season affair.

The rhetoric was too much, and though it started with embarrassingly fanboyish tweets and stories from media on both sides of the continent, it reached its logical nadir with one Boston-based blog tweeting that anyone in the stands wearing a Canucks jersey for this one was "begging for it."

As Jack Edwards is so fond of saying, you "don't poke the bear," because the bear will respond. But if you do, you've got to be smart about it.

(Coming Up: There's simply no way Bruce Boudreau weighs 185 pounds; Turris fights Briere; teams without a shutout; more Tortorella gold; Greg Sherman has last laugh for now; the Red Wings lose realignment; John Tavares is awesome; Brodeur putting it together; fanning the Flames of Lance Bouma; the Jets hit the road with a thud; Penguins and Wild injured; so is Mike Green; Montreal fans protest coach; the winner and loser of the weekend; and the KHL article you have to read to believe.)

The Canucks very much were smart about it, and goaded the Bruins into giving them 11 power plays, one of which was a five-minute major and two more formed a full two-minute 5-on-3. On those, the Canucks scored three of their four goals. Their other goal was also on a power play.

Lots of Boston-based media members pointed out that this was likely the Canucks strategy of course, with the tacit implication being that this was in some way dishonorable and not The Way The Game Should Be Played. But in reality, it's a very intelligent tack for any team with the league's top power play to take, especially if they're also playing the team with the league's top 5-on-5 offense and defense, against whom scoring would otherwise be difficult.

Of course, that five-minute major wasn't one that the Canucks induced, so much as it was an intentional and dirty low-bridge on Sami Salo, who didn't have the puck, by Brad Marchand. The left wing, for all his entertainment value, is also developing quite the reputation as a guy who plays on the edge but who crosses the line into illegality all too often. And please don't buy for a second Claude Julien's nonsense about Marchand getting out his scuba gear to "protect himself."

One would hope that the two goals the Canucks scored during the ensuing major, which included Cody Hodgson's laser game-winner, gives Marchand pause. Because the league's supplementary discipline system has clearly done nothing to start him thinking about valuing his opponents' safety, maybe letting down his teammates will.

At the end of the day, despite all the scolding, one has to wonder how badly the Canucks feel they've besmirched the sport by going into the best team in hockey's building, taking two points and handing them just their second loss in the last 10 games.

Really, it's too bad that so much of the game had to be played with one team shorthanded (though anyone who thought it would end up any other way was deluding themselves). When the game was played at even strength, it was great, even if the Bruins were once again decisively better than their opponents, outscoring Vancouver 3-0.

This was intense, angry, fun and sometimes frustrating hockey to watch. These teams are better than the low-rent displays they put on (Dale Weise agreeing to fight Shawn Thornton, and then not doing it, was shameful), but the occasional glimpses into an actual hockey game, instead of a three-ring Barnum and Bailey's operation, between these two teams was wonderful.

They say familiarity breeds contempt but regular meetings between these two teams would have tempered the made-up storylines considerably because the media and teams and fans would have had to focus on the actual game. It is, therefore, a shame that these two teams play on opposite ends of the continent. These games bring out the worst in everyone but that would calm down had this been one of several meetings between the teams this season.

The antagonistic atmosphere on Saturday detracted from what should have been an aesthetically pleasing example of what this sport can be. But I'd watch 82 a year.

What We Learned

Anaheim Ducks: Anaheim fans love Bruce Boudreau because he's self-deprecating and honest. At 5-9-2, it certainly can't have much to do with coaching. Also, I don't see how this article gets away with calling him 5-9, 185.

Boston Bruins: Brad Marchand is only getting a phone hearing for the clipping on Sami Salo. That means five games at most.

Buffalo Sabres: Now that guys are getting back healthy again, why do the Sabres still stink? Luckily, Darcy Regier has no plans to shake things up.

Calgary Flames: I love the picture of Lance Bouma after he scored his first career goal here. He's just so excited.

Carolina Hurricanes: Carolina conceded four power play goals on five chances to the Predators, who have the third-best home power play in the league. Doesn't help that Carolina's road PK is 28th.

Chicago Blackhawks: The Blackhawks like where they sit at the season's halfway point. One area of concern, though, is that they have a lot of trouble keeping the puck out of the net, allowing 117 in 41 games.

Colorado Avalanche: Greg Sherman now has the remainder of the season to sit back, relax and laugh at everyone who reminds him he traded Kevin Shattenkirk (6-16-22) and Chris Stewart (9-7-16) for Erik Johnson (1-15-16) and Jay McClement (6-4-10). They're third in the Northwest and outside a playoff spot, baby!

Columbus Blue Jackets: Curtis Sanford got a shutout on Saturday against Los Angeles, the Jackets' first of the season. That leaves the Islanders, Senators and Blackhawks as teams without a clean sheet this year.

Dallas Stars: Next season, the Stars will not open training camp in Prince Edward Island as they have done each of the last two years. Instead, they'll do it in the somewhat less nonsensical locale of Boise.

Detroit Red Wings Presented by Amway: Boo hoo realignment isn't happening do you know how terrible this is for the Red Wings? It's really bad you guys boo hoo hoo.

Edmonton Oilers: Jordan Eberle is the latest Oiler forward to head to the injured list after colliding knee-to-knee with Jamie Benn. No Ebs? No RNH? Why even watch an Oilers game these days? He'll be reevaluated today.

Florida Panthers: Poor Jacob Markstrom has been going back and forth between the AHL and NHL a lot this year. Friday was his first game back with the NHL club since November, and even if he lost, it was generally felt that he played well.

Los Angeles Kings: I think the Kings might be having some trouble scoring. In their last three games, they've popped in just two goals despite playing in two overtime periods. Two goals in 185:38 is, um, bad.

Minnesota Wild: More Wild injuries allow their fans to keep acting like the team has a chance to be competitive for the remainder of the year. Cute!

Montreal Canadiens: Canadiens fans: Still dumb. Because lost in all this "OUR COACH ONLY SPEAKS ONE LANGUAGE QUELLE OUTRAGE" nonsense is the fact that Randy Cunneyworth's club has won three of the last five, including Saturday's game. Not great, but also not as bad as when the whole furor started.

Nashville Predators: Lance Bouma wasn't the only guy to get his first NHL goal on Saturday. Ryan Ellis really stepped into a puck from Roman Josi to get his as well.

New Jersey Devils: Martin Brodeur think he's starting to get it together here after a disastrous loss to Boston earlier in the week in which he gave up six goals on 27 shots. He stopped 41 of 42 from a very injured Penguins team, but you take wins where you can get 'em.

New York Islanders: Saturday was John Tavares' 200th game (and Mark Streit's 400th and Josh Bailey's 250th) but what's most impressive is that Tavares, despite having very little in the way of help, has 156 career points in that time. Hell of a player.

New York Rangers: Reporters asked John Tortorella about if the Rangers are good enough to be contenders for the Stanley Cup. Tortorella called the question, "a crock." How do you not love Torts, eh?

Ottawa Senators: "Turris deserves kudos for dropping gloves." Yeah, against Danny Briere. What a tough customer Kyle Turris is.

Philadelphia Flyers: Speaking of which, here's Turris getting pumped by Briere. Kudos again, Kyle.

Phoenix Coyotes: Kind of lost in that whole Shane Doan's first career hat trick thing was that Mike Smith turned in a very good performance against the Isles on Saturday, who just recently got over a groin injury.

Pittsburgh Penguins: With Jordan Staal and James Neal added to the lengthy list of the Penguins' key contributors who are out for a significant amount of time, the sky is pretty much falling. The Pens are currently eighth in the East, 4-6-0 in their last 10, and things are fixing to get worse, not better.

San Jose Sharks: Peep the pass by Jumbo Joe Thornton on this Patrick Marleau goal. Hoo boy.

St. Louis Blues: Let it be known that for about 20 hours this weekend, the Blues were all alone at first in their division. Yes, really.

Tampa Bay Lightning: Can Brett Connolly keep scoring like he did at the World Juniors? The better question is, can he convince every other team in the NHL to start dressing 19-year-old Czechs?

Toronto Maple Leafs: The headline obviously is that the Leafs beat the Red Wings 4-3 on Saturday night, but did so having blown a 3-0 lead and getting outshot 40-18. Any win over a team like the Red Wings, though, is a good one.

Vancouver Canucks: That clipping play by Marchand didn't hurt Sami Salo's knees but it did give him a concussion.

Washington Capitals: Mike Green left last night's game with a "tightening" in his groin. Precautionary move, apparently, but still a cause for concern for the Caps, who saw their four-game winning streak snapped in San Jose, where they haven't won since 1993.

Winnipeg Jets: The Jets hit the 41-game mark with an overtime win against Buffalo, prompting Claude Noel to say, "We are happy to be where we are, but not satisfied. We need more wins in January to stay in the hunt." Well hey if it's anything like December you'll have another dozen or so home games and win a bunch. Oh what's that? Nine of Winnipeg's games are on the road this month? And they've already lost two of them? Go figure.

Gold Star Award

It took him just one thousand one hundred sixty-one games, but Shane Doan finally has an NHL hat trick. And it took him 19:59.9 or so into that one to pull it off.

Minus of the Weekend

If even a quarter of these stories about how horrible it is to be in the KHL are true, it's horrifying.

Play of the Weekend

Lance Bouma scored his first-ever NHL goal and Olli Jokinen played in his 1,000th career game and no one cared because this happened instead:

Perfect HFBoards Trade Proposal of the Week
User "JoDee" has the Caps involved for some reason.

To Leafs:
Getzlaf

To Caps:
Grabovski

To Anaheim:
Schenn
Colborne
Washington 1st
Toronto 1st

Signoff
It's called drainage. I own everything around it, so I get everything underneath it.

Ryan Lambert publishes hockey awesomeness rather infrequently over at The Two-Line Pass. Check it out, why don't you? Or you can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter if you so desire.

Perhaps the most startling aspect of Scott Arniel's dismissal as Columbus Blue Jackets head coach, literally months after it should have happened, is that GM Scott Howson didn't follow him out the door and is still, apparently, allowed to make hockey operations decisions.

Todd Richards, who you may remember from such firings as "the end of last season with the Minnesota Wild," takes over on an interim basis.

Sunday night's 7-4 loss to the Anaheim Ducks was apparently the last straw, as the Blue Jackets got off to a terrible start, saw goalie Steve Mason pulled, made a series of mental mistakes defensively, got nothing out of their secondary scoring and lost a significant player (Jeff Carter) to injury.

So, basically, the last straw resembled pretty much every loss the Blue Jackets had since October.

How bad are the Blue Jackets this season? This bad, according to Aaron Portzline:

The Blue Jackets have been in last place in the NHL standings for all but 10 days since the start of the season in early October. At 11-25-5, they are already 20 points out of the Stanley Cup playoff picture.

Coaches that were fired this season before Scott Arniel: Davis Payne, Bruce Boudreau, Randy Carlyle, Paul Maurice, Terry Murray, Jacques Martin. Incredible.

Arniel's performance was as problematic as that of his team. He went scratch-happy with Derick Brassard, to the point where Brassard's agent Allan Walsh went public with his protest. Arniel made some curious ice time decisions, like giving rookie Ryan Johansen just 12:57 on average in what is a lost season. Also, Arniel could come across … ahem … a little hazy on the facts about his team's performance.

But in fairness to Arniel, he should have been fired months ago; we don't want to say Howson's a little slow on the draw, but he also just realized that NBC cancelled "ALF" (and is enraged about it).

Howson has also clearly built the worst team in hockey for him to coach. Yes, there have been injuries and other circumstances, like the James Wisniewski suspension. No, that doesn't excuse the fact that Howson entrusted this team's future in the shaky hands of Steve Mason, who is making Andrew Raycroft look like Patrick Roy, and didn't make the call in this coach until halfway through a lost season. Now, a coaching change means, at best, fewer ping-pong balls for Nail Yakupov.

Arniel's a good guy in a bad situation. He'll bounce back; at least now the Winnipeg Jets have more than one ex-Jet to choose from if and when Claude Noel gets turfed (Randy Carlyle being the other).

In a related story, Ken Hitchcock is 18-5-5 with the St. Louis Blues.

UPDATE: Howson spoke this morning about the firing, which he said he decided to do prior to Sunday night's game.

"I really divided our season into three parts. In the first part, I thought we had a tough start. I didn't think it was a fair basis for evaluation because of the Wisniewski suspension and all the injuries. Really, if you look at our record from the middle of November until December, it was pretty good: 7-5-3 in a 15-game period," he told the Blue Jackets website.

Let's just pick a random date in that range ... how about Dec. 8? The Blue Jackets were 11 points out of a playoff spot. How about Dec. 15? They were 13 out. Progress!

So why wait?

"I thought I answered that. I thought we were playing pretty good until the middle of December. We were going in the right direction. It's gone off the rails since then," said Howson.

Things an NHL player should do when his weight and conditioning are constant points of contention and ridicule: Hit the exercise bike, hire a personal trainer, impose some dietary restrictions.

Things an NHL player shouldn't do when his weight and conditioning are constant points of contention and ridicule: Suffer an injury while eating a stack of "delicious pancakes."

Oh, Dustin Penner. From Rich Hammond of LA Kings Insider comes the story of the Los Angeles Kings forward who missed a game and is questionable for Monday night's tilt with the Washington Capitals because of Aunt Jemima's Revenge:

"I woke up fine, sat down to eat and it locked right up. It never happened to me before. I couldn't stand up. I was probably at the third stage of evolution. So my wife helped me get dressed, and then I drove to the rink here, to hope they could do some magic and get it opened up. Kinger [trainer Chris Kingsley] just looked at me and said, 'Go home.' So I got some treatment and went home.

"Apparently it's one of those mysterious things, where you can throw it out (from) sneezing. I just leaned over to dip into some delicious pancakes that my wife made. It's just like it [the pain] wraps around you and squeezes. … So it was disappointing. Hopefully it's just an isolated incident, and not something that's going to become chronic."

Or else he'll have to switch to waffles …

The evolution joke makes us think Penner can have a laugh about this stuff; obviously, we don't want to see a guy already struggling through this season suffer through a back injury.

[ Y! Health: Back disorders, symptoms and treatments ]

Not to get too syrupy here, but we're rooting for the guy, even though the odds are stacked against him.

From David Staples of the Edmonton Journal, who hipped us to the story and obviously saw a lot of Penner:

Penner was a good player while he was in Edmonton, even as he drove some crazy with his seemingly languid style of play. I saw him as a smart but lumbering player, not a lazy bones. If he gets healthy, he can help the Kings.

Credit to Penner for telling the truth about how he got injured in this case, as he had to know his critics would feast on such an anecdote.

As Staples notes, and as so many of us are painfully familiar with, back injuries can occur through the simplest of activities: Getting out of bed, tying one's shoes, lifting a child.

Or eating a plate of pancakes.

We eagerly anticipate Dustin Penner's public safety video to be shown at all Los Angeles area IHOPs about the dangers of pancake consumption.

We also await the news from Winnipeg when Dustin Byfuglien and Kyle Wellwood separate their shoulders while devouring 25 Double Downs at KFC during their mid-morning snack ...

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On Sept. 22, 2011, Wayne Simmonds of the Philadelphia Flyers was in the middle of a shootout attempt during an exhibition game at the John Labatt Centre in London, Ont., when a fan threw a banana on the ice.

As Simmonds said after the game against the Detroit Red Wings: "When you're a black man playing in a predominantly white man's sport, you've got to come to expect things like that."

A week later, London police charged Christopher Moorhouse, 26, with "engaging in a prohibited activity on a premises under the trespass to property act", which carried a maximum penalty of $2,000.

Moorhouse had his day in court on Monday, Jan. 9, and was fined $200 plus court fees for the incident — which was deemed not racially motivated by the judge, nor was it "mischievous behavior" because the banana didn't interfere with play.

John Matisz of London Community News reports that Moorhouse had consumed alcohol during the night and "had purchased the banana at a concession stand at the end of the game, just prior to the shootout." His actions were not considered racially motivated nor a hate crime by the court.

This ruling led Moorehouse's defense lawyer, Faisal B. Joseph of Lerners Personal Injury Law, to blast the coverage and reaction to the incident. From Matisz:

"Absolutely appalled. Absolutely ridiculous," Joseph said of the backlash Moorhouse faced for a non-criminal act. "And for people to be giving death threats to his family — over a banana?. The banana was not loaded and nobody was killed."

Joseph said his client, who is just two credits shy of obtaining a diploma in Police Foundations from Fanshawe College, lost weight because of the scrutiny. He also mentioned Moorhouse broke down in tears every time they would meet in large part due to the "shame he feels he has brought to the city of London, Philadelphia Flyers and National Hockey League."

"Unfortunately, we had members of our community — from politicians to media personalities to you-name-it — convicting him of a crime he had not been charged for," Joseph added. "I had been interviewed by media outlets, asking, 'how does it feel to represent a racist?'"

Much more from the London Community News.

Look, we're willing to believe it was all just unfortunate circumstance that led Moorhouse to throw a banana at a black man during a hockey game and have the world deem it a racially-motivated act. But we're going to need hard evidence that Moorhouse was openly weeping because he brought shame to the Philadelphia Flyers ...

It's a Monday edition of Marek vs. Wyshynski beginning at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT, and we're talking about the following and more:

Special Guest Stars: NHL great and MvsW favorite Bobby Holik joins us to talk all things hockey.

• In which Marek and Wysh discuss the gongshow that was realignment.

• Firing Scott Arniel.

• Diving in hockey is so European.

• The Canucks vs. Bruins and Brad Marchand's hit.

• Puck Headlines and Talking Points

Question of the Day: "Which player impressed/disappointed you in Saturday's Vancouver vs. Boston game?"

Email your answers to puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or tweet them with the hashtag #MvsW to either @jeffmarek or @wyshynski.

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