Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.
• The Vancouver Canucks' Celebratory Whiskey Cupboard. Also a safe place to store your Sedins in case Marchand comes through town. [Days of Y'Orr]
• Bob McKenzie's realignment super mega post is quite impressive. How deep does it go? Consider Plan F: "How about we take any one of Detroit, Nashville or Columbus to the Southeast, doesn't really matter at this point for the purpose of this argument. Let's put Winnipeg in the Northwest Division, but keep Minnesota, Colorado, Calgary and Edmonton there, and move Vancouver to the Pacific Division. Vancouver in the Pacific makes a lot of sense because, well, every team in the Pacific would actually be on Pacific time. That would allow Dallas to move from the Pacific to the Central." [TSN]
• Mike Heika with the Dallas Stars view: "If the Coyotes moves to the East, then the Stars' chances of getting out of the Pacific decrease. And if the league is bent on keeping six divisions of five teams each, then I'm not really sure how you would get the Stars into the Central Division and I'm not really sure how you would get Detroit to the East." [Stars Blog]
• Should suspensions be based on injuries? A point/counterpoint debate. [Nightmare on Helm Street]
• Pittsburgh Penguins Coach Dan Bylsma on facing the Washington Capitals this Thursday: "When you have the Capitals coming into your building and you're going to Philadelphia you're acutely aware of the situation, you're acutely aware of the team you're playing, the players you're playing, and the rivalry that's there. We all looked at the scheduled. We all saw Vancouver on that first trip, and you're coming home and, 'Oh, there's the Capitals.'" [Ice Chips]
• Michal Neuvirth is day-to-day for the Capitals with a lower body injury. Taking his place in practice? Their PR guy. We need a full-gear goalie race between him and Brett Leonhardt. [Washington Times]
• Also, a college student fills in for Winnipeg Jets goalie Chris Mason. Wonder if he's now above Aebischer on the organizational depths chart. [NHL]
• Los Angeles Kings winger Dustin Penner is fired up and ready to go against the New Jersey Devils, skating with Mike Richards and Dustin Brown. [LA Kings Insider]
• Katie Baker on how to choose an NHL team. Wait, it doesn't choose you like that big flying dragon thing from "Avatar"? What, was that even a dragon? Honestly we were so stoned … [Grantland]
• Healthy scratches are not what Cody Franson expected with the Toronto Maple Leafs: "I don't want to be a guy that misses games… I'm supposed to be coming into my own. This was supposed to be my breakout year. That's what I was working towards this summer. I was getting myself into shape to play bigger minutes and a bigger role. I prepared myself for that. For some reason, it just didn't turn out that way." (P.S. Wilson said he's playing on Saturday. [National Post]
• "So you're against fighting in hockey but you would have liked to see the Canucks respond to Marc Methot's hit. A bit hypocritical, isn't it? You don't like the violence, yet when your Canucks are involved, you don't see things as objectively?" [Head To The Net]
• Troy Bodie back with the Ducks. [Ducks Blog]
• The top 10 backup goalies. Are there 10 goalies that can be legitimately called backups in this platoon league? [THW]
• Derek Stepan is getting a look with the New York Rangers' top duo of Marian Gaborik and Brad Richards. Adjust your fantasy teams accordingly. [Blueshirt Banter]
• Nathan Horton's trying to figure out his game for the Boston Bruins, as Coach Claude Julien flirts with the idea of breaking up Horton and Lucic as a winger tandem. [CSN Boston]
• Huggy bear clears waivers. [On The Forecheck]
• New York Islanders prospect Kirill Kabonov: "Everyone [in Russia] kept saying 'NHL, NHL.' You get there and will be famous. As a boy I had an impression [the NHL] was paradise. But when I came here I realized that the made-up image and reality are different things." [Lighthouse Hockey]
• The Flyers have traded Stefan Legein and a 6th round pick in 2012 to Los Angeles in exchange for future considerations. Clears a contract, but costs them a sixth-rounder to do so.
• Rudy Kelly casts NHL: The Movie. [BoC]
• "Democracy in America - A Tale of Two Arenas: Detroit's Silverdome vs. Pittsburgh's Civic Arena." Interesting read. [The Atlantic, via PD Reader Kevin Chan]
• Finally, here's the latest Down Goes Brown/Bloge Salming effort called "Shannabusiness," as the NHL VP of Player Safety issues his rulings over phat beats and with the requisite Matt Cooke cameo. [Backhand Shelf]