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 New York Islanders tip off fans to the color scheme of their horrendous new black third jerseys with this website promotion of the release date, apparently using a wax figure of Michael Grabner to promote it. [Icethetics, which has more on the Islanders third jerseys]
• OMG Sidney Crosby Watch! Rob Rossi reports that (a) Crosby skated with Matt Cooke and Pascal Dupuis in practice and (b) Dan Bylsma said there's no timetable for Sid's return and (c) Sid didn't speak to the media today. [@RobRossi_Trib]
• Ian Laperriere of the Philadelphia Flyers has been nominated for Sportsman of the Year for SI, and Adrian Dater is his hype man. [SI]
• Zenon Konopka is still a little pissed off about Wojtek Wolski's elbow on Daniel Alfredsson: "We lost our captain. Our captain's still not in the lineup. I look right across every morning and see (the name) Alfredsson. I usually see his gear hanging there, and that bugs me. Right or wrong, if he was hurt legally, illegally, whatever way you want to explain it, our captain's out of our lineup, and that's a big blow to our team, and I look at that every day and that drives me up a wall, and it pisses me off." [Blueshirts Blog]
• Guy Boucher overhypes opponent, poo-poos Tampa Bay Lightning, sounds the alarm for impending doom. This was like clockwork in the playoffs last year: "Right now we've got a team that's firing on all cylinders (the Flyers). If we play like we did on the road defensively, we're going to get our butts whipped." [Lightning Strikes]
• Philadelphia Flyers captain Chris Pronger, who has missed six games with an eye injury, will be in the lineup Wednesday night in Tampa. [Philly.com]
• Should the Phoenix Coyotes dump BizNasty? [Howlin' Hockey]
• Bruce Boudreau bag-skated the [expletive] out of the Washington Capitals today; do they actually work, and will they work for this team? From Tarik El-Bashir: "Accountability has been the No. 1 buzzword around the Capitals for months at this point. The message is work hard, practice hard, play hard, and in the 5-2 loss to the Stars, the latter was very much absent. Given that it's impossible to bench the majority of a 22-man active roster, there is a need to send a message to the entire group that being out-hustled is not acceptable." [Capitals Insider]
• Should the Toronto Maple Leafs reach out to the New York Islanders and reunite Evgeni Nabokov with Ron Wilson, continuing the winning tradition of Sharks goalies in Toronto? Oh, wait, Vesa who? [PPP]
• The message that Ron Wilson sent his goalies in his postgame chat. [Bourne]
• The worst player in the NHL so far this season is … Steve Mason. [TPSH]
• The Hockey News presents the Top 10 backup goalies in the NHL, many of whom are actually backup goalies and not in a platoon. Although No. 1 could be in dispute. (And what, no Moose?) [THN]
• In which The Stanchion and Canucks Army discover that Mike Duco is actually a vampire, something he later confirmed. In other news, the Internet is incredible.
• Another take on Georges Laraque and steroids. [Puck Drunk Love]
• Mike Rupp could miss up to six weeks for the New York Rangers after knee surgery today. [Blueshirts Blog]
• Dirk Hoag has a great preview of the Anaheim Ducks' game against the Nashville Predators tonight, which involves everything from linger animosity from last postseason to Beauchemin's hit on Mike Fisher. [On The Forecheck]
• The Los Angeles Kings put Scott Parse on injured reserve and activate Colin Fraser for the first time this season. [LA Kings Insider]
• Further breakdown of the Chicago Blackhawks' problems: "But what if it is a lack of motivation or desire for the second straight year? it's the same coach, same captain. What are we to make of that? So either all of that means there's a room full of players who don't care who can't be reached, there's a captain they don't seem to respect, or the team is tuning out its coach to some extent. Pretty sure it's not the second one there. What is it?" [Second City Hockey]
• Razor makes a compelling case as for why the Dallas Stars are for real. [Razor With An Edge]
• Really great piece on the plight of the Oklahoma City hockey fan. [Copper and Blue]
• Extending video replay to penalties … you know, there is a thing called "too much hockey," and a six-hour three-period game would be it. [Gazette]
• Finally, this is the greatest high school hockey commercial in the history of high school, hockey or commercials: