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.
• Via JP and Hogs Haven, this is an actual player page from the actual New England Senior Hockey League with that actual explanation for a player expulsion. Expulsion being the operative phrase. [NESHL; if you have any info on this, send it on over to puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com]
• The Los Angeles Kings are still being coached by John Stevens. Why? According to Rich Hammond: "All signs still point toward Darryl Sutter joining the Kings as coach, sooner rather than later, but multiple sources have indicated that a couple things are still being worked on: compensation with Calgary — Sutter is still under contract there — and immigration issues, which can't be settled until Sutter officially joins the Kings. It could take a few more days." [LA Kings Insider]
• In which Pension Plan Puppets torches Bill Watters for floating an Eric Staal to the Toronto Maple Leafs "deal in place" rumor. [PPP]
• Jordin Tootoo and the Nashville Predators had a in-person conversation with Brendan Shanahan: "Obviously we had a conversation (about the Miller play) earlier. It is what it is. You can't go back and dwell on what happened. He just explained to the guys what his thoughts were. All the guys understood. We made him compare a couple of other different hits, but at the end of the day, it's his call on what he's going to do. He's played the game, he understands it, he has been in those situations before. There's no better person to have doing that job." [Predators Insider]
• Adam McQuaid avoids any supplemental discipline for his knee-on-knee play, as the NHL felt it was "reactionary." Do your best to feign surprise that a Boston Bruins player avoided punishment. [CSNNE]
• Is Marian Hossa of the Chicago Blackhawks one of the NHL's most underappreciated players? [Sporting News]
• Say, did you watch that 'NHL 36' with Patrick Kane last night on VERSUS? No? Steve Lepore did. [Puck The Media]
• Setting off a smoke bomb at a high school hockey game is so not cool. It's bad enough everyone's slowly dying from the Zamboni fumes, no need to further contribute to it. [Sun Times]
• A few homecomings in tonight's Calgary Flames visit to the Tampa Bay Lightning, including Alex Tanguay, who was absolutely terrible for the Bolts during his time there. How bad? "I wish I could erase it from my memory." [Lightning Strikes]
• Dirty Dangle picks out Christmas trees for the NHL. [DD]
• Tomas Vonkoun's been a bit of a sieve, so Michal Neuvirth gets the call against the Winnipeg Jets for the Washington Capitals. [Capitals Insider]
• Will next week bring some level of closure to the Phoenix Coyotes ownership debacle? [AZCentral.com]
• The Frozen Four will remain with ESPN through 2024. [Puck The Media]
The center of the hockey universe in the U.S. might be Minnesota. [Hockey Wilderness]
• Two great pieces on the Graham James/Theo Fleury/Pat Hickey controversy. Ed Willes: "It affects every victim differently. It breaks some. It emboldens others. Some are able to rise above it. Some aren't. You wish you could treat it. You wish there was some prescription which would take away the pain, the shame, the guilt, and restore things as they were. But there isn't. In the end, the only thing you can offer to the victims is support, empathy and understanding, and pray that's enough." [The Province]
• Meanwhile, this piece from Habs Eyes on the Prize just rips apart the Hickey column. [HEOTP]
• Travis Zajac is pumped up to be back with the New Jersey Devils after injury. [Fire and Ice]
• Mikko Koivu is injured for the Minnesota Wild. [Russo]
• Cody Hodgson can't win faceoffs. The solution? The buddy system! [PITB]
• Adam Proteau makes the case that Dallas Eakins of the Marlies should be the next head coach of the Los Angeles Kings. OK then. [THN]
• Mike Mancari is up with the Vancovuer Canucks on an emergency basis, and has sparked a Twitter meme. [The Province]
• Rick DiPietro goes to IR, Evgeni Nabokov and Steve Staios are hurt, so rookie defenseman Calvin de Haan is set to make his National Hockey League debut, while goaltender Kevin Poulin will receive his first NHL start of the season. [Islanders]
• A lighthearted look at concussion protocol. [The Checking Line]
• Finally, here is Jay Champagne's $10,000 hockey shot and the cynical cameraman who filmed it: