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.
• One is a miscreant who has cheated, angered management, been suspended, and intentionally hit opponents in the head to injure them, only to make a face turn in 2011. And the other one is CM Punk. [@cmpunk]
• Joel Quenneville will not be fined for "critical comments made about the referees after a 2-0 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday," in which he claimed both goals should have been nullified by penalties. [ESPN Chicago]
• Will your Winter Classic seats be any good? A definitive guide to whether you're going to be sitting behind a pole. [Broad Street Hockey]
• According to a video game simulation, the Philadelphia Flyers will defeat the New York Rangers, 3-1, in the Winter Classic. The Flyers went with skinny, medium, fat, fat while the Rangers went with skinny, medium, medium, fat. [NHL]
• Is "24/7" hurting Ilya Bryzgalov's game? "It is my contention and opinion, however, that the show is negatively affecting his game right now, which is an issue fantasy managers need to understand. I feel his inflating ego is distracting him from playing with a clear and focused mind, mainly because way too much of the spotlight is shining in his direction." [Dobber Hockey]
• You can love Jaromir Jagr and still boo the ever-loving hell out of him. [Pensburgh]
• Is James Reimer not the goalie the Toronto Maple Leafs hoped he'd be? Nah. Turns out their PK just blows. [PPP]
• No Shea Weber Friday for the Nashville Predators, and Sunday is looking iffy, too. That sucks. [ESPN]
• The secret to Ken Hitchcock's success with the St. Louis Blues? Not being a shrieking maniac: "Am I ratcheting up the temperature here? No. I was brought in here to teach people what it takes to win. That's my job. It's not about yelling and screaming, 'You didn't do this, you didn't do that.' It's more matter of fact, 'Here's what it takes to get to the next level.' To me, it's all about the next day. The next day is the 'Learning Channel.'" [STLToday]
• We gave ESPN crap for their hockey snubs in Year in Review coverage. Yahoo! Sports mentioned Rick Martin and the Lokomotiv tragedy through Brad McCrimmon, but nothing on Boogaard, Rypien or Belak, for the record. Boogaard, to us, is as essential as Martin. [Y! Sports]
• Victor Hedman had an "upper body injury" and is day to day. The Tampa Bay Lightning aren't yet using "concussion" to describe in the injury. A young man wearing a No. 87 Reebok jacket was seen fleeing from Hedman's home carrying a large mallet … [Lightning Strikes]
• Ray Shero on Sidney Crosby: "I can tell you that Sidney isn't going to come back until he is 100 percent healthy," Shero said. "If he's having symptoms of any kind, we're not going to let him back into the lineup. It's that simple." [Tribune Review]
• The NY Times "24/7" review: "Boyle has been a surprise in the series, with his fun-loving personality — in practice Monday he scored a nifty top-shelf goal and catapulted himself into the glass with reckless abandon in celebration as his teammates cheered. A Rangers public relations staffer remarked that what has been shown on HBO so far in terms of the players' personalities, especially the chemistry between Boyle and Brandon Prust, is the real deal." [NYT]
• Bourne on Episode 3: "All they want is hard work. They may do some X's and O's in their video sessions, or at some off-camera time, but they're both on totally different sides of the spectrum from Dan Bylsma, who as we saw last year, uses his pre-game speech to talk about positioning and systems. As I've said before, I prefer the Bylsma technique (being told 82 times that "tonight is a huge, rip your heart out for it" would wear on me), but I can't deny that our two current on-screen coaches make me want to decapitate the closest human." [Backhand Shelf]
• If everything is on the table for the Columbus Blue Jackets, what do you do? "So, what do you do? Moving the bigger names will obviously net the bigger return, but then you're looking to rebuild your entire core. While the team has been abysmal, I believe the core group could still perform with the proper support and structure of a true NHL team. I'm talking Rick Nash, Jeff Carter, R.J. Umberger, Antoine Vermette, Fedor Tyutin, and James Wisniewski. Those are all players that if you trade them to a good team, you will see them flourish. Why can't that good team be Columbus?" [The Cannon]
• It's looking like next week for Mike Green's return to the Washington Capitals' lineup. [Capitals Insider]
• The New York Rangers have seen a 16-percent ratings increase this season. Clearly people just don't like to watch Marc Staal. [Rangers]
• The Ottawa Senators announced today that the club has signed forwards Stefan Noesen and Matt Puempel to three-year entry-level contracts. And if you're having trouble breathing, give your Noesen a Puempel. [Senators]
• Andrew Raycroft somehow clears waivers. [Dallas Stars Blog]
• Sick pass by Grigorenko at the WJC. [Buzzing The Net]
• Someone stole Winnipeg Jets tickets and was selling them illegally. [Slam]
• Congrats to Dustin Byfuglien on the birth of his daughter. [QMI]
• Is there another player besides Tim Thomas that will win a player of the year award? [THN]
• The latest on Nathan Gerbe's recovery from concussion. [Buffalo News]
• Nice work here by Derek Zone on media coverage of Ales Hemsky and Edmonton Oilers media treatment. [Copper & Blue]
• Good stuff from Clay Travis on the future sports media, given how Twitter has changed the game. [Travis]
• Finally, via The Pensblog, here's Jaromir Jagr discussing everything. It's great, especially the rant on the media.
Here's a full Q&A transcript with Jagr, including this exchange:
Q: Did the Penguins say anything to you or [your agent] Petr Svoboda when they made the offer about what kind of role you would play?
A: Nobody will tell you how they want to use you. That's one thing. But you can sometimes read between the lines. I've got nothing against [Penguins winger Tyler] Kennedy [who was a restricted free agent last summer] or guys like that, but if somebody tells you, 'Well, we have to wait for Kennedy,' and he was playing on the third line, well, where am I going to play if you wait for Kennedy before you sign me? I was reading between the lines. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm right. Nobody's going to know. Bottom line, I am here, you guys are over there. I'm going to come to the game. Everybody's going to hate me. And I still have to play. OK? Good luck to everybody. See you next time.
Your move, Mr. Kennedy.