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.
• Officials try to break up a fight between Colin Fraser and the mysterious, headless man.
• Since, as the self-appointed "Soul Ambassador" of this blog, I would never miss an opportunity to link to BET, I present to you their "This Day in Black History" entry for today. "On January 18, 1958, hockey player Willie O'Ree of the Boston Bruins becomes the first African-American to play in the National Hockey League in a game against the Montreal Canadiens." [BET]
• Speaking of milestones, on USA Hockey's 75th anniversary, remembering the Zamboni's introduction into the NHL. [USA Hockey]
• The number of people charged in the Vancouver riot has reached the "milestone" 100 number. Plans for an outdoor celebration have been canceled. [Toronto Sun]
• Paralyzed high school hockey player Jack Jablonski is now able to sit up in a special chair "that allows him to take in the world from a vertical position." [Twin Cities]
• Colby Armstrong talks about his concussion experience, and gives us insight into the baseline tests: "The first tests I passed in a while. It's like shapes and crazy stuff. I did good ... It was weird, I drew a picture of a naked lady, with my fingers." So, like, she had man-hands? Gross. [The Globe & Mail]
• Speaking of man-hands, Ed Jovanovski will undergo surgery after breaking his hand in a fight. He's expected to miss two months. [Panthers]
• David Backes for Selke? [Leafs Nation]
• With Shane O'Brien returning, the Colorado Avalanche have placed Brandon Yip on waivers. [Denver Post]
• Is the Los Angeles Kings' winning record under Darryl Sutter misleading? [Pro Sports Blogging]
• Dan Robson on Gordie Howe and his famed hockey family. [Sportsnet]
• This girl is in love with Claude Giroux. [Buzz on Broad]
• In a week, a time capsule that Conn Smythe buried in 1931, four years after he bought the Toronto Maple Leafs, will be dug up. [Global Toronto]
• From the department of awesome questions: Is spitting the new biting? [Sportsnet]
• Wednesday's first line center for the injury-ravaged Minnesota Wild: Warren Peters. That's unfortunate. [PHT]
• Zdeno Chara on his All-Star Game captaincy: ""I'm not going to do too much research, but I'm going to do the best job I can to build the best possible team." That's an athlete's quote right there. [CSNNE]
• Nashville Predators' D Ryan Suter is still out with his mysterious upper-body injury that isn't a concussion, so stop asking. The good news in all of this: Suter and Shea Weber have been injured at different times, giving David Poile the opportunity to see what his team will be like with one of them removed from the lineup. You know, just in case. [NHL]
• Helene Elliott talks to Rene Fasel, the president of the IIHF, on NHL players at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. [LA Times]
• Claude Julien after the Boston Bruins' loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. "We're just an ordinary hockey club right now." [NESN]
• A little over two weeks after Rene Bourque, then with the Calgary Flames, now with the Montreal Canadiens, elbowed Washington Capitals' centre Nicklas Backstrom in the jaw, the Capitals visit the Canadiens. While Randy Cunneyworth hopes there's nothing "residual," Russian Machine Never Breaks imagines a little more retribution. [RMNB]