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.
• Awesome: The Erie Otters are turning center Connor Crisp's moment of goaltending glory into a limited edition T-shirt with all proceeds benefiting Shriners Hospitals for Children. [Otters and Buzzing The Net]
• Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke feels he was hoodwinked and bamboozled by a Newstalk 1010 radio host who had the audacity to ask him about his job status at the end of an interview: "I think it's an ignorant question, and a gutless one, too." And with that, he hung up. [National Post]
• Why Burke is expected to become the CEO of Team USA for the 2014 Sochi Games. [USA Today]
• Craig Custance lists possibilities for Team USA's coach in 2014, including Dan Bylsma, John Tortorella and Ron Wilson. [ESPN $]
• What will it take to get an NHL team in Saskatoon? According to cabinet minister Ken Cheveldayoff: "We have to have a building that's NHL-ready. We have to have a business community that's ready to support this initiative. We have to have individuals who are willing to buy season tickets for the long term. And the NHL has to want it to happen." Oh, so that's all. [Leader Post]
• Sounds like Ryan Callahan will return for the New York Rangers against the New Jersey Devils tonight. [Rangers Rants]
• What's wrong with the San Jose Sharks? Elliotte Friedman's theory: "What's wrong with San Jose? Here's an idea. The Sharks have an internal saying: "Play to three." Basically, it's a belief that if they score three goals, there's no excuse to lose. On Jan. 7, they beat Washington 5-2, running their record to 20-1-2 in those games. They are 4-7-1 since." [CBC]
• Chemmy puts over the Toronto Maple Leafs' Grabovski signing: "Did Grabovski sign a hometown discount steal contract? No, not really, and that kinda sucks, but there's no one to replace him for $5.5M on the market on July 1st, and he's that rare player who drives possession in the right direction in Toronto." [PPP]
• "As global warming prevents ice from freezing over, they say, ice hockey stars of the future will find fewer frozen lakes and backyard rinks to practice on in the hopes of following in the footsteps of some of the great professional players like Wayne Gretzky, who grew up skating in his backyard." [UPI]
• Ottawa Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson has been fined $2,500, the maximum allowed under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, for slashing Florida Panthers forward Sean Bergenheim in NHL Game No. 977 on Sunday, March 4, in Sunrise, Fla., the National Hockey League's Department of Player Safety announced today. [NHL]
• In praise of Louis LeBlanc of the Montreal Canadiens. [EOTP]
• NSFW LANGUAGE WARNING: Via Jamie Meegan, we're very much looking forward to seeing this.
• Steve Lepore on the Rangers vs. Boston Bruins ratings for NBC: "It would probably not be best to schedule a hockey game featuring two markets at the same time those two markets are playing each other in basketball on a competing network." [Puck The Media]
• Previewing a huge game between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Ottawa Senators. [Raw Charge]
• The introduction of "luck" into a stats analysis of Ilya Kovalchuk will likely not sit well with the statheads. [ILWT]
• Darryl Sutter's goaltending philosophy: "You clearly have a No. 1 goalie, right? If we're, pretty much, in a Game 7 situation every night, what would your philosophy be? That would be a better way of putting it. It's not coaching genius or anything. I've said that I'm comfortable with either guy, but if this is Game 7 tonight, who are you playing? Or go ask Barry (Trotz) who they're playing. I don't think records have much to do with anything. A lot of it is scheduling, and totally different teams, age of player, all that stuff.'" [LA Kings Insider]
• Peter Laviolette on whether Ilya Bryzgalov has been a "better teammate" lately: "I think Bryz has been fine all year." [Philly.com]
• Good piece on Mark Howe's number retirement and others numbers the Flyers should consider. [Phanatic]
• Bourne on a rather terrible line change for the Edmonton Oilers last night. [Backhand Shelf]
• Finally, there are few things in hockey fandom more wonderful than seeing some dude defeat Score-O between periods to win a car. Congrats to Mike Eyeter from Gaithersburg, Md., who won a 2-year lease on a brand new Volkswagen during the 2nd intermission of the Caps game on March 4 at Verizon Center.