Gail Force

Gail Evans

Preview: Montreal Canadiens at Boston Bruins, 7 p.m. ET. Apparently the Habs and B's are renewing some sort of rivalry tonight. Tonight is the first game for Max Pacioretty against the Bruins since the incident with Zdeno Chara last March. Montreal responded to the firing of assistant coach Perry Pearn with a 5-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers last night and look to keep that going as the Original Six sides begin a home-and-home series.

Preview: Toronto Maple Leafs at New York Rangers, 7 p.m. ET. James Reimer will not be in goal for the Leafs and it's not due to a concussion, according to the team. He's day-to-day. Jonas Gustavsson, who started the widespread concussion panic after this morning's skate, will take Reimer's place as the Rangers play their long-awaited home opener. Defenseman Michael Sauer is expected to return for New York.

Preview: Los Angeles Kings at Dallas Stars, 8:30 p.m. ET. Two of the NHL's hottest goalies faceoff as Jonathan Quick opposes Kari Lehtonen. Quick will be looking for his fourth consecutive shutout, while Lehtonen attempts to open the season 8-0-0. In good new for the Kings, it sounds like Drew Doughty may return to the lineup on Saturday against Phoenix.

Check out previews and updated scores for all of today's games on the Y! Sports NHL scores and scheds page. For tonight's starting goalies, check out Left Wing Lock.

Evening reading:

? Now that you've likely finished washing your eyes out with bleach after seeing Mike Modano's Halloween costume, here's David Rundblad, Erik Karlsson and Mika Zibanejad of the Ottawa Senators dressed as the rock band KISS.�[The 6th Sens]

? Hockey Canada has named former NHL coach and current TSN broadcaster as their head coach for Canada's Spengler Cup entry. [Hockey Canada]

? Good read on NHL referee Mike Hasenfratz who's working tonight's Tampa Bay-Nashville game and missed the last two seasons because of heart surgery. [Examiner]

Puck Previews: Habs, Bruins reunite; Senators dress as KISS

? Bodog is getting in on the Vancouver goaltender drama with their own prop bets. [Bodog]

Puck Buddy Comment of the Day: "Solomon Grundy" on Mikael Renberg having to back out of the Winter Classic alumni game:

"no worries..PLAN B: they can trade Renberg for a day for Chris Gratton, and then simply make the same trade in reverse when it doesn't work out."

Bold prediction: Jonathan Quick's shutout streak comes to an end and Kari Lehtonen improves to 8-0-0 with a shutout of his own.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Puck-Previews-Habs-Bruins-reunite-Senators-dr?urn=nhl-wp15951

Ricard Blidstrand Severin Blindenbacher Jonathon Blum Andrew Bodnarchuk

Gail Evans

NHL realignment could result in four divisions, angry Penguins

Realignment is coming to the NHL for the 2012-13 season, because (spoiler) Winnipeg is not located in the southeast United States. How dramatic that realignment gets ? the number of teams switching divisions, and the number of divisions they'll switch to ? is the real question.

Back in June, a Gary Bettman-endorsed plan to realign the NHL into four "conferences" was discussed by the Board of Governors, one that included a return to divisional play in the first round of the playoffs.

Support for that plan waned over time. In October, Bob McKenzie of TSN reported that a straight-up Detroit Red Wings-for-Winnipeg Jets swap was now the most likely scenario for realignment.

However, lest anyone believe the NHL and the Board of Governors were destined to take the safe, boring path for realignment: Elliotte Friedman of CBC Sports reported on Saturday night that four-conference format is "gaining steam" and some teams believe it's "50/50" to be approved in December.

[Watch the video here.]

Friedman presented the alignment above, saying he suspected the Red Wings would remain with the Blackhawks and Blues, but he wasn't 100-percent on that.

The team most frustrated by this plan? The Pittsburgh Penguins.

From Friedman on Hockey Night in Canada:

"The way it works is you will play every team not in your division home and home, and the rest of the games will be in your division. So Pittsburgh would not be with Philadelphia, and that's one thing the Penguins were understandably concerned about, because [they say] we're going to lose that rivalry."

Not only that, but this would mean fewer games against the Rangers and Devils as well. The Penguins were previously separated from their current Atlantic Division rivals from 1993-98 when they were members of the Northeast Division. Friedman continued:

"The playoffs will be in your division, like it used to be with the Smythe, the Norris, the Adams and the Patrick. The Eastern teams were against this in the beginning. Some of them are coming back towards it. The other thing is that there's a feeling Detroit, Nashville and Columbus ? 40 percent of their games start after 9 p.m. locally. If [Columbus and Nashville] are going to build their fan based, they're going to have to help them on this one."

Here's Friedman's hot-stove mate Eric Francis of the Calgary Sun on realignment:

One governor referred to the realignment voting as a very "selfish process" that revolved almost entirely on teams' travel schedules. Word is commissioner Gary Bettman may very well have to push for a more complicated divisional realignment than simply moving Winnipeg to the West and bringing Detroit back east.

Instead, the movement now revolves around having teams in four divisions with the playoff playdowns in each division first. Each team would play home and home games against each team outside its division. Flames president Ken King said the possibility of an All-Canadian division was "romantic but not practical."

The goal is to have this resolved at the governors' meetings in Pebble Beach in December, and 20 of the 30 governors need to buy in to whatever the league decides.

Please recall the Red Wings' realignment "concession" to the NHL, where they agreed to stay in a division with "western conference" teams as long as they only had to travel to western Canada and California once. The home-and-home thing would seem to satisfy that.

What do you think of this realignment? As we've said before, divisional play in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs is a cool idea; but with unbalanced divisions, is that fair to teams stuck in the larger divisions?

What say you to reducing the number of games between, say, the Penguins and Flyers and the Penguins and Capitals? Or between the Chicago Blackhawks and Vancouver Canucks?

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/NHL-realignment-could-result-in-four-divisions-?urn=nhl-wp16144

Severin Blindenbacher Jonathon Blum Andrew Bodnarchuk Zach Bogosian

Gail Evans

Source: http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-football/2011/10/31/2528021/the-big-east-career-fair-syracuse-west-virginia-pitt-marinatto

Zac Rinaldo Mattias Ritola Marco Rosa Jared Ross

Gail Evans

Fans let Rangers know they want Sean Avery back

After the New York Rangers began the season on a seven-game road trip because of renovations to Madison Square Garden, the team finally returned home on Thursday night. The pregame excitement -- featuring players entering the arena via a blue carpet -- didn't last, as the Toronto Maple Leafs spoiled things with a 4-2 victory.

Missing from the festivities: Winger Sean Avery, a fan favorite who was waived and�sent to the Rangers' AHL affiliate in Connecticut on Oct. 5. Some fans decided to use the home opener to voice their displeasure with that decision.

Before the puck even dropped, a fan in an upper-level section hung a banner reading "16 Avery. Send Torts To The Whale" in support of winger Avery.

According to Jesse Spector of Sporting News, the banner was removed before the first period was over. A season-ticket holder named "Don" told ESPN New York that the reason he made the banner was in protest to Avery losing his spot in the Rangers' lineup to Kris Newbury. He also�said he plans to have more banners as the season goes on.

In the third period, fans upped their earlier support for the former Rangers pest and began chanting "We Want Avery":

"Ugh. Well, I don't know that that would make a difference."

That'll make for an interesting Sam Rosen interview if Avery is ever called up, yeah?

Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist toed the company line after the game telling reporters:

"Obviously, Aves he is one of a kind when it comes to playing the game the way he plays it, and he brings a lot to the table. He's a great player obviously, but right now the management thinks this is the best team possible and we're just gonna go with that."

Avery, by the way, is expected to make his debut with the Connecticut Whale on Friday night in Adirondack.

Photo Credit: Dave Lozo of NHL.com

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Fans-let-Rangers-know-they-want-Sean-Avery-back?urn=nhl-wp16004

Marty Reasoner Peter Regin Steven Reinprecht Mike Ribeiro

Gail Evans

By the end of this ODI tour in India, England's batsmen could still run ? they can always do that ? but they could not think

England will not have to play another game of cricket this year ? for which they are, no doubt, truly grateful. They look as if they have had enough. Just about everyone on the planet is mightily intrigued by the mysteries of India ? except perhaps our cricketers.

England's tour of India, which finished on Saturday, reminded me of my first and only trip to the Taj Mahal, which took place on the 1984?85 expedition. The entire party got up at 4.30am in order to see the great mausoleum at sunrise, except Mike Gatting, who explained: "I've seen it before." These past four weeks those England players who had seen it all before in India seemed to exhibit little enthusiasm for another visit to the country so soon after the previous one ? at least when 50-over cricket was on the agenda.

Now they can all rest up until the new year. We have reached a conclusion of sorts, and at the end of anything nowadays there have to be some awards. So we can dish a few out.

Most improved ODI cricketer: Andrew Strauss. You are always better in retirement. Forget that there were always queries about his right to be in the team, Strauss it was who played the spinners so deftly when England met India in Bangalore during the World Cup. Apparently Andy Flower wanted him to continue for another year, but Strauss, with indisputable logic, thought otherwise.

Most indispensable ODI batsman: Eoin Morgan. His reputation was high before the Indian tour; it has sky-rocketed in the past three weeks. Now he is being touted as captain for all forms of limited-over cricket. The longer he is injured the more imminent his appointment appears to be.

Most lethal ODI bowler: Stuart Broad. (See above on the joys of being absent). This was a very good tour to miss.

Most improved international cricket coach: Duncan Fletcher. Well, he was obviously crap in England last summer, but now he is a bit of a wizard again.

Notwithstanding Saturday's Twenty20 victory, the tour to India was a chastening experience. Flower has drawn comparison with the Test defeat in Jamaica in 2009 when England were bowled out for 51, partly because the shock waves that performance provoked were ultimately so productive.

Now we seek some sort of perspective. English cricket is not suddenly a shambles. Nor is it quite so potent as the euphoria of 2011 ? from the triumph of an Ashes victory in Sydney to the routing of India in the home Test series ? led some to believe. Especially when they are using white balls. In India, only one player categorically advanced during the ODIs and that was the one who was hungry for some cricket, Steven Finn. Otherwise, Samit Patel and Jonathan Trott just about ended in credit. None of the others did.

It may be that the selectors were too emboldened by the successes of 2011. They were in a mood to take a punt (always beware selectors with a yearning to pluck rabbits from hats). So it was that they sent out Scott Borthwick and Stuart Meaker. Of course, they have to experiment some time and glean new evidence but whether an away one?day series against India, arguably the toughest assignment on the international circuit, is the place to do that is debatable.

In the nearest equivalent that the English domestic game offers to ODI cricket ? the Clydesdale Bank 40 competition (I know, it's not that near) ? Borthwick played eight games for Durham and took six wickets in 2011. Meaker played three games for Surrey and captured four wickets. In the Lord's final in September, which was played on a low-bouncing, Indian-style pitch, Surrey opted not to pick Meaker. Yet this pair were part of England's 15 in India.

Our selectors are usually so pragmatic. and, recently at least, so youthful. Incidentally, Australia have just appointed John Inverarity, 67, as their full-time national selector. In other circumstances there might be scope to mock but for the fact that I know that Inverarity's knowledge and passion for the game is exceeded by no one. Moreover he is not the sort of man to be locked in his own era. He will be good.

Of course, England's torment was not the fault of the peripheral selections for the tour. The batsmen could not bat effectively against spin on turning tracks, more, I suspect, through tired minds than too many technical deficiencies. Against competent spinners in these conditions, batsmen need their wits to be razor sharp in assessing the risks. They must sometimes try to manipulate the ball rather than massacre it. They must be able to think on their feet. By the end of the ODI series they could still run ? they can always do that ? but they could not think.

Vic Marks

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2011/oct/29/england-tired-minds-in-india

Brad Richards Mike Richards Brad Richardson Zac Rinaldo

Gail Evans

Source: http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/2011/10/31/2526701/ottawa-senators-win-streak-rebuild

Jaime Sifers Jonathan Sigalet Stephen Silas Karlis Skrastins

Gail Evans

Sharks downplay their domination of the Red Wings During the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs, San Jose Sharks Coach Todd McLellan said there was "ultimate respect" between his club and the Detroit Red Wings, rather than hatred.

It's an interesting, accurate description. The Red Wings have been the Western Conference measuring stick for roughly 15 years. The Sharks, so desperate to break through as a championship team, respected Detroit so much that they hired McLellan away from the right hand of The Babcock as their coach in 2008.

Every system, gameplan, tenet and philosophy from the Red Wings came with him; pretty much the only thing he didn't borrow from Detroit was Al Sobotka, and that's probably only because of the hazards inherent to twirling a dead shark. Henrik Zetterberg has called games against San Jose "like intrasquad games."

Since that hiring, San Jose has earned respect, if not championship success. The student has bested the teacher, and the Sharks have fairly dominated this rivalry.

Under McLellan, San Jose is 14-9-1 against Detroit in the regular season and the playoffs, eliminating them from the postseason in 2010 (five games) and memorably in 2011 (seven games). This success follows a streak in which the Sharks won only 16 times in 63 games against the Red Wings, according to the Mercury News.

The average final score in their victories under McLellan against the Wings: 3.57 goals to 2.29. The average final score in their losses: 4.56 goals for Detroit to 1.67 for the Sharks. (That includes to outliers: 7-1 in the playoffs and a 6-0 regular-season win in 2008-09.)

The two Western Conference titans meet for the first time on Friday night. Goalie Jimmy Howard is back for Detroit, which lost two games with a combined score of 11-2 without him. San Jose comes blazing in on a three-game winning streak.

Overconfident against a team they've figured out? Not us, say the Sharks. Via David Pollak:

As soon as you think there's a little carry-over, your game slips a little bit and all of a sudden it's 5-1," Sharks center Joe Pavelski said. "I think they probably feel the same way. It's about re-establishing your game every night."

Defenseman Dan Boyle calls past victories a nonfactor.

"It's the Detroit Red Wings. It's been the best, most successful franchise of the last 20 years," he said. "We've beaten them in the last two playoffs, but the only thing that does is give them more incentive to get up to play against us. That just makes them that much harder."

One added bit 'o fun tonight: Ian White, who wasn't re-signed by the Sharks and then signed with the Red Wings, plays against his former mates. If you haven't heard the one about the journeyman defenseman whose wife went into labor the morning of a Game 7, read White's tale here.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Sharks-downplay-their-domination-of-the-Red-Wing?urn=nhl-wp16059

Dennis Wideman Patrick Wiercioch Cody Wild Nigel Williams

Gail Evans

Instant classic: Ducks goalie Jonas Hiller?s Movember mask

Movember is the month-long effort to raise funds and awareness for men's health issues by growing fabulous facial hair throughout November. Given that NHL players are familiar with going unshaven for a specific time period, they're naturals for Movember participation ? witness 10 of the best 'staches from last season.

Anaheim Ducks goaltender Jonas Hiller may have just raised the bar not only for Movember in the NHL, but for goalie masks as well.

Instead of his black-matted mask, he'll be wearing a white-matted mask ? adorned with black-and-white images of his teammates rocking sublime and ridiculous fake mustaches, created by the artist.

It features Teemu Selanne, Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, Bobby Ryan, George Parros (who already rocks a famous 'stache), Dan Ellis and many other teammates. Even the fair-haired players are sporting the Daniel Plainview look.

That's Hiller on the back of the mask, with his own airbrushed mustache and incredibly goofy expression, looking like a hockey card from the 1920s.

Justin Goldman of The Goalie Guild presented these images first, and got the lowdown from artist Alec Voggel of Airxess

"Airxess came up with the idea, as we needed a game-used Hiller mask that would later be for sale because of the big demand. Hiller came up with the Movember idea himself, so as always, he gave us the input, and I had to create the design.�Besides the concept, the whole testing to place all the portraits on the mask (it's not only done by airbrush) and the painting itself I have done, while Dan "The Man" gave the mask a nice flat finish and left some parts shiny." [...]

"I used the style of moustache seen on the Movember website, but in a completely different technique as other airbrushed masks out there. It must be visible that the moustaches are painted with an edding that people can see is added afterwards, just like the guys growing their own moustaches. Each player has a different look, as usual."

As for Hiller, he and some Ducks teammates spoke to Ducks Blog about the mask on Wednesday:

"I just wanted to do something different," Hiller said. " I talked to my painter and he said, 'Yeah, what do you think? We should just do a couple of masks this year. I sent him the whole theme about Movember and guys growing a mustache.

"He said, Oh yeah, let's do something like that. And that's what he came up with. I think it's definitely funny."

Toni Lydman gave his image a big thumbs-up. "I wish I could grow it like that," he said. "It would be the look. Very nice."

As far as his defense partner, Lubomir Visnovsky, Lydman said, "He looks like a Frenchman. He looks like he should be sitting by the water reading poetry wearing one of those hats and have that long thing that holds a cigarette."

Much more from The Goalie Guild here (and thanks to them for the images). What an amazing piece of work. If Burt Reynolds ever wore a hockey mask, it would be this hockey mask.

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? See Patrick Kane's no-look, spin-o-rama assist for Blackhawks
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Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Instant-classic-Ducks-goalie-Jonas-Hiller-s-Mov?urn=nhl-wp15806

Gord Baldwin Lee Baldwin Keith Ballard Mark Barberio

Gail Evans

NHL Western Conference teams seek dramatic reshaping of AHL Darren Dreger of TSN broke a very interesting story on Thursday that could have huge ramifications for the American Hockey League.

According to Dreger, reps from the Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Ducks, San Jose Sharks, Phoenix Coyotes, Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames met with NHL VP Bill Daly this month to discuss a "west wing" of the AHL ? or even an entire new minor league to serve Western Conference teams.

The issue at hand: Their minor league farm teams are just too far away. From Dreger:

Although the AHL has trimmed its schedule from 80 games to 76 this season to eliminate the instances where teams were burdened by playing four games in five days, the view of the NHL clubs most interested in change, or intrigued by the concept of starting a new league; is based on the belief that their players aren't being properly developed because of the American Hockey League grind, limited practice schedules, and the fact most of the farm teams are thousands of kilometres away from their NHL cities as illustrated below.

Syracuse, NY to Anaheim --- 3,745km
Machester, NH to Los Angeles --- 4,143km
Worcester, Mass to San Jose ---�4,263km
Portland, Maine to Phoenix ---�3,773km
Cleveland to Denver ---�1,974km

The primary motivation here is that competitors receive an advantage through localized minor league affiliates. The Ducks have to shuttle players between California and Upstate New York; the Dallas Stars had an affiliate in Austin, Tex. The San Jose Sharks have to wait for flights from Massachusetts; the Chicago Blackhawks call up players from Rockford, and the St. Louis Blues from Peoria. The Toronto Maple Leafs just need someone to change buses.

The benefits to the NHL clubs seeking this geographic shift are obvious; what about to the AHL?

Here are the top teams in attendance last season in the AHL last season, and in the previous season. Does Grand Rapids benefit from its Red Wings affiliation? Sure. Does Providence from its Bruins affiliation? Undoubtedly. But ultimately, it comes down to strength of the hockey market and success on the ice: The Chicago Wolves did well because they were winning, not because Windy City fans gave a toss about the Thrashers.

What are the relocation possibilities for the AHL, to placate these Western Conference teams? Perhaps the ECHL lights the way: Three franchises in California, and others in Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Idaho and Colorado. The attendance for teams like Stockton, Bakersfield and Colorado are over the league average, and topped a good number of AHL teams last season.

(Is it too late for the Sharks to swoop in and claim the ECHL's new San Francisco Bulls as their AHL affiliate?)

For the AHL and ECHL fans in the readership: What are your thoughts on this dramatic restructuring and/or market raiding by the NHL?

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/NHL-Western-Conference-teams-seek-dramatic-resha?urn=nhl-wp15968

Aaron Johnson Erik Johnson Jack Johnson Randy Jones

Gail Evans

Chicago Blackhawks forward Dan Carcillo was suspended by the NHL for two games for shoving Joni Pitkanen of the Carolina Hurricanes into the end boards on Friday night; and he doesn't even have a Brendan Shanahan explanation as a souvenir.

Instead, it's former NHL defenseman Rob Blake of the department of player safety with the suspension breakdown; the hockey equivalent of seeing a Broadway smash with the understudy in the lead role. (Brendan Shanahan in this analogy being the hockey equivalent of Kristin Chenoweth.)

Via the NHL:

Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and based on his average annual salary, Carcillo will forfeit $8,378.38. The money goes to the Players' Emergency Assistance Fund.

At 1:47 of the first period Carcillo delivered an illegal hit from behind, sending Pitkanen into the end boards. There was no penalty called on the play. Carcillo will miss games tonight against Columbus and Monday against Nashville. He will be eligible to return Thursday at Florida.

A few thoughts on this suspension:

? The wording of the revised Rule 41.1 is essential help in defining this ruling. The old version used the phrase "checks an opponent"; the revised version specifically mentions "pushes a defenseless opponent," which dramatically cuts down on the gray area. All the sunshine being spread around about these rulings can be traced back to one simple thing: Clarity.

? Joel Quenneville's defense of his player:

"I watched the play. You can look at the play and he's off balance before there's contact in my eyes."

It's a very close call, even after viewing it several times. But the onus is on Carcillo under these rules not to shove the guy in the back, but rather ride him into the end boards. He didn't. We can look at this play and say Carcillo is a victim of circumstance or that it's actually a hockey play. We might even be correct in both assertions. But not under these rules and this regime.

? All we ask for in these rulings is consistency. Mats Zuccarello of the New York Rangers was fined for a shove from behind that sent an opponent sprawling into the end boards; Carcillo gets nailed for essentially the same thing, only he's a repeat offender (on and off the ice). So the Shanahan regime remains diligent in (a) penalized this sort of hit and (b) continuing to go hard after repeat offenders.

? Carcillo has had a tremendous season playing with Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa; he's being taken off the line for two division games. This is not an insignificant suspension.

? Finally, Deputy Blake did a reasonable job in place of Sheriff Shanahan. We appreciate him continuing the D.o.P.S. catchphrases like "as the video shows," but miss the simmering frustration the permeates through every Shanaban administered by its namesake.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Did-Dan-Carcillo-deserve-2-game-suspension-for-P?urn=nhl-wp16134

Freddy Meyer Josh Meyers Zbynek Michalek Vladmir Mihalik

Gail Evans