Morning Musings

Here are the morning papers:

• Due to injuries to Scott Walker and Eric Cole, the Hurricanes played last night's game versus Philadelphia with 10 forwards and 7 seven defensemen. Speaking of Cole, he missed last night's 3-2 overtime loss with a foot injury he sustained playing soccer before the game.
• The Thrashers can't seem to mount any kind of consistent offensive attack writes Craig Custance of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Custance also lists the possible candidates to take over behind the Atlanta bench in this morning's paper.
• The Ducks lost to the Stars 3-1 last night and the fact of the matter is they just flat-out can't score writes Dan Wood of the Orange County Register.
• As Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald tells us, the gritty Bruins outworked the Rangers in yesterday afternoon's 1-0 shootout victory. No surprise that Phil Kessel scored the winning goal in the shootout as he is the Bruins "closer" when it comes to those situations. In other Bruins' news, forward Chuck Kobasew is finally healthy and has been able to prove his worth so far this young season.
• Kevin Paul Dupont's usual Sunday article can be found here.
• The Sabres just didn't get the bounces last night in Montreal writes John Vogl of the Buffalo News.
• Last night's 4-1 victory over the Oilers was the most complete game that Calgary has played all season. Meanwhile, Flames' coach Mike Keenan wants Oilers' forward Raffi Torres suspended for his hit on the Flames' David Moss.
• Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune says that the Hawks gave viewers north of the border an idea of the progress the Blackhawks organization is demonstrating these days. (Writer's note: Or, viewers got a chance to watch a terribly played hockey game between a well below par Maple Leafs squad and a young Chicago team that had no business winning this game with all the weak goals they scored last night.) Jonathan Toews is surprising many, including himself, with his production thus far.
• Jordan Leopold talks about the old days in his home state of Minnesota with Terry Frei of the Denver Post. (Writer's note: On a more positive note, he didn't get hurt during the interview.)
• The Blue Jackets are improving at puck management says coach Ken Hitchcock and that is one of the main reasons they are keeping the puck out of their own net. Here are the Blue Jackets' probable lines for tonight's game.
• Even though the Ducks are struggling, the Stars view last night's victory as significant writes Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News.
• The Red Wings defeated the Coyotes 5-2 last evening and their goaltender Dominik Hasek says they "dominated whole 60 minutes." In other Red Wings' news, the team is looking to sign forward Daniel Cleary to a contract extension.
• The Oilers' struggling powerplay was one of the many reasons they were defeated by the Flames 4-1 last night. Coach Craig MacTavish coached his 500th game last night and more importantly, he implied that Sam Gagner is staying with the club.
• Panthers' goaltender Tomas Vokoun says that the Senators outplayed the Panthers in every aspect of the game in last night's 4-1 loss. The Panthers somehow only won 22% of their draws on the night, which is one of the main reasons they got it handed to them.
• Roman Hamrlik stole the show last night for the Habs in their 4-2 victory over the Sabres.
• Earlier this season the Predators couldn't stop pucks from entering their net, now that they have clamped down on their goals against, they can't score writes John Glennon of the Tennessean.
• Former Devil Bill Guerin scored the overtime winner with seconds remaining on the clock as the Islander upended the Devils 4-3 on Saturday night. The Devils only played 40 minutes of hockey and that is not good enough in the NHL says Brent Sutter. Sutter did get a bit sentimental about his time with the Islanders and his return to Uniondale after the game.
• The Rangers lost to the Bruins in a shootout 1-0 on Saturday afternoon. With all their firepower, Larry Brooks of the NY Post wonders how the Rangers have been shutout in 15 of the 21 periods they have played this season.
• Here is Larry Brooks' Sunday morning Slap Shots piece.
• With a week off before their next game, the Islanders were happy to have been able to get the victory last night over the Devils after blowing their 2 goal lead in the third period.
• The Sens continue to play like well-oiled machine that they are as last night night they defeated the Panthers 4-1. Everyone loves Chris Kelly writes Eric Nicks of the Ottawa Sun.
• The Flyers defeated the Hurricanes 3-2 in overtime and continue to play like one of the elite teams in the league opines Joe Juliano in this morning's Philadelphia Inquirer.
• The Coyotes have lost three straight games and Shane Doan says he needs to be better if the team expects to breakout of its current slump. After the game, coach Wayne Gretzky made it clear that goaltending is not the problem in Phoenix so far this season.
• The first battle of the season between Ovechkin/Crosby goes to Crosby as the young superstar assisted on his team's game winning goal to lead the Penguins to a 2-1 victory.
• Jeremy Roenick ended last night's contest on the Sharks' first line and ended up scoring the game winner as the Sharks beat the Predators 3-0.
• The Blues were impressed with the play of their opponents in their 3-1 loss to the Wild last night. The Blues' Eric Brewer returned from injury last night to play against the Wild.
• Lightning coach John Tortorella is happy with his new line combinations writes Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune. The new lines worked well last night as the Bolts pasted the Thrashers 6-2 to remain unbeaten at home.
• After blowing another game last night, Leafs' coach Paul Maurice says the Leafs' problems are mental, not physical right now. (Writer's note: In today's day of trapping, clogging the neutral zone and dropping five guys below the red line, how does a team give up 5 goals in one period?????????? That's horrid.) As Jason Blake says about when the Leafs get the lead heading into the third, "(W)e sit back, don't play as hard and that's why you take penalties."
• Alexander Ovechkin understands that the Capitals have to generate more offense if they expect to end their four game losing skid writes Tarik El-Bashir of the Washington Post.

For Illegal Curve, I'm Richard Pollock.