EURO/ASIAN CURVE

Euro Curve takes a look at the latest international hockey headlines.

- Meet Alexander Nikulin. According to The Sports Network, the 22-year-old Moscow native was recalled from Binghamton of the AHL on Thursday and will dress tonight versus the Pittsburgh Penguins, possibly in replacement of Randy Robitaille, who is listed as day-to-day with a bruised left hand. Nikulin has 10 points in 14 games with the Baby Sens this season. Nikulin, drafted by Ottawa in 2004 (4/122), had 5 goals and 11 assists in 33 games last season for CSKA Moscow of the Russian Super League.

- Apparently former Phoenix Coyotes tough guy Tyson Nash has joined Goalie Jamie McLennan in signing with the Nippon Paper Cranes of the Asian League. Nash had been previously under contract with the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League. Nash and McLennan are good buddies from their days with the St.Louis Blues.

Here are the scoring leaders in the Swedish ElitSerien (courtesy of http://stats.swehockey.se/)

Rk Name Team Pos GP G A TP
1 Mårtensson, Tony LHC RW 21 6 21 27
2 Voutilainen, Jukka HV71 CE 21 14 9 23
3 Thörnberg, Martin HV71 LW 21 9 13 22
4 Kallio, Tomi FHC RW 21 12 9 21
5 Weinhandl, Mattias LHC CE 20 13 7 20
6 Hrdina, Jan HV71 CE 20 11 8 19
7 Davidsson, Johan HV71 CE 18 7 12 19
8 Hahl, Riku TIK CE 18 6 13 19
9 Lind, Mikael BIF CE 20 10 8 18
10 Söderberg, Anders SAIK LW 21 10 8 18



For Illegal Curve, I'm Ezra Ginsburg.