NHL Morning Papers (Friday Edition)

Reader's note: To our regular readers, I have exams coming up which will not allow me to post the NHL Morning Papers for the next few weeks. As of now, the Morning Papers will return on December 13th. However, if someone at Illegal Curve decides to undertake the Morning Papers duties during this time, I will be sure to let you know.

Here are the national morning papers:

• As Eric Duhatschek of the Globe & Mail tells us, after firing Glen Hanlon on Thursday morning, the Capitals are hoping for a Thrashers-esque turnaround.
• Wayne Scanlan of the National Post wonders if the referees are hurting the game by calling too many chincy penalties.

Here are the Western Conference morning papers:

• Former Anaheim and current Phoenix netminder Ilya Brygalov takes to the ice against his old team this afternoon for the first time.
• Not only has the Flames' power play been struggling, but last night the unit gave up two short-handed goals in the team's 2-1 loss to Chicago. While their special teams play has been lacking, the Flames did dominate play at even strength last night but could not put more than one puck past Nikolai Khabibulin.
• With injuries and the flu bug limiting the Blackhawks' line combinations, the team showed a lot of heart edging out the Flames in the Saddledome.
• The Avalanche are taking solace in the fact that they ended their disappointing four game road trip on a positive note, with a 3-2 win in Edmonton last night.
• Michael Arace of the Columbus Dispatch has an interesting article about the role Ken Hitchcock has played in the franchise's turnaround.
• While the perception is out there that the Stars are struggling, if you take a closer look, Dallas is only one point out of first place in the Pacific Division writes Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News.
• The Red Wings are coming to the realization that the Central Division is a lot stronger this season than in years past writes George Sipple of the Detroit Free Press. The Wings lost 3-2 to the Predators last night, but Brett Lebda thinks the team shouldn't even have been playing on Thanksgiving.
• The Oilers took too many penalties last night in their 3-2 loss to Colorado writes Joanne Ireland of the Edmonton Journal. Meanwhile, John MacKinnon of the Journal has it right when he tells us he's sick of the same division match-ups over and over again.
• The Wild made a number of roster moves yesterday, and there may be even more in the offing writes Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
• The Predators got the winning goal last night from Radek Bonk on what had been their struggling power play writes John Glennon of the Tennessean.
• Coyotes' winger Daniel Winnik is back from injury and fitting in great on a line with Peter Mueller and Radim Vrbata.
• As Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Dispatch explains, the Blues have an abundance of depth on defense but inevitably that ends up leading to some bruised egos.

Note: If you are wondering why the Canucks don't seem to be in the morning papers much, it is because both the Vancouver Province and Sun websites are extremely slow updating their morning content and I have usually posted my article prior to them posting any Canucks coverage from the night before.

Here are the Eastern Conference morning papers:

• Kevin Paul Dupont has a terrific article about the life of Hall-of-Famer Tom Johnson who passed away on Thursday.
• Red Fisher has a touching article about the same Tom Johnson in this morning's Montreal Gazette.
• Tarik El-Bashir of the Washington Post has the details behind the dismissal of Glen Hanlon by the Washington Capitals.
• According to Fluto Shinwaza of the Boston Globe, Manny Fernandez will be out of action this weekend because of back spasms. Bruins' coach Claude Julien expects a playoff-like atmosphere this afternoon as the Bruins take on the Isles in the first of a home-and-home series.
• The Hurricanes host the Lightning tonight and apparently they are only concerned with very few Lightning players. "If we shut down those two or three guys, they got nothing," said Carolina defenseman Tim Gleason in reference to the Lightning's attack.
• Kamil Kreps has impressed the Panthers' brass with his most recent stint in the NHL and maybe this stint will turn out to be permanent writes Steve Gorten of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. The last thing Noah Welch has been doing since he injured shoulder, is taking time off.
• As Pat Hickey tells us in this morning's Montreal Gazette, Carey Price is about as even-keel as they come, and there may be no better quality that a goalie can possess.
• The Devils are slowly making progress after a rough start to the season writes Rich Chere of the Newark Star-Ledger. The Devils are going for their third straight victory tonight versus the streaking Thrashers.
• Larry Brooks of the NY Post thinks that opening the 2008/09 season in Prague is a bad idea for the Rangers.
• Islanders' coach Ted Nolan benched his first line for most of the second period in the team's last game in order to give them a much-needed wake up call.
• Martin Gerber had maybe his weakest game of the season last night in a 6-5 shootout loss to the Penguins. Daniel Alfredsson hurt his groin during overtime last night and that is why he was unable to partake in the shootout.
• The Flyers have many things to be pleased about so far this season, but at the same time, they also have much to work on writes Tim Panaccio of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
• The Penguins finally validated their effort last night with a win over arguably the NHL's best team. Coach John Paddock of the Senators knows the Penguins will be in the mix come playoff time.
• Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune has an article about super-fan Steve Williamson who is seeing 30 NHL games in 30 days.
• The Leafs are on the road in Dallas and are enjoying being out of the fishbowl for a short time. (Writer's note: Who can blame them?) So much for the all the John Tavares plus Leafs hype earlier this season as his agent says it is now a dead issue.

For Illegal Curve, I'm Richard Pollock.