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.

Late Night Recap: Marty "BEAST of the night" Biron

This one goes out to all the insomniacs out there

• Chris Campoli churned out 4 assists, Bill Guerin made it rain hats and Bryan Berard had a goal and an assist playing like he had two fully functional eyes. The Islanders defeat the Capitals 5 - 4
• The Boston Bruins were able to hold the Lecavalier, St. Louis, Prospal line to zero points. Marco Sturm chipped in with two goals and Patrice Bergeron had two assists. Bruins 4 Lightning 1
• Atlanta responds to Bob Hartley's firing by pumping out 5 goals vs the Rangers. Marian Hossa had two points for the Thrashers. Kari Lehtonen left mid game with a groin. Thrashers 5, Rangers 3
• In tonights episode of The Office, Jim and Pam stay a night at Dwights beet farm. Dwight tries to get over Angela, and Michael is out of money. It might just be me but the new season of The Office hasn't impressed me much.
• Back to hockey: Marty "BEAST of the night" Biron records his 2nd straight shutout, stopping 38 shots from the Devils. 38 shots from the Devils, that must be a franchise record. Flyers 4 Devils 0
• In All-Star Randy Robitaille's Sens debut, Nick Foglino scored his first NHL goal. The Sens over the Canadiens 4-3. The media took overhyping to a new level when the Senators signed Randy Robitaille signing. It really wasn't news at all.
  
• Nik Antropov scored with 27 seconds left and Bryan McCabe responded to unnecessary criticism by scoring a goal. The Leafs knock off the Panthers 3-2. If Bryan McCabe wasn't obviously overpaid, would people boo him? The guy never deserved the money in the first place, Leafs fans should be booing JFJ not McCabe. Was he supposed to decline that fat contract because he didn't think he deserved it? Give Bryan McCabe a break.
• Daymond Langkow scores his 500th NHL point as Calgary gets the lead and is able to keep it this time in a 4 - 3 win over Los Angeles.
• Oilers 4 Phoenix 2. These teams are both awful. Oh yeah, Raffi Torres scored 2 goals.
• Chris Osgood gets his 3rd win of the year for Detroit and Henrik Zetterberg nets two points. The Detroit Red Wings spear the San Jose Sharks 4 - 2.

Tomorrow's Games (all times Eastern)
7:30pm: CLB@BUF, CAR@PIT
8:30pm: COL@CHI
10:00pm: LA@VAN

EURO CURVE

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

SIGNINGS FROM ACROSS EUROPE:

-David Aebischer has signed with ZSC Lions of the Swiss Nationalliga A. Aebischer has had a rough ride over the last few seasons as he has gone from a No.1 goaltender with the Colorado Avalanche and Montreal Canadiens to losing the back-up job with the Phoenix Coyotes to Mikael Tellqvist. Aebischer was 13-12-1 with a 3.17 GAA in 32 games last year for the Habs. Aebischer was definitely not happy with a back-up role in Phoenix and decided to return to his home country to get more playing time. Aebischer played for HC Lugano of the Swiss League during the lockout of 2004'05 going 12-2-3 in 18 games.
- Swedish Defenseman and Former Edmonton Oiler Daniel Tjärnqvist has apparently landed a deal with The Salzburg Red Bulls in Austria. That team features Former NHLers Reinhard Divis and Richard Jackman.
- Randy Robitaille has done so well with Lokomotiv Yaroslav of the Russian Super League that the Ottawa Senators have decided to sign him to a contract. Robitaille had 3 goals and 6 assists in 14 games with LokomotivRobitaille is a NHL journeyman sniper and has loads of experience in virtually every league from the NCAA to the AHL to the Swiss League. In 2006'07, Robitaille had 11 goals and 29 assists in 78 games split between the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Islanders.
- Former Atlanta Thrashers Winger Tomi Kallio has joined ZSC Lions. He was playing with Froluna of the Swedish Elitserien. He had 1 goal and 4 assists in 9 games. Kallio was drafted by Colorado in 1995 (4/81) and was limited to 140 games with three teams: Thrashers, Flyers, Blue Jackets. Kalio has been a big time performer in the Swedish Elite League, scoring 54 points in 55 games last year for Frolunda.

For Illegal Curve, I'm Ezra Ginsburg.

Morning Musings

Here are the morning papers:

• Matthew Lombardi led the Flames out of their early season slump with two goals, including the overtime winner, in his team's 3-2 overtime victory over Dallas. Steve Macfarlane of the Calgary Sun provides readers with the three stars and other notes from the Flames/Stars game.
• "It was no one's fault but my own," said Brenden Morrow after his lazy drop pass was picked off easily by Matthew Lombardi leading to the Lombardi's overtime winner.
• Calling up Rick Rypien from Manitoba of the AHL appeared to be the right decision for the Canucks after the feisty forward tallied a goal and an assist in the Canucks' 5-2 victory at Edmonton last night.
• Whereas the Canucks got all-star goaltending from Roberto Luongo, the Oilers received suspect goaltending from both their netminders in last night's loss to the Canucks. Joanne Ireland of the Edmonton Journal provides readers with notes from around the Oilers after last night's contest. Oilers' fan favorite, Fernando Pisani has been through some difficult times recently but after taking a new medication things are starting to look up for the team's heart and soul player. In less serious news, Robbie Schremp has been called up by the Oilers and will get his opportunity to prove his worth tonight in Vancouver.
• After blowing a 4-1 lead, the Bruins, on the backs of Marc Savard and Phil Kessel, ended up prevailing 8-6 over the Kings in one the craziest NHL games this young season. As Fluto Shinwaza of the Boston Globe points out, Bruins' winger Glen Murray is finally starting to get back into his groove after his 2006/07 season ended prematurely with groin problems. While Boston scored eight goals last night, coach Claude Julien was unimpressed with the team's defensive play.
• Since their impressive victory in London over the Ducks, the Kings have now dropped four straight games writes Lisa Dillman of the L.A. Times.
• It looks like Jean-Sebastien Giguere will make his first start of the season for the Ducks on Sunday.
• As Craig Custance writes in this morning's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Don Waddell says it's too early to panic in Atlanta. The Thrashers may move Ilya Kovalchuk to the point on their powerplay in order to jump start the slumping unit.
• Drew Stafford has been placed on the Sabres' number one line alongside Thomas Vanek and Derek Roy because coach Lindy Ruff thinks Stafford's "bang and crash" style may be a better fit than Maxim Afinogenov in the number right wing spot.
• The Hurricanes have gotten off to a great start, and Lorenzo Perez of the News Observer thinks the team may be one puck moving defenseman away from putting itself into a terrific position to contend. The Canes visit Montreal tonight in what is the Habs' home opener.
• Robert Lang continues to make his old team regret letting him go, as the veteran Czech center had a big goal in his team's 3-2 come-from-behind victory over the Red Wings on Friday night.
• The Wings outplayed the Hawks in the first two periods but unfortunately for Detroit, the game was still tied at two at the second intermission. Meanwhile, Chris Chelios reacted to Steve Yzerman's Notre Dame comments in this morning's Detroit Free Press.
• The Avs were stoned by Manny Legace and the Blues last night in a game that was closer than the 4-1 score indicated.
• As Tom Reed of the Columbus Dispatch tells readers, David Vyborny is one of the few NHL'ers who still uses a wooden stick. With Jared Boll out of the lineup for tonight's game with a knee injury, Jody Shelley may see some action on one of the Jackets' checking lines tonight as the team faces off against the Avs.
• Panthers' coach Jacques Martin has been quite happy with the play of his team's third line writes Steve Gorten of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. The Panthers also need to improve on their even strength play.
• The Wild want to get off to a better start on the road this year than they did last year writes Michael Russo of the Star Tribune.
• The Habs don't have the firepower to get into an end-to-end game with the Canes says coach Guy Carbonneau.
• Stephanie Myles of the Montreal Gazette has a review of the book King of Russia written by Dave King with the Globe & Mail's Eric Duhatschek.
• John Glennon of the Tennessean reports that Steve Sullivan's injured back is improving, however, no timeline has been placed on when he will return to the Predators' lineup. Apparently Jim Balsillie is now back in the picture in Nashville.
• Rich Chere of the Newark Star-Ledger profiles the similarities between Zach Parise and his father, former NHL'er, J.P. Parise. In unfortunate news, Devils' defenseman Colin White still has blurry vision in his right eye and is not even thinking about playing hockey right now.
• The Rangers rode the success of their powerplay to a 3-1 victory over the Capitals on Friday night. With the high shot totals they were posting in their previous games, the Rangers knew it was just a matter of time before some pucks starting finding their way into the net writes John Dellapina of the New York Daily News.
• According to Tarik El-Bashir of the Washington Post, the Capitals lost because they couldn't stay out of the penalty box.
• Chris Simon's 25 game suspension for stick-swinging last season is over and he will make his season debut tonight, against the new suspension capital team of the NHL--the Philadelphia Flyers.
• John Paddock doesn't believe there is such thing as a "good loss" writes Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun. In other Senators' news, the team is looking to sign forward, and Ottawa native, Randy Robitaille to a one year contract.
• While the official hat trick came a day later, Fredrik Sjostrom will take it anyways writes Jim Gintonio of the Arizona Republic.
• English is not that foreign to Evgeni Malkin anymore writes Shelly Anderson in this morning's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The Penguins coaches are happy that the weather has cooled down in Pittsburgh, because the recent hot weather was cutting down their practice time.
• Joe Thornton will be playing against the Bruins for the second time in his career tonight in the Sharks' home opener.
• Manny Legace continued his domination of the Avalanche last night in the Blues' 4-1 win. Some good news for the Blues, as the team expects injured defenseman Eric Brewer back in the lineup this upcoming week, and maybe as early as Wednesday.
• Martin St. Louis has to guard against over-passing writes Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune.
• Matt Stajan has been quite impressive so far this young season writes Paul Hunter of the Toronto Star. Mike Zeisberger of the Toronto Sun explains that the Leafs understand they need to stay out of the penalty box against the offensively dangerous Penguins tonight.

For Illegal Curve, I'm Richard Pollock.