Vermette to Canucks rumors continue

From Don Brennan of the Ottawa Sun:

Buzz is the Vancouver Canucks are interested in acquiring Antoine Vermette, the fleet-footed Senators forward who awaits a scheduled, July 31 arbitration hearing. Original speculation had Ottawa hoping to land rugged defenceman Kevin Bieksa in return, but the Canucks laughed off talk of a one-for-one deal. Most recently, the word coming from out west has Vermette heading to Vancouver for former Senators blueliner Sami Salo.

Read the entire entry from Off the Posts here.

The Senators are NOT making a Antoine Vermette straight up for Sami Salo deal.

NHL Morning Papers

I just wanted to let our readers know that the name of my morning papers roundup has been changed from Morning Musings to the NHL Morning Papers, just so nobody gets confused. Additionally, I will be out of town tomorrow morning and therefore be unable to post the Sunday morning papers. The regular format will return on Monday.

Here are the national morning papers:

• Eric Duhatshek of the Globe & Mail provides readers with his usual Saturday notes column.
• In the National Post, Red Fisher tells readers there is no doubt who is in charge in Jersey this season.

Here are the Western Conference morning papers:

• The Ducks have a chance to make a statement over their next ten games writes Curits Zupke of the Orange County Register.
• Thanks in large part to Matthew Lombardi, it appears the Flames no longer have a secondary scoring problem.
• Blackhawks' winger Martin Havlat is expected to return from injury during the team's upcoming four-game home-stand. Meanwhile, Ed Sherman of the Chicago Tribune thinks the Chicago ownership could do more to broadcast home games if they really wanted.
• Woody Paige of the Denver Post compares Sidney Crosby with Wayne Gretzky.
• The Blue Jackets/Ducks game on Thursday was a game with a playoff-like intensity and Ken Hitchcock believes the point his team received after losing overtime was "a great point for our hockey club."
• The Stars were defeated by the Coyotes 5-0 on Friday night and after the game team captain Brenden Morrow said, "This is rock-bottom for us."
• The Red Wings believe they are a tougher team to play against than in the past write Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press.
• Not only did the Oilers lose the game against the Predators last night, but they lost yet another defenseman to injury as Mathieu Roy separated his shoulder.
• The Kings rode a terrific 45 save performance from J.S. Aubin to defeat their division rival Sharks 5-2 last night.
• The Wild will be looking to dig deep and end their slump tonight as they host the Flames in St. Paul.
• Dan Ellis is doing his best to create a goalie controversy in Nashville as he turned aside 31 of 32 shots last night to lead the Preds to a 4-1 victory over the Oilers.
• The Coyotes continued to get solid goaltending last night, as Mikael Tellqvist led the team to a 5-0 shutout over Dallas.
• The Sharks were defeated 5-2 by the Sharks last night and the team has to stop saying it's still early before it gets too late says Patrick Marleau.
• Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Dispatch profiles Blackhawks' rookie Jonathan Toews in this morning's paper.
• Both Kevin Bieksa and Sami Salo will be lost to the Canucks for over 6 weeks and maybe longer writes Jason Botchford of the Vancouver Province.

Here are the Eastern Conference morning papers:

• The Capitals lost, once again, last night to the Flyers and with the losses mounting they are trying to do their best to limit their frustration.
• The Leafs wasted a solid road effort last night with a couple late third period lapses and were defeated by the Devils 3-2. The Leafs are going to dismantle their powerplay because as coach Paul Maurice said, "it's costing us games."
• The struggling Lightning have an important division stretch coming up writes Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune.
• The Penguins have finally received their expected production from Sidney Crosby, however, the team is not receiving any scoring from the majority of their forwards.
• The Flyers' Mike Richards has totally redefined his role this season continued his success on Friday night leading the Flyers to a 3-2 victory over the Capitals.
• Jason Spezza won't suit up for the Senators' game tonight versus Boston, but that doesn't mean he isn't ecstatic about his new seven year contract extension.
• It should be quite the scene tonight on Long Island as legendary coach Al Arbour returns to the Island to coach his 1500th game.
• John Dellapina of the New York Daily News has information on the Rangers' attempted injunction against the NHL.
• John Madden continued his terrific play this season against the Maple Leafs last night, leading his team to a 3-2 victory. Martin Brodeur looked like the Brodeur of old versus the Leafs last night write Rich Chere of the Newark Star Ledger.
• Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette says the Habs have a good opportunity to continue their hot streak tonight against the struggling Leafs.
• The Panthers are now 3-0 against teams they have played for the second time this season after defeating the Sabres 4-2 in Buffalo last night. Richard Zednik led the way with two goals.
• Sabres' backup goalie Jocelyn Thibault got a rare start last night and afterwards he was not happy with his play in his team's loss to the Panthers.
• Craig Custance of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has an interesting piece about Don Waddell and his belief that there is an American Revolution in hockey.
• The Hurricanes need to improve their penalty killing which is ranked 28th ranked in the league.
• Patrice Bergeron is in worse shape than originally believed and Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli is taking exception with anyone who says that the Bruins' forward is partly to blame for his injury.

For Illegal Curve, I'm Richard Pollock.