Morning Musings

After an exciting Saturday night of hockey, which included an inordinate amount of high-scoring games, there is much to read about this Sunday morning.

Here are the morning papers:

• The Rangers allowed three goals in 52 seconds in the second period and were defeated by the defending Eastern Conference champion Senators 3-1. The Rangers don't face the Senators again until December and John Dellapina of the New York Daily News wonders if New York will be up to the challenge of competing with the Senators. Larry Brooks of the NY Post previews the new look NHLPA under soon-to-be-named leader Paul Kelly in his Sunday Slap Shots column.
• With last night's win over the Rangers, the Senators finished off a stretch of seven games in eleven days with a 6-1 record. Martin Gerber was terrific for the Sens last night, turning aside 35 of 36 shots.
• Even though Sidney Crosby was the star of the Leafs/Pens games with two goals, the most exciting moment of the night, without question, was seeing Jason Blake score his first goal of the campaign. Even though Crosby had "struggled" to start the season, it wasn't something he was overly worried about writes Rose Dimanno of the Toronto Star. Some good news for Leaf fans, second-line center Kyle Wellwood is approximately a week away from returning to the team's lineup after undergoing hernia surgery three weeks ago.
• As Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette explains, Sidney Crosby will score many goals before his career is over, but none may be easier than the winning goal he potted last night versus the Maple Leafs. Penguins' coach Michel Therrien believes Marc-Andre Fleury can play better than he has so far this season.
• The Canucks, unsurprisingly, were led to victory last night by Roberto Luongo and the Sedin twins writes Ben Kuzma of the Vancouver Province. Iain MacIntyre of the Vancouver Sun affirms the fact that Luongo was on top of his game in the team's 4-1 victory over the Oilers.
• So far this season, the Oilers have allowed the opponent to score the game's first goal in five of their six contests writes Robert Tychkowski of the Edmonton Sun. Youngster Robbie Schremp has improved his defensive game which is one of the reasons he is up with the big club attempting to carve out a consistent roster spot at the NHL level. Meanwhile, Jim Matheson has a great piece about the out-of-work John Muckler in this morning's Edmonton Journal.
• The Flames inserted Eric Goddard into the lineup for toughness, yet the hulking winger made the move pay off offensively as he scored the game's winning goal early in the third period. Martin Gelinas wanted to sign with the Flames this past summer but Darryl Sutter waited too long to make a move, prompting Gelinas to sign in Nashville; Steve Macfarlane of the Calgary Sun has the story.
• The Predators have been turning the puck over too much writes John Glennon of the Tennessean. Although Chris Mason hasn't exactly helped matters with his poor play in between the pipes these past three games.
• The Bruins demonstrated strong character in their last second 2-1 victory over the Sharks last night. Manny Fernandez is confused as to why he can't stop the puck these days writes Stephen Harris of the Boston Herald.
• It's not a Sunday without Kevin Paul Dupont's usual notes column which can be found here.
• Marc-Edouard Vlasic's clearing attempt hit a stanchion that separates the plexiglass and that indirectly led to the Bruins' game-winning goal with under fifteen seconds remaining in the game.
• The Sabres thoroughly dominated the visiting Capitals last night winning the game 7-3 at the HSBC Arena writes John Vogl of the Buffalo News.
• Capitals' coach Glen Hanlon was unhappy after the Capitals second straight loss and explained that this is "the third game in a row where we've been embarrassingly outshot."
• The Devils are relieved to have finally registered their first victory of the season, narrowly averting matching the 1983/84 Devils' team that had only one win in its first five games. Patrik Elias was the hero, scoring with under 30 seconds left in regulation time to give the Devils the 6-5 victory over Atlanta.
• As Craig Custance of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes, Bob Hartley is not worried about his job security, he is worried about his team.
• Olli Jokinen proved why he is captain of the Panthers on Saturday night leading the team to a 6-4 victory over the rival Lightning.
• The Lightning just can't seem to win in South Florida writes Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune. Injured Dan Boyle appreciates the different perspective a player can get while watching games from the press box.
• The Hurricans accomplished the impressive feat of going 3 for 3 on their Eastern Canadian road trip; Luke Decock of the News Observer has the story. Meanwhile, with the way the Canes have been playing, Decock wonders if the team's five day break in their schedule could come at a worse time.
• Aside from Cristobal Huet, the Habs didn't impress anyone in their home debut writes Red Fisher in this morning's Montreal Gazette. Kevin Mio of the Gazette provides readers with a Q & A with Habs' defenseman Mike Komisarek.
• The Wild were lucky to be facing a young Coyotes squad on Saturday night because they somehow squeaked out a late victory against Gretzky and Co.
• Only 12,000 fans were on hand to witness the Coyotes blow their third period lead to the undefeated Wild writes Jim Gintonio of the Arizona Republic. (Writer's note: But don't worry, the NHL doesn't have an attendance problem...)
• The Flyers defeated the Islanders 3-1 and proved to their home crowd that they can forget about 2006/07 because this is a whole new season.
• The Islanders got bad news yesterday when they learned that forward Jon Sim will undergo complete reconstruction of his knee and miss the entire 2007/08 season.
• Joe Sakic doesn't age, at least not to our knowledge, as the veteran scored a hat trick last night in leading the Avalanche to a convincing 5-1 victory over the Blue Jackets. In other Avs' news, Jordan Leopold has missed the team's past two games with a minor hip injury. (Writer's note: Jordan Leopold is missing time? I think it is at the point where he has become the Martin Havlat of defensemen).
• The Blue Jackets didn't match the Avs' sense of urgency writes Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch.
• The Blackhawks scored two powerplay goals in their 2-1 overtime victory over the Stars on Saturday night.
• Stars' rookie Tobias Stephan was starting his first ever NHL game and after facing an amazingly high total of 40 shots, it can only be described as baptism by fire.
• With all their defensive injuries, Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Dispatch wonders if St. Louis defensemen are cursed?
• After their debacle against the Bruins on Friday night, the Kings have been focusing on improving their penalty kill.
• Readers of the Detroit Free Press give their answers as to why there is a lack of buzz surrounding the Red Wings.

For Illegal Curve, I'm Richard Pollock.