NHL Morning Papers (Sunday Edition)

Here are the Eastern Conference morning papers:

• Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun says John Ferguson Jr.'s days as Leafs' GM are numbered.
• You can find Bruce Garrioch's Sunday rumors column here.
• Although his overall numbers aren't overly impressive, Thrashers' goalie Johan Hedberg has turned his game up a notch as of late.
• "This is a game of mistakes, but when you have 4-5 huge mistakes in a game, you’re not going to win," said Bruins' winger Glen Murray after the Bruins were defeated 7-4 by the Habs on Saturday night. Bruins' coach Claude Julien and Habs' coach Guy Carbonneau were going at it late in last night's game. Aaron Ward returned to the Bruins' lineup last night after missing a couple games due to a concussion. Here is Kevin Paul Dupont's usual Sunday morning notes column in the Boston Globe.
• Bucky Gleason of the Buffalo News says he expects Brett Hull to turn the Stars around.
• The Hurricanes just held on for a 2-1 victory over the Panthers on Saturday, in what was Glen Wesley's 1400th game in the NHL.
• The Panthers were unable to score on a number of late 5-on-3 chances that would have sent the game to an extra frame. Amid speculation that he may be on the trading block, Panthers' forward Olli Jokinen has become a bit frustrated with all the rumors. George Richards of the Miami Herald has an interesting take on all the Jokinen rumors.
• Jack Todd of the Montreal Gazette commends Steve Begin on his mastery of the pest role. Here are some notes from around the NHL courtesy of legendary Gazette writer Red Fisher.
• It took him four tries but Martin Brodeur finally got that elusive 500th career victory last night in his team's 6-2 win over Philadelphia. As Rich Chere of the Newark Star-Ledger explains, if you think Brent Sutter has become discouraged by his team's play, then you don't know Brent Sutter.
• If you picked one player to score the overtime winner between the Rangers and Penguins, Jason Strudwick would have been your last choice writes John Dellapina of the NY Daily News. Larry Brooks of the NY Post is critical of Brent Sutter's "calling out" tactics in his Sunday Slap Shots column. (Writer's note: What's wrong with Sutter calling out his veterans whose performances are making them vastly overpaid? All Sutter wants is consistent hard work and production. His expectations are not unreasonable, and it will benefit Jersey in the long haul to no longer have the inmates running the asylum.)
• Greg Logan of Newsday says that Josef Vasicek has been a very pleasant surprise for the Islanders so far this season. Logan also has an interesting piece on the leadership that Bill Guerin has added to the Islanders both on and off the ice.
• Last night's embarrassing 3-0 loss to the Maple Leafs was the first loss on the road for the Senators. Ray Emery says he if he were the coach he'd be sticking with Martin Gerber too right now.
• It wasn't one of the Flyers best games last night, as they lacked solid performances in all aspects of the game.
• The Penguins couldn't capitalize on their two-goal lead and ended up losing to the division-leading Rangers in overtime. The Penguins better turn it around soon if they wish to duplicate last season's point total writes Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
• The Lightning defensemen have been responsible for a lot of the team's offense, and coach John Tortorella says that is partly due to the added responsibility of Lightning players (both forwards and defensemen) to play the other side of the puck.
• It has been a long time since somebody shutout the Senators, and that made Vesa Toskala's performance an even bigger story on Saturday night after the Leafs handled the Senators 3-0 on home-ice. "Bryan McCabe was a horse out there," said an impressed Mats Sundin after last night's shutout.

Here are the Western Conference morning papers:

• Last night's shootout victory over the rival Sharks made it four wins in a row for the now-streaking Ducks writes Dan Wood of the Orange County Register.
• It took the Flames a while, but they finally cracked the Garon Code and defeated the struggling (or maybe just plain bad) Oilers 3-1 at Rexall Place. Owen Nolan is hoping to build on his one goal and one assist performance from last night and turn his game up to another level.
• The Blackhawks just flat-out own the Red Wings this season after defeating them for a fourth straight time on Saturday night. Meanwhile, the Hawks youngsters have played so well that they are now being matched up against opposing team's top checking lines and top defensemen.
• Terry Frei of the Denver Post gives you his take on a number of current NHL issues in this morning's paper.
• The Blue Jackets have to make sure their penalty killing is in top form tonight as they face the Red Wings. Here are the Jackets' projected lines for tonight's contest.
• Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News says the Stars' number one goal is to wins the fans back.
• The Red Wings were playing in front of their first home sell-out of the season, but the fans took to booing after watching the Wings give up three short-handed markers and lose to the Hawks for the fourth time this season. "I don't have any explanation -- I don't know what to say about it. It was same situation in St. Louis and today it was a similar situation -- not too many saves; however, they score four goals on 15 shots, whatever. Very disappointed," said Wings' netminder Dominik Hasek after last night's performance.
• The Oilers could only muster 16 shots on Miikka Kiprusoff last night and were defeated by the Flames 3-1 on home-ice. (Writer's note: You will read this column and come across the many reasons why the Oilers' players believe they can't score. Unfortunately, the main reason is because they just aren't a talented enough team to generate consistent offensive opportunities). As John MacKinnon of the Edmonton Journal explains, the Flames have been lacking consistent goaltending all season, but when you only get eight shots on goal through two periods, that goaltending doesn't even become an issue. In other Oilers related news, Derek Van Diest of the Edmonton Sun provides readers with the story of Liam Reddox.
• The Kings faced Ilya Brygalov yesterday afternoon and they were shutout by the newest Coyote 1-0.
• Mikko Koivu will be lost to the Wild lineup for one week and maybe more after taking an inexplicable two-hand slash to the leg on Friday night.
• The Predators were not unhappy with the way they played last night, they just couldn't capitalize on their scoring chances and ended up losing to the Blues 3-2 in a shootout. "It was nice to get one point tonight, but we should have had two," said Predators' defenseman Shea Weber who returned from injury last night.
• The Coyotes responded well to their closed-door meeting on Thursday night with a solid, hard-working performance that led to a 1-0 victory over the Kings.
• It as a playoff atmosphere last night in the Shark Tank as the Ducks defeated San Jose in a shootout 2-1 write David Pollak of the San Jose Mercury News.
• The Blues were very impressed with the play of Hannu Toivonen on Saturday, as the youngster turned aside 35 of the 37 shots he faced.

For Illegal Curve, I'm Richard Pollock.