NHL - Sports Rumors

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Georges Laraque has yet to play as much as an exhibition game in a Canadiens uniform, but the reigning heavyweight champion of the National Hockey League has already made an impression in Montreal.

While most of the offseason talk centred on the futile attempt to sign longtime Toronto Maple Leafs captain Mats Sundin, general manager Bob Gainey's most significant upgrade might prove to be Laraque. There's no doubt that Alex Tanguay adds a measure of skill up front, and while Robert Lang isn't Sundin, he gives the Canadiens some needed size and a right-handed shot at centre.

But Laraque provides the Habs with the missing piece of the puzzle as they hope to celebrate the team's centenary with a record 25th Stanley Cup victory.

While they might not admit it, the signing of Laraque represents a 180-degree change in direction for Gainey and head coach Guy Carbonneau. When facing the question of whether the team needed an enforcer — think Chris (Knuckles) Nilan or the late John Ferguson — Carbonneau said the most important thing was to develop team toughness.

But the lack of team toughness was evident last spring.

Source: The Gazette

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The Philadelphia Flyers placed defensemen Derian Hatcher and Ryan Parent on the injured reserve list Thursday.

Hatcher is out indefinitely with a right knee injury that could possibly end the 36-year-old's career. Originally taken eighth overall by the Minnesota North Stars in the 1990 draft, Hatcher played in just 44 games last season, netting two goals to go along with five assists.

Parent will be sidelined 12-to-14 weeks with a shoulder injury.

Philadelphia also announced that goaltender Jean-Sebastien Aubin was assigned to the Flyers' American Hockey League affiliate, the Philadelphia Phantoms. The 31-year-old was signed as a free agent last month after backup Antero Niittymaki underwent surgery on his left hip.

Source: TSN.ca

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The Ottawa Senators announced Friday that Daniel Alfredsson will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his right knee and the team doesn't expect him to miss more than a couple of weeks. The arthroscopic surgery is designed to remove a bone chip in his right knee that was dislodged during the Senators second game of the season against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday. It is not related to a similar injury he suffered in Toronto late last season.

Dany Heatley will be captain in Alfredsson's absence, while Jarkko Ruutu will take his spot on the top line.

"We need to be a team," general manager Bryan Murray told reporters on Friday. "We're certainly going to miss Aflie, but it's a great opportunity to prove we are different this year."

Alfredsson, 35, missed 12 games last season with hip and groin and knee injuries. In two games this season, the 13-year NHL veteran has two assists.

Source: TSN.ca

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Mike Babcock doesn't want to hear it. He doesn't want to hear how good the Red Wings are, or how short and rollicking their summer was, or how difficult it is to repeat. He doesn't even like to repeat the word "repeat."

So, at the risk of a Babcock glare, repeat after me: The Wings are fully equipped to repeat as Stanley Cup champions, loaded and re-loaded, maybe better than ever, wrote Detroit News columnist Bob Wojnowski. Just don't expect them to talk about it. And absolutely expect Babcock, in his fourth season as coach, to continue his duties as hard-driven Complacency Crusher.

This is a guy who went hunting for lions and elephants in Africa's Tanzania during the offseason. He knows all about big game(s), all about the differences between the hunter and the hunted, the hungry and the haughty.

"I love hunting, because just like my job, there's a thrill in it every day," Babcock said as the Wings prepared to hoist their 11th championship banner tonight before the season opener against the Maple Leafs. "And just like hockey, there's a result every day."

For nearly two decades, the Wings have been judged solely on the final result, on whether they've hoisted the Cup. They've won it four times since 1997, which is amazing — more than enough but never enough.

There is satisfaction in victory. But there cannot be satiation, not for the great teams.

Source: Detroit News

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Craig Rivet wasn't trying to impress anybody. He was just doing what he always does. The way it works, though, is when Rivet acts like himself, people are impressed.

Exhibit A for the public came in the first home preseason game. The Buffalo Sabres were hosting Toronto just a few days after they played up north. In the initial meeting, the Sabres were miffed because of a perceived cheap shot Maple Leafs forward Ryan Hollweg delivered to tough guy Andrew Peters. In the rematch, Rivet saw Hollweg again jabbing his teammates. It could be a while before Hollweg tries it again. A few fists to the noggin by Rivet may have altered his thinking.

"That wasn't really my focus, to show guys that I'm just going to be there to fight," Rivet said Wednesday. "There are things you never forget. . . . Hollweg tried to take advantage of one of our guys that enforces and has one of the hardest jobs on our team, and that's Peters. And there's always going to be payback. You're not going to take liberties with this team. There's a strong group of guys that care for one another."

The Buffalo fans, seeing the summer's key acquisition for the first time, responded with a loud ovation. It was minutes into his opening game after a July trade from San Jose, and they knew he was a leader.

Rivet's teammates were already aware of the defenseman's character. It shined through weeks earlier at the first offseason workouts.

Source: Buffalo News

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Not since 1990 — when Owen Nolan, Petr Nedved, Keith Primeau, Mike Ricci and Jaromir Jagr did it — have the first five picks of the Entry Draft been on opening night NHL rosters in the same year they were drafted. But it looks like it's going to happen this year.

First overall pick Steven Stamkos, of course, has already played two games for the Tampa Bay Lightning and will be a fixture there. No. 2 pick Drew Doughty has made the Los Angeles Kings' roster and they just don't see any upside to sending him back for a fourth OHL season. Atlanta will have defenseman Zach Bogosian as one of its top six to start, but will see after nine games how he is adapting.

Both the St. Louis Blues and Toronto Maple Leafs will adopt the same philosophy with defensemen Alex Pietrangelo and Luke Schenn. Pietrangelo and Schenn have excelled in training camp and deserve to be there on opening night, but their rebuilding clubs will re-assess before the 10th game for each.

If an underage junior plays 10 games, it burns the first year of his entry-level contract. If he plays 40 games, it counts as a year's service towards eventual unrestricted free agency. In 1990, Nolan and Primeau were eventually returned to their junior teams.

Nikita Filatov was dynamic in Columbus's final pre-season game, but the sixth overall pick looks like he will need more seasoning. No. 8 pick Mikkel Boedker is starting on Phoenix's second line and 28th overall pick Viktor Tikhonov will also play as a regular for the Coyotes.

Josh Bailey, taken ninth overall, will get a long look in the Islanders final pre-season game and how he plays could determine whether he's headed back to the Windsor Spitfires.

The only other 2008 first rounder likely to start in the NHL is Swiss defenceman Luca Sbisa, the 19th selection who is in Philadelphia's top six.

Source: TSN.ca

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For 38 games at the end of last season, Michael Nylander watched the Washington Capitals. He watched as the Capitals climbed the Southeast Division standings to vault themselves from the NHL's basement to the franchise's first playoff berth in five years.

This wasn't the same team that had made Nylander its prime offseason acquisition in the summer of 2007. The Capitals had found their way, and they had done it without the free-flowing, veteran center.

"It was great to see the team win and do everything they did," said Nylander, who missed 42 games last season because of a torn rotator cuff. "But as a player it was hard to be on the sidelines when that's happening. I wanted to be out there. I wanted to help but I just couldn't."

But Wednesday at the Capitals' annual media luncheon at Verizon Center, there were no signs that Nylander's prolonged absence from the ice has affected his return to the lineup or the Capitals' chemistry.

His shoulder feels strong. His timing is coming back, as evidenced by Nylander finishing as the team's second-leading scorer in the preseason with seven points (two goals, five assists).

Source: Washington Post

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Yes, St. Louis Blues coach Andy Murray is under the gun this season. Last season's second-half collapse was a clear warning sign. The team drifted. Frustrations got the better of the group.

Over at the New York Times hockey blog Slap Shot, Murray topped the list of NHL coaches in peril.

"Murray drives his teams hard and often loses the room because of this," Jeff Hale wrote. "Impatience for a playoff spot may be building in St. Louis in spite of the roster and Murray could pay the price for that."

But with rookies Patrik Berglund, T.J. Oshie and Alex Pietrangelo starting the season with the team -- and with cornerstone defenseman Erik Johnson done for the year — Murray does have some cover.

This is one of the youngest teams in the NHL. Industry-wide expectations for the team are minimal.

If Murray can guide this team to the high side of .500, he will earn bows all around

Source: Post-Dispatch

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Martin Brodeur had changed the paint job on his Devils goaltending mask once before Wednesday. Fifteen years ago, before his first full season with the team, he brought a mask to training camp with a swirling, horned letter J above the eyes.

Brodeur, then 21, had spent the previous season with the Devils' farm team in Utica, N.Y., and he thought it was cheeky to presume he would make the Devils in 1993. So he decided to have only the J of the Devils' NJ logo painted on his helmet. Brodeur, who won two games during the 1991-92 season in a red-and-white helmet, made the 1993-94 team, and the rest, as they say, is history. He won 536 games and three Stanley Cups wearing a helmet with the J design.

"I just never changed it — I never got traded," he said after practice Wednesday, laughing. "I couldn't really change it."

Other goaltenders wear masks with arty designs. Some wear one mask at home and another on the road. Brodeur has worn only four or five masks in his past 15 N.H.L. seasons, and all have carried the same simple logo.

Now 36, Brodeur needs 14 victories to break Patrick Roy's career N.H.L. record of 551, but he has decided to tempt fate. When the Devils open their season Friday at home against the Islanders, he will wear a helmet with a new design.

The sides of the black helmet are similar — red-and-white flames — but the area that had been occupied by the J will carry a red MB30, his initials and jersey number. The 3 in the design has a pointed tail like the Devils' logo and the old J.

"If something goes really bad, I might have to go back to old faithful," Brodeur said.

Source: New York Times