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Friday, 15 October 2010 06:07

Written by Seth Rorabaugh

Penguins

-Marc-Andre Fleury must be familiar with Westmoreland County Sheetz restrooms because Steelers kicker Jeff Reed (right) claims he knows how the Penguins' goaltender feels.

-The Tri-City Americans of the WHL traded Penguins goaltending prospect Alexander Pechurskiy to the Calgary Hitmen.

-Happy 53rd birthday to former Penguins forward Rocky Saganiuk. Acquired in the 1983 offseason along with Vincent Tremblay in a deal which sent Pat Graham and Nick Ricci to the Maple Leafs, Saganiuk's Penguins' career amounted to 29 games and three points in 1983-84. In the 1984 offseason, Saganiuk re-joined the Maple Leafs as a free agent.

Atlantic Division

-Life just keeps getting better for the Devils. Defenseman Mark Fraser will be sidelined four to six weeks due to a fractured hand.

-After finally clearing a little salary cap space, the Devils were able to recall forwards Jacob Josefson, Tim Sestito and Matt Corrente.

-Captain Chris Drury is expected to replace former Penguins forward Erik Christensen on the Rangers' top line.

Northeast Division

-Mike Fisher scored two goals and led the Senators to a 3-2 win against the Hurricanes. Brian Elliott (above) made 19 saves to earn the win. Eric Staal led Carolina with a goal and an assist.

-There's one healthy Michalek still left in the NHL - Ottawa's Milan - and he scored a pretty nifty goal last night:

-Check out this save by Carolina's Cam Ward:

-Elliott replaced injured starter Pascal Leclaire who was run over by former Penguins forward Tom Kostopoulos:

-Check out this hit by Ottawa's Nick Foligno on Carolina's Pat Dwyer:

-Elliott kept his eyes on this puck:

-As did Ward:

-Sabres defenseman Shaone Morrisonn is dealing with a groin injury.

-One day after getting "Engellanded," Maple Leafs forward Colton Orr returned to practice.

-So far so good for new Bruins forward Nathan Horton.

Southeast Division

-Martin St. Louis and Steve Downie each had two assists for the Lightning in a 3-2 win at Philadelphia. Dan Ellis made 24 saves in the victory.

-Lightning forward and former Flyer Simon Gagne was honored during the game:

-"I knew they were going to cheer me, but to get a standing ovation like that, I wasn't expecting that. That was a lot of emotion I went through there. It was a nice moment, something I will remember for the rest of my life." - Gagne.

-Philadelphia's Brian Boucher had issues with this puck:

-Tomas Vokoun made 27 saves and led the Panthers to a 3-0 shut out win at Calgary. Radek Dvorak scored two goals for Florida while teammate Marty Reasoner netted two assists.

-How bad were the Flames in this game? Calgary coach Brent Sutter used the term "stinker."

-Thrashers defenseman Ron Hainsey has left the team to attend to the birth of his first child.

-The Hurricanes have a computerized ice resurfacing machine.

-With a 46.2 success rate, the Capitals aren't doing too hot in the faceoff circle.

Central Division

-Steve Sullivan (above, at 5-foot-8) scored two goals for the Predators who held off the Blues, 3-2. Cal O'Reilly added three assists for Nashville while Anders Lindback (above, at 6-foot-6) made 32 saves to earn the win.

-Check out the torque Nashville's J.P. Dumont put on his stick here:

-Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane is expected to miss tonight's game in Columbus due to an illness.

Northwest Division

-Miikko Koivu had two goals and an assist for the Wild in a 4-2 defeat of the Oilers. Matt Cullen and Antti Miettinen each added a goal and an assist for Minnesota while teammate Andrew Brunette recorded two assists. Niklas Backstrom made 24 saves in the victory.

-Edmonton's Ales Hemsky > Brunette:

-Oilers captain Shawn Horcoff had a hard time convincing Thor Nelson he looked like former Penguins captain Ron Francis:

-We think.

-Edmonton's Dustin Penner and Minnesota's Eric Nystrom had an impromtu staring contest:

-The Wild has won nine consecutive home openers.

-The Oilers have lost 14 consecutive games in Minnesota.

-Wild forward John Madden received the Stanley Cup ring he won with the Blackhawks last season.

-Flames defenseman T.J. Brodie isn't the next Mario Lemieux.

-"Our power play is obviously terrible right now." - Calgary captain Jarome Iginla who apparently plays for the Penguins as well.

Pacific Division

-A goal and two assists by Brad Richards helped the Stars defeat the Red Wings, 4-1. James Neal added a goal and an assist for Dallas while teammate Mike Ribeiro recorded two assists. Kari Lehtonen made 25 saves in the victory.

-Detroit's Johan Franzen, who has a history of head injuries, left the game after taking a shot to the head from Dallas's Mark Fistric:

-Franzen said after the game he suffered a concussion.

-Thinking Out Loud: That just looked like bad luck for Fistric and Franzen more than anything. Franzen made a move at the last minute and Fistric didn't have time to adjust his hit and avoid Franzen's face.

-Red Wings forward and former Stars captain Mike Modano was honored prior to the game:

-Lehtonen and Detroit's Todd Bertuzzi kept their eyes on this puck:

-Lehtonen alone in the dark:

-Detroit's Chris Osgood kept his eyes on this puck:

-Bertuzzi ready to stick a shoulder into Dallas' Brandon Segal:

-Modano being popular:

-Modano and teammate Jiri Hudler making the walk to the rink:

-Foggy times in Dallas:

-After having defenseman Toni Lydman (vision) medically cleared to play, the Ducks demoted defenseman Brett Festerling to Syracuse of the AHL.

Smythe Division

-The Robert Morris men's team will host Air Force Sunday in the first ever college game at Consol Energy Center.

-Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun doesn't like the salary cap. Apparently the days when the Maple Leafs could just overspend on over the hill talent like Owen Nolan and Jason Allison were much better.

-Former Wild/Lightning forward Stéphane Veilleux has joined Blues of the SM-liiga in Finland.

-Today would've been the 76th birthday of former Pittsburgh Hornets forward Hank Ciesla.

-Happy 99th birthday to former Pittsburgh Hornets defenseman Jack Howard.

(Photos: Reed-Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press; Hurricanes/Senators-Phillip MacCallum/Getty Images; Lightning/Flyers-H. Rumph, Jr./Associated Press; Blues/Predators-Mike Strasinger/Associated Press; Oilers/Wild-Hannah Foslien/Getty Images; Red Wings/Stars-Ronald Martinez/Getty Images, LM Otero/Associated Press and Elsa/Getty Images)

Comments (5)

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written by talisker66, October 15, 2010 - 11:19 AM

I second that Happy Birthday to Rocky. He's running a kids hockey program in the Chicago area and he was my daughter's coach a couple of years ago. He was great with the kids.

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written by schmidtlesauce, October 15, 2010 - 11:20 AM

franzen is such a sissy. ur big and ur nickname is the mule. act like a man

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written by eman41, October 15, 2010 - 02:16 PM

Looked like Franzen through his face into that guy's shoulder.

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written by JBM425, October 15, 2010 - 03:34 PM

Funny, but Steve Simmons wasn't using the Maple Laughs, er, Leafs (nothing funny about the way they're playing to start THIS season!) as his poster child or Exhibit A to make his case, but rather the Penguins. Don't you think that with a slightly higher cap the Pens could get even one better linemate for Sid?

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written by s_rorabaugh, October 15, 2010 - 04:07 PM

JBM425, I took Simmons' column basically to mean: Cap = Bad.

But without the cap, the Penguins probably don't have an arena. When the Penguins were lobbying the local and state governments for funding for a new arena, they were told that before any public money was devoted to that project, the NHL's finances needed to be in order.

Forget having bad wingers. If it weren't for the cap, the Penguins probably don't exist in Pittsburgh.

And as far as boo-hooing that Sidney Crosby doesn't have "real" wingers, Ray Shero had roughly $10 million of salary cap space. He could've just jumped in on the Kovalchuk sweepstakes. That would've been fun, but the Penguins would lose a bunch of games by 6-4 scores.

Instead, Shero invested in the defense with Martin and Michalek. He chose improving his team overall and not just building up a Playstation team.

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