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Wednesday, 02 November 2011 03:33

Written by Seth Rorabaugh

Penguins

-"I'd take anything right now. If someone wants to give me one, I'd take it." - Steve Sullivan (right) on failing to score a goal to this point of the season.

-At some point Sidney Crosby is going to take contact in practice... right?

-Dan Bylsma expects Jordan Staal ("lower body") and Kris Letang (undisclosed) to play during the team's West Coast trip. (PG+)

-The Penguins placed defenseman Boris Valabik on waivers.

-Dan Bylsma speaks:

-Dan Bylsma speaks:

-Joe Vitale is the Penguins' mustache boy for November:

-In terms of avoiding penalties, Matt Cooke had the best October of his career.

-Former Penguins forward Ville Nieminen has joined Dinamo Riga of the KHL.

Atlantic Division

-"Joe’s a heck of a player, but here’s a player popping off about our team. Joe hasn’t won a (expletive) thing in this league. He could go down as a player, one of the better players in our league who has never (won) anything. So what he should do is just shut up. " - Rangers coach John Tortorella on Sharks captain Joe Thornton. After the Rangers beat the Sharks Monday, Thornton suggested the Rangers were soft.

-Rangers forward Sean Avery cleared re-entry waivers and was recalled from Hartford of the AHL.

-The Flyers placed captain Chris Pronger (eye) on injured reserve and recalled forwards Harry Zolnierczyk and Ben Holmstrom from Adirondack of the AHL.

-The Islanders demoted forward Nino Niederreiter (groin) to Bridgeport of the AHL for a conditioning assignment. Additional, forward Trevor Gillies cleared waivers and was demoted to Bridgeport.

Northeast Division

-A goal and an assist by Chris Kelly led the Bruins to a 5-3 defeat of the Senators. Captain Zdeno Chara and Rich Peverly added two assists for Boston while Tim Thomas made 23 saves in the victory. Nick Foligno had a goal and two assists for Ottawa.

-Boston's Gregory Campbell had issues with Ottawa's Zack Smith:

-As did Ottawa's Zenon Konopka and Boston's Shawn Thornton:

-Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson is expected to be sidelined at least a week due to a concussion.

-The Sabres spent several millions to improve the ice conditions at First Niagara Center.

-The Maple Leafs recalled forward Joey Crabb from Toronto of the AHL and demoted forward Matt Frattin to Toronto.

Southeast Division

-Chad LaRose and Jeff Skinner each had two goals for the Hurricanes in a 4-2 win against the Lightning. Cam Ward made 28 saves for Carolina.

-Goal of the Night: Check out this goal off a tic-tac-toe play between Skinner and Jussi Jokinen:

-Two goals from Nicklas Backstrom, including one in overtime, gave the Capitals a thrilling 5-4 comeback win against the Ducks. Joel Ward and Dennis Wideman each added a goal and an assist for Washington while teammate Brooks Laich recorded three assists. Tomas Vokoun made all of 11 saves in the victory. Teemu Selanne collected two goals and an assist for Anaheim.

-Backstrom scored with 42 seconds left in regulation to tie the game and won the game in overtime:

-Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau benched captain Alex Ovechkin at the end of regulation.

-Washington defenseman John Erskine returned to the lineup for the first time since suffering a shoulder injury during hte playoffs in May.

-The Capitals recalled forward Cody Eakin from Hershey of the AHL and demoted defenseman Sean Collins to Hershey.

-“I basically got my mojo back." - Panthers forward Tomas Fleischmann explaining how he has 10 points through 11 games.

-It looks like Florida's BankAtlantic Center will be undergoing a name change.

Central Division

-The Blue Jackets opted to keep junior-eligible forward Ryan Johansen on the NHL roster beyond his nine-game "tryout."

-The Predators demoted forward Ryan Thang to Milwaukee of the AHL.

Northwest Division

-An overtime goal and an assist by Devin Setoguchi gave the Wild a 2-1 win against the Red Wings. Captain Mikko Koivu added a goal and an assist for Minnesota while Josh Harding made 36 saves in the victory.

-Setoguchi's goal. Check out the hit by Koivu on Detroit's Niklas Krwonwall to set it up:

-"I think it's a penalty. Especially when we've seen it get called against us on a few different occasions, especially (Todd) Bertuzzi has been doing pretty much the same thing, and we've been getting the calls against us. We didn't get that call tonight." - Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom on Koivu's hit.

-Kronwall will be evaluated today after appearing to suffer a head injury.

-Save of the Night: Detroit's Jimmy Howard on Koivu:

-Check out this re-direction goal by Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom:

-Detroit's Drew Miller > Harding:

-A goal and two assists by Alexander Edler led the Canucks to a 5-1 rout of the Flames. Cody Hodgson added a goal and an assist for Vancouver while Roberto Luongo made 28 saves in the victory.

-Breakaway Goal of the Game: Check out the moves by Vancouver's Chris Higgins to jam up Calgary goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff:

-Pass of the Night: Vancouver's Maxim Lapierre setting up Hodgson:

-Oilers defenseman Andy Sutton was expertly suspended five games for a hit to the head of Avalanche forward Gabriel Landeskog Friday:

Pacific Division

-"I was lucky. It could have caught an eye, but it caught a good spot.” - Stars defenseman Nicklas Grossman on getting  hit in the face with a skate from Devils' forward Dainus Zubrus:

-In honor of "Movember," Ducks forward and Washington, Pa. native George Parros had his trademark mustached trimmed off by teammate Corey Perry:

Patrick Division

-Former Sharks/Lightning/Devils/Wild/Flames/Blackhawks defenseman Andrei Zyuzin has joined Biel of the NLA in Switzerland.

(Photos: Sullivan-Getty Images; Senators/Bruins-Elsa/Getty Images; Wild/Red Wings-Carlos Osorio/Associated Press; Parros-Getty Images)

Comments (1)

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written by RobotJaxxon, November 03, 2011 - 03:05 AM

I wish the article on Cooke had been a little more in-depth. The two minor penalties he's been called for so far this season were:

-- a good interference call for a poorly timed bump against the Panthers, and

-- a bizarre, phantom diving call versus the Islanders--even the Islanders TV announcers didn't see the dive and called it a "reputation" penalty.

There have been no penalties for any dirty hits, no flying elbows, no fights or slashes.

Instead, he has 4 goals, 8 points, and 4 penalty minutes. He is 4th on the Pens in shorthanded TOI (2:27 per game), on the top PK unit in the NHL. And he's tied for 14th among all forwards with 11 blocked shots.

This has been a great start to the season for Cooke, and it appears he's made a serious effort to play a cleaner game. Hopefully this will continue.

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