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Tuesday, 08 November 2011 02:36

Written by Seth Rorabaugh

Penguins

-Sidney Crosby's (above) return is hardly a sure thing.

-The Penguins are doing a team-building exercise at Nemacolin Woodlands.

-Chris Kunitz declined to criticized how the NHL disciplined Kings forward Ethan Moreau for a hit from behind Saturday. (PG+)

-Ben Lovejoy will be sidelined a minimum of six weeks due to his broken wrist.

-Dan Bylsma speaks:

-Crosby speaks:

-The Penguins' captain is returning soon. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's Ryan Craig is expected to return to the lineup Wednesday after recovering from a knee injury.

-“I’d be lying is if I said I didn’t think about that.” - Wilkes-Barre/Scranton defenseman Boris Valabik suggesting he could be in the NHL given the NHL club's injuries on defense were it not for his own injuries.

-Niagara IceDogs forward and Penguins prospect Tom Kuhnhackl was suspended indefinitely by the OHL for a dangerous hit on Kitchener Rangers defenseman and Hurricanes prospect Ryan Murphy. A finite suspension is expected to announced today. The hit occured Friday:

-Happy 52nd birthday to former Penguins defenseman Marc Chorney. A sixth-round pick in 1979, Chorney spent parts of four seasons in Pittsburgh. As a rookie in 1980-81, Chorney appeared in eight games and netted seven points. In the 1981 postseason, he played in two games and recorded one assist. His first full NHL season was 1981-82. He saw action in 60 games and scored seven points. He appeared in all five of the Penguins' postseason games that spring but failed to record a point. In 1982-83, he played in 67 games and scored eight points. After four games and one assist in 1983-84, Chorney was traded to the Kings in exchange for a draft pick. In 139 regular season games with the Penguins, Chorney scored 23 points. In seven playoff games, he recorded one assist. His son, Taylor Chorney, is currently a member of the Blues franchise.

Atlantic Division

-The Devils placed forward Eric Boulton (right hand) on injured reserve and placed forward Rod Pelley and defenseman Mark Fraser on waivers.

-Rangers forward Wojtek Wolski will be sidelined four weeks due to a sports hernia.

-The Flyers lead the NHL in goals with 56.

-Part of that goal output is coming from former Penguins forward Maxime Talbot. Fire Ray Shero.

Northeast Division

-Two goals and an assist by Nathan Horton led the Bruins to a 6-2 defeat of the Islanders. David Krejci added a goal and two assists for Boston while teammate Milan Lucic collected a goal and an assist. Tuukka Rask made 24 saves in the victory. Michael Grabner and former Penguins prospect Matt Moulson each had a goal and an assist for New York.

-Pass of the Night: Boston's Patrice Bergeron to Tyler Seguin:

-Check out this re-direction goal by Islanders forward and former Penguins prospect Matt Moulson:

-Fire Ray Shero.

-Scary scene here where Boston's Daniel Paille took a deflected shot in the face after blocking a shot by New York's Steve Staios:

-Bloody times for Paille:

-New York's Matt Martin and Boston's Adam McQuaid had issues:

-Boston's Tuukka Rask kept his eyes on this puck:

-New York's Al Montoya squared up on this puck:

-Boston's Joe Corvo put something extra on this puck:

-"I was just real disappointed with some guys' work ethic tonight. I won't name names . . . But that's why those guys were minus-2 and minus-3." - Islanders coach Jack Capuano. Islanders forwards Frans Nielsen , P.A. Parenteau, Brian Rolston and defensemen Mark Eaton and Milan Jurcina were each either minus-2 or minus-3.

-Bruins forward Rich Peverly is dealing with an undisclosed injury.

-“That’s the emotion you get from me. If I’m discouraged, if I’m [ticked] off, that’s just how it is. I want to win. I don’t want to be out there getting scored on. I don’t want to be pulled out of a game. I want to, you know, I want to [expletive] win the game.” - Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller (right) on being benched for two consecutive games.

-Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty started a foundation to treat head injuries.

-Maple Leafs forward Tim Connolly is dealing with an "upper-body" injury.

Southeast Division

-The Panthers recalled goaltender Scott Clemmensen from San Antonio of the AHL and demoted goaltender Jacob Markstrom to San Antonio.

-The Hurricanes recalled forward Zac Dalpe from Charlotte of the AHL and demoted forward Drayson Bowman to Charlotte.

Central Division

-"I just felt that I couldn't miss out on this opportunity to work with these people. I couldn't miss it." - Ken Hitchock on why he took the Blues' head coaching job.

-The Blues recalled defenseman Ian Cole from Peoria of the AHL.

-The Blue Jackets demoted forward Alexandre Giroux to Springfield of the AHL.

-Former Red Wings/Maple Leafs defenseman Brett Lebda has signed a professional tryout contact with the Springfield Falcons, the Blue Jackets' AHL affiliate.

Northwest Division

-"I'm not his coach. I'm not there to coach him. But at the same time, I'm here to be a good teammate and support him. I've been him when I was his age. I know what it's like to try to become the goalie you want to be." - Avalanche backup goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere (right) on his relationship with starter Semyon Varlamov.

Pacific Division

-Patrick Marleau had a goal and two assists for the Sharks in a 4-2 win against the rival Kings. Dan Boyle and captain Joe Thornton each added a goal and an assist for San Jose while teammate Joe Pavelski recorded two assists. Antti Niemi made 29 saves in the victory. Anze Kopitar netted a goal and an assist for Los Angeles.

-Save of the Night: Los Angeles' Jonathan Quick on San Jose captain Joe Thornton:

-Cool Photo of the Night: San Jose's Patrick Marleau taking the ice:

-Los Angeles' Willie Mitchell gave a San Jose's Logan Couture some rough treatment in the crease:

-Niemi lunged out for this puck:

-Quick had issues with this puck:

-Ducks enforcer and Washington, Pa. native George Parros underwent surgery to correct a torn retina.

(Photos: Crosby-Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press; Islanders/Bruins-Elsa/Getty Images; Miller-Dave Sandford/Getty Images; Giguere-Dale MacMillan/Getty Images; Kings/Sharks-Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press and Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Comments (8)

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written by pumpkin_eater, November 08, 2011 - 04:45 AM

On the Crosby-topic: NHL.com handles this whole thing as if it was very likely that he returns Friday... Jeez, that site's becoming more and more like an effing tabloid...

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written by jameshutton, November 08, 2011 - 06:32 AM

Looks like Kuhnhackl is done for awhile (again) either with injury and/or suspension. Interesting if you watch the whole clip, Murphy was out on the power play, but is now in "shutdown" mode. It's tough on Kuhnhackl - Murphy is short(er), plus had his head down, but I guess now that is all on the checker.

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written by kpa42, November 08, 2011 - 07:23 AM

The Flyers leading the NHL in goals scored is a bit of a bogus stat. Eight of those goals came in one game vs. the Jets where they also gave up nine? When every player on the ice more or less refuses to play defense for a night, it sort of skews the view. And another nine (!) of those goals came in a single game vs. an absolutely terrible Blue Jackets.

So that's 17 goals in two games, and one of them they didn't even win.

Sometimes statistics don't actually speak for themselves, methinks.

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written by bastage42, November 08, 2011 - 09:42 AM

Kuhnhackl will have the book thrown at him, as the OHL has led the way (in N. America at least) in trying to prevent injuries from overly violent collisions. Branch has said that at the end of the day, most of these kids won't be playing in the NHL, so his responsibility is to return them to their families when they're done. I applaud him for that -- he's earned a ton of respect from me in the way he's running the OHL.

As for Kuhnhackl's hit, I keep seeing everywhere that he left his feet but I have yet to see an angle that shows it. The impact takes him off his feet, for sure, but part of that is he's hitting (as jameshutton mentioned) a much shorter player and while his elbow catches him, it looks tucked in. Damian Cox compared it to the Liambas hit, even, which I'm not sure is fair.

Don't take that as me condoning the hit, though. Ultimately the responsibility will be on Kuhnhackl for being overly aggressive on the hit. He could have taken him out pretty hard with half that force, and (what's important IMO) would have been in much better shape to gain possession of the puck. I hope when my son reaches that level of hockey, the stress on finishing your checks is to gain possession, not to demolish the other player and let someone else pick up the puck.

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written by bastage42, November 08, 2011 - 09:43 AM

And yeah, big time FAIL for the Rangers' organization for Murphy being out on the PP right afterwards.

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written by jameshutton, November 08, 2011 - 10:38 AM

@bastage - I think the OHL went to softer pad coverings this year too. It will be interesting to see if they can track whether that's helped. I didn't see Kuhnhackl leave his feet before impact. The view from behind is best and doesn't seem to show that. Didn't Raffi Torres destroy someone last year in the SC playoffs on an almost identical hit? I know it's a different league, and I'm not justifying K's hit, but I'm guessing he'll get a really stiff suspension for reasons not necessarily related just to the hit - i.e., status of the player he hit, plus (at the risk of being politically incorrect) the fact that he's not Canadian.

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written by bastage42, November 08, 2011 - 01:44 PM

@jameshutton -- well the verdict is in (20 games) but I suspect the impact at that speed probably negated any effect of softer coverings. The Torres hit does seem similar IIRC, but IMO the big thing that determines the length of the hit is the recklessness of it -- Branch has campaigned hard against irresponsible hits since the Cormier one, regardless of the type of violation. If anything, that he hit an elite player may have extended it, but I suspect he'd have gotten 20 games regardless. I doubt his citizenship had anything to do with it, but you can bet the owners of the Rangers lobbied for a pretty stiff suspension on account of one of their stars being out.

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written by bastage42, November 08, 2011 - 02:17 PM

BTW I didn't see him leave his feet either; (better stated) the articles I've been reading have mentioned that he left his feet for the hit, but I have yet to see video evidence of that.

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