The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.

January 2, 2012

The Hockey News - Jan-02-12

<div class="byline">WITH RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0037-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02833/9616468-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-011187/9616475-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="187" height="222"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>L</span><b>atvia and denmark</b> join the top ranks of the World Junior championship this year and, as all promoted teams know, will likely be soundly beaten on the scoreboard by the more experienced nations. The chances of the two newbies surviving relegation are remote. The czechs and/or swiss would basically have to give up once their medal round hopes are dashed, but the fear of playing down next year is likely too great for that to happen.</p><p>This is a shame, because few countries have embraced hockey the way latvia has and the nation is already turning out some top talents, such as Zemgus Girgensons and Teddy blueger, both of whom play in north america thanks to their skills. denmark even has an NHL first-rounder in the lineup in nicklas Jensen, taken 29th overall by vancouver in 2011. but the progress of these nascent hockey programs stalls when they are sent back down to pummel the lithuanias and croatias of the lesser div. i slates.</p><p>I&rsquo;m all for relegation and promotion in these tournaments (i&rsquo;d still like to see what would happen if the Hershey bears replaced the columbus blue Jackets in the NHL, but for practical purposes we know that can&rsquo;t happen), but giving the smaller hockey nations a little more of a foothold on the big stage isn&rsquo;t such a bad thing, is it?</p><p>Imagine this: The WJc ups the marquee bracket to 12 teams from its current 10. Two countries still get relegated, but the latvias, denmarks, norways and Germanys double their chances of survival. Those young players get to see what it&rsquo;s like to go up against the world&rsquo;s best in their peer group a little longer and see why canada, sweden, Russia and the united states always seem to come out on top. in fact, by implementing a new medal round format (see the chart below), these countries might even get a chance to play the big boys in a game that mattered. and lest you think those are gimme games for the giants, think back to sweden&rsquo;s humiliating loss to belarus in the quarterfinal of the 2002 olympics.</p><p>For those who bemoan the world juniors&rsquo; canada-centric hosting cycle, this can only help. countries won&rsquo;t be as worried about getting relegated on home ice (a concern for some in the past) if their chances of staying up are greater and they are assured of playing at least one playoff game in front of the home crowd.</p><p>The titans of the field would play just one more game than they do now (in the round robin) and still get rest in the middle thanks to byes in the system.</p><p>The world juniors have gone through numerous changes over the years, starting with an eight-team field in 1977 and graduating to 10 in 1996. so the format is not gospel.</p><p>Last year, I was talking to a scout about the world juniors and I inquired about the showings of players in the div. I-a and I-b circuits, which yielded latvia and denmark as its respective winners. He dismissed the prospects&rsquo; performances because of the level of competition down there. put those kids against Finland or sweden and all of a sudden you get a better read on talent, something all NHL teams would be interested in.</p><p>Teams would still have to fight to avoid plunging back into the obscurity of the lower tourney rungs, but at least in a 12-team world they&rsquo;d have a second chance to make a statement. and that&rsquo;s good for all involved.</p><h2><b>HYPOTHETICAL 12-TEAM WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP</b></h2><p>RYAN KENNEDY&rsquo;S WEB-EXCLUSIVE COLUMN APPEARS WEDNESDAYS AT <b><a href="HTTP://THN.COM/KENNEDY">THN.COM/KENNEDY</a></b></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03669/9616461-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="301" height="45"></div><p><b>For stats, scores and more, plus features and videos from Ryan Kennedy</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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IN THIS ISSUE

RELEGATION REVISITED

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-03409/9616965-1-eng-US/f0042-032.jpg" title="f0042-03" width="220" height="418"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>TIM THOMAS</b> <span class="photo-credit">(THOMAS: FRANCOIS LACASSE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>T. Thomas</b></p><p>Boston</p><p><i>.938 (&rsquo;10-11)</i></p><p><b>D. Hasek</b></p><p>Buffalo</p><p><i>.937 (&rsquo;98-99)</i></p><p><b>D. Roloson</b></p><p>Minnesota</p><p><i>.933 (&rsquo;03-04)</i></p><p><b>M. Kiprusoff</b></p><p>Calgary</p><p><i>.933 (&rsquo;03-04)</i></p><p><b>T. Thomas</b></p><p>Boston</p><p><i>.933 (&rsquo;08-09)</i></p><p><b>M. Turco</b></p><p>Dallas</p><p><i>.932 (&rsquo;02-03)</i></p><p><b>D. Hasek</b></p><p>Buffalo</p><p><i>.932 (&rsquo;97-98)</i></p><p><b>T. Rask</b></p><p>Boston</p><p><i>.931 (&rsquo;09-10)</i></p><p><b>J. Theodore</b></p><p>Montreal</p><p><i>.931 (&rsquo;01-02)</i></p><p><b>R. Luongo</b></p><p>Florida</p><p><i>.931 (&rsquo;03-04)</i></p><p>.944 <b>Elliott&rsquo;s save percentage through early December</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0042-03

SUPER Savers

<p><b>Adam, at this point, are the Rangers to be taken seriously as an elite team in the East?</b></p><p><i>Brendan Derrig, Wellington, Fla.</i></p><p>Hey Brendan. The Blueshirts were one of the league&rsquo;s hotter teams early in the season. But while there&rsquo;s no doubt a team with Henrik Lundqvist in net and Brad Richards at center is in the Stanley Cup race, the Rangers have a recent history of flopping in the first round. If they get Marc Staal back and everyone is firing on all pistons come April, maybe they make noise. But I&rsquo;ll need to see it before I expect it.</p><p><b>Hey Adam. The NHL&rsquo;s new realignment features one fewer team in each of the two Eastern Conferences. Do you think this indicates impending expansion?</b></p><p><i>Derek Anderson, Calgary</i></p><p>Hey Derek. I believe the league&rsquo;s new structure is in large part an insurance policy against Phoenix or some other financially troubled franchise relocating in the coming years and creating another Winnipeg-in-the-East-type problem. But the E-word has been whispered behind the scenes for some time &ndash; specifically, expansion that would put a second team in Southern Ontario &ndash; and isn&rsquo;t at all out of the question. Of course, that would further dilute the overall product, but that never stopped commissioner Gary Bettman before.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-04581/9615168-1-eng-US/f0007-042.jpg" title="f0007-04" width="870" height="708"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>MARC STAAL</b> <span class="photo-credit">(STAAL: GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>|</b> Read more <b>&lsquo;Ask Adam&rsquo;</b> every Friday at <a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">thehockeynews.com</a>&nbsp;<b>|</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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ASK ADAM

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0018-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011853/9615658-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GREGG FORWERCK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>D</span><b>uring a recent off day</b> for the Florida Panthers, Stephen Weiss sat at his stall after practice reading a magazine. That&rsquo;s when the Panthers dressing room music director fired up <i>Pumped Up Kicks</i> by Foster The People, that snappy tune that&rsquo;s all the rage with the kids these days.</p><p>Right around that time, Tomas Fleischmann and Kris Versteeg, quite fittingly, stood to the left and right of Weiss and began swaying to the music. After a long and awkward span of inattention, Weiss finally looked up to notice the antics of his wingers. Uncomfortable? Uh, yeah. That was the whole point. But suffice to say, whether Fleischmann and Versteeg are gyrating by his stall or skating down his wing &ndash; without disparaging the players who have skated with Weiss so far in his career &ndash; he has probably never been happier to be so close to his linemates.</p><p>There are a number of reasons why the Panthers have emerged as the division leader in the soon-tobe-former Southeast Division and a contender in the Eastern Conference, many of them having to do with the fine work of GM Dale Tallon. One is the play of the top line of Weiss between Fleischmann and Versteeg, two players Tallon picked up in the offseason. In an era when dynamic duos are the way to success, the Panthers have found enough ice and enough puck for all three to thrive.</p><p>And none is thriving more than Fleischmann, the player Tallon acquired in what many thought was an attempt to get to the salary cap floor. The surprise at Tallon signing Fleischmann to a four-year, $18-million deal had nothing to do with talent or drive. But if Fleischmann stays healthy and as productive as he was over the first quarter and doesn&rsquo;t win the Masterton Trophy, you could make the case the Professional Hockey Writers&rsquo; Association should have its voting privileges revoked.</p><p>Not that Fleischmann will take the opportunity to toast his good fortune with a beer or something stronger. He was always a clean liver to begin with, but is now under strict orders to not drink alcohol at all. Just so you know, telling a hockey player he can&rsquo;t have the odd beer is tantamount to informing the Pope he can no longer do morning prayers. &ldquo;I guess when we meet up in the summer,&rdquo; Versteeg said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll have to drink for both of us.&rdquo;</p><p>Not a day goes by when the 27-year-old Fleischmann does not have to manage his health closer than any other NHL player. When Fleischmann went to see a doctor in Colorado one day after practice last January for shortness of breath, he didn&rsquo;t know it at the time, but he was unwittingly a candidate to die of the No. 1 cause of preventable hospital deaths in the United States. As it turned out, Fleischmann had a pulmonary embolism, a blood clot that had reached his lungs and was on its way to doing further damage. &ldquo;If you get a big one, it blocks all the blood supply flowing to your lungs and if you can&rsquo;t get blood to your lungs, you can&rsquo;t get oxygen,&rdquo; said Dr. Nicholas Morrissey, a vascular surgeon at New York Presbyterian Hospital and an associate professor at Columbia University. &ldquo;If they&rsquo;re massive, they can be fatal.&rdquo;</p><p>Luckily, Fleischmann took the advice of his agent Rich Evans and sought immediate attention. And while his life was far from over, his most promising NHL season was and there was no guarantee his career wasn&rsquo;t in jeopardy. But with a rigorous regimen of blood thinners and a painstaking attention to detail with his medications both on his part and the Panthers staff, Fleischmann has come back stronger than ever; although we&rsquo;re willing to bet a few people&rsquo;s hearts skipped several beats in November when Andre Deveaux of the Rangers earned a three-game suspension for drilling his elbow into Fleischmann&rsquo;s head. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a thing I&rsquo;ve got,&rdquo; Fleischmann said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think about it during the game or practice. There&rsquo;s no time for thinking about it during the game. But your health is first, everything else is second.&rdquo;</p><p>Fleischmann has learned to live with and control his condition rather than allowing it to dictate the terms of his life. That comes with a price, though. Fleischmann and the Panthers&rsquo; training and medical staff must stay on top of his condition at all times. They have to time the blood thinner administration perfectly to allow enough time for his blood to return to normal levels by the time they play their next game. The Panthers would not disclose the name of the blood thinner Fleischmann is using, but it&rsquo;s most likely he&rsquo;s on what&rsquo;s called a low molecular weight heparin, a 24-hour blood thinner that has been employed for a number of years by former New York Ranger Jed Ortmeyer. The medication is administered with a needle and is commonly used by doctors whose patients are on standard blood thinners, but are facing surgery and need their blood to be at a normal level for surgery.</p><p>The team and Fleischmann say he is not at risk for serious injury, but the fact remains a player on blood thinners is at an elevated risk of complications arising from injuries. &ldquo;If you get a cut on your arm, you have to hold pressure on it a little longer,&rdquo; said Morrissey, who has not treated Fleischmann, but supports his decision to play. &ldquo;But if you bust up your liver or your kidney or your spleen, it could be the difference between not playing for a while and ending up in the hospital or the operating room.&rdquo;</p><p>Part of the reason for his demeanor is that this is not the first time Fleischmann has had to deal with his condition. It started in summer 2009 when, after Game 7 of Washington&rsquo;s playoff loss to Pittsburgh, Fleischmann&rsquo;s leg ballooned on the flight home to the Czech Republic. It turned out he had a deep vein thrombosis and a Czech doctor originally told him his career was over. And the threat of another clot turning into pulmonary emboli is mitigated by surgery he had over the summer to install a mesh in his lower abdomen that would serve to break up any clot that might travel up his leg toward his lungs.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011633/9615651-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="1574" height="1004"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>CAT DRAGGED IN</b></p><p><b>The early returns on Tomas Fleischmann suggest signing him was a good gamble</b></p><span class="photo-credit">(TOP: ABELIMAGES/GETTY IMAGES; BOTTOM: ELIOT J. SCHECHTER/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>This is not something over which Fleischmann is going to obsess. The risk is reasonable and acceptable and he has a lot of people monitoring him. When camp started, Panthers coach Kevin Dineen sat down with Fleischmann and simply told the player he needed to be honest and forthright to the coach about his health and keep him apprised of any potential problems. &ldquo;And we haven&rsquo;t had a discussion about it since,&rdquo; Dineen said.</p><p>With Fleischmann on the left side of the top unit and Versteeg on the right, Weiss has far more options than at any other time during his career. It wasn&rsquo;t as though Weiss&rsquo;s talents were being wasted in the Sunbelt, but it&rsquo;s clear the chemistry he has with his wingers has brought out the best in his game. Dineen noticed as much when he went through Weiss&rsquo;s shifts last season shortly after he took over as coach. Dineen saw Weiss was always playing with different players and &ldquo;trying to find his way,&rdquo; so his first priority was to give Weiss two quality wingers with whom he could play consistently and the trio clicked immediately. But there&rsquo;s also the matter of Fleischmann and Versteeg being beneficiaries of a playmaking center who has a pretty good idea of what to do when the puck is on his stick. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s one thing to get it,&rdquo; Dineen said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s another thing to do something with it.&rdquo;</p><p>Signing a player with Fleischmann&rsquo;s history is a risk. But what player isn&rsquo;t in this day and age? When Tallon was GM of the Blackhawks, he signed Marian Hossa to a 12-year deal, only to have Hossa undergo shoulder surgery before ever playing a game. Tallon was encouraged by the written medical reports they received from Fleishchmann&rsquo;s doctors, reports that were verified for the Panthers by the Cleveland Clinic.</p><p>Tallon notices a player who has made his team better and a guy whose positive personality is infectious. Just a wonderful human being, Tallon says, a guy who seems to be laughing and smiling all the time. And why wouldn&rsquo;t he? &ldquo;Hey, the guy could have died,&rdquo; Tallon said. &ldquo;No wonder he&rsquo;s a happy guy.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">HEY, THE GUY COULD HAVE DIED NO WONDER HE&rsquo;S A HAPPY GUY<br>-DALE TALLON</blockquote><h2><b>1.04</b></h2><p><b>POINTS PER GAME average this season for Fleishmann, up from his career pace of 0.52 PPG entering 2011-12</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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NEW LEASE ON LIFE

<div class="byline">PHOTOGRAPH BY JEFF VINNICK</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-012167/9614923-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>Twisted Misters</b></h2><p><b>Colorado defenseman Kyle Quincey and Vancouver agitator Maxim Lapierre sort each other&rsquo;s laundry.</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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THE BIG PICTURE

<div class="byline">WITH JASON KAY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-012198/9614968-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="907" height="580"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JAMIE HODGSON/THN)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>B</span><b>ack in 2007-08,</b> the tall foreheads at The Hockey News believed we&rsquo;d put to rest the debate about who was the greatest European of all-time, at least for a decade or so. Nicklas Lidstrom, a perennial all-star and Norris Trophy winner, was playing the best hockey of his life and his game showed no signs of erosion. His reputation was impeccable, he&rsquo;d played his entire career with one franchise and was the model of amazing consistency. So we anointed him our top Euro-glider in The Hockey News magazine and in a follow-up project, <i>The Ultimate Book of Hockey Lists</i>.</p><p>To boot, Lidstrom didn&rsquo;t have any imminent threats among his peers. Sure, Alex Ovechkin could one day challenge the Detroit blueliner, but that was on the distant horizon. Two-time Hart Trophy winner and teammate Dominik Hasek was in his twilight and wasn&rsquo;t going to fortify his resume. Ditto for five-time scoring champ Jaromir Jagr, who was starting to wear down in New York.</p><p>Turns out, we were a tad hasty on J.J. Doing his best Ponce de Leon imitation, he apparently found the fountain of youth in Siberia and has returned to the NHL as a point-per-game player. Our Adam Proteau analyzes the rejuvenation of a legend in Philadelphia in our cover story beginning on pg. 24.</p><p>So what bearing does Jagr&rsquo;s inspired play have on the greatest-ever European question? At the least, it prompts us to revisit the debate.</p><p>Jagr&rsquo;s body of work is ultra-impressive. Two Cups, one Olympic gold, five Art Ross Trophies and seven first-team all-star berths. While Lidstrom plays a different position, his comparable data is more eye-popping than Jagr&rsquo;s. Four Cups, one Olympic gold, seven Norrises and 10 first-team all-star berths. But Jagr has something Lidstrom has never achieved: a Hart Trophy as NHL MVP. Additionally, Jagr won the Lester B. Pearson Award (now the Ted Lindsay) as best player as voted by his peers on three occasions. Lidstrom has never captured that award, though he did snare the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP in 2002.</p><p>Jagr&rsquo;s career arc &ndash; leaving Pittsburgh in his prime, failing to propel Washington, fizzling in New York towards the end &ndash; colored our view of his CV. Now that he&rsquo;s back and contributing in a meaningful way to an elite-level club, he looks different, a little shinier and brighter. He might still have some work to do to usurp Lidstrom, but the once-cold case has been reopened.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021868/9614961-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="414" height="222"></div><h2><b>LISTEN UP!</b></h2><p><b>THE HOCKEY NEWS RADIO SHOW</b></p><p><b>FRIDAYS 3-4 EST XM 92</b></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031504/9614954-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="185" height="72"></div><p><b>SIRIUS 207 IN USA</b></p><h2><b>NEXT ISSUE JANUARy 16, 2012</b></h2><p><b>CUSTOMER SERVICE AND TO SUBSCRIBE:</b> <a href="http://THN.com">thn.com</a></p><p><b>CONTACT US:</b> <a href="mailto:editorial@thehockeynews.com">editorial@thehockeynews.com</a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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Jagr Back In Euro Debate

<p><b>Submit your letter at: <a href="http://THN.COM/LETTERS">thn.com/letters</a></b></p><h2><b>No &lsquo;I&rsquo; In Team</b></h2><p>Ryan Kennedy suggests the NHL should promote Sean Avery and that humility is not the way to go (The Straight Edge, Dec. 5). Ryan, if you want controversial players being marketed as superstars and me-first attitudes, start covering the NFL and stay away from hockey.</p><p><i>Mike Woodel, Erie, Pa.</i></p><h2><b>Bruce Boost</b></h2><p>I grew up as a Red Wings fan (I&rsquo;ll never forget watching &lsquo;Stevie Y&rsquo; skate with the Cup in &lsquo;97), but I became a diehard Capitals fan after Bruce Boudreau came to D.C. Watching the team grow has been a heck of a ride. I know the switch to Dale Hunter is a positive change, but the franchise, the players and the fans owe Bruce a debt of gratitude for his efforts.</p><p><i>Melanie Reif, Ellicott City, Md.</i></p><h2><b>All-Star Lame</b></h2><p>So the NHL and NHLPA don&rsquo;t want a player to be picked last in the All-Star Game fantasy draft (Overtime, Dec. 5). What will they think of next? No scorekeeping? Don&rsquo;t want to hurt anyone&rsquo;s feelings? How about we pull the goalie so everyone gets to score. These are big boys. Give them and the fans the respect and credit they and the game deserve.</p><p><i>Elisabeth Bender, Sandusky, Ohio</i></p><h2><b>Coast To Boast</b></h2><p>Dear Mr. Holmgren, thank you!&hellip;That is all. Love, Southern California.</p><p><i>Steve Clowers, Grand Terrace, Calif.</i></p><h2><b>&lsquo;Too&rsquo; For Roughing</b></h2><p>So, as far as I can tell, Jordin Tootoo was suspended for Milan Lucic&rsquo;s hit on Ryan Miller. Is that correct?</p><p><i>Tyler Collins, Dunnville, Ont.</i></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021646/9615030-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="366" height="500"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-03974/9615023-1-eng-US/f0006-032.jpg" title="f0006-03" width="366" height="500"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(HUNTER: BRUCE BENNETT STUDIOS/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>All Phil&rsquo;d Up</b></h2><p>When I opened my mailbox and saw my Dec. 5 issue, I saw Phil Kessel staring back at me. If my memory serves, I just saw him on the Sept. 19 cover. I realize Kessel has had a superb year and is on track for the Art Ross and Rocket Richard Trophies, but don&rsquo;t you think you should hold up on doubles when there is so much talent to be showcased in the NHL?</p><p><i>Jacob Noseworthy, Grand Forks, B.C.</i></p><h2><b>Put Your Name On It</b></h2><p>Congratulations to the NHL on the realignment plan. It makes sense on many levels. Now how about scoring points for the tradition of the game and naming the four conferences after the divisions of the past. I&rsquo;d love to see the Norris, Smythe, Patrick and Adams back in the standings.</p><p><i>Jeff Smith, Chicago</i></p><h2><b>Times Of Snore</b></h2><p>Hockey has become a boring game of dump-ins, cycling and defensive shutdowns. I am over the whole thing. I hardly ever see 2-on-1s and 3-on-2s. It&rsquo;s all the same &ndash; a big bore. My kids play both hockey and lacrosse. I much prefer to watch lacrosse. The fast breaks and passing are what hockey used to be like. I just don&rsquo;t have the time to sit for three hours now in hopes of seeing one or two good plays.</p><p><i>Ward Carey, Hillsborough, Calif.</i><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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THN INBOX

<div class="byline">Franklin Mintzberg, Montreal</div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>H</span>aving the seats next to the visitor&rsquo;s penalty box at the old Montreal Forum gave me the rare opportunity to sit next to some of the NHL&rsquo;s finest two minutes at a time. I have many stories, but nothing compares to the Nordiques&rsquo; bad boy Dale Hunter in a 1982 playoff game. As a 17-year-old, the thought of throwing off the other side by banging on the box was appealing. Hunter, being an experienced trouble-maker, did not back down. A squirt of water from his bottle missed me and hit my father, causing a very G-rated tirade of &ldquo;you are a nerd.&rdquo; Hunter then said he was &ldquo;putting a contract out on my life.&rdquo; Good times, good times. I want him to know there are no hard feelings and I wish him success in his new career as Caps coach &ndash; just not when playing against the Habs.</b></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-012425/9615061-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="760" height="1161"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

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HUNTING THE HUNTER

<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-04622/9615092-1-eng-US/f0006-042.jpg" title="f0006-04" width="108" height="111"></div><p><b>@JStamkis8:</b> nicklas lidstrom. First european captain to win Stanley cup, 20 years of solid, textbook, effortless hockey. all the awards he&rsquo;s won proves it.</p><p><b>@blittz_18:</b> Jaromir Jagr. in his era with the Pittsburgh Penguins, him and mario lemieux were one of the best combinations in hockey history.</p><p><b>@ryanplat:</b> dominik hasek. two hart trophies, six vezinas, and a cup winner when he finally had an offense in front of him. oh, and that 1998 gold medal.</p><p><b>@palmerColin:</b> Jari Kurri. no ifs, ands or buts. Won five Stanley cups and was a huge contribution to Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s career records.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p></div>

f0006-04

WHO IS THE BEST EUROPEAN OF ALL-TIME?

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-012155/9615137-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="483" height="96"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-021462/9615130-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="474" height="502"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>DANY HEATLEY</b> <span class="photo-credit">(heatley: Jana Chytilova/Freestyle Photography/Getty Images)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-03911/9615123-1-eng-US/f0007-032.jpg" title="f0007-03" width="503" height="338"></div><p><b>Minnesota Wild 38%</b></p><p>Florida Panthers 34%</p><p>Toronto Maple Leafs 18%</p><p>Ottawa Senators 5%</p><p>Dallas Stars 3%</p><p>Phoenix Coyotes 2%</p><p><b>Vote on polls from everything top to bottom in the world of hockey at <a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">thehockeynews.com</a></b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0007-01

POLLRESULTS

<div class="byline">&#x2013; KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-012315/9615220-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="331" height="266"></div><p><b>3</b></p><p class="dropcap"><span>D</span>ays from when Bruce Boudreau was fired in Washington and hired in Anaheim. Roger Neilson held the previous record at 12 days (Vancouver to L.A.; Jan. 18-30, 1984) <a href="http://THN.com">thn.com</a></p><p><b>Now for the most</b> burning questions when it comes to NHL realignment: Do the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl and the Prince of Wales Trophy get mothballed? Do they go to the Stanley Cup finalists? Does the league add two more meaningless baubles?</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon012.jpg" title="common01" width="110" height="125"></div><p>&ldquo;Haven&rsquo;t given that issue any thought to this point,&rdquo; NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in an email to The Hockey News. &ldquo;But luckily we have some time to decide.&rdquo;</p><p>Given the amount of time realignment took at the Board of Governors meeting in Pebble Beach in early December &ndash; about an hour &ndash; it shouldn&rsquo;t take too long since all the heavy lifting has already been done. With that kind of speed, the future decisions &ndash; and there are several &ndash; should be a piece of cake.</p><p>For the Phoenix Coyotes, it would be a good idea for the them to not get too comfortable in cozy confines of the &lsquo;A&rsquo; Conference, since there&rsquo;s a chance they&rsquo;ll be making their way to the illustrious &lsquo;C&rsquo; Conference as early as next season.</p><p>There is speculation this realignment plan ensured there would be only seven teams in the &lsquo;C&rsquo; Conference &ndash; the Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, Florida Panthers, Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, Tampa Bay Lightning and Toronto Maple Leafs &ndash; because it is a likely landing place for the Coyotes.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021766/9615206-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="640" height="854"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BOUDREAU: DEBORA ROBINSON/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-031248/9615199-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg" title="f0008-03" width="1032" height="944"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>PHOENIX FALLING</b></p><p><b>Shane Doan and his Coyotes kin could be in a new city and a new conference for 2012-13.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(PHOENIX: MARIANNE HELM/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Quebec City is a possibility, but there is no rink and no owner. The more likely destination is Toronto, where there are plans to build a 20,000-seat arena in the suburb of Markham.</p><p>If the Markham people, led by Bauer chairman Graeme Roustan, can get shovels in the ground by the spring, it would give the NHL an exit strategy out of Phoenix. The team would have to find a temporary home, possibly Hamilton, but the possibility of another team in the Toronto area is getting closer to becoming a reality.</p><p>Regarding expansion, the league says it has no immediate plans to add more teams, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean it never will. According to a source, the Detroit Red Wings, along with the Canadiens, Lightning and Panthers, were the four teams to vote against the realignment proposal. The Red Wings have long waited to be grouped among teams in the Eastern Conference and if the NHL ever decided to expand to a Midwest (Kansas City) or northwest (Portland or Seattle) city, the Wings could move to Conference &lsquo;D&rsquo; &ndash; along with the Carolina Hurricanes, New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals.</p><p>As for the Players&rsquo; Association, it will sign off on the plan for next season, contingent upon it being negotiated in full in the next collective bargaining agreement. It&rsquo;s not expected the PA will make an issue of it, but their approval is necessary. If they have one beef, it&rsquo;s the clubs in the conferences with seven teams will have a slightly better chance of making the playoffs than those with eight.</p><p>According to Article 28 of the CBA, players whose teams make the playoffs receive $6.5 million in bonus money, distributed at the discretion of the NHLPA. With seven teams in Conferences &lsquo;C&rsquo; and &lsquo;D&rsquo; and eight in &lsquo;A&rsquo; and &lsquo;B,&rsquo; players in &lsquo;C&rsquo; and &lsquo;D&rsquo; have a better chance of making extra money. Currently each NHL team has a 53.3 percent chance of making the playoffs since eight teams qualify in each of the 15-team conferences. Under the new format, teams in the &lsquo;A&rsquo; and &lsquo;B&rsquo; Conferences would have a 57.1 percent chance of making the playoffs (eight of 14 teams) while those in &lsquo;C&rsquo; and &lsquo;D&rsquo; would have just a 50 percent chance (eight of 16 teams).<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0008-01

Realign, Mint

<div class="byline">By Charlie Teljeur</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-012286/9615251-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="830" height="1564"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0010-01

The Instigator

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021669/9615282-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="586" height="608"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(HACKETT: HARRY HOW/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>+ PLUS</b></h2><p><b>NOT BAD FOR YOUR FIRST TIME, KID</b></p><p><i>Wild goaltender</i>&nbsp;<b><i>Matt Hackett</i></b>&nbsp;<i>starts his NHL career with 102:36 of shutout play before yielding a goal.</i></p><h2><b>&ndash; MINUS</b></h2><p><b>LIGHTNING STRUCK</b></p><p><i>On the cusp of playing his 500th consecutive NHL game, Tampa Bay&rsquo;s Martin St-Louis is side-lined after a freak injury at the morning skate.</i></p><h2><b>+ PLUS</b></h2><p><b>TALKING THE TALK, WALKING THE WALK</b></p><p><i>New Dallas Stars owner Tom Gaglardi puts his money where his mouth is by announcing an immediate slashing of ticket prices.</i></p><h2><b>&ndash; MINUS</b></h2><p><b>THE WRONG KIND OF SPARKS FLYING</b></p><p><i>ESPN fires Matthew Barnaby after reports say police caught him driving on three tires and he&rsquo;d failed sobriety tests.</i><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0010-02

PLUS MINUS

<div class="byline">&#x2013; RONNIE SHUKER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-031071/9615320-1-eng-US/f0010-032.jpg" title="f0010-03" width="641" height="560"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>TEAM CANADA</b> <span class="photo-credit">(SLEDGE: DYLAN LYNCH/HOCKEYCANADAIMAGES.CA)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-04744/9615313-1-eng-US/f0010-042.jpg" title="f0010-04" width="154" height="145"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span>fter sailing</b> through the round robin and semifinal of the World Sledge Hockey Challenge in Calgary, Alta., the Canadians got a wake-up call early in the final.</p><p>Canada went down 1-0 to the United States 53 seconds into the gold medal game and everyone on Team Canada was completely flummoxed as to how it happened.</p><p>&ldquo;No one on the bench saw how it went in,&rdquo; said veteran forward Billy Bridges. &ldquo;I guess it was just a chip play from behind the net that bounced off our goalie and went in. Because of the setup, the guys on the bench couldn&rsquo;t really see it. We didn&rsquo;t know if they were all over us or had a ton of momentum. But once we realized we were still on top of the game, it took only two shifts to get right back at them and gain the momentum back. Everyone was pretty positive on the bench.&rdquo;</p><p>Cue the Greg Westlake show. The captain had a hat trick to help Canada clinch the gold medal with a 4-1 victory.</p><p>The Canadians went 5-0 in the four-team tournament, twice defeating Japan, who beat them in the 2010 Paralympic semifinal in Vancouver, and knocking off the archrival Americans twice, too. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re still reigning Olympic champions,&rdquo; said Bridges, who played wheelchair basketball for Canada before focusing on sledge hockey after the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing. &ldquo;Going into the world championship this year, they&rsquo;re going to be ranked No. 1, so it&rsquo;s always sweet beating them.&rdquo;</p><p>TSN&rsquo;s live broadcast of the gold medal game across Canada was a testament to the sport&rsquo;s growing popularity.</p><p>Next up for Bridges and Co. is the Four Nations Cup in Japan in January followed by the Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships in Norway in April.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0010-03

Sledge Success

<div class="byline">&#x2013; RONNIE SHUKER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-012232/9615351-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>MANDATORY READING</b></p><p><b>Jason Farris sold Rangers GM Glen Sather 75 copies of <i>Behind the Moves</i> &ndash; enough for every player in New York&rsquo;s system.</b></p><span class="photo-credit">(GRAIG ABEL; JAGR: JIM MCISAAC/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span>s a former top</b> bank executive, Jason Farris knows the cloak-and-dagger dealings of the business world. So when he interviewed 34 of the NHL&rsquo;s most successful GMs, he was shocked at how they dealt with one another directly and liked it that way. &ldquo;I was surprised at how thick-skinned they are,&rdquo; said Farris, former president and CEO of Citizens Bank of Canada. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve all been burned by each other at some point in time or burned the other guy. There&rsquo;s a lot of what in the real world people would consider harsh commentary about the GMs, each other and tales that they tell. But they&rsquo;re all very comfortable with it. They&rsquo;re comfortable with being very blunt about things. It&rsquo;s just so raw.&rdquo;</p><p>Farris, now executive vice-president of business operations and development for the Dallas Stars, spent the past two years researching and writing <i>Behind the Moves: NHL General Managers Tell how Winners are Built</i> (only available online at <a href="http://nhlgms.com">nhlgms.com</a>).</p><p>The book is mostly quotes. Farris lets the big dogs bark, profanity be damned. The result is a mosaic of clashing and matching colorful characters.</p><p>Take Brian Burke, who went straight to the liquor store after he&rsquo;d been &ldquo;canned&rdquo; in Vancouver and had a bender with his former colleagues. There&rsquo;s also Neil Smith, who once reprogrammed the display on Lou Lamoriello&rsquo;s cell phone in the 1990s to &ldquo;Devils suck.&rdquo;</p><p><i>Behind the Moves</i> also brings you into backroom operations. Bryan Murray tells about Dany Heatley being upset for not getting more ice time whenever the opposition pulled its goalie because he wanted to score more goals. Cliff Fletcher recounts how a player once gave him a signed blank contract because he trusted Fletcher to fill in a fair salary.</p><p>While Farris found the wiles of GMs to be various and sundry, two traits of a successful GM popped out to him. The first was making a mark on the team. &ldquo;Putting a personality and a stamp on a team is really an important piece,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Brian Burke does that in a blustery way. Other guys, like Pierre Lacroix in Colorado, they put a stamp on the inside of their team that isn&rsquo;t really seen.&rdquo;</p><p>Once a GM brands his organization with a style, he has to continually adapt in an ever-altering NHL landscape. &ldquo;Every seven to 10 years, there&rsquo;s been a major shift to the construct of the league,&rdquo; Farris said. &ldquo;Two-thirds to three quarters of GMs make it through those shifts. The other guys might make it two to three years into a new era, but for whatever reason can&rsquo;t adapt. That ability to adapt is really key.&rdquo;</p><p>Burke, who wrote the foreword to the book, is one who&rsquo;s survived the NHL&rsquo;s multiple paradigm shifts. He is now trying to win a Stanley Cup with Toronto after doing so with Anaheim in 2007. No GM has won Cups with two different teams since Tommy Gorman did it in the 1930s. &ldquo;(Burke) is pretty aware of the fact nobody else has done it,&rdquo; Farris said.&rdquo; He would really salivate at that opportunity. That would leave quite the legacy.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0012-01

Inside The Minds Of GMs

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021753/9615382-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(SELANNE: DEBORA ROBINSON/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0012-02

JAROMIR JAGR VS. TEEMU SELANNE

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011956/9615413-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="323" height="480"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>Y</span>OU HAVE TO BE AT</b> least a little eccentric to willingly put yourself in front of vulcanized rubber coming at you at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour, but Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury has taken that &ldquo;flaky&rdquo; label to literal levels.</p><p>&lsquo;Flower,&rsquo; as Fleury&rsquo;s fondly referred to by teammates, is gracing the cover of a breakfast treat called Fleury Flakes, a limited edition frosted corn cereal available at grocery stores in Steeltown and online. All the proceeds go to charity.</p><p>Fellow flakes Ryan Miller and Chris Osgood are two other &rsquo;tenders who&rsquo;ve lent their mug to morning munchies in the past, but they both opted for a honey-nut toasted oats flavor.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0013-01

JUST ADD MILK

<div class="byline">&#x2013; MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-021367/9615444-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>DRUNKEN BEARS NOW MASTERS</b></p><p><b>Boston was dopey early, but sobered up and sizzled in November.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(BOSTON: FRANCOIS LACASSE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>O</span>h, to be hungover.</b> Your throat begs for water. Your head throbs, assaulted by tiny, invisible sledgehammers. Your stomach somersaults like an Olympic diver. We&rsquo;ve all been there and we all have our own way of recovering, whether it&rsquo;s downing coffee, popping Advil or sleeping it off.</p><p>The Stanley Cup hangover, however, requires a different remedy.</p><p>The defending champion Boston Bruins found it in November, going 12-0-1 and rising to the top of the Atlantic Division following a 3-7-0 October. So what was their magic cure?</p><p>For goalie Tim Thomas, it was freeing the mind of obsessive anguish. &ldquo;We started out the year so slow,&rdquo; Thomas said. &ldquo;We got so bad and had so many games in the row that were &lsquo;the game we were going to turn it around.&rsquo; The game we actually turned it around, we weren&rsquo;t thinking about turning it around anymore. They always say you&rsquo;ve got to hit that rock bottom.&rdquo;</p><p>For left winger Milan Lucic, there was no better cure than losing to a hated division rival. &ldquo;You have to look back at how we lost the home-and-home series to Montreal (Oct. 27 and 29),&rdquo; Lucic said. &ldquo;We played terribly and it was a chance to get back to 5-5 to end the month, but instead it was 3-7. It gave us the fire underneath our bum to get things going again.&rdquo;</p><p>But maybe the ultimate remedy was removing any reminders of last year&rsquo;s success from the equation. &ldquo;In the first bit of the year, there was a lot of distraction,&rdquo; said center Brad Marchand. &ldquo;The Cup was still in town and there was a lot of stuff going on that revolved around that. Once it was over with and we got back to worrying about how we had to play, with everyone buying into our system, we turned it around. We have the hunger to win again.&rdquo;</p><p>After all, nothing cures a hangover like the thirst for more champagne.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0013-02

Hangover Over

<div class="byline">&#x2013; KEN CAMPBELL</div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>hen it comes to</b> combating head injuries, conventional wisdom has always been to build a better helmet. But for one group of researchers, the key to limiting the effects of hockey concussions lies in building a better neck guard.</p><p>As the science advances, researchers are discovering no helmet in the world can completely prevent a concussion, because the injury occurs when the brain sloshes around the skull on impact. So instead of trying to minimize the impact by increasing padding in a helmet, a group of scientists is working to develop a collar that would increase blood flow to the skull and keep brain movement to a minimum.</p><p>One of the researchers, Dr. Joseph Fisher of the University of Toronto &ndash; a senior scientist in human physiology at the Toronto General Research Institute &ndash; said it&rsquo;s like adding seatbelts and airbags to cars rather than making the vehicles bigger with sturdier bumpers. Once it was determined most accidents were caused by people being knocked around the vehicle and thrown from it rather than by trauma from impact, the movement to secure passengers with seatbelts and lap belts gained legitimacy.</p><p>So what does a collar have to do with that? Well, this particular collar pinches off the outlet vein that directs blood out of the brain, which would allow the inlet vein to fill up the extra space with blood, which would give the brain less room to slosh around. Fisher said for hockey this could be done by incorporating it into the existing neck guard.</p><p>And while the product is still a long way from being marketed, it has been tested on rats, and we don&rsquo;t mean former NHLer Ken Linseman. As part of its protocol, researchers fitted rats with collars that did exactly that, then inflicted what Fisher described as &ldquo;a standard injury that&rsquo;s provided for the rat&rdquo; and compared it to rats that were not wearing the collar. &ldquo;The ones that we put the little collars on that restricts the flow of blood just a bit from their brains, we reduced their injury by 85 percent,&rdquo; Fisher said. &ldquo;We would have been happy with five percent, so that was pretty dramatic. We&rsquo;re pretty confident and pretty elated by that.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-012205/9615475-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="658" height="857"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>RING YOUR NECK</b></p><p><b>An innovative neck guard may help prevent concussions for &lsquo;The Kid&rsquo; and other NHLers.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(CROSBY: JAMIE SABAU/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Along with Fisher, the collar is being developed by Dr. David Smith of the University of West Virginia and Dr. Julian Bailes, a brain injuries expert with the NFL Players&rsquo; Association. Fisher is working on the physiological aspects of the collar, but said the pressure applied wouldn&rsquo;t be any more than that of a tight shirt collar. &ldquo;Everyone has experience with Uncle Phil, whose shirt collars are always about a size too small,&rdquo; Fisher said. &ldquo;When he wears a tie, his veins stick up in his neck, but nothing happens to Uncle Phil. At the end of the wedding, he just takes off his tie and he&rsquo;s fine. We suspect this won&rsquo;t cause a problem.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0014-01

Saved By Your Neck

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021656/9615506-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="176" height="188"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>here&rsquo;s still lots to do</b> on the ice &ndash; there&rsquo;s that longest Stanley Cup drought in the NHL and all &ndash; but things couldn&rsquo;t be better in the boardroom for the Maple Leafs. Canadian media conglomerates Rogers Communications and Bell Canada grabbed a 75 percent slice of Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment &ndash; which owns the Leafs, the Air Canada Centre, the AHL&rsquo;s Marlies, the NBA&rsquo;s Raptors and more &ndash; for a mind-boggling price in early December, making these sums for majority ownership of the organization in the past look rather miniscule:</p><p><b>$160K 1927:</b> CONN SMYTHE</p><p><b>$2.3M 1961:</b> HAROLD BALLARD</p><p><b>$118.5M 1991:</b> STEVE STAVRO*</p><p><b>$1.32B 2011:</b> ROGERS/BELL</p><p><i>*Includes payments to Molson and various charities as a result of purchase from Ballard</i><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0014-02

Rising Leafs

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-031121/9615537-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="778" height="836"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MURPHY: BRAD WATSON/COURTESY CALGARY FLAMES HOCKEY CLUB)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>R</span>OOKIE NETMINDER MIKE MURPHY</b> did everything he could in his debut with Carolina and in true Hurricanes fashion this season, took the &lsquo;L.&rsquo;</p><p>In what can only be described as a fantastic statistical anomaly, Murphy took over from starter Cam Ward in the third period with Calgary leading 6-3. After an Eric Staal goal pulled the Canes closer, Murphy went to the bench for an extra attacker, only to have Jarome Iginla score an empty-netter. The Canes got two goals late for a 7-6 final, meaning Iginla&rsquo;s tally was the winner. That saddled Murphy with the loss, despite the fact he didn&rsquo;t give up a goal.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0014-03

Welcome TO THE NHL!

<div class="byline">&#x2013; MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0015-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011922/9615575-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span>mber Bowman always</b> dreamed of hoisting gold as a world champion after pushing herself to her physical and mental limits. So the fact she did that in November wasn&rsquo;t a big surprise. How it happened was. The 26-year-old defenseman played four years at Ohio State and is a Canadian Women&rsquo;s League veteran, but her greatest feat came off the ice.</p><p>Bowman, a firefighter in Ontario&rsquo;s Central York Region, dominated last month&rsquo;s World Firefighter Combat Challenge, winning gold in the female individual, female tandem and co-ed tandem categories and taking silver in the relay. In her worlds debut, she became the first firefighter to win three gold medals at one event.</p><p>So what was Bowman doing climbing towers and carrying six-foot, 175-pound dummies to safety in Myrtle Beach, S.C. during the hockey season?</p><p>It all started with a blockbuster CWHL trade in the summer. Brampton dealt Bowman, Mandy Cole, Delaney Collins (now retired) and sixth and seventh round picks to Burlington for Ashley Riggs and the first overall selection in 2011. The move hamstrung Bowman, who fights fires in Aurora and Newmarket and found herself with an impossible commute, so she requested a trade. &ldquo;Other players throughout the league were getting trades due to their distance,&rdquo; Bowman said. &ldquo;Yet (Burlington) denied me for the same reason, which didn&rsquo;t make sense.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-021359/9615568-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="466" height="700"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>PROTECTIVE INSTINCT</b></p><p><b>Amber Bowman, right in top photo, keeps goalies and Ontario citizens safe.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(BRANDON TAYLOR/CWHL IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;When they don&rsquo;t trade me or let a so-called key player sit on the sidelines for so long, I&rsquo;ve got to take my time and commitment and put it somewhere else.&rdquo;</p><p>So she left the team and applied that pent-up athleticism and drive to the fire challenge. Becoming an international star in her first venture made Bowman look like an overnight success, but she saw herself as anything but. Playing hockey since six prepared her for the physical and mental rigors of competing. She compared the &ldquo;nerves, adrenaline and fans&rdquo; of fire combat to playing a crucial hockey game with scouts on hand. Where she grew up helped, too. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a farm kid, so doing all types of lifting and throwing bails of hay is functional training,&rdquo; she said.</p><p>Despite flourishing in fire competition, Bowman won&rsquo;t quit the game she loves most. &ldquo;Hockey has been my passion ever since I was a kid,&rdquo; she said. It still continues to be. I eat, sleep and breathe it. It&rsquo;s been the toughest thing for me to be sitting out and watching, hoping and waiting for someone to say &lsquo;let&rsquo;s trade her&rsquo; or &lsquo;let&rsquo;s pick her up.&rsquo; &rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0015-01

Fire And Ice

<div class="byline">BY MICHAEL RUSSO</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011975/9615620-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>E</span>VERY YEAR,</b> there&rsquo;s a hockey writer or two so good at finding needles in a haystack, they pick a long shot, ride them all season long and say at the end, &ldquo;See? See how smart I am?&rdquo; But find us a hockey writer who projected the Minnesota Wild would be the No. 1 team in the Western Conference, let alone the entire 30-team NHL, two weeks into December and, well&hellip;</p><p>Nobody in his or her right mind, not even crazy, diehard Wild fans who bleed forest green and Iron Range red, could have picked the Wild to do this. Almost in complete anonymity, beginning with home-and-home victories over the mighty Detroit Red Wings on Oct. 29 and Nov. 1, Minnesota consistently won for six weeks. The stretch included 15 victories over 19 games with three five-game win streaks. The Wild never panic when trailing, winning a league-high 12 times when surrendering the first goal, and they&rsquo;re quite comfortable in one-goal games with an NHL-best 11 victories, including nine straight. This is team also keeps clinching games late, thanks to its league-low 17 third-period goals allowed. How does Minnesota do it? &ldquo;They don&rsquo;t crack, so the other team does,&rdquo; said St. Louis Blues coach Ken Hitchcock. &ldquo;And that&rsquo;s hard to play against. How many points have they got in the last 10 minutes of third periods? It&rsquo;s not because they mount these furious comebacks. It&rsquo;s that they just stay with the program. They have a belief system. They stay with it and stay with it and stay with it, and then bang.&rdquo;</p><p>That is Minnesota&rsquo;s mantra. Wild rookie coach Mike Yeo, the former Pittsburgh Penguins assistant who has a swagger about him and impressive communication skills to go with it, calls it &ldquo;stick-to-it-ness.&rdquo; No matter the building, no matter the score, no matter the injury (and there have plenty, to key cogs like Guillaume Latendresse, Marek Zidlicky and Devin Setoguchi), the Wild typically don&rsquo;t sway from the style of play Yeo wants &ndash; trap in the neutral zone, aggressive forecheck once on the attack. Therefore, the Wild rarely crack. &ldquo;It shows you&rsquo;re unflappable,&rdquo; said center Kyle Brodziak. &ldquo;No matter what (the opponent) brings, it&rsquo;s not going to change how we play. Over a 60-minute game, that wears on teams.&rdquo;</p><p>The off-season began when GM Chuck Fletcher boldly pronounced the status quo was unacceptable after a third consecutive missed post-season (second under his watch). A day after the 2010-11 season ended, he fired Todd Richards, the first coach he&rsquo;d hired.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011717/9615613-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="641" height="883"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(LEFT+YEO: BRUCE KLUCKHOHN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Then, for the second coaching search in a row, Fletcher had the guts to hire another man with limited head-coaching experiencee. This time it was Yeo, who guided the Wild&rsquo;s farm team, the Houston Aeros, to the Calder Cup final in his first year at the helm.</p><p>In Minnesota at the draft in June, not knowing how Wild fans would react, Fletcher traded beloved defenseman Brent Burns and a 2012 second-rounder to the San Jose Sharks for Setoguchi, blue-chip prospect Charlie Coyle and a first round pick that became Saint John&rsquo;s Zack Phillips. On July 4, Fletcher dealt Martin Havlat, miserable in Minnesota, to the Sharks for Dany Heatley. &ldquo;I just felt we were stuck,&rdquo; Fletcher said. &ldquo;We were stuck in a rut as a franchise.&rdquo;</p><p>But even Fletcher couldn&rsquo;t have predicted the team would come together so quickly. The Wild used nine rookies through 28 games and 11 players who were part of the Aeros&rsquo; playoff run. That alleviated much of the growing pains under Yeo because the kids were ahead of the vets. Most felt the Wild would shoot the lights out and struggle defensively, but it&rsquo;s been quite the opposite, as they rank 25th in goals for but third in goals against. Goalies Niklas Backstrom and Josh Harding have been sensational and the &lsquo;D,&rsquo; led by veteran Nick Schultz and youngsters Marco Scandella and Jared Spurgeon, have been interchangeable as Minnesota has overcome a revolving door of injuries to Zidlicky, Mike Lundin and Greg Zanon.</p><p>And the Wild score enough. Matt Cullen skates like he&rsquo;s 25, not 35. Heatley&rsquo;s days of 40 and 50 goals are a thing of the past, but he&rsquo;s scored some huge goals (the Wild are 8-0 when he finds twine).</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-021314/9615606-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="641" height="717"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BACKSTROM: JAMIE SABAU/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b>NIKLAS BACSKTROM AND THE WILD STOPPERS HAVE BEEN LIGHTS OUT. ROOKIE COACH MIKE YEO HAS PLAYERS BUYING INTO HIS &lsquo;STICK-TO-IT-NESS.&rsquo;</b></blockquote><p>Captain Mikko Koivu was heating up with points in nine of 10 games. Pierre-Marc Bouchard keeps getting better. And every night, the contributors have been plentiful, whether it&rsquo;s Brodziak&rsquo;s persistent blue-collar effort, Cal Clutterbuck&rsquo;s shorthanded prowess, Darroll Powe&rsquo;s big hits, waiver pickup Nick Johnson&rsquo;s wall play or youngster Casey Wellman scoring clutch goals.</p><p>The work ethic throughout has been exceptional and the buy-in factor is back to the days of Jacques Lemaire. It started when Yeo shrewdly called every player for long chats after he was hired to lay out his system, his goals and expectations. He flew to Finland to meet face-to-face with Koivu and Backstrom. &ldquo;I definitely did try to sell our game and the way that we have to play,&rdquo; Yeo said. &ldquo;But without the players and their absolute commitment to playing that way and building that identity and a new culture, it&rsquo;s all fruitless.&rdquo;</p><p>Fletcher has also done a commen-dale job restocking a barren prospect pool, adding highly touted youngsters Coyle, Mikael Granlund, Jonas Brodin, Johan Larsson, Brett Bulmer and Jason Zucker.</p><p>Obviously, it&rsquo;s early. And this, after all, is Minnesota, so skeptical fans are still worried the rug will be pulled out from under them. And the Wild had just begun a stretch of 19 of 27 games outside the friendly confines of St. Paul. &ldquo;This is going to test us,&rdquo; Fletcher said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s perhaps the most difficult part of our schedule, so there&rsquo;s going be a lot of challenges for this group to see if they can sustain it. I&rsquo;m sure there&rsquo;s still a lot of naysayers out there and this group is relishing it.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0016-01

MINNESOTA MARVELS

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0020-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-011605/9615703-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DEBORA ROBINSON/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>e can&rsquo;t get inside</b> George McPhee&rsquo;s head, but we have to think his decision to fire Bruce Boudreau had a lot to do with the one he made to hire him in the first place four years ago.</p><p>When McPhee fired Glen Hanlon and replaced him with Boudreau early in 2007-08, the Washington Capitals were floundering with a 6-14-1 record and firmly entrenched in 15th place in the Eastern Conference. By the time that season ended, the Caps had jumped all the way up to third and saved themselves from what had the potential to be a disastrous season.</p><p>Did that make Boudreau the second coming of Scotty Bowman and Hanlon the coaching equivalent of Mr. Bean? Probably not, since Boudreau suffered the same fate this season when he couldn&rsquo;t seem to pull one of the league&rsquo;s most talented teams from the abyss. No, McPhee and three of his management confreres (so far, anyway) went to the tried-and-true life preserver of firing the coach for two reasons: No. 1, they were desperate and No. 2, mid-season change has a history of working.</p><p>There&rsquo;s something about waking up to a new boss, seeing a new face and hearing a different voice that tends to shake teams out of the doldrums. Perhaps it&rsquo;s the prospect of a clean slate or the notion their troubles can no longer be pinned on the man behind the bench that forces players to raise the level of their games. Coaching changes, we&rsquo;re sorry to report to the non-existent coaches&rsquo; union, usually have the desired effect.</p><p>The funny thing is, coaching changes often have very little to do with the competence of the man behind the bench. And there&rsquo;s probably something to that. After all, did the St. Louis Blues get off to a 9-2-3 start under Ken Hitchcock because he&rsquo;s a coaching genius? If that&rsquo;s the case, either Hitchcock is able to get his message through in record time or the Blues are the quickest study in NHL history. &ldquo;When you make a coaching change, it falls into the players&rsquo; hands,&rdquo; said Hitchcock, who has been on either side of an in-season coaching change six times during his career. &ldquo;They take more ownership because they have to. There&rsquo;s no choice. The blaming-it-on-the-coach thing is gone and the players have to accept responsibility. That&rsquo;s probably the one thing that changes more than anything. They usually take that stuff to heart.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-011296/9615696-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="436" height="546"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>MIDDLE MEN</b></p><p><b>Bruce Boudreau of the Ducks and Ken Hitchcock of the Blues have experienced both extremes of an in-season coaching change.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(DILIP VISHWANAT/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The numbers certainly back up the assertion that in-season coaching changes generally work. Entering 2011-12, there had been 52 mid-year swaps dating back to 2000-01, an average of more than five per season. According to data compiled by Nicolas Chabot, chief statistician with The Sports Forecaster, teams of coaches who were fired were playing at an average points percentage of .464, while their replacements had essentially the same group of players playing .505 hockey under their reign. On average, teams moved from 12th place in their conference to 10th under the new coach.</p><p><b>ALSO AMONG OUR FINDINGS:</b></p><p>A total of 36 teams posted better records under the new coach for the remainder of that season, while 16 of them were worse.</p><p>New coaches presided over 31 teams that moved up in the standings, while 10 teams moved down and 11 remained in the same place. That means that, historically, when a team changes a coach it has a better than 80 percent chance of improving its lot or at least remaining the same.</p><p>Nine of the 42 coaches who took over teams that were out of the playoffs managed to get their teams into a playoff position, while just three of 10 new coaches who were hired by teams that were already in a playoff position ended up on the outside looking in once the season ended.</p><p>Even though there&rsquo;s the notion a team will snap to attention for a new coach, the change isn&rsquo;t as successful as you might have thought. Teams with fresh bench bosses posted a rather ordinary .506 in the first 10 games under them, working their way up to a .521 points percentage in Games 41-50 before declining again in the long run (see accompanying chart).</p><p>Coaches should watch their backs if their team is in decline and they just lost a game. Of the 52 coaches fired, just four of them were let go after victories.</p><p>Usually when a GM makes the decision to fire a coach mid-season, it&rsquo;s to attain some kind of short-term goal, unlike the off-season change where the bigger picture more often comes into play. And few got the boost the Pittsburgh Penguins did when they fired Michel Therrien 57 games into 2008-09 and replaced him with Dan Bylsma. The Penguins were in 10th in the Eastern Conference at the time and not only did Bylsma preside over a team that played .800 hockey over its last 25 games to move up to fourth, the Penguins won the Stanley Cup. That change has also been a boon in the long term, with the Penguins remaining a force in the East and Bylsma winning the Jack Adams Award last season. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re just trying to get into eight place, for God&rsquo;s sake,&rdquo; said Penguins GM Ray Shero, architect of the move. &ldquo;You try to make an educated guess, but even that might be a stretch, quite honestly, because it&rsquo;s hard to ascertain if it&rsquo;s really the performance of the players that you&rsquo;ve put together and you take the fall for that. You try get a feel for the team.&rdquo;</p><p>New Jersey GM Lou Lamoriello, who was once dubbed a &ldquo;coach killer&rdquo; by Pat Quinn &ndash; the same night the Devils won the Stanley Cup in 2000 &ndash; has never been shy about making an in-season change. He replaced Robbie Ftorek with Larry Robinson in 2000 and was rewarded when Robinson coached the Devils to the Cup. He&rsquo;s also stepped behind the Devils bench twice himself, including in 2007 when he fired Claude Julien with three games remaining in the season and his team second in the Eastern Conference. &ldquo;Whenever a move like that is made, it&rsquo;s made for a reason,&rdquo; Lamoriello said. &ldquo;The fundamental reason is your team isn&rsquo;t performing and it might not be the coach&rsquo;s fault. But when it&rsquo;s not performing and you don&rsquo;t feel like it&rsquo;s going to come out of it, you can do one of two things &ndash; make a trade, and sometimes you can&rsquo;t do that, or you make a coaching change. The bottom line is you have to get your team to a point where it has a chance.&rdquo;</p><p>OLD COACHES .464</p><p><b>vs.</b></p><p>NEW COACHES .505</p><p><b>WHAT&rsquo;S THE AVERAGE</b> points percentage, within an 82-game season, of old coaches versus new coaches? From 2000-01 to 2010-11, we summed all fired coaches&rsquo; percentages within the season of their dismissal versus new coaches&rsquo; records in the remaining games of that season.</p><h2><b>POINTS PERCENTAGE TRENDS</b></h2><p>GMs make in-season coaching changes hoping for quick upticks in wins. The stats from 2000-01 to 2010-11, however, indicate it doesn&rsquo;t take long before the new face becomes old hat once again.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02836/9615689-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="739" height="559"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0020-01

If It’s Broke, Quick-Fix It

<div class="byline">WITH ADAM PROTEAU</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0022-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-021098/9615734-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>AVOIDING PILE-ONS</b></p><p><b>If the NHL doesn&rsquo;t punish goalie runners, players will carry out their own justice.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(FREDERICK BREEDON/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-011492/9615741-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="187" height="222"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>A</span><b>t the NHL&rsquo;s November GM</b> meetings in Toronto, the topic that caused the most clamor was the debate around protecting goaltenders. Sabres star Ryan Miller had just been waylaid by the swift-moving brick wall that is Bruins left winger Milan Lucic, but the league&rsquo;s power brokers were anything but united on a plan to address it.</p><p>Some, such as Toronto GM Brian Burke and Flyers counterpart Paul Holmgren, said they were satisfied with the status quo. They weren&rsquo;t sure hits like the one Miller sustained &ndash; especially since he wasn&rsquo;t near his crease at the time &ndash; were something other than isolated incidents. Others, including Buffalo GM Darcy Regier, were outspoken in their belief more had to be done to protect some of the game&rsquo;s most important players.</p><p>Less than a month later, the issue re-erupted twice on the same weekend. First, during Miller&rsquo;s first game back after the concussion he received when Lucic hit him, Predators agitator Jordin Tootoo cut in on him at an impossible angle and ran him over. Then, Flames netminder Miikka Kiprusoff suffered a scare when Canucks left winger David Booth bulldozed him.</p><p>More isolated incidents? Or an indication that, at a time when overall league offense totals are shrinking, over-aggressive runs on goalies are being utilized by coaches and players as last resorts and must be addressed with harsher supplementary discipline?</p><p>Most of hockey&rsquo;s decision-makers took Burke&rsquo;s stance and advised the NHL to proceed with its typically serious caution. But in my opinion, there&rsquo;s no doubt the league should be moving right away to underscore the need to protect goalies from opposing players.</p><p>For proof, look at what other leagues have done to grapple with problems arising in the middle of a season. Six weeks into its 2010 season, the NFL made it clear to all teams that flagrant, unnecessarily rough hits would be tolerated to a far lesser degree than in the past. Given that league&rsquo;s numerous problems with concussions and their ramifications (including a lawsuit from former players), NFL vice-president of football operations Ray Anderson was not going to sit around talking about &ldquo;the fabric of the game,&rdquo; situational anomalies or the nebulous concept of an aggressive player&rsquo;s &ldquo;intent&rdquo; in an effort to minimize the owners&rsquo; role in making the workplace safer. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got a responsibility toward health and safety that just doesn&rsquo;t impact the NFL game,&rdquo; Anderson said at the time. &ldquo;It impacts the college game, the high school game and the youth game&hellip;We are the role model for being aggressive about safety standards&hellip;Times have changed. If we have to face the backlash from those who will say we are making the game too soft, then so be it.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b>Something retaliatory will take place</b></blockquote><p>Can&rsquo;t see Gary Bettman taking that stance any time soon. He comes from the old school that believes some of this stuff is just acceptable collateral damage in a physical game. Unfortunately, it isn&rsquo;t. Goalies are irreplaceable talents that, if removed from a lineup because of injury, can singlehandedly sink an entire team&rsquo;s playoff chances. They are far more important than any front-of-net skirmish or exciting play.</p><p>However, when the league suspends Tootoo only two games as it did after he hit Miller, it says the opposite. It says to Sabres fans a repeat-offender aggressor like Tootoo has more right to employ borderline dirty tactics than Miller has a right to security in his own crease. It tells goalies they&rsquo;re better off taking a Billy Smith-style two-handed stick swing at an opponent&rsquo;s ankles than they are believing NHL administrators will mete out adequate justice. It says vengeance is up to the players, not the league. And make no mistake &ndash; though the two teams won&rsquo;t play again until next season, when they do, something bad and retaliatory and unnecessary will take place, all because the league didn&rsquo;t punish Tootoo appropriately.</p><p>It doesn&rsquo;t matter if it&rsquo;s the safety of a Vezina Trophy winner like Miller or a journeyman backup like Alex Auld we&rsquo;re talking about. Goalies play in a relatively static area of the ice, leaving them prone to NHL ers imitating bowling balls. If any group of players needed the league to wise up and realize what they mean to the game, it&rsquo;s the masked men at either end of the arena &ndash; and increasingly, at the end of their collective rope.</p><p>WANT MORE PROTEAU? READ HIS EXCLUSIVE WEB COLUMN THURSDAYS AT <b><a href="http://THN.COM/PROTEAU">THN.COM/PROTEAU</a></b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0022-02

It’s Time For NHL To Practice Safe Stops

<div class="byline">BY ADAM PROTEAU</div><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span><b>HE GAP BETWEEN PERCEPTION</b> and reality never seems bigger than it is when it comes to Jaromir Jagr. In his three years playing in the Russian-based Konti-nental League, some imagined he had lost a step and wouldn&rsquo;t thrive again upon his return to the NHL. Others, who heard the urban legends about him and interpret his easygoing nature as a sign of weakness or lack of determination, just assumed he would never return and instead go on a world tour dating Czech supermodels. Others still thought that if and when he did return to North America, he would be fully intent on signing with Pittsburgh, where he won two Stanley Cups, and wouldn&rsquo;t in a million years even dream of joining the Penguins&rsquo; hated rivals in Philadelphia.</p><p>But with his 40th birthday coming up in February and splashes of grey in his hair and facial stubble, Jagr is his own man. He doesn&rsquo;t fritter away the days worrying about anyone&rsquo;s perception of him. He long ago was resigned to the fact he can&rsquo;t control the pictures painted by gutter Picassos. And now, as the elder statesman on a Flyers team that has been a perfect fit for him thus far, he&rsquo;s intent on sucking the marrow out of every moment he has left in the NHL.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-011435/9615807-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="297" height="208"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-021034/9615800-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="2887" height="2946"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>LIKE A FINE WINE</b></p><p><b>Jaromir Jagr still averages about a point per game as he pushes middle age.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(BILL WIPPERT/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>WHEN JAGR DEPARTED</b> for Russia in the summer of 2008, he was regarded as a depreciating asset. Over his final two years playing for the New York Rangers, his point production dropped an average of 26 points (from 123 in 2005-06 to 96 in &rsquo;06-07 to 71 in &rsquo;07-08). He finished off his Blueshirts career with an impressive five goals and 15 points in 10 playoff games, but when no contract offer was made to keep him in a Rangers jersey, he signed a two-year, $10-million deal to star for Avangard Omsk in Siberia.</p><p>That&rsquo;s right &ndash; Siberia. The symbolism of him going from the most popular city on the planet to one of Earth&rsquo;s most remote locations was overwhelming. But you&rsquo;ll never get him to utter a discouraging word about his time there. Jaromir Jagr doesn&rsquo;t do regret. &ldquo;If you compare what you&rsquo;re doing with your life to something else, what you&rsquo;re comparing it to could be only your imagination,&rdquo; Jagr said when asked whether he&rsquo;d have preferred to stay in the NHL. &ldquo;If you think it could be better somewhere else, you&rsquo;re never going to be satisfied. But if you say, &lsquo;it could be a lot worse if I didn&rsquo;t do what I&rsquo;m doing now,&rsquo; then you&rsquo;re always happy. That&rsquo;s what I&rsquo;ve learned &ndash; whatever you&rsquo;re doing, that&rsquo;s the best thing you could do. It&rsquo;s up to you how you&rsquo;re going to control your brain.&rdquo;</p><p>Although few of his NHL fans ever saw a minute of his KHL career, Jagr was in full control of his craft there as well. Omsk named him captain midway through his first season in Russia and instead of returning to the NHL last year, he re-signed for a third season. In 155 KHL games, he amassed 66 goals and 145 points. And when he represented his Czech Republic homeland at the World Championship the past two years, Jagr posted eight goals and 16 points in 18 games.</p><p>If he did miss anything, it was the smaller North American ice surface that allows him to take full advantage of his 6-foot-3, 230-pound frame and legendary ability to control and protect the puck. But the larger Russian ice surfaces were a benefit to him in another regard &ndash; one that made his readjustment to the ever-increasing pace of NHL hockey that much easier. &ldquo;On the big ice, one thing that helped me was the skating,&rdquo; Jagr said. &ldquo;In three years there you skate a lot. It&rsquo;s tough to score goals there because everything&rsquo;s so far away. But I like to play on the small ice &ndash; you beat guys 1-on-1 in the corner and you have a scoring chance. Over there, when you beat guys 1-on-1 in the corner, you still don&rsquo;t have a scoring chance. There&rsquo;s somebody else you have to beat.&rdquo;</p><p>In many respects, the only person Jagr worries about beating these days &ndash; other than the goalie, checking forwards and defensemen he faces on any given night &ndash; is Father Time. And that brings us to another flat-out falsehood about No. 68: that he&rsquo;s played 18 NHL seasons and continues to excel strictly because of his supernatural abilities. In fact, the opposite is true. He takes great pains to keep himself in optimal physical condition. But because he&rsquo;s Jaromir Jagr, he does it his way.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-011447/9615793-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="1284" height="1277"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>PEARLY WHITES</b></p><p><b>Jagr&rsquo;s trademark smile, a telltale sign of his love for the game, remains bright.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(CHRISTIAN PETERSEN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Whereas almost all NHLers are used to hitting the weight room each day after practice, Jagr operates differently. He doesn&rsquo;t believe that, simply because the hockey world is accustomed to a typical training schedule, he has to abide by it if it doesn&rsquo;t work for his body. So he&rsquo;ll show up at the Flyers practice facility late at night to work out and/or skate. He&rsquo;ll go for an 11 p.m. run the night before a game. And when you hear him explain why he does it that way, it makes all the sense in the world. &ldquo;Why I work at night is for one reason &ndash; if I go on ice in the morning and do a little bit off the ice, I cannot do a lot more because I&rsquo;m already tired from the practice where I give 100 percent,&rdquo; said Jagr, who also continues to use ankle weights and weight vests when he practices. &ldquo;I always believe if you give 100 percent, your body only has an hour and 30, an hour and 45 maximum (at that level). So then you take a rest, wait eight or nine hours, then do it again. If I&rsquo;m just gonna do it after practice just because someone told me to do it and I don&rsquo;t feel fresh, it doesn&rsquo;t make sense.&rdquo;</p><p>Jagr&rsquo;s approach to conditioning has rubbed off on the Flyers young players, including budding star James van Riemsdyk and fellow Czech Jakub Voracek, Jagr&rsquo;s closest friend on the team. And it is one of the ways he&rsquo;s become a leader in short order in the dressing room. Jagr won&rsquo;t be making any Herb Brooks-style motivational speeches, but that&rsquo;s not what he brings to the table. He has given his teammates an exceptional example of what a world-class work ethic looks like. And more importantly, he brings that famous smile of his to the office every single day to keep the room loose and positive.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-011427/9615786-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="2182" height="1376"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>SELF-MADE STAR</b></p><p><b>Phenom or not, Jagr works for his success, wearing weights while practising.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>You remember that smile, the one that&rsquo;s as wide as the talent gulf that once existed between him and all but maybe two or three other players on the planet. He&rsquo;s still got full wattage on it and you can see it on his face at a morning skate in Buffalo in early December. Indeed, his grin is by far the biggest of all the Flyers players on the ice that morning. He flips a puck into the back of unassuming Flyers defenseman Kevin Marshall, just to get a giggle out of him. He messes around with linemate and emerging superstar center Claude Giroux. Really, it doesn&rsquo;t matter who he&rsquo;s around for the beaming face to come out. And while that might be in part a product of Philadelphia&rsquo;s early-season success in the standings, it doesn&rsquo;t go unappreciated by the men who made the decision to bring him into Philly in the first place. &ldquo;His smile is infectious &ndash; in the room, on the ice, with everybody in the organization,&rdquo; said Flyers coach Peter Laviolette, who believes Jagr remains one of the toughest players to knock off the puck. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if he&rsquo;s exceeded expectations or just picked up where he left off when he was in the NHL. He was a great player when he left, a great player in the Russian league and he&rsquo;s been great for us since coming back. We&rsquo;ve been extremely pleased with his performance. He&rsquo;s come here with a terrific attitude, his work ethic has been excellent and he&rsquo;s been a fantastic influence on our young players.&rdquo;</p><p>Flyers GM Paul Holmgren, who signed Jagr to a one-year, $3.3-million contract on the first day of unrestricted free agency, echoed Laviolette&rsquo;s praise. &ldquo;Right from the first day with us in training camp, Jaromir&rsquo;s preparation and professionalism have really stood out,&rdquo; Holmgren said. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t say enough how pleased I am. He&rsquo;s been a real blessing for us.&rdquo;</p><p>If he&rsquo;s been a boon to the Flyers, Jagr has been a particularly strong influence on two young players. After his development stalled in Columbus, the 22-year-old Voracek is on course to set a career high in points with 55. And then there&rsquo;s Giroux. The 23-year-old was just finding his NHL footing when Jagr was finishing up with the Rangers and has since blossomed like few others from his generation, going from 27 points in 42 games in 2008-09 to 47 points in his first full season of 2009-10 to 76 points last season. But this season, playing alongside Jagr and Scott Hartnell, Giroux is making those numbers look small. With 16 goals and 37 points in 27 games, the Hearst, Ont., native was on pace for a 49-goal, 112-point campaign.</p><p>With all due respect to Hartnell, Jagr&rsquo;s influence clearly has given Giroux a performance boost. Jagr missed four of those first 27 games with lower-body injuries, but in the 23 games the dynamic duo did spend together, Jagr was nearly a point-per-gamer (nine goals, 22 points) and a guy delighted to have someone like himself who can see and think about the game at the most elite of levels. &ldquo;His hockey sense is one of the best I&rsquo;ve seen &ndash; no, make that the best I&rsquo;ve seen,&rdquo; Giroux said of Jagr, with whom he had chemistry on and off the ice since the first day of training camp. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s one of his best attributes &ndash; being able to communicate and getting everyone on the same page. Every day he&rsquo;s happy to be at the rink. It&rsquo;s not a job for him, it&rsquo;s more about having fun with the boys.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-011438/9615779-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="685" height="1042"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>NO GENERATION GAP</b></p><p><b>Claude Giroux, the NHL&rsquo;s scoring leader through early December, has great chemistry with Jagr.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(TRAVIS GOLBY/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Jagr thinks so much of Giroux, who helped him break the 1,600-career-NHL-points plateau, he believes the youngster is already in the highest echelon of hockey&rsquo;s elite. But it&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s inside Giroux&rsquo;s ears that truly sets him apart and has made Jagr&rsquo;s readjustment to NHL life that much easier. &ldquo;He could be No. 1 shooter in the league eventually,&rdquo; Jagr said of Giroux. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s gonna have a good challenge with (Sidney) Crosby, but you never know. One thing I like about him is he&rsquo;s very smart. He&rsquo;s 23 and he&rsquo;s going to be better physically, but in the brain he&rsquo;s 35. That&rsquo;s why Crosby is so good. With their brain they beat their age by 15 years.&rdquo;</p><p>One of the reasons Giroux and Jagr can display their offensive wizardry is the league&rsquo;s crackdown on obstruction, something that wasn&rsquo;t around during Jagr&rsquo;s peak years as a Penguin in the mid-to-late &rsquo;90s. While he wasn&rsquo;t as vocal about the NHL&rsquo;s clutch-and-grab issues as former teammate Mario Lemieux, Jagr is pleased to see the steps that have been taken to give the game back to its best players. &ldquo;The league is doing a very good job listening to the fans, giving them what they like,&rdquo; Jagr said. &ldquo;People don&rsquo;t want to see 1-0 games. Probably they don&rsquo;t want to see 9-8 games either. But six, seven goals a game, I think that&rsquo;s fair for the fans and the league did a great job to realize that. For a long time, the league was stuck in the same spot and when skilled players like Mario and Wayne (Gretzky) wanted to change it, the league didn&rsquo;t listen. But then they started listening and the league is more popular than it&rsquo;s ever been.&rdquo;</p><p>One place where Jagr is not more popular than he&rsquo;s ever been is Pittsburgh, where Penguins devotees saw his joining the Flyers as a treasonous move whose equivalent would be Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger signing with the Eagles. But again, the perception of the Pens&rsquo; interest in Jagr was entirely different from the reality he describes.</p><p>As Jagr sees it, he was unfairly linked to a return to the Penguins and raised the hopes of Pens fans because his heart was described as being &ldquo;in Pittsburgh.&rdquo; His agent, former NHLer Petr Svoboda, was the one who used that phrase, but those words never came out of Jagr&rsquo;s mouth. And the notion he would accept Pittsburgh&rsquo;s one-year, $2-million offer simply because of his history with the team was fatally flawed. &ldquo;Before I signed with anybody, I didn&rsquo;t talk to any media,&rdquo; Jagr said. &ldquo;Whatever was written, I cannot control it. If someone writes my heart is in Pittsburgh, I would not go to Pittsburgh just because they wrote that. I didn&rsquo;t talk with anybody and I didn&rsquo;t say that. But when you go back, I was reading the newspapers and if you look at what was written one month before I even signed with Philly, I don&rsquo;t think the (Penguins) coaches or GM, or the organization, wanted me to go there. They never talked about signing me at the (2011) World Championship. They were there and they saw me play. If they were really interested, they would talk to me there. So why all of a sudden are they upset one month later when I choose Philly?&rdquo;</p><p>Indeed, when you look at the character assassination that routinely takes place when an elite player leaves his team for unrestricted free agent riches or in a trade (just ask former Flyers captain Mike Richards or current Flyers starting goalie Ilya Bryzgalov, both of whom were pilloried after leaving Philly and Phoenix), it becomes obvious the image of a Penguins organization truly forlorn after being spurned by Jagr was a public relations exercise in pleasing the team&rsquo;s bitter fan base, not an indication of genuine interest in making the most of his services.</p><p>Although he makes it clear how many great memories he has of Pittsburgh, Jagr isn&rsquo;t one to romanticize his glory days to the point of delusion and accept a role that likely wouldn&rsquo;t have been as large as the one he currently enjoys in Philly. If that makes him the villain in Pittsburgh when he makes his first appearance there as a Flyer on Dec. 29 &ndash; and check out some Internet message boards to see precisely how loathed he&rsquo;s become in the Steel City &ndash; he&rsquo;s OK with that. He knows he&rsquo;ll have the bad-guy moustache superimposed over his image by media types as he gets closer to that game, but he&rsquo;s been around long enough to know how the news business works and what it says about the nature of people in general. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s pretty tough to change people&rsquo;s opinion about you, not just in this situation, but in general,&rdquo; Jagr said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I did anything bad and if people see it differently, I cannot change it. But it&rsquo;s your choice to like someone or not, so I don&rsquo;t listen to any of that. You have to understand that people who are saying and writing that, they&rsquo;re giving people what they want to hear. People want to hear bad news. That makes them happy. The media are not stupid &ndash; they know what articles people are reading the most. I don&rsquo;t react to that because I know they&rsquo;re only doing it to satisfy their fans and keep their jobs.&rdquo;</p><p>Jagr lives in the moment as much as any hockey legend ever has. He&rsquo;s never been married or had kids, but talks like someone who sees himself with a family sometime in the relative near future. He&rsquo;s unsure what his post-career life will entail, although it&rsquo;s safe to say you&rsquo;re not going to see him follow Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s lead and decide to become an NHL coach one day. He also confirmed plans to play at least one season in his Czech homeland before hanging up his skates for good and awaiting first-ballot induction into multiple halls of fame. But right now and for the remainder of this season, his sole goal is to bring a championship to a Pennsylvania-based NHL team and its long-suffering fans, just as he did for a different Pennsylvania-based team and their supporters two decades ago. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m having a lot of fun,&rdquo; Jagr said. &ldquo;The important thing here is the coaches and management find a way to make us enjoy the hockey and not make it just work. You work hard, but when you&rsquo;re having fun, you work even harder.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-011312/9615772-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="1349" height="875"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>PUBLIC ENEMY</b></p><p><b>Pens fans won&rsquo;t coddle the once-beloved Jagr when he visits Pittsburgh.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(LEN REDKOLES/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>He works harder when he&rsquo;s having fun? That&rsquo;s not something you heard much about during most of his career. But what you hear about Jaromir Jagr isn&rsquo;t often what you get when you talk to the man and those who know him. That&rsquo;s why, whether or not jaded Penguins fans care to admit it, an NHL with Jagr in it &ndash; in any uniform &ndash; is an NHL that&rsquo;s richer for having him. &ldquo;You can tell he cares about the game, about playing well, about the team,&rdquo; said Flyers center Max Talbot. &ldquo;Everything he does is to be better and I think people are realizing he just didn&rsquo;t come back (to the NHL) for nothing. He came back to play good and to win.&rdquo;</p><p>116 <b>MULTI-GOAL GAMES IN JAROMIR JAGR&rsquo;S CAREER, THE 17TH-MOST IN NHL HISTORY</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0024-01

MAN OVER MYTH

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-1391/9615929-1-eng-US/f0029-132.jpg" title="f0029-13" width="600" height="146"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03749/9615922-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg" title="f0028-03" width="426" height="582"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-011259/9615915-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="415" height="571"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02864/9615908-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="426" height="582"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-03619/9615901-1-eng-US/f0029-032.jpg" title="f0029-03" width="426" height="571"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-04467/9615894-1-eng-US/f0029-042.jpg" title="f0029-04" width="426" height="582"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-05387/9615887-1-eng-US/f0029-052.jpg" title="f0029-05" width="426" height="576"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-06323/9615880-1-eng-US/f0029-062.jpg" title="f0029-06" width="426" height="582"></div><p><b>1 YEAR of The Hockey News including Future Watch, Draft Preview and the Yearbook</b></p><p><b>Daily email newsletter FREE</b></p><p><b>Full digital edition FREE</b></p><p>NHL&#9415; team swivel key chain of your choice FREE</p><p><i><b>BONUS:</b></i></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-07256/9615873-1-eng-US/f0029-072.jpg" title="f0029-07" width="334" height="456"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-08216/9615866-1-eng-US/f0029-082.jpg" title="f0029-08" width="334" height="456"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-09178/9615859-1-eng-US/f0029-092.jpg" title="f0029-09" width="334" height="448"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-10154/9615852-1-eng-US/f0029-102.jpg" title="f0029-10" width="142" height="129"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p><b>Find us on Facebook <a href="http://facebook.com/TheHockeyNews">facebook.com/TheHockeyNews</a></b></p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-11131/9615845-1-eng-US/f0029-112.jpg" title="f0029-11" width="142" height="129"></div><p><b>Follow us on Twitter @TheHockeyNews</b></p><p><b>VISIT <a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">THEHOCKEYNEWS.COM</a> TO SUBSCRIBE NOW!</b></p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-12111/9615838-1-eng-US/f0029-122.jpg" title="f0029-12" width="158" height="283"></div><p><b><a href="http://THN.com">THN.com</a> is now available as a FREE download on mobile devices Download the application today at thn.mobi</b></p><p><b>NHL and the NHL Shield are registered trademarks of the National Hockey League.</b></p><p><b>NHL and NHL team marks are the property of the NHL and its teams. &copy; NHL 2011. All Rights Reserved.</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0029-13

YOUR INSIDEEDGE

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03724/9615960-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="348" height="359"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>J</span>AROMIR JAGR</b> and his Flyers teammates will be front and center during the 2012 Winter Classic at Citizens Bank Park &ndash; home of Major League Baseball&rsquo;s Phillies, on Jan. 2 when Philadelphia hosts the New York Rangers. As always, the outdoor game is a massive undertaking and the numbers show exactly how much work goes into the event:</p><h2><b>53</b></h2><p>Length, in feet, of the world&rsquo;s largest mobile rink refrigeration unit, specially built for the Winter Classic</p><h2><b>300</b></h2><p>Capacity, in tons, of the refrigeration trailer tasked with keeping the ice cool</p><h2><b>350</b></h2><p>Gallons of paint to make the ice white</p><h2><b>3,000</b></h2><p>Gallons of coolant used to freeze the rink</p><h2><b>10,000</b></h2><p>Gallons of water needed to create a one-inch deep ice surface. The outdoor ice will be 2-2.5 inches thick</p><h2><b>40,000+</b></h2><p>Approximate number of fans who will attend the 2012 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0030-03

Jagr’s Winter Wonderland

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-011414/9616005-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="422" height="1143"><img src="mon022.jpg" title="common02" width="188" height="244"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02953/9615998-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="820" height="957"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>QUINTON HOWDEN</b></p><p><b>MARK VISENTIN</b></p><span class="photo-credit">(HOWDEN: TOM SZCZERBOWSKI/GETTY IMAGES; VISENTIN: RICK STEWART/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>THN Prediction</b></p><p>1<sup>ST</sup></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03697/9615991-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="228" height="150"></div><p><b>Forecasting Canada&rsquo;s chances in Calgary based</b> on the two most recent outings by its national junior team can be rationalized in drastically different ways: Either the gut-punches can&rsquo;t possibly get any worse, or bad things happen in threes.</p><p>In 2010, there was John Carlson&rsquo;s overtime goal, earning Team USA the gold medal over their North American rivals on Saskatoon soil. Last year in Buffalo, it was Russia&rsquo;s Kardiac Kids putting five past Canadian netminder Mark Visentin in the third period, erasing a 3-0 lead the Canucks had felt pretty good about after 40 minutes of play.</p><p>But the surprise addition of NHL forwards Devante Smith-Pelly of the Ducks and Tampa Bay&rsquo;s Brett Connolly means when the gold medals are awarded in Calgary this year, odds are the local boys will be the ones sticking their necks out. And remembering the past will be key in the drive to avoid another letdown. &ldquo;We let it slip in the last game,&rdquo; said 19-year-old center Quinton Howden. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t even remember the feelings. It was like, &lsquo;wow, this is happening right now.&rsquo; It&rsquo;s something you never forget.&rdquo;</p><p>The coach of the 2011 squad, Dave Cameron, was a strong personality intent on giving the club a distinct defensive personality. And he did that without playing favorites. While his Mississauga-St. Michael&rsquo;s Majors did provide Canada with center Casey Cizikas, goaltender J.P. Anderson and right winger Smith-Pelly were left at home, even though they were strong candidates.</p><p>Nonetheless, Vancouver Giants coach Don Hay brings a different look behind the bench &ndash; and a perfect 7-0 record from the 1995 world juniors. &ldquo;We only have (four) players available from last year (Howden, Visentin, Connolly and Jaden Schwartz), so we&rsquo;re going to have a different style,&rdquo; said Team Canada head scout Kevin Prendergast.</p><p>&ldquo;Last year&rsquo;s team had a more blue-collar atmosphere around it. These guys are more finesse players.&rdquo;</p><p>And why not? After all, when you have the deepest talent pool in the world to draw from, putting an onus on skill doesn&rsquo;t sound like such a bad idea. Schwartz will undoubtedly play a bigger part this time out. His 2010 tournament was cut short by an ankle injury, limiting the Colorado College star&rsquo;s contributions to three points in two round-robin games.</p><p>Howden, a standout with the Western League&rsquo;s Moose Jaw Warriors, will be counted on for leadership, a role well-suited to the Florida Panthers first round draft pick (25th overall in 2010). His advice for the new members of the squad comes from experience within the circus that is the world juniors. &ldquo;First off, enjoy it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When the tournament&rsquo;s over, you wish the group could stay together. We have to combine as a team quick.&rdquo;</p><p>Which, given the round-robin competition, won&rsquo;t be hard. Only the Americans and Finns provide real mettle in the prelim stage, with those Yankees, the Swedes and Russians making up the rest of the Big Four nations to be dealt with in the medal round. The Americans in particular have been a great foe recently, including in last year&rsquo;s semifinal. &ldquo;It was a high-paced game,&rdquo; Howden said. &ldquo;It was a lot of fun. They&rsquo;re Canada&rsquo;s main rival.&rdquo;</p><p>Other than themselves, based on the past two finals.</p><p>Expectations will be sky-high for the team once again and based on the talent assembled, that&rsquo;s the way it should be. The defense corps is so stacked and so varied in skill sets that 2011 first-rounders Duncan Siemens (Colorado, 11th overall) and Stuart Percy (Toronto, 25th overall) didn&rsquo;t even make the camp roster.</p><p>Visentin returns in net a year wiser and Howden promises an in-your-face group of forwards. It&rsquo;s heartbreak or redemption all over again for the Red and White.</p><h2><b>THE WORLD AWAITS</b></h2><p><i>As Alberta revs up for this year&rsquo;s incarnation of the World Junior Championship, our in-house prospect guru offers his insight and predictions on how the perennial powerhouses will fare and where the tournament&rsquo;s aspiring lesser lights finish.</i><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0032-01

CANADA

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02866/9616043-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="764" height="850"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>NICK BJUGSTAD</b> <span class="photo-credit">(BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>THN Prediction</b></p><p>2<sup>ND</sup></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-011257/9616057-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="229" height="150"><img src="mon022.jpg" title="common02" width="188" height="244"></div><p><b>Team USA coach Dean Blais has</b> two very important things going for him entering the world juniors: the respect of his players and the last gold medal won by the Americans.</p><p>After taking a year off from the tournament, Blais is back and even those who only know him from Team USA&rsquo;s summer camp are happy to strap on the armor for him. &ldquo;He seems like a great coach,&rdquo; said University of Minnesota center Nick Bjugstad (Florida, 19th overall in 2010). &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve heard nothing but good things. He&rsquo;s got the credibility and he&rsquo;s intense. He gets the guys going.&rdquo;</p><p>As the Russians found out last year under Valery Bragin, coaching can make a big difference in a tournament where the top four teams aren&rsquo;t separated by much in the skill department.</p><p>While Yale&rsquo;s Keith Allain led the Americans to a bronze medal last year, the players admitted they were outmaneuvered in a semifinal loss to Canada. That won&rsquo;t likely happen again. GM Jim Johansson is in sympatico with his coach and the process of whittling down the talent available was done with an eye towards Blais&rsquo; needs. &ldquo;Our philosophy,&rdquo; Johansson said, &ldquo;was to give Dean the most assets we can to give him the team he wants, which is one that competes all over the ice.&rdquo;</p><p>Speed is a hallmark of the Americans and few are faster than returning right winger Emerson Etem (Anaheim, 29th overall in &rsquo;10) of the Western League&rsquo;s Medicine Hat Tigers. Denver University&rsquo;s Jason Zucker will surely return for his third tour of duty at the WJC and the team&rsquo;s brass is looking for him to continue his positive impact. &ldquo;We had a bunch of first-class kids (in 2010) who bought in and Jason was at the front of that,&rdquo; Blais said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a leader and I think he&rsquo;s going to rub off on our team.&rdquo;</p><p>When it comes to rubbing out the competition, the Americans will have several big and dangerous weapons up front in centers Bjugstad and Boston University&rsquo;s Charlie Coyle (San Jose, 28th overall in 2010; traded to Minnesota in Brent Burns deal). Their mission is obvious. &ldquo;I want to bring the same thing I did last year,&rdquo; Bjugstad said. &ldquo;Two-way play, scoring some goals and playing back on defense.&rdquo;</p><p>Coyle will be the highest-scoring returnee from last year&rsquo;s squad, while Bjugstad will look to build on his solid contribution of four points in six games. The Golden Gophers standout believes his performance at last year&rsquo;s summer camp helped get him on the radar and paid off when a bout of mono slowed him early at Minnesota. &ldquo;That camp opened my eyes and I gained some confidence,&rdquo; Coyle said. &ldquo;I had a slow start to my Bjugstad year, so I think that helped.&rdquo;</p><p>The American braintrust is more than happy to see Bjugstad back in the mix for Edmonton and Calgary. &ldquo;The exciting part for us is we&rsquo;ve seen the maturation of this player,&rdquo; Johansson said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a little bit stronger and everything he did last year he&rsquo;s doing at a slightly higher pace.&rdquo;</p><p>Back on defense, Team USA promises to be very big, with 6-foot-5 Derek Forbort of the University of North Dakota (Los Angeles, 15th overall in &rsquo;10) and 6-foot-7 Jarred Tinordi of the Ontario League&rsquo;s London Knights (Montreal, 22nd overall in &rsquo;10) leading the charge. There will a good mix of shutdown and offensive skill available, though the defensive defenders will be more prominent.</p><p>That&rsquo;s all well and good, but with Jack Campbell (Dallas, 11th overall in &rsquo;10) returning for his third world juniors in net, goals against will not be an issue. The OHL Sault Ste. Marie keeper was selected as the top goalie in the tournament last year with a 1.70 goals-against average.</p><p>Don&rsquo;t be surprised if the gold medal comes down to Canada-USA &ndash; and if one goal decides the final.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0033-02

<h2><b>CANADA VS. FINLAND</b></h2><p>Dec. 26, 1:30 p.m.</p><p><i>The opening game of the tourney pits the host juggernaut Canadians against the best Finnish squad in years and perhaps the top player in future Wild center Mikael Granlund.</i></p><h2><b>DENMARK VS. CZECHS</b></h2><p>Dec. 27, 6 p.m.</p><p><i>The Danes have one chance to get a win in the round-robin and it comes on Day 2 against the flagging Czech Republic. Both will fight for relegation by the end of the round.</i></p><h2><b>SWISS VS. SLOVAKIA</b></h2><p>Dec. 31, 4 p.m.</p><p><i>A battle of two teams caught between good and bad. Winner gets a quarterfinal date, loser must stave off relegation. Do the Swiss still have some magic left in them?</i></p><h2><b>USA VS. CANADA</b></h2><p>Dec. 31, 6 p.m.</p><p><i>It&rsquo;s becoming a near-annual tradition and one of the most physically demanding matchups in the tourney. The North American rivals, tops in depth, may be teammates during the regular season, but internationally they are enemies.</i></p><h2><b>SWEDEN VS. RUSSIA</b></h2><p>Dec. 31, 8 p.m.</p><p><i>A pretty nice matchup in and of itself, this tilt will provide the only real challenge for either team, with the winner earning a bye through the first round of the playoffs.</i><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

TV Party

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-011431/9616119-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="614" height="714"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>MIKA ZIBANEJAD</b> <span class="photo-credit">(ZIBANEJAD: FRANCOIS LAPLANTE/HHOF/IIHF IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>THN Prediction</b></p><p>3<sup>RD</sup></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="mon022.jpg" title="common02" width="188" height="244"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02995/9616112-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="228" height="150"></div><p><b>In a tournament that is rapidly becoming as</b> compelling and unpredictable as an episode of <i>The Bachelorette</i>, you can always count on Sweden to be a solid medal contender&hellip;but not quite good enough to win it all.</p><p>Last year, for example, the Swedes followed up a boisterous 6-5 win over Canada on the final day of the preliminary round with a 4-3 loss to Russia in the semifinal. The win over Canada meant they avoided having to play a quarterfinal matchup, but gave them far too much swagger entering the semifinal. &ldquo;That game against Canada on new year&rsquo;s Eve didn&rsquo;t mean as much as they had made it out to be,&rdquo; said Detroit red Wings scout Hakan Andersson. &ldquo;Then they came back a couple of days later and had a mental hangover.&rdquo;</p><p>One thing that will help Sweden this time around is the roster is made up of more of a workmanlike group of players. Led by Ottawa first round pick Mika Zibanejad, the Swedes are not seen as a collection of stars, largely because Gabriel Landeskog and adam Larsson have stuck with their nHL clubs. But there are a good number of players that scouts project as future solid NHLers. Most of them are playing in the Swedish Elite League, considered the best league in Europe, but the Swedes do have four players from the Canadian League.</p><p>Aside from Zibanejad, the only other 2011 first-rounders on the Swedish roster are defensemen Jonas Brodin (Minnesota, 10th overall) and Oskar Klefbom (Edmonton, 19th overall), along with right winger Richard Rakell (Anaheim, 30th overall). Minnesota prospect johan Larsson (56th overall) &ndash; who was part of a monster second round for the Wild in 2010 in which they also drafted Brett Bulmer of Canada 39th and Jason Zucker of USA 59th &ndash; has 22 points in 30 games for Brynas. &ldquo;There is not a real star player, but I don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s a bad thing,&rdquo; andersson said. &ldquo;That way there is not the tendency for them to stand back and let somebody else do it. It will have to be a team effort.&rdquo;</p><p>Sweden looks solid on the blueline and in goal, where they have Johan Mattsson of the Sudbury Wolves and Anton Forsberg who has played this season with Modo of the Elite League as well as with the men&rsquo;s national team. The big question for Sweden will be its depth, particularly among the bottom six forwards, because success in the tournament is often dictated by how a team&rsquo;s depth players stack up. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re not as deep as Canada, but I don&rsquo;t think anybody is,&rdquo; Andersson said. &ldquo;But if they can stay healthy, I think their top six defensemen and top three lines are pretty good.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0034-01

SWEDEN

<div class="byline">BY ANDREY OSADCHENKO</div><p><b>THN Prediction</b></p><p>4<sup>TH</sup></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03790/9616164-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="479" height="675"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>EVGENY KUZNETSOV</b> <span class="photo-credit">(KUZNETSOV: TOM SZCZERBOWSKI/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04641/9616157-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="228" height="150"></div><p><b>When it comes to Team Russia, it doesn&rsquo;t really</b> matter what international tournament you&rsquo;re talking about &ndash; you can always highlight three things. Their offense will be great, their defense will be bad and God knows what their goaltending will be like. This year, that&rsquo;s the perfect analysis of Russia&rsquo;s situation entering the world juniors.</p><p>With the likes of nikita Gusev, Vladislav namestnikov, Ivan Telegin, Nail Yakupov, Mikhail Grigorenko and, of course, returnee Evgeny Kuznetsov, the russians are likely to possess the best offense in Calgary. The problem is that&rsquo;s all they have in store for their opponents.</p><p>Because of a knee injury, Red Wings prospect Alexei Marchenko will be forced to skip the trip, leaving russia without its best defenseman. another D-man, roman rukavishnikov, broke his collarbone in the Subway Super Series in mid-november. Without them russia&rsquo;s defense will suffer severely.</p><p>It would all work out for the russians if they had an excellent goalie to steal a few games for them, but the likelihood of such a hero is questionable at best. russia&rsquo;s coach, Valery Bragin, will have to choose between 19-year-old Sergei Kostenko, Andrei Makarov (18) and Andrei Vasilevski (17). Makarov, who has shone for the Saskatoon Blades this season, will likely get the nod.</p><p>It&rsquo;s no secret why Team Russia managed to pull through last year and claim the gold in Buffalo, but the feat was also about the resolve they showed. Which begs the question &ndash; does this year&rsquo;s edition have the requisite character to repeat? &ldquo;It does from time to time,&rdquo; Bragin said. &ldquo;But we, as coaches, have to work more on that. We have to talk to the guys more individually, set up group meetings and talk about the way we play.&rdquo;</p><p>According to Bragin, Russia&rsquo;s final roster will include mainly those players who competed at the Subway Super Series. &ldquo;Back in the Soviet union we used to say that if a player performs well in Canada, he&rsquo;s a reliable player,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;So obviously we&rsquo;re going to focus on the guys we used.&rdquo;</p><p>Last year, the russians won mainly because of their relentless will to fight until the very end, tremendous offense and a little luck. It looks like this year&rsquo;s team will meet at least two of the three criteria. as for the luck part&hellip;it&rsquo;s always unpredictable.</p><p>The Russians will announce their roster on Christmas Day. Their initial camp started in their homeland and consisted of 28 domestic players. The roster was pared down before the team travelled to Canada on Dec. 18, after which they were joined by seven others from the Canadian League.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0034-03

RUSSIA

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-011330/9616202-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="562" height="668"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>OLLI MAATTA</b> <span class="photo-credit">(MAATTA: BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>THN Prediction</b></p><p>5<sup>TH</sup></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="mon022.jpg" title="common02" width="188" height="244"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02946/9616195-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="228" height="150"></div><p><b>There has been a lot of bad</b> luck for the Finns recently, particularly when it comes to running into a wall when the medal round begins. But with Mikael Granlund leading this year, good things are afoot.</p><p>The Minnesota Wild first-rounder (ninth overall in 2010) has been the best player of any age in Finland this season, period. He missed last year&rsquo;s tournament due to a concussion, but is on fire right now and will be joined by an excellent cast of prospects including younger brother Markus Granlund (Calgary, 45th overall in 2011), Buffalo first-rounder Joel Armia (16th overall in &rsquo;11) and a top 2012 prospect in OHL London D-man Olli Maatta, who also played at the tournament last year. Maatta is pumped to have Finland at full strength. &ldquo;Oh yeah, I&rsquo;m looking forward to the first day,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m really impressed with the team. We have a very good chance to win the whole tournament, but we also know anything can happen.&rdquo;</p><p>Maatta&rsquo;s not kidding. The Finns will have to take the hard route to the gold medal, as Canada and the u.S. are sure to take the top two spots in Pool B, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean it can&rsquo;t be done. To avoid last season&rsquo;s disappointment &ndash; when the Finns blasted out the gates in the round-robin, only to blow a lead against russia in the quarterfinal &ndash; the team will need more scoring. Grit and defensive awareness will be no issue thanks to forwards Miikka Salomaki (Nashville, 52nd overall in &rsquo;11) and Alexander Ruuttu (Phoenix, 51st overall in &rsquo;11), while goaltending options include Christopher Gibson (Los Angeles, 49th overall in &rsquo;11) and Sami Aittokallio (Colorado, 107th overall in &rsquo;10).</p><p>Maatta will be familiar with his north american opponents thanks to his play in Ontario this year and thinks that inside edge can benefit his squad. &ldquo;I might show my teammates some tapes,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I know what kind of players they are.&rdquo;</p><p>Now it&rsquo;s time to see who the Finns are.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0035-01

FINLAND

<p><b>THN Prediction</b></p><p>6<sup>TH</sup></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03786/9616247-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="544" height="695"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>TOMAS JURCO</b> <span class="photo-credit">(JURCO: TOM SZCZERBOWSKI/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04646/9616240-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="228" height="150"></div><p><b>The Slovaks continue to ex</b>periment with their hot-housing HK Orange 20 team, but results have not gotten any better. Orange 20 features the best under-20 players in the land, taking on teams from the nation&rsquo;s top league, the Extra Liga. But the boys have been constantly dominated by the men (obviously) and won just one of their first 10 games. A recent tournament against Switzerland, Germany and norway didn&rsquo;t go much better.</p><p>The upshot is that a lot of talent has migrated to major junior, so the Slovaks will get an infusion of confidence once the final squad comes together. Edmonton prospects Martin Marincin (46th overall in 2010) and Martin Gernat (122nd overall in &rsquo;11) are both 6-foot-5 towers on the blueline who can put up points. Tomas Jurco (Detroit, 35th overall in &rsquo;11) is one of the best scorers in the Quebec League, while Peter Ceresnak (N.Y. Rangers, 172nd overall in &rsquo;11) has been a stabilizing force for the Ontario League&rsquo;s Peterborough Petes defense corps. Still, the team is realistic. &ldquo;We know we&rsquo;re not going to win,&rdquo; Jurco said. &ldquo;But we want to do our best. We&rsquo;ll have to play well against Switzerland and Latvia &ndash; our goal is the quarterfinal.&rdquo;</p><p>While that may not seem like much of a goal, it&rsquo;s a step up from battling to avoid relegation. Last year&rsquo;s edition was derailed when Marincin was suspended after a brutal hit on Team uSa&rsquo;s jason Zucker. But even with the big blueliner in the lineup for the tourney opener, the Slovaks needed overtime and a power play to get by Germany, which was eventually relegated. &ldquo;as a team we didn&rsquo;t really play good,&rdquo; Jurco said. &ldquo;It was tough, but a good experience.&rdquo;</p><p>As for the Orange 20 kids, jurco thinks the tournament will be a nice change from the Extra Liga. &ldquo;I believe the guys will come here in a good mood,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll need some of them to step up.&rdquo;</p><p>Jurco also expected more out of himself and Slovakia will need all hands on deck.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0035-03

SLOVAKIA

<h2><b>1. NAIL YAKUPOV, RW</b></h2><p>Russia</p><p><i>Will be a dangerous offensive threat every time he&rsquo;s on the ice.</i></p><h2><b>2. MIKHAIL GRIGORENKO, C</b></h2><p>Russia</p><p><i>He&rsquo;s got the size and the playmaking ability to make the opposition pay.</i></p><h2><b>3. FILIP FORSBERG, RW</b></h2><p>Sweden</p><p><i>Makes great plays at high speeds and brings size to boot.</i></p><h2><b>4. OLLI MAATTA, D</b></h2><p>Finland</p><p><i>Mobility and poise gives Maatta an edge on the competition; an effective puckmover.</i></p><h2><b>5. ZEMGUS GIRGENSONS, C</b></h2><p>Latvia</p><p><i>A bull of a power forward, Girgensons can fill any role on the ice and also brings leadership.</i></p><h2><b>6. VILLE POKKA, D</b></h2><p>Finland</p><p><i>Offensive D-man has hard shot and QBs the power play. Like Maatta, played in WJC last year.</i></p><h2><b>7. PONTUS ABERG, LW</b></h2><p>Sweden</p><p><i>He likes to shoot and he likes to skate. Has even played on Djurgarden&rsquo;s top line this year.</i></p><h2><b>8. TEDDY BLUEGER, C</b></h2><p>Latvia</p><p><i>Skilled pivot has vision and is great around net.</i><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

DRAFT LOOK

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-011332/9616309-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="241" height="296"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>SVEN BAERTSCHI</b> <span class="photo-credit">(BAERTSCHI: CLAUS ANDERSEN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>THN</b>&nbsp;<b>Prediction</b></p><p>7<sup>TH</sup></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="mon022.jpg" title="common02" width="188" height="244"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02900/9616302-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="166" height="109"></div><p><b>We may have already seen the apex of Swiss</b> under-20 hockey. The 2010 squad helmed heroically by right winger Nino Niederreiter and goaltender Benjamin Conz iced the Russians in a spectacular quarterfinal upset and helped the underdogs to a fourth-place finish. With no chance to sneak up on teams last year, the Swiss fell back to earth, but salvaged fifth place over the disinterested Finns. However, with &lsquo;El Nino&rsquo; and Conz gone, expect a fight against relegation to return.</p><p>The Swiss aren&rsquo;t entirely defenseless. Calgary first-rounder Sven Baertschi (13th overall in 2011) is tearing up the Western League, while Gregory Hofmann (Carolina, 103rd overall in &rsquo;11) can also contribute up front. But the depth and upside of this program just isn&rsquo;t there right now and the Swiss must rely on effort more than skill to get by. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re solid defensively and work hard,&rdquo; said one European scout. &ldquo;But the best teams were the past two years.&rdquo;</p><p>The scout believes the Swiss will survive the round-robin, but that&rsquo;s no guarantee. After all, they share a group with defending champion Russia and mighty Sweden. The most important match will be with Slovakia and if Latvia proves to be rambunctious enough, it&rsquo;ll give the Swiss a lot to handle, too.</p><p>Essentially, Switzerland has become the new Germany &ndash; a non-traditional hockey nation with good coaching and work ethic, but not enough elite skill to make a difference.</p><p>Germany is now playing in the second tier of countries, relegated along with Norway after last year&rsquo;s showing, and the Swiss must grind out every game in this tourney to make sure they avoid the same fate.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0036-01

SWITZERLAND

<p><b>THN</b>&nbsp;<b>Prediction</b></p><p>8<sup>TH</sup></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03744/9616354-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="241" height="289"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>MARTIN FRK</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04595/9616347-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="166" height="109"></div><p><b>The world juniors haven&rsquo;t been kind to the Czechs</b> lately and fate may conspire against them again. While the team boasts a nice array of talent, injuries may ice their chances of moving up. The best draft-eligible skater in the Czech League this season has been Tomas Hertl, but he&rsquo;s on the IR right now and may not be ready. The best draft-eligible skater playing in North America is Martin Frk of the Quebec League&rsquo;s Halifax Mooseheads, but he hadn&rsquo;t played a game this season through early December due to a concussion. On top of that, 2011 St. Louis Blues second-rounder Dmitrij Jaskin was loaned out by his Slavia Prague franchise to a team in a lesser division to work on his game. &ldquo;Jaskin has been a pretty big disappointment,&rdquo; said one European scout. &ldquo;He hasn&rsquo;t shown up this year.&rdquo;</p><p>That said, at least the politics that marred the selection process for the last tournament seem to be subsiding. Ottawa 67&rsquo;s goaltender Petr Mrazek (Detroit, 141st overall in 2010) got a camp invite this time, one of several players punished in the past for leaving to play major junior in North America. (Though netminder Patrik Bartosak, who has been outstanding for the Western League&rsquo;s Red Deer Rebels, was left off this roster. He came from the same Vitkovice team as Mrazek.) David Musil (Edmonton, 31st overall in &rsquo;11) and Tomas Hyka (undrafted) are two other kids with high-end skill. The Czechs will need them, because the talent being fostered back home just won&rsquo;t cut it these days. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think the level over here can compete,&rdquo; said the Euro scout.</p><p>With Denmark the only easy out in the pool, the Czechs are guaranteed to be staving off relegation again.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0036-03

CZECH REPUBLIC

<p><b>THN</b>&nbsp;<b>Prediction</b></p><p>9<sup>TH</sup></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05504/9616392-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="241" height="305"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>ZEMGUS GIRGENSONS</b> <span class="photo-credit">(FRK+GIRGENSONS: DAVE SANDFORD/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06446/9616385-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="166" height="109"></div><p><b>Underdog darlings whenever they&rsquo;re in the top</b> tier of the tourney, the Latvians do bring a little more firepower to the world juniors this season and the player at the center of it all is Zemgus Girgensons. A 6-foot-1, 185-pound center with the United States League&rsquo;s Dubuque Fighting Saints, Girgensons is highly rated for this year&rsquo;s draft and brings skill, leadership and physicality to the squad. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a beast, man, he&rsquo;s a beast,&rdquo; said one scout. &ldquo;Just solid and strong, more of a north-south guy. If he puts his shoulder down on the rush, he&rsquo;s very difficult to stop.&rdquo;</p><p>That was quite evident in last year&rsquo;s Div. I-A tourney, where Girgensons&rsquo; seven points in five games helped Latvia clinch a spot with the big boys for this year. He also knocked out Belarus&rsquo; Pavel Stepanov &ndash; nearly three years older than the Latvian &ndash; with a thundering bodycheck.</p><p>Kristians Pelss of the Western League&rsquo;s Edmonton Oil Kings was also on that Latvian team, but only four others from the 1991-heavy squad are eligible to return. Teddy Blueger, one of the leading point-getters on Shattuck-St. Mary&rsquo;s this year, is another weapon. The Latvians will battle to avoid relegation again, but at least this time they have a fighting chance.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0036-05

LATVIA

<p><b>THN</b>&nbsp;<b>Prediction</b></p><p>10<sup>TH</sup></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-07376/9616430-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg" title="f0036-07" width="241" height="302"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>NICKLAS JENSEN</b> <span class="photo-credit">(JENSEN: JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-08320/9616423-1-eng-US/f0036-082.jpg" title="f0036-08" width="166" height="109"></div><p><b>Like a battle-hardened platoon sergeant, left</b> winger Nicklas Jensen (Vancouver, 29th overall in 2011) has been a sage voice for his teammates in preparation for their foray into the world juniors&rsquo; top rung.</p><p>As a skilled power forward with the Ontario League&rsquo;s Oshawa Generals and the only NHL draft pick on the squad, Jensen knows the dangerous competition that awaits his team in Edmonton. Canada and the U.S. are entirely different beasts from Austria and Kazakhstan, their foes from last year&rsquo;s Div. I-B pool. &ldquo;Obviously the competition was a bit weaker than I&rsquo;m used to over here,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This year it&rsquo;s going to be a great experience and a lot tougher. We have to focus on the small things and we can&rsquo;t be making mistakes, because these teams will punish us.&rdquo;</p><p>Mission No. 1 for Denmark is to not lose 12-0 on the first day of the tournament and the Danes must take a cue from Switzerland by playing staunch defense &ndash; not the offense that got them promoted &ndash; to do that. A young hockey nation that has already produced some NHL talent (Jannik Hansen, Mikkel Boedker), Denmark&rsquo;s best chance for glory will come in Game 2 against the Czechs. &ldquo;Denmark has developed a lot,&rdquo; Jensen said. &ldquo;In the future I think we&rsquo;ll be one of the smaller countries that steps up.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0036-07

DENMARK

<div class="byline">BY BRIAN MCNALLY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0038-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02892/9616506-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>DALE HUNTER</b> <span class="photo-credit">(HUNTER: JANA CHYTILOVA/FREESTYLE PHOTOGRAPHY/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-011292/9616520-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="228" height="169"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="mon012.jpg" title="common01" width="110" height="125"></div><p>I<b>n a sense,</b> Dale Hunter never left the Capitals.</p><p>In the 12 years between the time Hunter retired from the NHL and finally returned as Washington&rsquo;s new coach in late November, the ties that bound him to his former team were never completely severed.</p><p>Hunter spent one season as the Caps&rsquo; director of player development. And even after he and brother Mark bought the London Knights and returned to Ontario to run their own junior team, Hunter and Washington GM George McPhee still kept in touch. They might swap opinions on trade possibilities or chat about a top prospect like defenseman John Carlson, who played one season for Hunter in London. His image even looms above the ice at the organization&rsquo;s practice rink in Arlington, Va. &ndash; one of four giant banners honoring the Caps&rsquo; four retired numbers. &ldquo;This has been my team,&rdquo; Hunter said after McPhee hired him to replace Bruce Boudreau. &ldquo;I shouldn&rsquo;t say &lsquo;my team&rsquo;. It&rsquo;s (owner Ted Leonsis&rsquo;) team. But it feels like my team because I played here so long and have good memories.&rdquo;</p><p>Hunter would even record Caps games while on the road coaching London. That had dual purposes &ndash; he could keep tabs on his former team and have ready-made video clips to use as a teaching tool. Hunter spent 12 of his 19 NHL seasons with Washington and served as captain from 1994 until he was traded to Colorado late in 1998-99.</p><p>At just 5-foot-10, 200 pounds, Hunter played with a fierceness that belied his size. Even he admits to crossing the line sometimes &ndash; an infamous late hit on New York Islanders star Pierre Turgeon in the 1993 playoffs is the prime example. But in the late &rsquo;80s and early &rsquo;90s, Hunter embodied Washington teams that rarely had the star power of their Patrick Division rivals yet often went toe-to-toe with them in the post-season. Can that passion translate behind an NHL bench? Former teammates say Hunter had other strengths off the ice. &ldquo;Once the emotion of whatever happened went through, he would be able to analyze and calm everyone down and talk about it in a sensible way,&rdquo; said former Caps defenseman Mark Tinordi. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the kind of leader he was. He wasn&rsquo;t throwing stuff around. He was more like &lsquo;All right, when emotions are done, we&rsquo;ll figure out a way to solve it and move on.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p><p>Caps center Jeff Halpern already has experience working with Hunter. In his one-season role as director of player development, Hunter guided Halpern as a rookie in the NHL in 1999-00, imparting tips and hints on an almost daily basis. Halpern scored 18 goals that year and helped the Caps finish with 102 points. &ldquo;We had a real veteran team then and I thought it was an unbelievable asset for me to have someone to talk to after games and practices when he was around,&rdquo; Halpern said. &ldquo;It was a supportive role, but it was an honest role and a lot of times with coaches on teams it&rsquo;s hard to manage 20 personalities. So I was lucky enough to (learn from) what I consider a Hall of Famer&hellip;He&rsquo;s an incredibly smart hockey man.&rdquo;</p><p>So why return to the NHL now? Hunter&rsquo;s children are grown. His Knights are in good shape both on the ice and financially with his brother adding coach to his duties as co-owner and GM. That put Hunter in place to take advantage when the opportunity in Washington finally arrived. &ldquo;I was always hoping that one day Dale could coach this team. But timing&rsquo;s everything and the time is right now,&rdquo; McPhee said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s available and ready to do this now. And the only way he wanted to do this is if he could go full-bore, in his words. He&rsquo;s ready to go.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0038-02

Hunter’s Home

<p><i>*SINCE 2000; MIN. 25 GAMES</i></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03721/9616551-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="237" height="425"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BYLSMA: JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>D. Bylsma</b></p><p>Pittsburgh</p><p><i>.800 (&rsquo;08-09)</i></p><p><b>T. Granato</b></p><p>Colorado</p><p><i>.706 (&rsquo;02-03)</i></p><p><b>K. Constantine</b></p><p>New Jersey</p><p><i>.694 (&rsquo;01-02)</i></p><p><b>L. Lamoriello</b></p><p>New Jersey</p><p><i>.680 (&rsquo;05-06)</i></p><p><b>B. Barber</b></p><p>Philadelphia</p><p><i>.667 (&rsquo;00-01)</i></p><p><b>B. Boudreau</b></p><p>Washington</p><p><i>.664 (&rsquo;07-08)</i></p><p><b>J. Quenneville</b></p><p>Chicago</p><p><i>.647 (&rsquo;08-09)</i></p><p><b>P. Maurice</b></p><p>Carolina</p><p><i>.623 (&rsquo;08-09)</i></p><p><b>J. Lemaire</b></p><p>New Jersey</p><p><i>.622 (&rsquo;10-11)</i></p><p>.691 <b>Hunter&rsquo;s career points pct. as coach of the London Knights &ndash; highest in OHL history</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0038-03

Mid-Season MAGICIANS

<div class="byline">&#x2013; RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-011182/9616659-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02783/9616652-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="597" height="699"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>BRIAN ROLSTON</b></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>B</span>rian Rolston is acutely aware of the futility surrounding the New York Islanders over the past few years. The left winger saw the franchise often during his time with division rival New Jersey before he was jettisoned by the Devils in a salary-shedding trade.</p><p>Now Rolston is seeing how the other half lives &ndash; and whether the team&rsquo;s tarnished reputation is earned. &ldquo;Yeah, they do get kicked around, but I think they&rsquo;re on the rise,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;A lot of these young guys are still learning the game. They have the talent here to do it. Now it&rsquo;s just a matter of doing it.&rdquo;</p><p>Along with the 38-year-old Stanley Cup winner, New York added veterans Steve Staios, Marty Reasoner and Jay Pandolfo over the summer, hoping years of experience would rub off on the kids. &ldquo;You try to lead by example,&rdquo; Rolston said. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t been extremely productive early on, but you go out and work hard on a daily basis. Being professional and being prepared is the most important thing for an individual.&rdquo;</p><p>At least one Isles&rsquo; young gun has paid attention to the lessons and sometimes the old war stories are best for illuminating an issue. &ldquo;You want to win the Stanley Cup and you hear about what it takes to get there,&rdquo; said center John Tavares. &ldquo;It makes you want it that much more.&rdquo;</p><p>Now comes the hard part. The youth and the vets get along, but the Isles were still in the basement. &ldquo;Yeah, it&rsquo;s a fun group,&rdquo; Rolston said. &ldquo;But winning is fun.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>CHRISTMAS GIFTS</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03617/9616645-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="684" height="571"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-04516/9616638-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="305" height="509"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(LAMORIELLO: DAVE SANDFORD/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Atop <b>Lou Lamoriello&rsquo;s</b> wish-list is a 15-year, $100-million mulligan for Ilya Kovalchuk&rsquo;s contract. After posting his worst totals (31 goals, 60 points) since his rookie campaign last season, Kovie was barely on pace for 20 goals despite leading all NHL forwards in ice time at 24:53 per game. Teammate Zach Parise was second at 22:19.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-05434/9616631-1-eng-US/f0039-052.jpg" title="f0039-05" width="684" height="539"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-06360/9616624-1-eng-US/f0039-062.jpg" title="f0039-06" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ROLSTON+OKPOSO: JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The Isles&rsquo; front office wants a GPS system, because its players have struggled to find the opposition&rsquo;s net. After averaging 3.27 goals in their final 30 contests last year, New York&rsquo;s per-game scoring dipped below 2.00 in the first two months of 2011-12. <b>Kyle Okposo</b> had just three markers in 21 games, leading him to contemplate his woes from the press box.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-07315/9616617-1-eng-US/f0039-072.jpg" title="f0039-07" width="684" height="539"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-08266/9616610-1-eng-US/f0039-082.jpg" title="f0039-08" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DUBINSKY: FRANCOIS LACASSE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The Rangers would like Santa to come late this holiday season with a &lsquo;W&rsquo; in the Winter Classic. The hate is on for the Flyers leading up to the event and <b>Brandon Dubinsky</b> and Co. would love to stick it to Philly and its fans at Citizens Bank Park Jan. 2. The Rangers stuffed the Broad Street Bullies 2-0 in late November and they meet again on Dec. 23.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-09214/9616603-1-eng-US/f0039-092.jpg" title="f0039-09" width="684" height="539"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-10183/9616596-1-eng-US/f0039-102.jpg" title="f0039-10" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(SHELLEY: ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Christmas came early for Philly in the form of HBO&rsquo;s <i>24/7</i> series. Most teams would find the constant camera action distracting, but not the made-for-TV Flyers. <b>Jody Shelley</b> fired the first salvo at the Blueshirts, calling former teammate Dubinsky a &ldquo;weasel,&rdquo; to which the Rangers left winger replied by calling the enforcer a &ldquo;terrible hockey player.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-11160/9616589-1-eng-US/f0039-112.jpg" title="f0039-11" width="684" height="539"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-12144/9616582-1-eng-US/f0039-122.jpg" title="f0039-12" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(SULLIVAN: BRAD WHITE/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Pittsburgh ordered plenty of bubblewrap for its brittle star players. The Penguins were lucky with the wonky back of <b>Steve Sullivan</b>, who&rsquo;d played each of the their first 28 games. But five of their top performers &ndash; Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, Kris Letang and Zbynek Michalek &ndash; had missed a total of 47 games due to injury.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0039-01

Brian The Babysitter

<div class="byline">&#x2013; RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0040-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01884/9616767-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon012.jpg" title="common01" width="110" height="125"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02559/9616760-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="597" height="692"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>BRAD MARCHAND</b></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>here are many ways Boston&rsquo;s Brad Marchand can drive the opposition crazy. The chirping is bad and the wanton punching of Sedins is right up there, but worst of all is the fact he has been a scoring machine for the defending Stanley Cup champions, with 19 points through 25 games. OK, the chirping&rsquo;s probably worse. &ldquo;You need a guy like that on your team, but playing against him was just awful,&rdquo; said Bruin and former Hab Benoit Pouliot. &ldquo;He was always in your face, chirping. He would talk all game.&rdquo;</p><p>Marchand, 23, can be just as mouthy with his teammates, particularly on the road when the real bonding happens and guys are given the gears constantly. &ldquo;There might be some older guys who are worse with the chirps,&rdquo; said teen idol Tyler Seguin. &ldquo;But Marchy&rsquo;s usually right there getting his nose into it as well.&rdquo;</p><p>No pun on Marchand&rsquo;s prodigious proboscis intended, we&rsquo;ll assume. But the mouthy little winger with the heart of a lion knows he can take it as well as he can give it. For example, Marchand recently found the cuffs of his pants sewn shut. And his naming as one of Boston&rsquo;s 25 most stylish people by the <i>Globe</i> newspaper became a source of disbelief for teammate Seguin. &ldquo;Segs can&rsquo;t really comment because he&rsquo;s still rocking Abercrombie & Fitch and American Eagle stuff from back in junior high,&rdquo; Marchand said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got a long ways to go, but he&rsquo;ll get there some day.&rdquo;</p><p>Once again, Marchand gets the last word in.</p><h2><b>CHRISTMAS GIFTS</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-03435/9616753-1-eng-US/f0040-032.jpg" title="f0040-03" width="684" height="571"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-04350/9616746-1-eng-US/f0040-042.jpg" title="f0040-04" width="305" height="508"></div><p><b>Tyler Seguin</b> leads the Bruins in goals and points, but could use a more reliable alarm clock from Santa. Despite his scoring prowess, the sophomore NHLer was made a healthy scratch against Winnipeg Dec. 6 after missing a team meeting. It wasn&rsquo;t the first time he&rsquo;d done so, GM Peter Chiarelli said, leaving the organization little choice but to punish him.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-05297/9616739-1-eng-US/f0040-052.jpg" title="f0040-05" width="684" height="539"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-06259/9616732-1-eng-US/f0040-062.jpg" title="f0040-06" width="305" height="509"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MILLER: RICHARD WOLOWICZ/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>Ryan Miller&rsquo;s</b> Christmas wish list includes a mask that will stay securely on his head. Miller redesigned his helmet this year after a Dion Phaneuf slapshot concussed him last March, but the new model pops off his noggin too easily &ndash; including during his infamous run-in with Boston&rsquo;s Milan Lucic and twice during a Dec. 7 loss to Philadelphia.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-07225/9616725-1-eng-US/f0040-072.jpg" title="f0040-07" width="684" height="539"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-08193/9616718-1-eng-US/f0040-082.jpg" title="f0040-08" width="304" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GOMEZ: FRANCOIS LACASSE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The Canadiens are wishing for an amnesty clause in the next NHL labor deal to dump the contract of <b>Scott Gomez</b>. His $7.4-million cap hit doesn&rsquo;t come off Montreal&rsquo;s books for two more seasons and, although injuries shelved him for more than half the Habs&rsquo; games, he was still goal-less in 13 contests, with just four assists and a minus-3 rating.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-09142/9616711-1-eng-US/f0040-092.jpg" title="f0040-09" width="684" height="539"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-10128/9616704-1-eng-US/f0040-102.jpg" title="f0040-10" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(FILATOV: PHILLIP MACCALLUM/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Left winger <b>Nikita Filatov</b> hopes Santa brings him some steady NHL playing time &ndash; or a plane ticket to his native Russia. The 21-year-old was a healthy scratch for three straight games in early December, prompting speculation he could reject another demotion to the AHL and leave for the KHL to play for his hometown CSKA Moscow team.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-11113/9616697-1-eng-US/f0040-112.jpg" title="f0040-11" width="684" height="539"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-12102/9616690-1-eng-US/f0040-122.jpg" title="f0040-12" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MARCHAND+SEGUIN+SCHENN: GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>Luke Schenn</b> would love a return to the solid play last season that landed him a five-year, $18-million contract. Rookie Jake Gardiner&rsquo;s breakout year has knocked major minutes off Schenn&rsquo;s ice time &ndash; he&rsquo;s down nearly six minutes a night from 2010-11 &ndash; but, interestingly, with nine assists and 10 points Schenn&rsquo;s on pace to set career highs in both those areas.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0040-01

Motormouth Madness

<div class="byline">&#x2013; LUKE DECOCK</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0041-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01764/9616889-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon012.jpg" title="common01" width="110" height="125"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-02495/9616875-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg" title="f0041-02" width="605" height="675"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>KIRK MULLER</b> <span class="photo-credit">(MULLER: GREGG FORWERCK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>W</span>hen he retired from the NHL, Kirk Muller heeded Bob Gainey&rsquo;s advice. He took a year off. He went hunting and fishing, spent time with his family and visited childhood friends.</p><p>After that, he decided to keep working in hockey, just as his teammates expected after a 19-year career that saw him win a Stanley Cup in 1993 with Montreal and captain two teams.</p><p>Muller started in his hometown of Kingston, Ont., spending one year as coach at Queens University before his old teammate Guy Carbonneau, then the newly promoted coach of the Canadiens, came calling in the summer of 2006. &ldquo;I had other candidates, but the one thing that I liked about Kirky was his passion for the game,&rdquo; Carbonneau said. &ldquo;I knew he had that in him. He fit the mold.&rdquo;</p><p>Muller remained in Montreal under Jacques Martin as an assistant after Carbonneau&rsquo;s firing in 2009 and interviewed for NHL head coaching jobs this past summer before taking over the American League&rsquo;s Milwaukee Admirals.</p><p>In late November, the struggling Carolina Hurricanes picked Muller to replace Paul Maurice. The main reason: His passion for the game.</p><p>His message to his new team was a clean slate for everyone. &ldquo;I just asked them to be accountable to each other, work hard, come with some energy,&rdquo; Muller said. &ldquo;Have some fun and play hard.&rdquo;</p><p>In other words, play the same way Muller did.</p><h2><b>CHRISTMAS GIFTS</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-03402/9616868-1-eng-US/f0041-032.jpg" title="f0041-03" width="684" height="571"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-04348/9616861-1-eng-US/f0041-042.jpg" title="f0041-04" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GLEASON: FRANCOIS LACASSE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Carolina&rsquo;s plus-minus stats look more like the leaderboard at The Masters. With only <b>Tim Gleason</b> holding a positive rating, the Canes desperately need more goals and better defensive play. Cam Ward&rsquo;s gift giving during a recent stretch also didn&rsquo;t help. From the start of November through the first week of December, he posted a 3.82 goals-against average.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-05315/9616854-1-eng-US/f0041-052.jpg" title="f0041-05" width="684" height="539"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-06273/9616847-1-eng-US/f0041-062.jpg" title="f0041-06" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BERGENHEIM: GRAIG ABEL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The Panthers&rsquo; first line and top defense pair have generated plenty of goals, but what about the rest of the lineup? Aside from Dmitry Kulikov, they&rsquo;ve lacked offensive support. They need Santa to return a little magic to the stickblade of <b>Sean Bergenheim</b> (four points in 20 games) and give them a push toward their first playoff appearance in 11 years.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-07235/9616840-1-eng-US/f0041-072.jpg" title="f0041-07" width="684" height="539"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-08181/9616833-1-eng-US/f0041-082.jpg" title="f0041-08" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ROLOSON: ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>When you rely on a 42-year-old goaltender to succeed, you&rsquo;re playing with fire. The Lightning have allowed the fourth-most goals in the NHL, largely because <b>Dwayne Roloson</b> hasn&rsquo;t been himself. GM Steve Yzerman must be asking Santa to make Roloson 41 again. Meanwhile, Tampa castoff Mike Smith is enjoying a career year between the pipes in Phoenix.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-09132/9616826-1-eng-US/f0041-092.jpg" title="f0041-09" width="684" height="539"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-10105/9616819-1-eng-US/f0041-102.jpg" title="f0041-10" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(OVECHKIN: MARIANNE HELM/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>How about a retro party mix CD for <b>Alex Ovechkin</b> to get the superstar boogeying like he used to? Even a coaching change didn&rsquo;t have an immediate impact. He had just one goal in his first five games with Dale Hunter at the helm and was limited to one shot on net twice. Nicklas Backstrom, however, had four points in five games under his new boss.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-1185/9616812-1-eng-US/f0041-112.jpg" title="f0041-11" width="684" height="539"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-1270/9616805-1-eng-US/f0041-122.jpg" title="f0041-12" width="304" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ENSTROM: LANCE THOMSON/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGE)</span></figcaption></div><p>The Jets got an early present when the league realigned and put them in a conference that eases their travel burden, but they need something else to get them through this season. After losing D-men <b>Tobias Enstrom</b>, Randy Jones and Ron Hainsey to injury, and going through 12 &lsquo;D&rsquo; already by early December, they could use a vaccine for the injury bug.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0041-01

Kirk Captain Of New Ship

<div class="byline">BY RORY BOYLEN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0042-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-02521/9616920-1-eng-US/f0042-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>BRIAN ELLIOTT</b> <span class="photo-credit">(ELLIOTT: JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon012.jpg" title="common01" width="110" height="125"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01812/9616927-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="228" height="169"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>W</span><b>hen you think of</b> St. Louis&rsquo; goaltending, you think of Jaroslav Halak and his grand potential should he somehow find the magic that pushed him and the Montreal Canadiens to the 2010 Eastern Conference final. Entering this season, when you talked about Blues goaltenders, you might have laughed at any suggestion Brian Elliott would have a positive impact.</p><p>But here we are at the holiday season and Elliott has been by far the better of the Blues goalies. After the year from hell he endured with Ottawa and Colorado in 2010-11 (3.34 goals-against average, .893 save percentage) it wasn&rsquo;t even a lock that Elliott would continue to be an NHLer, especially after he signed as a free agent with the Blues. With Halak locked in as the No. 1 and 25-year-old giant Ben Bishop champing to get his shot, Elliott would have to earn every inch if he was to stick with the big club. &ldquo;We were looking for someone to come in and provide good competition for Ben Bishop, who is a young goalie pushing on the doorstep here,&rdquo; said Blues GM Doug Armstrong. &ldquo;They both signed similar contracts and I thought there was going to be good competition and, honestly, there was in training camp. We decided to go with Elliott due to the experience he&rsquo;s had over the past few years and, to his credit, he got the opportunity to get in the net in San Jose and played outstanding and hasn&rsquo;t looked back.&rdquo;</p><p>And he has looked over his shoulders much to locate pucks, either. In fact, when Elliott made 34 saves in a 4-2 win over San Jose Oct. 15 it was the beginning of an historic streak. In all 11 starts between the San Jose game and a 2-1 win over Columbus Nov. 27, Elliott allowed two goals or fewer, becoming the first goalie in 70 years to go on such a streak at the start of a season. In 1938-39, Boston&rsquo;s Frank Brimsek held opponents to that low standard for his first 12 starts.</p><p>It wasn&rsquo;t until Elliott allowed four goals in a loss to Chicago in his 12th start that his streak was broken. But instead of letting it get to him, Elliott followed it up with a 27-save performance in a 3-2 win over division rival and NHL powerhouse Detroit.</p><p>To ensure his great start doesn&rsquo;t go to his head or the first slip-up doesn&rsquo;t lead to a decline, Elliott keeps it simple with an eye on the basics to help him in the long run. &ldquo;I talked about it with our goalie coach here, Corey Hirsch, as we were winning some games,&rdquo; Elliott said. &ldquo;He said, &lsquo;go home, think about what you&rsquo;re doing right now and maybe write some things down that you think are giving you success.&rsquo; When you focus on those little things &ndash; maybe your shoulders are relaxed or your hands are relaxed and you&rsquo;re not too uptight in your net &ndash; those are the types of things you have to keep in mind. Then you don&rsquo;t have to focus on stats &ndash; you just go play your game.&rdquo;</p><p>Through early December, Elliott topped all goalies with a 1.56 GAA and .944 SP and posted a sparkling 11-2 record. But stats aren&rsquo;t the only potential peripheral distraction. It&rsquo;s a contract year, so Elliott is playing for a new deal, whether it&rsquo;s with St. Louis or another NHL team. Elliott and Armstrong both believe it&rsquo;s too early to think about his contract status, though if he continues to play this well, the Blues will be faced with a tough choice. &ldquo;The way he&rsquo;s playing right now looks legitimate,&rdquo; Armstrong said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll let the year play itself out and we&rsquo;ll have hard decisions to make. But hard decisions are much better to make as a manager than easy decisions. You like having hard decisions because that means you have a lot of players playing well.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0042-02

Brian’s Big Breakthrough

<div class="byline">&#x2013; TIM SASSONE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01794/9617073-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon012.jpg" title="common01" width="110" height="125"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02546/9617066-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg" title="f0043-02" width="597" height="702"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>MARIAN HOSSA</b> <span class="photo-credit">(HOSSA: DALE MACMILLAN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>O</span>n a Blackhawks team where Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane get most of the attention and headlines on and off the ice, Marian Hossa quietly goes about his job as one of coach Joel Quenneville&rsquo;s most important players.</p><p>How vital is Hossa to the Hawks? When Kane started the season at center scoring regularly, Hossa was his right winger. When Toews began piling up points in November, the hot streak came after Quenneville moved Hossa to the captain&rsquo;s line. Coincidence? Hardly. &ldquo;He has been excellent this year,&rdquo; Quenneville said. &ldquo;He has been a consistent offensive threat, has the puck a lot, has recognition of plays and defensively he seems to kill a lot of plays. His positioning is strong, he&rsquo;s strong in the puck area and he complements our special teams as well. A lot of times he&rsquo;s a driving force.&rdquo;</p><p>Hossa&rsquo;s season began in the worst possible way, with the death of best friend Pavol Demitra in the horrific Lokomotiv plane crash in Russia. Several days later, Hossa went from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs when his first child was born, a daughter, in Slovakia.</p><p>Hossa said the birth of his daughter has put his life and hockey career in perspective. &ldquo;The priorities change,&rdquo; Hossa said. &ldquo;I feel now even if I have a great game or a bad game, I come home and I look at the baby and I forget about everything. That&rsquo;s my world right now. It helps me to take the pressure off my mind and I can enjoy it.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>CHRISTMAS GIFTS</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-03455/9617059-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg" title="f0043-03" width="684" height="571"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-04349/9617052-1-eng-US/f0043-042.jpg" title="f0043-04" width="305" height="508"></div><p>A (temporary) trip out of Chicago is the perfect gift for <b>Jonathan Toews</b>. In his first 15 road games, the Blackhawks captain led the NHL with 20 points, including 10 goals. Toews&rsquo; torrid road pace and overall NHL assist leader Patrick Kane&rsquo;s giving spirit helped tie Toews with Phil Kessel for the NHL&rsquo;s goal-scoring lead in early December.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-05304/9617045-1-eng-US/f0043-052.jpg" title="f0043-05" width="684" height="539"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-06251/9617038-1-eng-US/f0043-062.jpg" title="f0043-06" width="305" height="508"></div><p>The Blue Jackets thought the Flyers gave them exactly what they wanted in <b>Jeff Carter</b>. But Columbus&rsquo; new top center hasn&rsquo;t taken flight. Between foot and ankle injuries, Carter scored just three times in 15 games. Shooting at 5.9 percent was partly to blame. Barring a return to health and stunning surge, Carter&rsquo;s streak of 30-goal seasons will end at three.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-07214/9617031-1-eng-US/f0043-072.jpg" title="f0043-07" width="684" height="539"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-08166/9617024-1-eng-US/f0043-082.jpg" title="f0043-08" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(TOEWS+CARTER+HUDLER: JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The Red Wings got their holiday wish for less travel and better game times with realignment. But they could also use something to help struggling center <b>Jiri Hudler.</b> His two goals in 24 games put him on a career-worst pace. His PP ice time is up from last year, but just 16.7 percent of his points came with the man advantage. His lifetime mark is 35.8.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-09125/9617017-1-eng-US/f0043-092.jpg" title="f0043-09" width="684" height="539"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-10110/9617010-1-eng-US/f0043-102.jpg" title="f0043-10" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(SUTER: ANDY DEVLIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>GM David Poile started his shopping in November, wrapping up goalie Pekka Rinne with a seven-year, $49-million pact, but his work isn&rsquo;t finished. Nashville would love new contracts for pending unrestricted free agent defenseman <b>Ryan Suter</b> and his partner, soon-tobe RFA Shea Weber. The two combined for 37 points and a plus-25 through 27 games.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1195/9617003-1-eng-US/f0043-112.jpg" title="f0043-11" width="684" height="539"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1284/9616996-1-eng-US/f0043-122.jpg" title="f0043-12" width="305" height="509"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PERRON: PHILLIP MACCALLUM/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Ken Hitchcock has brought joy to St. Louis, but the Blues still badly need power play help. The team has plodded along at an NHL-worst 9.2 percent with the man advantage. <b>David Perron&rsquo;s</b> return from a concussion will help, but Chris Stewart must improve on his one power play goal in 23 games. He had seven in 26 games with St. Louis last year.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0043-01

Windy City Wingman

<div class="byline">&#x2013; ADRIAN DATER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0044-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01689/9617188-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon012.jpg" title="common01" width="110" height="125"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-1260/9617181-1-eng-US/f0044-122.jpg" title="f0044-12" width="330" height="384"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>MILAN HEJDUK</b> <span class="photo-credit">(HEJDUK: RICH LAM/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>I</span>t&rsquo;s a little late in the game for nicknames with Milan Hejduk, but &lsquo;Lasik&rsquo; isn&rsquo;t bad. All he does is go 20/20. The Colorado Avalanche right winger has 11 straight 20-goal/20 assist seasons, tied with icon Joe Sakic for the franchise record and trailing only Calgary&rsquo;s Jarome Iginla (12) among active streaks. Through 27 games, Hejduk&rsquo;s nine goals easily put him on pace for 20.</p><p>Along the way, he&rsquo;s picked up another nickname of sorts: &lsquo;Cap.&rsquo; Last month, he was named Colorado&rsquo;s third captain since the franchise relocated from Quebec in 1995, a deserved honor for the well-liked, well-respected Czech who barely spoke a word of English when he joined the Avs in 1998. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s been really great wearing the &lsquo;C,&rsquo; better than I&rsquo;d imagined, really,&rdquo; said Hejduk, 35. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s just so much tradition in wearing it and it&rsquo;s an honor.&rdquo;</p><p>Hejduk is still effective because he&rsquo;s always kept himself in great shape, staying lean and quick. His hands, which former Avs coach Bob Hartley routinely referred to as &ldquo;magical,&rdquo; are still fast and skilled.</p><p>No longer the sniper who led the NHL with 50 goals in 2002-03, Hejduk remains reliable for at least 20. While knee, back, groin and shoulder injuries hampered him at times the past two years, he&rsquo;s recovered. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m to the point now where it&rsquo;s probably year-by-year in my career,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I still really enjoy the game and we&rsquo;ve got a lot of young players who are going to get better. So, it&rsquo;s still fun to be around.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>CHRISTMAS GIFTS</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-02436/9617174-1-eng-US/f0044-022.jpg" title="f0044-02" width="684" height="571"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-03328/9617167-1-eng-US/f0044-032.jpg" title="f0044-03" width="305" height="509"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(SARICH: BRAD WATSON/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The Flames desperately need a nasty Grinch or two on the blueline. With its top two hitters sidelined (injured Mark Giordano and healthy scratch <b>Cory Sarich</b>), Calgary&rsquo;s defensive corps is easily the most passive in the league, averaging less than four hits per game. The Dallas blueline leads the NHL at 11.23 hits per game. The league average is about 8.0.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-04264/9617160-1-eng-US/f0044-042.jpg" title="f0044-04" width="684" height="539"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-05224/9617153-1-eng-US/f0044-052.jpg" title="f0044-05" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(SHERMAN: MICHAEL MARTIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>GM <b>Greg Sherman</b> could use a mulligan on the Christmas-spirit gift of a trade he made with Washington in June. The Avs gave up a first round draft pick (and a second or third) for enigmatic Semyon Varlamov. The 23-year-old stopper didn&rsquo;t rank among the top 30 in goals-against average or save percentage and that first pick could be a lottery spot.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-06196/9617146-1-eng-US/f0044-062.jpg" title="f0044-06" width="684" height="539"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-07170/9617139-1-eng-US/f0044-072.jpg" title="f0044-07" width="305" height="509"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PETRY: ANDY DEVLIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>If Christmas is the giving season, the Oilers have been preaching the generous word all season long. Edmonton ranks first in giveaways, which can be attributed to a youthful and creative-thinking lineup. The Oilers will win more frequently when they give the puck away less. Sophomore <b>Jeff Petry</b> ranks second in the league in giveaways per game.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-08127/9617132-1-eng-US/f0044-082.jpg" title="f0044-08" width="684" height="539"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0992/9617125-1-eng-US/f0044-092.jpg" title="f0044-09" width="305" height="508"></div><p>The Wild don&rsquo;t rely on <b>Nick Schultz</b> for offense, but it has been almost a calendar year since the stay-at-home defenseman notched a goal. Schultz scored in Minnesota&rsquo;s first game of 2011 &ndash; a Jan. 2 win over Phoenix &ndash; but has been blanked in 68 games since. What a Christmas present it would be if the 10-year veteran closed the year off with a goal.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-1080/9617118-1-eng-US/f0044-102.jpg" title="f0044-10" width="684" height="539"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-1168/9617111-1-eng-US/f0044-112.jpg" title="f0044-11" width="305" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(SHULTZ+BIEKSA: JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The Canucks would love to see a shot blocker under the tree, or at least in front of their goalies. Blocking shots is not a priority for skaters under coach Alain Vigneault. In fact, Vancouver has slipped from 19th to 22nd to 24th to 25th the past four years and sits 30th in 2011-12. <b>Kevin Bieksa</b> is first on the team, but doesn&rsquo;t rank among the league&rsquo;s top 60.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0044-01

Hejduk Caps Great Career

<div class="byline">&#x2013; ALEX MANSFIELD</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0045-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-01601/9617303-1-eng-US/f0045-012.jpg"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon012.jpg" title="common01" width="110" height="125"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-02399/9617296-1-eng-US/f0045-022.jpg" title="f0045-02" width="597" height="688"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>BRENT BURNS</b></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>I</span>magining an 11-year-old getting a tattoo likely conjures the image of a sheepish youngster sneaking home, freshly branded flesh concealed under clothing, avoiding Mom and Dad. Not so with San Jose&rsquo;s Brent Burns. &ldquo;My parents asked me if I wanted one,&rdquo; Burns says. &ldquo;As long as it wasn&rsquo;t some bonehead tattoo, they were fine with (it).&rdquo;</p><p>With that Burns began his love affair with ink. His heavily tattooed body immortalizes his always growing palette of fascinations, paying tribute to, among other things, his Canadian heritage, his grandfather, Japanese culture, Lance Armstrong, Harry Potter and&hellip;er&hellip;the Wild.</p><p>Regarding the latter, Burns is quick to dismiss the conflict of interest and give his gratitude. &ldquo;Minnesota was my first team, so it&rsquo;s a huge part of my life,&rdquo; says Burns, who signed a five-year, $28.8-million extension with the Sharks in August after a summer trade. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what a tattoo is: It&rsquo;s to represent a huge time in your life and to never regret it.&rdquo;</p><p>Nor does he regret being dealt to the Bay Area over the off-season. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s been great,&rdquo; said Burns, who had eight points in 23 games. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s pretty hard to start everything new, but the organization&rsquo;s been unbelievable. I&rsquo;ve had a lot of fun and it&rsquo;s a great group of guys&hellip;&rdquo;</p><p>Suddenly a sharp jab to the ribs forces the 6-foot-5, 230-pounder to catch his balance. &ldquo;Other than that (Ryane) Clowe guy,&rdquo; he continues, smirking at his assailant. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s miserable.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>CHRISTMAS GIFTS</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-03337/9617289-1-eng-US/f0045-032.jpg" title="f0045-03" width="684" height="571"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-04293/9617282-1-eng-US/f0045-042.jpg" title="f0045-04" width="305" height="508"></div><p>It&rsquo;s simple, but everyone in Anaheim could use a nice, warm blanket this season. The ice-cold Ducks have been a disaster and though the <b>Bobby Ryan</b> trade rumors took a back seat to the firing of coach Randy Carlyle (and hiring of Bruce Boudreau), nerves have been fraying. Even mild-mannered Jonas Hiller popped off in the press at one point.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-05256/9617275-1-eng-US/f0045-052.jpg" title="f0045-05" width="684" height="539"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-06221/9617268-1-eng-US/f0045-062.jpg" title="f0045-06" width="305" height="509"></div><p>All GM Joe Nieuwendyk needs right now is a pen (maybe a fancy one). With new owner Tom Gaglardi willing to invest in talent, it&rsquo;s time to bust out the checkbook for a team that has continued to play well even with netminder <b>Kari Lehtonen</b> injured. With nearly $12 million in cap space, Dallas can augment an already cookin&rsquo; lineup and get back to the playoffs.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-07194/9617261-1-eng-US/f0045-072.jpg" title="f0045-07" width="684" height="539"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-08123/9617254-1-eng-US/f0045-082.jpg" title="f0045-08" width="305" height="508"></div><p>The Kings may as well ask for a stretcher for the holidays, since they&rsquo;re basically renting to own one this year. <b>Mike Richards</b> is the latest IR casualty and at different points in the first quarter the team has missed Drew Doughty, Dustin Penner and Simon Gagne. That lineup flux has contributed to mediocre results in what was supposed to be a breakout season.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-0988/9617247-1-eng-US/f0045-092.jpg" title="f0045-09" width="684" height="539"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-1071/9617240-1-eng-US/f0045-102.jpg" title="f0045-10" width="301" height="508"></div><p>Apparently the signage outside <a href="http://Jobing.com">Jobing.com</a> Arena isn&rsquo;t very effective, because the high-flying Yotes have the lowest average attendance in the NHL. Maybe Santa can help? <b>Radim Vrbata</b> and Ray Whitney led the team in scoring, with Vrbata on the best points pace of his career. Phoenix topped the Pacific Division, but still can&rsquo;t draw flies.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-1157/9617233-1-eng-US/f0045-112.jpg" title="f0045-11" width="684" height="539"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-1247/9617226-1-eng-US/f0045-122.jpg" title="f0045-12" width="305" height="491"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ALL: HARRY HOW/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Based on their road play, the whole Sharks lineup deserves new matching luggage. <b>Joe Thornton</b> was leading the offensive charge away from home, with 13 points in 10 games. The irony of San Jose&rsquo;s success on the road is that HP Pavilion is often talked of as one of the few new buildings tough on visitors. The Sharks are just middling at home.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0045-01

Burns Branded

<div class="byline">BY CHRISTINE GOSSELIN</div><p>Y<b>ou may have never</b> heard of Glen Green, but chances are you&rsquo;ve owned a small piece of the sports artist&rsquo;s work.</p><p>Green, a North Vancouver native, was commissioned by the Royal Canadian Mint to design 12 quarters featuring 10 Olympic and two Paralympic sports. They were released prior to the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and there are 264 million coins in circulation today.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b>I&rsquo;ve painted Ovechkin, Crosby and now alumni</b><br><b><i>&ndash; Glen Green</i></b></blockquote><p>Green designed the Mint&rsquo;s 2011 Wayne Gretzky commemorative coin, too. But the self-taught artist is also renowned for his &ldquo;Sportstraits&rdquo; (rhymes with portraits), detailed water-colored paintings of sports personalities. The pieces consist of a loose wash backdrop giving a feeling of motion, perfectly suited for hockey.</p><p>Over the years, Green has painted many hockey greats, such as &lsquo;The Great One,&rsquo; Guy Lafleur and Gordie Howe, and was flattered when asked by the NHL and the NHL Players&rsquo; Association to paint the Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; Ring of Honour &ndash; a selected group of players given an honorable mention for falling short of jersey retirement &ndash; for the team&rsquo;s 40th anniversary. &ldquo;They called me and I went in for a meeting,&rdquo; Green said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m guessing they had heard of me. We talked and ended up doing the four Ring of Honour players (Orland Kurtenbach, Kirk McLean, Thomas Gradin and Harold Snepsts).&rdquo;</p><p>Green, 55, has been a professional artist since 1982 and was inspired by famous painters Norman Rockwell and Ken Danby. He perfected his art, giving his figures a realistic, almost photographic nature. While painting became a full-time job, Green got his family involved in earlier projects. When his son Carson was seven, he posed for his father for a collectable plate. &ldquo;I am in a plate called &lsquo;He Shoots He Scores,&rsquo;&rdquo; Carson said. &ldquo;My friends found it fascinating to come over and watch the process.&rdquo;</p><p>Green believes his paintings exude the excitement of an NHL game. He mixes realism with a contemporary-style background that creates the illusion of movement and portrays the fast-paced speed of the sport. In December 2010, the hockey artist was thrilled to present a painting to former Canuck Markus Naslund during his retirement ceremony at center ice, experiencing first-hand the intensity of the game.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-01607/9617348-1-eng-US/f0046-012.jpg" title="f0046-01" width="941" height="1489"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>HALLOWED HOWE</b></p><p><b>Glen Green&rsquo;s paintings have frozen many all-time greats in time &ndash; including Mr. Hockey.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(HOWE: COURTESY OF GLEN GREEN)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-02394/9617341-1-eng-US/f0046-022.jpg" title="f0046-02" width="470" height="466"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(COIN: ROYAL CANADIAN MINT)</span></figcaption></div><p>Green still enjoys the creative process he goes through with the new faces of the game. Now licensed by the NHL and NHLPA to paint anyone in the league, Green draws from photographs he carefully picks out to give a true sense of the player. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve done Ovechkin and I&rsquo;ve painted Crosby and I&rsquo;m getting to do all the (NHL) guys plus all the alumni, too,&rdquo; Green said. &ldquo;I did a piece on Luongo a while ago and hooked up with him and he signed it.&rdquo;</p><p>All Green&rsquo;s paintings, including the 2011 NHL player and logo collection, are available on <a href="http://greatsportsart.com">greatsportsart.com</a>, which offers a full gallery of his artwork. Many of the pieces have been signed by the athletes and auctioned off for charities and special events. Among the auto-graphed paintings, one of legendary comedian Bob Hope sold for $18,000 a few years ago. Green noticed some go for high prices, especially if it&rsquo;s a Gretzky or an Orr.</p><p>The pieces can also be purchased online, but until then, the majority of Canadians can reach into their pockets and appreciate Green&rsquo;s artwork on a smaller medium. &ldquo;You get recognition when you do things like the Royal Canadian Mint coins and the paintings for the Ring of Honour,&rdquo; Green said. &ldquo;It always brings your name out and that&rsquo;s great.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0046-01

Water-Colored Ice Men

<div class="byline">BY DAVID SALTER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0047-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-01549/9617379-1-eng-US/f0047-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>LAUGHING MATTER</b></p><p><b>Dennis Hull&rsquo;s famously sharp wit spawned a public speaking career after his playing days.</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(THN ARCHIVES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span><b>he future looked bleak</b> for the Chicago Black Hawks entering 1972-73. They had qualified for the Stanley Cup final two years earlier, but their superstar, Bobby &lsquo;The Golden Jet&rsquo; Hull, had signed with the World Hockey Association&rsquo;s Winnipeg Jets in the summer and left a seemingly irreplaceable void in Chicago&rsquo;s lineup.</p><p>Hull, 33 at the time, was fresh off his fifth 50-goal season and his absence would assuredly cause the Black Hawks to struggle offensively. Chicago&rsquo;s attack took another hit in February 1973 when Stan Mikita broke a bone in his foot and was sidelined for a quarter of the season. But something strange happened: despite the absence of Hull, and to a lesser degree Mikita (who had 83 points in 57 games), the Black Hawks actually scored 28 more goals in 1972-73 than they did in 1971-72 and fought their way to their second Stanley Cup final appearance versus the Montreal Canadiens in three years.</p><p>Coincidentally, one of the biggest contributors to the Black Hawks&rsquo; surprising scoring surge was none other than the Golden Jet&rsquo;s kid brother, 27-year-old Dennis. The younger Hull, along with linemates Pit Martin and Jim Pappin, carried the Hawks offense, as each hit the 90-point plateau, and Hull claimed second-team all-star status at left wing. &ldquo;Coming into the season, with Bobby gone, we thought the team would struggle (offensively) too,&rdquo; said Hull, who scored 640 points in parts of 13 seasons with Chicago. &ldquo;But our line got more ice time and we took full advantage. Before we had always played behind Bobby&rsquo;s line and Stan&rsquo;s line and now we were getting more ice time and our numbers went up.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b>Without Bobby, we expected to struggle</b><br><b><i>&ndash; Dennis Hull</i></b></blockquote><p>Hull also believes his participation in the Summit Series versus the Soviets sharpened his skills. &ldquo;Instead of having a typical training camp which is kind of lackadaisical, it was like being in the Stanley Cup final before the season started,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;(Team Canada) players were at a high level when we came back from Moscow and it seemed to carry over.&rdquo;</p><p>Always a strong playoff performer, Hull&rsquo;s career year continued into the spring as he finished second in playoff scoring with 24 points, one behind the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; Yvan Cournoyer. Although Chicago seemingly didn&rsquo;t miss big brother Bobby&rsquo;s scoring touch, Dennis admits Bobby&rsquo;s presence in the lineup &ldquo;probably&rdquo; would have been enough to lift the Black Hawks to a Cup victory in 1973.</p><p>Dennis never reached the final again and says he would trade his victory over the Soviets for a Stanley Cup ring &ldquo;any day.&rdquo;</p><p>While Hull said the 12-month period starting in September of 1972 was the most memorable year of his career, his swan song with the Red Wings in 1977-78, when he had just 14 points in 55 games, was one he&rsquo;d like to forget. Hull had retired from the Black Hawks in 1977, but was talked into joining the Red Wings by family friend Ted Lindsay, then Detroit&rsquo;s GM. &ldquo;If I had to do it over, I never would have gone,&rdquo; admitted Hull, adding his head wasn&rsquo;t into the game in Detroit.</p><p>In his final days with Chicago, a jarring hit by Blues defenseman Barclay Plager caused him to flip over and land on his back, leaving his arms and legs numb for a short time. &ldquo;I had nightmares every night about it and when you&rsquo;re thinking about something like that you can&rsquo;t play,&rdquo; Hull said. &ldquo;It was stupid to try to play like that because you&rsquo;re thinking about getting hit all the time,&rdquo;</p><p>These days Hull is known more for his one-liners than one-timers. The 67-year-old is an after-dinner speaker throughout North America, averaging one gig a week. He has become so proficient telling jokes, he even hosted the Winnipeg Comedy Festival recently. &ldquo;I love it,&rdquo; Hull said after a charity event in Nova Scotia for the Acadia University hockey team. &ldquo;If I didn&rsquo;t make it as a hockey player, I think I would have been a comedian years ago.&rdquo;</p><p>FOR MORE TALES OF PAST HOCKEY GREATS, CLICK ON <b><a href="http://THN.COM/BACKCHECKING">THN.COM/BACKCHECKING</a></b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0047-01

Little Brother, Big Star

<div class="byline">By Larry Humber</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-01392/9617410-1-eng-US/f0049-012.jpg" title="f0049-01" width="909" height="909"></div><p><b>ANSWERS AVAILABLE IN THE NEXT ISSUE AND AT</b> <a href="http://THN.com/XWORD">THN.com/xword</a></p><h2><b>ACROSS</b></h2><p>1 Steven ___ was drafted first overall in 2008</p><p>4 ___ Ley was once a Leaf</p><p>7 Alex ___ is in net in Ottawa</p><p>8 Defensive formation used when two men down</p><p>10 He&rsquo;s GM in Detroit</p><p>12 Tried to avoid getting hit, ___ away from</p><p>13 Color once worn by the Devils</p><p>14 He was the first captain in Kansas City (and won a Cup in Philly)</p><p>18 Covers very closely</p><p>19 The NCAA&rsquo;s big event is the Frozen ___</p><p>20 ___ Backes is with the Blues</p><p>21 Celebrations for championship teams</p><h2><b>DOWN</b></h2><p>1 To ___ the pads is to place one atop the other</p><p>2 Philly is in this NHL division</p><p>3 Where Ray Bourque played his junior hockey</p><p>4 ___ ___-Hopkins was first choice in 2011</p><p>5 The net</p><p>6 He&rsquo;s GM in Tampa</p><p>9 Fooled</p><p>11 Kyle ___ is now with the Jets, pictured</p><p>12 Speared</p><p>15 Leading: 2 words</p><p>16 Toronto&rsquo;s WHA team</p><p>17 __ and Kenny Albert are New York-based announcers</p><p><b>LAST WEEK&rsquo;S CROSSWORD SOLUTION ACROSS</b> 1. BACKES, 4. MARCEL, 9. NOODLES, 10. HARRY, 11. SHERO, 12. LEMAIRE, 13. SLOT, 15. CAGE, 18. STANDUP, 21. NORTH, 23. ARENA, 24. GARTNER, 25. ASSIST, 26. CLASSY <b>DOWN</b> 1. BANISH, 2. CLOWE, 3. ELLIOTT, 5. ASHAM, 6. CURLING, 7. LEYDEN, 8. USHL, 14. LEADERS, 15. CENTRAL, 16. OSHAWA, 17. CHERRY, 19. DRAWS, 20. PAGE, 22. RINKS<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0049-01

CROSSWORD

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-02293/9617441-1-eng-US/f0049-022.jpg" title="f0049-02" width="908" height="1183"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BAST: LEWIS PORTNOY/HHOF)</span></figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-04208/9617448-1-eng-US/f0049-042.jpg" title="f0049-04" width="136" height="136"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p><b>Boston Bruins superstar Phil Esposito finds out what a St. Louis sandwich tastes like circa 1973.</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0049-02

Blast from the Past from The Hockey Hall of Fame

<div class="byline">&#x2013; RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-03227/9617479-1-eng-US/f0049-032.jpg" title="f0049-03" width="622" height="634"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JERSEY HOUND: SHERBROOKE PHOENIX)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>here&rsquo;s a long history of hockey in Sherbrooke, Que., from the Castors to the Faucons and Canadiens. Next season, the Phoenix will get a shot at sticking in the Quebec League and they&rsquo;ll be doing it in style when it comes to uniforms.</p><p>Much like a lot of ECHL teams lately, Sherbrooke has gone with a non-cartoony logo, one that looks very slick and professional. The bird mascot is original and the whole logo would look great on a hat &ndash; always a good indicator. The colors are nice and nothing&rsquo;s garish about the design in any way.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0049-03

JerseyHound

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-01378/9617517-1-eng-US/f0050-012.jpg" title="f0050-01" width="283" height="495"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>M</span><b>y father died of lung cancer</b> in 1999 at the age of 70. He spent much of his early working life toiling in the smelter and sintering plant at Inco in Sudbury, doing some of the dirtiest jobs imaginable in the mining industry and filling his lungs with all sorts of terrible things. Ken Campbell Sr., also started smoking when he was 11. He smoked three packages of cigarettes a day &ndash; often waking up several times during the night to light up &ndash; and he didn&rsquo;t take very good care of himself.</p><p>My father worked with men who never smoked a day in their lives, yet died of lung cancer and lung disease because of exposure to toxins in their workplace. But not for one second do I blame my father&rsquo;s work environment for his death. In my mind, he died long before he should have because he chose to smoke at a very young age and was never able to shake his addiction. (&ldquo;I can quit smoking any time I want,&rdquo; he often said to me. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve done it a thousand of times.&rdquo;)</p><p>When news came out on the state of Derek Boogaard&rsquo;s brain when he died this past spring at age 28, followed by the hockey establishment&rsquo;s reaction to the findings of a team of researchers from Boston University, I thought about my father. Sure, there&rsquo;s a chance he could have done irreversible damage to his lungs while breathing in all sorts of toxic particles at work. But regardless of your circumstances, when you smoke heavily for the better part of six decades you pretty much forfeit the right to blame your lung cancer on anything but your own destructive habit.</p><p>The pro-fighting establishment and the NHL, which clings to its justification of fighting, cautioned against jumping to the conclusion the fact Boogaard&rsquo;s brain had what researchers described as a shocking amount of damage from chronic traumatic encephalopathy necessarily had anything to do with the repeated blows to the head he took in his 184 fights over 12 years of hockey in major junior, the American League and the NHL.</p><p>NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was particularly in high gear in the hear-no-evil-see-no-evil mode when discussing the fact researchers determined the CTE appeared to be spreading through Boogaard&rsquo;s brain and likely would have resulted in middle-age dementia. Bettman cautioned, &ldquo;it&rsquo;s unfortunate that people use tragedies to jump to conclusions that probably at this stage aren&rsquo;t supported,&rdquo; and talked about &ldquo;a very limited database&rdquo; and &ldquo;no control element&rdquo; when it came to considering other things that might have been going on in Boogaard&rsquo;s life. Then he delivered this doozy when asked if he thought fighting is dangerous: &ldquo;Maybe it is and maybe it&rsquo;s not. You don&rsquo;t know that for a fact.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-02276/9617510-1-eng-US/f0050-022.jpg" title="f0050-02" width="509" height="719"><figcaption class="caption-body">DEREK BOOGAARD & COLTON ORR <span class="photo-credit">(ABELIMAGES/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b>How can two large men trading blows to the head not be dangerous?</b></blockquote><p>Perhaps Bettman should ask Nick Kypreos or Raitis Ivanans whether fighting is dangerous. He might want to check with Mike Sanderson, who watched his 21-year-old son, Don, die before his eyes as the result of a hockey fight. How, we ask, can two large men trading bare knuckle blows to each other&rsquo;s heads while standing on skates not have an element of danger to it?</p><p>The medical evidence strongly suggests CTE is caused by repeated blows to the head and, unfortunately, can only be diagnosed on the brain of a dead person. But scientists do know CTE manifests itself in live human beings in symptoms such as memory loss, impulsiveness, mood swings and addiction.</p><p>Boogaard suffered from many of those afflictions and while it&rsquo;s true we don&rsquo;t know whether it&rsquo;s the chicken or the egg and we can&rsquo;t say for sure whether those were brought on by blows to the head, why would we want to continue to take that risk? Like the guys my father worked with in the sintering plant, not smoking won&rsquo;t give you a 100 percent guarantee you won&rsquo;t die of lung cancer, but it sure brings the odds down considerably.</p><p>And even if the NHL ever does try to curb fighting by punishing it with game misconducts and suspensions, it&rsquo;s not going to eliminate the concussions that presumably lead to CTE. But again, it most certainly would give the chances of it happening a real kick in the pants. Some of those who advocate fighting argue that car racing could limit the number of fatalities by reducing speed limits, but of course there would be collateral fallout from doing that. The difference between that argument and the one in favor of hockey fights is they don&rsquo;t allow drivers to deliberately ram their opponents&rsquo; cars at full speed either.</p><p>The NHL claims it holds the health and safety of its players near and dear, but it doesn&rsquo;t appear eager to do anything to lower those odds, at least not until the research about the connection between CTE and blows to the head is more conclusive. And, unfortunately, that will require more dead and diseased brains.</p><p>Not to worry. There are more on the way.</p><p>CAN&rsquo;T GET ENOUGH CAMPBELL? CLICK ON <b><a href="http://THN.com">THN.COM</a></b> FOR KEN&rsquo;S EXCLUSIVE BLOG<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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