Alexander Ovechkin will be sitting out of the Washington Capitals lineup for the weekend as he recuperates from an upper body injury which he suffered during the overtime loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets last Sunday.

He still leads the league with 14 goals in 14 games and also has nine assists.
I’m sure the Caps, and their fans, are trying not to panic too much but they lost to the New Jersey Devils this past weekend and are now 1-4-0 without Ovie (since the 2005-2006 season).
It was bound to happen, though.  Almost every player has suffered some sort of injury in …read more

Shane O’Brien strikes again.  He’s hot-tempered and I think he gets into more penalty trouble than he should and this is no exception.  The NHL has suspended the Vancouver Canucks defenceman after his stick made contact with New York Rangers player, Sean Avery, while they were both seated on the bench.
A melee had broken out between the teams and it was just one of many scrums that happened as a result but you, obviously, cannot hit someone while you’re on the bench.   O’Brien will miss Thursday’s game at Minnesota but will be eligible to return on Friday at Dallas.
Here’s a …read more

The Columbus Blue Jackets will be without forward, Kristian Huselius, for at least a week after he got injured during practice.  He’s been placed on the injured reserve list retroactively as of November 3, 2009.
While his game has not quite been on fire, he is off to a fairly decent start having scored five goals and posting four assists in the 13 games he’s played.  Last year, he notched up 56 points.
I think that Huselius is a really great player so I’m sure they will miss him.  While he was on the Calgary Flames roster, he did well at first …read more

After Anaheim Ducks defenceman James Wisniewski took a forearm to the head of forward Shane Doan over the weekend, the NHL has decided that the action warrants a two-game suspension.

The hit took place during the first period after the Coyotes were left shorthanded for having too many men on the ice.  Wisniewski crossed the Ducks blueline and delivered a hard blow to Doan’s head.
There wasn’t a penalty assessed at the time for the hit but as soon as play stopped, Coyotes d-man, Keith Yandle, decided to send Wisniewski a message.  As a result, he was given a 10-minute game misconduct …read more

Simon Gagne has been diagnosed with two small hernias in his right groin and will out of the Philadelphia Flyers’ lineup for six to eight weeks which, of course, sucks.  That basically means that he won’t be coming back until the new year.

General manager Paul Holmgren announced: ”Simon is going to have surgery tomorrow (Tuesday) to reinforce the rectus abdominis on both sides, and at the same time he’s going to look and see, laparoscopically, through his belly button, at the small hernias that we saw, and he’ll repair those as well.  We’re probably looking at six-to-eight weeks before [Gagne …read more

Washington Capitals star Alexander Ovechkin left early in the second period and did not return to the game in the team’s 5-4 loss against the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight.  The possible injury occurred when Ovie collided with Raffi Torres.

After falling to the ice, the Russian player stood up and appeared to be in pain.  A team spokesman said that Ovechkin had suffered some sort of upper body injury and is currently being listed as day-to-day.
I know there are other players for the Caps to rely on but no one wants to lose a player like Ovechkin, who went into Sunday’s …read more

NHL fans are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the introduction of goaltender masks.  On November 1, 1959 the New York Rangers were hosting the Montreal Canadiens at the Madison Square Garden.
Rangers forward, Andy Bathgate, was pretty irritable with Habs netminder, Jacques Plante, who, he says, rubbed it in when the Rangers were beaten at home.  He also was a bit upset about an altercation with the goalie that almost left Bathgate in the hospital.

“The puck was dumped in and it wasn’t a hard shot,” Batgate recalled.  “I thought I could beat him to the puck but all this was happening …read more

Daniel Briere has been playing through a groin injury but, after tweaking it during Tuesday night’s game against the Washington Capitals, the Philadelphia Flyers forward will be sitting out for a while.

He’s being listed as being day-to-day but I’m sure the Flyers are a little anxious considering the fact that he missed a whopping 53 games last season due to groin and abdominal injuries.  Hopefully, this will heal quickly but he really should have sat out as soon as he started feeling the twinges.  I know you’ve got to be tough as a player but after missing so many games …read more

Just once, I’d like to read a story about Sean Avery being a decent human being and acting in a way that shows he appreciates the privilege of being a professional hockey player.  So far, it’s just been more and more affirmation of what a douche he is.

Washington Capitals head coach, Bruce Boudreau, has revealed in a new book called Gabby: Confessions of a Hockey Lifer, that Avery made some derogatory comments about his weight during the opening round of last season’s Stanley Cup Playoffs. 
"He told me I was the biggest, fattest bleeping pig he had ever seen," …read more

The Pittsburgh Penguins will have to do without star player, Evgeni Malkin, for about 2-3 weeks after he suffered a shoulder strain.  Coach Dan Bylsma wrote on the team’s website: “Geno is going to be out of the lineup for a couple of weeks.  He strained his shoulder about 10 days or so ago. I don’t know the exact day. It is precautionary for the player. We are worried about the safety of the shoulder. A couple weeks of rest and rehab will get that thing healthy so he can get back onto the ice.”

Bylsma continued:  “Obviously he has played …read more