–The Ottawa Sun‘s Bruce Garrioch writes that Phoenix won’t trade Kyle Turris (link), believing Phoenix GM Don Maloney when he says as much.
–Georges Laraque is promoting his autobiography and talks about the use of performance enhancing drugs in the NHL (link). A few quotes from the article, “Even more than steroids, some other drugs would really make fighting even more dangerous for the clean ones like me. Substances like ephedrine, for instance, totally desensitize the player who takes them. Before a game, as I would warm up on the ice, I would always look at the tough guy on the other side. If his arms were trembling, if his eyes were bulging, I knew for sure he wasn’t going to feel any of the punches I would give him. Totally anaesthetized, his face sweating despite the thick film of Vaseline he’d covered his face with, I knew the guy would be able to take a lot more hits than his fair share.” And “First, you just have to notice how some talented players will experience an efficiency loss as well as a weight loss every four years, those years being the ones where the Winter Olympics are held. In the following season they make a strong comeback; they manage a mysterious return to form.”
–The Silver Seven‘s Mark Parisi assesses player performances over the last week (link). I agree with a lot of Parisi’s assessments, although I don’t think Colin Greening struggled, that Sergei Gonchar‘s lack of points the past three games indicates poor performance; I have no idea what Brian Lee did to impress in the Buffalo game, and Nikita Filatov doesn’t appear in his list.
–The Silver Seven‘s Dave Young talks about the limitations of Nick Foligno (link), something I pointed out in my profile of him this summer (link). He’s a 30-35 point player who is strong along the boards, hangs on to the puck too much, and is weak defensively.
–SenShot‘s Jared Crozier wonders if the Sens are showcasing Brian Lee (link), which is a reasonable assumption, but I’ll take Paul MacLean at his word that he thought Rundblad needed a rest and Lee deserved to play
-Joy Lindsay Tweets that Nikita Filatov has been re-assigned to Binghamton (link), which is welcome relief for the B-Sens (who were 0-3-1 since his recall and only scored 7 goals)
–Hockey Futures‘ Tony Piscotta has an excellent preview of the SM-Liiga’s season this year (link). Ottawa doesn’t have any prospects in Finland at the moment, but it still makes for an interesting read.
-St. Louis coach Davis Payne is the first coach to be fired after compiling a 6-7-0 start. I have no idea why management thinks Ken Hitchcock is the answer.
eyeonthesens 