Puck Headlines: Markov out months; Leonsis denies dynasty talk

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October 2, 2009

Here are your Puck Headlines: A glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.

• "I’ma let you finish Taylor, Maxime, Jordan, Alex and Tyler … but Yanni had the best musician with a Penguins jersey photograph of all-time!" By the way, EA Sports predicts the Pittsburgh Penguins will win the Stanley Cup again based on its 2009-10 season simulation, defeating the Chicago Blackhawks with Marc-Andre Fleury (notes) getting the Conn Smythe. Great, now the virtual NHL is fixing it for Pittsburgh, too …[NHL]

• Reminder: The Florida Panthers and Chicago Blackhawks are playing in Helsinki this afternoon, followed by the Detroit Red Wings and the St. Louis Blues in Stockholm for the NHL’s Premiere Games. For the record: 20-Cents is 0.137018 Euros.

• Speaking of the Panthers, they finally named Randy Sexton their general manager after he was minding the store all summer. [On Frozen Pond]

• Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis is doing some spin control on his blog after the Washington Times wrote a headline indirectly quoting him as saying the Caps were "set for a dynasty" and the Washington City Paper inflated that to a Lennon-homage’d "Leonsis says Caps bigger than Jesus?". Leonsis: "Please. We are humble. I never said that. The headline writer did that. It is why I blog and talk directly to people." [Ted's Take]

• Montreal Canadiens defenseman Andrei Markov (notes) will be on the shelf for up to four months after surgery to repair tendon damage in his ankle. Yikes. [Habs Inside/Out]

• Who is the most overrated fantasy hockey player? [CBC Sports]

• Why Jim Balsillie should set up a rival league to fight the NHL. [Canwest]

• Jersey Fouls coming up next. It’s a rather impressive batch, we must say.

• Justine Galo, also known as "The Broad" from A View From a Broad, asks in an open letter for us to reconsider picking the Vancouver Canucks as Stanley Cup champions for the sake of the jinx. Obviously someone remembers we picked the Habs to win it all last season. We apologize in advance for the kiss of death; please enjoy the Olympics. [Canucks Corner]

• Dan Ellis’s (notes) new goalie mask looks like the saber-toothed tiger from "Ice Age" has been possessed by a murderous demon. [On The Forecheck]

• Fabulous and graphically striking breakdown of the Carey Price (notes) vs. Jaroslav Halak (notes) goaltending duel for the Montreal Canadiens, less that 24 hours after Price played a heck of a game in beating the Toronto Maple Leafs. Our money is on Price, and not just because Halak can’t fit a carton of Marlboro Lights in his mouth at the same time. [Eyes on the Prize]

• Battle of California makes a few dozen bold predictions about the upcoming season, including this: "The Kings will lose in the first round of the playoffs to the eventual champions: the San Jose Sharks." [BoC]

• We’ve been accused of making the "Tampa Bay Lightning have too many defensemen" joke one too many times (On this blog? Seriously?). But honestly: They have nine guys on the blue line heading into the opening game this weekend. [Lightning Strikes]

• Always nice to remember to whom you owe your franchise’s success and most celebrated player. [Getty]

• Interesting news from the New York Rangers, as it appears Alexei Semenov (notes) will not be with the team after all this season. [Blueshirt Banter]

• Doug Weight (notes) is your New York Islanders captain. No, not by default. [Islanders]

• "Following the lead of the NFL and NBA, the NHL said it was close to making recommendations that will prohibit players from using communicational devices for social media activity — including Twitter and Facebook — 30 minutes before and after games, practices, meetings and media access periods." [Reuters]

• Jason Kay of The Hockey News cuts to the heart of the "struggling market" issue: Winning and losing. [THN]

• Solid breakdown of Brendan Shanahan’s (notes) departure from the New Jersey Devils, including cap implications and whether or not he was forced out. [Fire & Ice]

• Ben Wright reports that the Atlanta Thrashers have claimed Christoph Schubert (notes) off waivers from the Ottawa Senators. A 27-year-old with 23 goals last year can’t be a bad signing for the Thrash. [Blueland Blog]

• Finally, here’s last night’s postgame chat on HNIC. Thought Kevin Weekes (notes) did a solid job in his commentary debut for the regular season.

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