Here are all the links from around the hockey world, and what I’m reading, while feeling like this year’s Super Bowl Media Day was a little calmer than many in the past.
*The Dallas Stars are struggling, but this column makes the argument that Lindy Ruff isn’t really to blame. I disagree that he’s blameless, but clearly there are some issues with the construction of that roster. But can anybody argue they don’t have the talent to be a playoff team? That’s on the coach just as it’s on the coach in Boston to a large degree.
*Pierre McGuire checks in with the Ottawa TSN sports radio station on playoff hopeful teams making a push, and the return of Craig Anderson to the Senators.
*Stu Cowan says that the great debate over the NHL’s best player continues to go on, but that Bobby Orr is the top choice.
*PHT writer James O’Brien has New York Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad understandably concerned about the US’s immigration ban that affects his family.
*Craig Anderson has returned to the Senators at the end of his wife’s chemotherapy treatment, and his looking forward to a return to the ice.
*The Barclays Center is ending its relationship with the New York Islanders, according to multiple reports, and doesn’t it make sense for the Isles to just go back where they belong at Nassau Coliseum? That would certainly make their fans happy after they were majorly inconvenienced by the move to Brooklyn the past couple of years.
Boston Bruins
*New York Rangers coach Alain Vigneault has been rewarded with a two-year contract extension by the Blueshirts.
*Dedicated move by Sidney Crosby, who returns to practice with the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday while so many other All-Star players were given Monday off by their teams.
*For something completely different: it’s getting a little dusty in here after Tom Brady talked about his hero at Super Bowl Media Day.