Dobber Nation is up… sort of. The first 19 minutes are available if you want to go to the radio show page and have a listen. Otherwise, we need to re-upload in the morning and I’ll post it on the front page at that time.

El-Bashir reports that Ovechkin skated for about five minutes this morning and handled the puck. That doesn’t sound like a serious injury to me. Stay tuned.

Joe Corvo is out 8-12 weeks, the ‘Canes have announced. His slashed leg is serious to the point where it is comparable to what happened to Cam Ward. Weird how the two big “slash to the leg from a skate” injuries happen to teammates. Brian Rodney is now a very viable option, as I’m sure he’ll be called up and will play on the power-play throughout the two or three months.

Terrible statement on Heatley below – all the hype this week on Heatley and Ottawa, coupled with the fact that the Sharks were just in Canada, and I could have sworn that Ottawa was hosting. Not so – the game is in San Jose (my apologies). That sucks some of the fun out of it. That’s just another game for Heater, then. Michalek and Cheechoo, on the other hand, will have something to prove. But my level of interest in this one just took a nosedive. Although the team visits Toronto on February 8th, they do not head to Ottawa at all this year. Heatley gets off easy! By next year, the fans’ anger will have died down.

With Alex Goligoski out again (day to day – groin), Martin Skoula picks up yet another point. He even saw a minute on the power play. Until Goli returns, I have to recommend Skoula – six points in eight games now.

Chris Higgins was a minus-4 last night and is minus-7 in his last three games. He’s on pace for 21 points and minus-32. We call that “pulling a Cheechoo”.

After just two points in his last 14 contests, Phaneuf had a two-point game last night. That could be just what he needs to get on a hot run.

Drew Miller has two goals this season, both coming in the last five games as a member of Detroit. His 16 minutes of ice time last night was his highest since October 8th. He is not seeing any PP time and his linemates are Draper and Helm, so I wouldn’t consider him unless he gets promoted to the second line. They should consider doing that, actually, since Ville Leino isn’t cutting it right now.

Niklas Grossman is a minus-6 in his last 14 games after kicking off the year at plus-12.

In his last 15 games, Mike Ribeiro has just 10 points and is a minus-7. He is on track for a decline for the second consecutive season. That’s not a trend us poolies like to see.

Here it is – Dany Heatley is in Ottawa tonight. Either he’ll be a force, or a mouse. Put me down for “force” – a hat trick, just to rub in the fans’ faces. With one of the goals resulting from a Cheechoo gaffe. The alternative is a big game from Michalek, and the entire Ottawa team shuts down Heatley with persistent shadowing.

TSN is reporting that Marc Savard agreed to a seven-year extension with the Bruins. The cap hit will be $4.2 million per year, meaning that the last three years are for something stupid like the NHL minimum. To put the cap hit into perspective – Martin Erat makes $4.5 million per year.

Klesla will miss six weeks with that groin tear.

Carlo Colaiacovo is day-to-day with a foot injury. Jonas Junland replaced him in the lineup, but was a minus-2.

Dobber Nation later today – Andrew Walker speaks with DobberHockey manager and senior writer Jeff Angus, Phoenix Coyotes pivot Martin Hanzal and prospects writer Jeff Nielsen. More ramblings later this morning…

A couple of major injuries last night – both clips are at the bottom. First, Ovechkin’s knee-on-knee. He’s looking at a suspension, but I wonder if it will matter. He could be out for a few games just from his sore knee. The other was to Tomas Vokoun. I’m sorry – is it bad that I laughed when I saw this? Ballard was upset when a goal was scored and went to smash his stick off the post. Instead, Vokoun’s head got in the way. The blow cut his ear and he was rushed to hospital. Vokoun is okay – he’ll be back with the team in time for their flight. He may miss a couple of games though.

Other injuries – Rostislav Klesla apparently tore his groin and will be out for…a bit. You know how murky injury news can be. Also Joe Corvo suffered a cut on his leg via a skate courtesy of Karl Alzner. The cut was pretty deep and I would guess that we won’t see Corvo for a couple of weeks or more.

Although Patrice Bergeron missed practice yesterday after taking a slap shot off the leg Saturday (he returned to play later in the game), the coach told the Globe that he will definitely play Wednesday.

Wild coach Todd Richards told Russo that he wants Andrew Ebbett to play with Martin Havlat Wednesday (assuming Havlat returns for Wednesday, which is the goal).

Ovechkin’s hit – suspension?

Ballard whacking his goalie’s head like he’s playing t-ball…it looks like he does it and then ignores the guy he hits and skates away!