Eric Staal will miss the next game due  to a death in the family.

Got a fantasy question on your mind? Ask Angus on the message boards today! Check it out here.

Jim Rutherford: “50% of next year’s roster will be different”. Full article here

The verdict is in on Patrice Bergeron – three little fractures on the tip of his thumb. He’ll be back in three weeks – he’s very thrilled as this will not impact his Olympic roster spot. And I’m happy for him. Even though I have said that I would prefer Martin St. Louis if it gets right down to it, I can’t imagine the disappointment Bergeron would have felt if he got the crushing news that he couldn’t play.

Interesting quote by Fluto Shinzawa in the Globe: “Miroslav Satan battled Filip Kuba in the corner for a puck. Very startling to see a guy wearing No. 81 in black and gold entering the danger areas.” It was a nice little shot at Phil Kessel. I think Fluto will be shocked to find that Satan isn’t a big corner guy either – and that Satan really…really …really… really sucks.

Satan played with Wheeler and Krejci, so it’s weird that he didn’t get a point despite Wheeler getting three of them. The big loser in Satan’s arrival? Ryder. He played with Paille and Begin. Myself, I would have scrambled together a decent third scoring line and played Sobotka with Paille and Ryder, and then a checking line of Begin with Bitz and Thornton.

Viktor Stalberg was up on the big line for Toronto, playing with Kessel and Stajan. Wallin played with Ponikarovsky and Kulemin. Hagman was stuck with Mayers and Orr (I don’t understand that one).

Columbus rearguard Mike Commodore reportedly told Hitchcock that he won’t play until he is 100 percent. He has been playing hurt, apparently.  His leave of absence will number in the weeks, not days, I’m thinking.

Nikita Filatov was stripped of his captaincy for the final game for Team Russia. Petrov was given the captaincy and Russia promptly went out and lost, thus finishing sixth. Questions about attitude are starting to crop up, and again I am reminded of a young Alex Semin.

Toronto prospect and future power forward Jerry D’Amigo certainly proved that he could have a future in the top six. I had him ranked 424 on my prospects list, but his amazing WJC tournament opened my eyes. He’ll move up into the top 185 next update.

Sergei Gonchar is back practicing with the Pens lightly, and could play tomorrow. He’ll likely play in the game after that, but tomorrow is questionable.

Steve Mason got pulled after giving up six goals on 17 shots against Vancouver. Garon will probably be the starter for the forseeable future. In the minors, Kevin Lalande – who I really liked as a dark horse this year – regressed a little, but he’s still the next goalie in line and hasn’t been doing that bad when you consider the team in front of him. I wonder if he should get a look-see – nothing else seems to be working.

Getzlaf returns so Perry is back scoring again. He was pointless in four without him.

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Luca Caputi did indeed play with Malkin and he scored a goal in his first NHL game this season. Caputi played 14 minutes. I would expect that as long as he doesn’t go three games without a point, the Pens will keep him up as long as Kunitz is on the shelf. As soon as he stops producing – even if he gets eight minutes of ice time – they’ll send him back down and call someone else up.

With two points last night, Patrick O’Sullivan has six in his last six. Has he finally turned the corner?

Nik Antropov was not in the Atlanta lineup yesterday and I can’t dig up why, but I’m sure we’ll find out later in the morning. Todd White took his spot on the Kovy/Afino line and the trio was a combined minus-9.

Blake Wheeler has five points in his last two games and he’s seen over 16 minutes of ice time in each of them.

Satan made his season debut, playing 14 minutes and earning a plus-2, but was pointless.

Mark Recchi has 15 points in his last 17 games, in case you figured he was slowing down.

As expected, Ovechkin gets the captain’s C.

More to come, though I’m hard at work putting the Guide together…

WJC highlights – CAN vs. US – check out John Carlson’s no-look shot to win it in OT: