James Mirtle reports that the Wings have recalled Jan Mursak. Is this another player who will leapfrog Hudler, or will Hudler get another look on a top line still? Mursak, like all Wings prospects, is being brought along slowly (and properly) so I would be surprised if the doghouse Hudler is in is so air tight that even a prospect surpasses him.

Florida prospect Nick Bjugstad scored the OT winner for Team USA in their win over Finland Sunday. It’s been hard to gauge him as a prospect as he is a rookie playing in a strong program (U. of Minnesota) behind several established teammates. So this is a great Tourney to see what we have here.

I have been unable to find any further word on Spezza’s injury. He left last night’s contest with a UBI.

Ugly Pacioretty hit added below.

As is typical of Mr. Danny Cleary, an injury derails his hot run. Didn’t I say something to that effect two weeks ago? Sounds familiar. Anyway, the guy has a broken ankle and is out for a month. I would suggest turning to Hudler, but he probably needs Franzen, Zetterberg, Bertuzzi and Filppula to all get hurt as well.

Mathieu Perreault scored last night, but also left the game with a broken nose. The clip is below, but it could lead to Tim Gleason getting suspended.

The Isles are starting to win the occasional game now, and it’s in no small part to PA Parenteau finding his stride at the NHL level. Give him six points in his last five contests

Max Pacioretty is pointless and a minus-1 in each of his last three games. He had 15 PIM Sunday, though, with his game misconduct for boarding on Mark Eaton.

The Midseason Guide is out January 7 – I will also include a one-page addendum for release on January 14, for those of you with a draft a week later. I want to keep you guys as up to date as I can.

I’m so confident in the Midseason Guide helping you, that I am now – for the next three days – selling LAST YEAR’S Midseason Guide for $1.99. This is about as cheap as I can make it without it costing me money to sell it to you. I do this so that you can pick it up for next to nothing, browse through it, and see for yourself that you should be buying this Guide every year. So $1.99 right now in the shop, scroll down to the archived Guides and I’ve highlighted last year’s.

Dwayne Roloson stopped 38 of 39  shots and a performance like that is enough to turn his game back around. Look for better results going forward.

Marty Turco stopped 26 of 27 for his first strong start in a month. He’ll need more than that to steal Crawford’s momentum, but a performance like that means the coach will no longer hesitate to give him a start.

For Mathieu Garon, that’s 10 goals allowed in his last two starts.

How big a hole is Jiri Hudler in when he can’t get ice time with Pavel Datsyuk on the shelf? Wow – I take back my note from last week. Drop him again. I had no idea that the doghouse he was in had walls of titanium, with a reinforced adamantium lock.

Matt Beleskey was recalled by the Ducks and promptly scored his first of the season. He saw some time on the top line. Not worth a pick up in one year leagues. Yet.

The best player in the Canada-Russia game to me: Vladimir Tarasenko. And it wasn’t close. Talent-wise, he’s better than anyone in Canada. Does that mean it will translate to the NHL? Does it even mean he’ll COME to the NHL? Who knows – but he moves up my prospects chart.

Brayden Schenn and Ryan Johansen hit the scoreboard, but neither dominated enough in my mind to make them considered potential first-line stars in the NHL. It’s just one  game, but I would neither move them up nor down my list based on it. Maybe Tarasenko was just so impressive, everyone else just seemed like potential second liners by comparison.

The only Canadian who is a future superstar is Ryan Ellis. Like Nashville needs a star prospect blueliner…

Edmonton prospect goalie Olivier Roy was unimpressive to say the least. I had no confidence in him as the game went on and based off of that one game would never own him in a fantasy league. Just one game, but that’s the hole he needs to get out of for me.

Igor Bobkov, despite letting in some dumb, weird goals, was the better goalie by far. Despite the late collapse, too. Anaheim prospect. I would have no problem owning him in a fantasy league.

Isles prospect Nino Niederreiter tallied two points for Team Swiss in the 4-3 win over Germany.

With three points last night, Erik Karlsson has 11 in his last nine games.

Jeff Tambellini is now riding a five-game points streak and he has 11 points in his last 14 games.

David Backes has 23 points in his last 22 games. Looking every bit the 65-70 player that he should be.

Marian Hossa was back in the lineup and tallied two assists in 18 minutes of play. Viktor Stalberg was pointless in his return.

I take back what I said last week about Brodeur turning things around under Lemaire. He really seems to be done. Maybe it’s the injuries, but the reflexes are no longer there. He has allowed 17 goals on his last 71 shots. That’s regressing from what already was a horrible season. The thing is – teams will still trade for him. Not fantasy teams, but real teams. You know, the ones led by dumber GM’s. The Devils would be brilliant to trade him. Meanwhile, quietly pick up Jeff Frazee. I urged you to pick up Jimmy Howard three years ago and Corey Crawford two years ago for the same reason: potential opportunity on a team used to winning.

The Post-Gazette is reporting that Jordan Staal could be back for Saturday’s Winter Classic. If so, I still anticipate that he will be put on Malkin’s line straight away.

Jeff Skinner has been moved to center and the move paid off right away as his line tallied both Carolina goals in their loss. Jokinen and Ruutu were his linemates.

Marco Sturm picked up his first point in his first game playing on the top line with Kopitar and Brown. Looks like they’ll keep him there for awhile, meaning the points are about to flow for this guy.

Martin Erat (UBI) and Steve Sullivan (LBI) were out of the lineup. The Preds recalled Linus Klasen, who played 16:21 but was pointless.

If Travis Moen didn’t catch the flu, Benoit Pouliot would have been a healthy scratch Sunday.

Jeremy Morin was injured during the USA/Finland game, according to Bobby Mac. “Signficant” was a word he used. Morin was injured earlier this year, too. I wonder if this will become habit-forming. Don’t jump down my throat. With kids, we don’t have a long timeline to look at, so when you see a couple of injuries within a few months for a teenager, you wonder.

Interested in sponsoring the return of Dobber Nation? Contact Rob at [email protected]. The Dobber Nation radio show with Brian Kom will return in January. With this site now being a 6 million page view/month entity, I’d like to think that your company could benefit with a cheap radio spot.

Pacioretty could be suspended for this one:

Gleason breaks Perreault’s nose. The hit looks clean to me.

Not a bad battle: Kovalchuk vs. Phaneuf: