Midseason Guide – out in TWO days! Pre-order it here.

Ryan Getzlaf is out for a month with a fractured sinus/orbital bone face. Big opportunity for Matt Beleskey and/or Joffrey Lupul to seize, as Bobby Ryan will probably move to center.

Flash actually has 16 in 16 for Colorado, not 14 in 15. I wrote that piece below before his profile was updated.

I do believe that Brett Clark’s numbers take a dive as soon as MAB arrives in Tampa. So enjoy his PP time while you can.

Canada will play Russia for the Gold TODAY. Game time is 7:30pm ET (Bronze game is at 3:30pm ET)

Linus Omark, another assist. What is it with prospects making an impact in the first game of a recall and then fading after that? Talk about adrenalin. Anyway, Omark played over 16 minutes and saw secondary PP time. I would roll the dice on picking him up. I think he’ll be around for a week or two this time, depending on Eberle.

Todd Bertuzzi, who has been up and down a lot these past couple of years, is up again. He has five points in his last five games.

Jiri Hudler – back on the board with an assist. Just enough to get me to not slap a bust label on him and recommend you drop… yet not enough to make me comfortable in saying that he’s back. He has five points in five games now, but two of those games were goose eggs.

He played 28 minutes and five on the PP, but Tom Gilbert was shut out again. What is with this guy? Last year, just when I – the king of hangers on – gave up on him, he rattled off something like 20 points in the final 18 games. He’s probably waiting for the last of the fantasy owners to dump him before he, well, takes a dump on us.

Tomas Fleischmann has 14 points in 15 games with his new club. Very streaky, but the end result looks pretty good so far.

Semyon Varlamov has not allowed more than two goals in a game in his last five starts. He is WHITE hot.

Check out this Taylor Hall (EQ50 stick) piece by Easton Hockey. Nicely done. Also, that’s a pretty kickass mullet on the one guy haha.

The Devils put Vladimir Zharkov back in the lineup and he played seven minutes last night. Brian Rolston also got back into the lineup. Dainius Zubrus was scratched. They say he is injured… who knows.

The Wild have signed Jed Ortmeyer. Once he clears waivers and does his conditioning stint, it will be the kiss of death to Patrick O’Sullivan’s NHL career.

I’ve never seen a promising career that was on the right track completely derail within two years like this.

Rather than claim Michael Leighton, the Isles have recalled hot young goaltender Kevin Poulin. With RDP such a huge Band-Aid Boy (Let’s call him “Pascal L”), I wonder if Kevin Poulin (Let’s call him “Steve M”) could do well during this recall. Where would I have seen this before…?

The Isles could/should still claim Leighton on re-entry waivers though. Half price.

Those who are against the NHL’s “guardian project” – relax. Just have fun with it. The characters look cool. I’m sure the battle they put together will also look cool. And yes, if you have 30 new superheroes, you’re going to have five or six of them look similar to current comic book heroes. That’s hardly a reason to scoff at the project. It’s just a fun, unique little thing that the NHL is doing. No more, no less.

So is Puck Daddy going to poke fun at each of the 30 Guardian’s as they get released? Won’t they run out of insults by, say, January 10?

Jack Johnson has eight points in his last eight games.

Marco Sturm was dropped to the fourth line by the third period last night.

In the last 11 games, Justin Williams may only have six points… but he has 30 PIM. Maybe they’re breeding him to be a goon!

Steve Downie was back in the lineup. He played with  Moore and Purcell, and saw some PP time.

Kyle Wellwood has been released from his KHL team, according to Puck Daddy’s Dmitry Chesnokov.

Trevor Smith has been acquired by Columbus from Anaheim for Nate Guenin. I recently wrote about Smith’s four-goal game and wondered if he would get a recall. I think Columbus will give him a look. Guenin, meanwhile, has been traded to 27 of the 30 NHL teams now. Only three to go! (kidding, but it seems that way)

Recalls worth noting – Dan Sexton to Anaheim; Mikael Backlund to Calgary.

MA Bergeron, whom the Lightning signed as I noted her yesterday, will go through waivers to get to the AHL for conditioning. He actually may not get through, but we shall see.

Martin Erat (UBI) is out for at least another week.

Hilarious! Puck Daddy drew my attention to this clip…