Third straight healthy scratch for Kyle Okposo. I wonder how many teams are trying to acquire him?

Joe Colborne was called up and will play for the Leafs tonight. He’s had a fantastic start to the season down on the farm.

Taylor Hall is really struggling this season. I am not concerned about him from a long-term perspective, but he is trying to use his natural talents (speed) way too much. Don’t get me wrong, he can flat out fly, but NHL defensemen are really quick to adjust if a player has only one or two moves he consistsently relies upon.

Edmonton’s depth scoring has really been underwhelming this season. Ryan Smyth’s surprising start has helped a lot, because after him, Eberle, and Nugent-Hopkins, no Oiler has more than three goals.

Rough night for Duncan Keith last night (see more below). He was on the ice for all four of Calgary’s goals.

Curtis Glencross had two goals and a helper – he’s a streaky player and could be worth owning for the next few weeks.

Jhonas Enroth redeemed himself with a shutout last night for the Sabres.

From my Thursday ramblings:

"Enroth allowed five goals on 19 shots – as quickly as poolies rushed to pick him up yesterday, do they drop him today? He's a great goalie, but it is tough to win consistently at the NHL level. Chalk it up as a bad start, and don't overreact to it."

The good news for Carolina – they only allowed one goal, and Eric Staal wasn't a minus player. The bad news – they still lost.

The rest of the games from last night as well as the AHL and junior leagues will be updated at about 11am EST this morning.

Had my first "real" interview last night for my writing contest – chatted on a wide range of topics with Alex Burrows (no biting or Mark Recchi comments were discussed, unfortunately). I'll have the interview up later on today or tomorrow.

My two most recent posts, please give them a read and a thumbs up if you haven't already:

Why young players need to be viewed with patience – Cody Hodgson and failing successfully, and:

Mike Gillis: The Great, The Good, and the Bad

The contest is over after this weekend, so I'll stop spamming you with my Canucks-related work. I promise.

Brendan Ross won’t have a column today, but he supplied some great CHL tidbits:

Ontario Hockey League

In the OHL, all of the leading scorers are enjoying a nice battle to remain atop the list.

Nail Yakupov of Sarnia entered the night trailing Barrie’s Tanner Pearson (undrafted) by 2 points and Yakupov had one of his strongest games of the year scoring 2 goals and an assist.  Unfortunately for Nail, Tanner Pearson was unreal notching 3 goals, 3 assists for 6 points and one of his snipes was the OT game winner. Six Points!

Pearson now has a five point lead in OHL scoring over Yakupov.  Barrie’s Colin Behenna (3 points last night), Ottawa’s Tyler Toffoli (3 points last night), and Sarnia’s Charlie Sarault (4 points last night) had strong nights too and remain in 3rd, 4th and 5th respectively.

Western Hockey League

I wrote my Dean’s List article a few weeks back on 2013 draft eligible Hunter Shinkaruk and the kid keeps rolling scoring 2G and 1A for the Medicine Hat Tigers moving him to ninth in the WHL scoring race.  His style of play is eerily similar to Chicago’s Patrick Kane.  Read on.

Anaheim prospect Emerson Etem has been tearing the “dub” apart scoring goals at will.  Etem has 22 goals on the season but he hasn’t scored in 3 games.  Etem only has 5 goalless games this season.

2012 Top Prospect Matt Dumba is being ranked the top defenseman by many experts and he continued his draft year success tallying 3 assists last night to give him 18 points in 21 WHL games.
Dumba is now tied with fellow 2012 prospect Morgan Rielly (out for the season with ACL injury) for 7th in defenseman scoring.

The Vancouver Giants absolutely destroyed the Victoria Royals 11-3 last night.  Red Wings’ prospect Marek Tvrdon (2011 4th Round) led the way with 2 goals and 5 points.  Canadiens’ prospect Brendan Gallagher (2010 5th Round) had one goal and 4 points too as he continues his strong WHL season and makes a case for the Canadian World Junior team. Gallagher sits tied for 6th in WHL scoring.

Quebec Major Junior Hockey League

Saint John continues to play well without star forward Jonathan Huberdeau (3rd overall 2011, Florida Panthers) as Nathan Beaulieu (Montreal), Zach Phillips (Minnesota) and Tomas Jurco (Detroit) all chipped in with a point in a 2-1 victory. Saint John is currently 2nd in CHL Top 10 Rankings and have won 7 of 9 contests without Huberdeau.

Halifax’s Nathan MacKinnon (top 2013 prospect) and Quebec’s Mikhail Grigorenko (top 2012 prospect) added two points each as both of their teams took him the win last night.  Grigorenko and MacKinnon sit one-two in QMJHL rookie scoring with 39 points and 34 points respectively but MacKinnon has played 3 less games.  Grigorenko is 5th in league scoring.

Sweet goal from Stempniak last night:

Great save from Kipper – I love the reaction from Toews: