Thoughts on the Boudreau hiring coming in a few hours.

Milan Hejduk had a multi-point game and is now on pace for over 25 goals and close to 60 points. He’s not the same player he once was, but his production at this stage of his career is pretty impressive.

The Boudreau hiring is very interesting. as Dobber said, I’ll have a full breakdown of it later on today. Just heading out the door to work.

Stefan Elliott scored a goal last night and now has three points in three NHL games.

Ryan O’Reilly is having by far his best offensive season. He already has 17 points (mostly assists), and could reach 55-60 by the end of the season. He’s playing more of a defensive role, but he’s playing a lot (almost 18 minutes per game) and he’s a really strong player in all areas of the game. If he starts to see more consistent offensive minutes in the near future, expect his production to really increase.

The Minnesota Wild continue to win with an unheralded defensive group – their top four last night featured Schultz, Scandella, Spurgeon, and Mike Lundin.

The Nuge and Eberle both had two points. Eberle has been really, really good over the past few weeks, and the Nuge has been great all season.

The writing was on the wall here – the Ducks fired Randy Carlyle and hired Bruce Boudreau as their new head coach. Strange that it came after a win, but I’m sure they were just dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s with BB. Angus will break this down later today. – Dobber

The Bobby Ryan stuff is fascinating to me. For a team in trouble, I fail to see how trading away a three time 30-goal scorer with so much upside and a reasonable contract will help at all (unless a team overpays).

As we have seen time and time and time again, the team getting the best player usually wins the trade (Thornton to SJ, Pronger to EDM, Pronger to ANA, Pronger, to PHI, jeez, sensing a theme here?). Ryan may not be a defensive stud or anything, but he’s far from a one-trick pony. He can create offense in a variety of ways.

The Ducks do need depth on defense and forward, but there are other ways to to it (patience, good drafting and development). Trading away Ryan – not only that, but selling low too – just doesn’t seem to be the best course of action to me.

Teams that make the most sense – Toronto, NYR, and Nashville. Philadelphia is in every single trade rumor, but I don’t see the fit there. Same with Vancouver, especially after just acquiring Booth from Florida.

Hal Gill owner/owners can rejoice with his impressive 11 blocked shots last night.

Six points combined for Getzlaf and Perry against the Habs – much needed, especially for the former.

I have been enjoying some of the fresh blood on TSN, most notably Aaron Ward and Alyn McCauley.

Had my first shave in a month yesterday – was surprised and impressed with my moustache after 30 days. I'd rate myself somewhere in between Parros and Crosby. Managed to raise some money for prostate cancer too, so I wasn't looking like a creepy idiot for nothing.

Magnus Paajarvi has one point in 20 games. I don't care if he's lining up with Darcy Hordichuk and Darcy Hordichuk's clone for every single shift – simply not good enough.

The Lightning signed Hedman to a typical second contract – five years at a $4 million cap hit. Overpaid for now with the hope he's underpaid by the end of the deal. Paying for potential is the way things are done these days. Hedman has been very good recently, even if his stats don't reflect it.

The Bruins went 12-0-1 in November. They are about as unstoppable as it gets – when you have creative talents like Rich Peverley on the third line, you know things are good.

Boston's big line rolled over the Leafs last night, combining for seven points.

Chara is still arguably the best defenseman to own in fantasy hockey – 12 points in November, and he puts up solid numbers across the board.

Jake Gardiner played 24 minutes, was even in a 6-3 loss, and had three shots on goal. The Lupul/Gardiner trade is making Burke look really good (as is the Kaberle trade).

Mark Giordano was placed on the IR with a hamstring injury. Come on down, TJ Brodie. Brodie plays with confidence and he's big and fast, but most importantly, he gets the game. His positioning and knowledge of when to pinch and when to sit back is fantastic.

Mason Raymond is making his season debut tomorrow on a line with Malhotra/Hodgson (I have heard conflicting reports, will try to confirm before puck drop) and Hansen. Lots of speed, not a lot of hands. Raymond will play his way into a power play spot quite quickly, I think. Volpatti is likely coming out of the lineup.

David Booth's three best games of the season have been his most recent three – he's not only skating and working hard, but he's effective and efficient with his rushes to the net. He's big and strong and he loves to shoot the puck – no reason why he can't get back to scoring 25-30 each season.

Sami Salo tweaked his groin, but sounds like he'll be fine to play tonight.

Chris Tanev is now healthy again down on the farm, and he's forming a nice pairing with offensive d-man prospect Kevin Connauton. Expect to see Tanev up at some point this season – he was great last year down the stretch and in the playoffs, and Vancouver's back end is constantly banged up.

Kris Letang has some concussion-like symptoms, but he is also sick, and the team isn't sure if the sickness is causing the symptoms or not.

David Perron is likely going to play Saturday. Not sure who he lines up with yet, I'm sure we will hear more after practice today.

I am so glad Paul Szczechura isn't a good player, as I shudder at the potential of having to write his name each week.

Pierre Lebrun weighs in with his award winners through 25 games

Kessel and Giroux are the Hart frontrunners, and I wouldn't disagree with either. Ryan Smyth has been amazing for the Oilers, both on and off the ice. He's my choice for comeback player of the year right now.

Keep an eye on Dallas – they now have money to spend, which is a complete 180 from the past few years. They need another scoring option up front, as well as some offense on the back end. With Goligoski out (and he wasn't even playing all that well when healthy), the Stars aren't icing the most mobile defensive group.

Philip Larsen is a prospect to watch, as Ryan Goddard notes in his piece today.

Bruce Arthur really puts together some great pieces – read his latest on Ovechkin.

"In other words, Ovechkin — once hockey's most open book, both on and off the ice — has become a variation on the sort of puzzle that other Russian players have become. The word 'enigma' can be a lazy one, indicative of communication and cultural issues as much as whether a player is truly a mystery, but Ovechkin now has a little bit of Alexei Kovalev in him, a little of his close friend and fellow Capitals disappointment, Alex Semin. The question has become not what he can accomplish, but why doesn't he accomplish it?

"Again, everything starts at practices," Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin told SovSport, as translated by Dmitry Chesnokov of Yahoo's Puck Daddy and TSN. "Shoot more, win faceoffs more often. Everything comes from the head. You should forget about failures. And play simple for some time. And as soon as you score you will feel that the game is coming back to you."

Kesler is starting to roll once again – great pass too:

Kassian is going to be a lot of fun to watch: