Crosby is skating with the conditioning coach, along with Jordan Staal and Simon Despres, who are on injured reserve. No news yet regarding the results of the second opinion on his neck.

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Minor deal – Akim Aliu to the Flames for John Negrin.

Take Tim Gleason off the trade block. The Canes re-signed him for four years. I don’t understand it, they could have made a killing on the trade market and then signed the same type of player in the summer. There’s something to be said for loyalty… but you have to balance that with smart business.

Jeff Angus is on vacation for the next two weeks and I thought I would take the opportunity to ‘import’ a great writer from DobberBaseball to sub in. Mike Schmidt is the assistant editor over there, but he’s also a knowledgeable hockey guy. I wanted to put that knowledge to the test. I wanted a way to try him out on the hockey side. So what better way than to have him fill in for five days. Mike makes his DobberHockey debut Thursday.

Speaking of DobberBaseball, the baseball Fantasy Guide is coming out in just under two weeks. Yes, it’s that time of year again. The site is still growing, slowly but surely – the forum had over a dozen new threads started yesterday alone. Granted, the hockey forum gets that in an hour, but still great progress.

My Puck Daddy column for this week is up now.

Here is a nice, thorough analysis of Sidney Crosby’s injury situation. All about the C1 and C2 vertebrae, implications, what’s been said, etc.

Lyle Richardson of SpectorsHockey runs through some trade rumors on a quiet Monday morning.

If only, two or three times a season, we could actually see a 12-9 game. Ah, fantasy hockey…

So how do you take the Crosby news? I've had some guys tell me it's bad. Some say good. I took it as good. After all, he's not out because of a concussion this time. Perhaps this means he won't be out every three games after taking a big hit. I guess we won't know until more details come out.

Interesting ASG notes: Zdeno Chara and Brian Campbell were each plus-7. Spezza, Michalek and Yandle were each minus-5. Marian Gaborik was the only player to tally four points, but six players managed three. Alfredsson and Hossa each had seven shots on net. Shea Weber led everyone in ice time with 22:12. Logan Couture was at the bottom with 13:03. Interesting to see that Claude Giroux played just 13:04. Just six players were held without a point, and one of them was Ottawa's Erik Karlsson.

Five goalies allowed exactly three goals each. The other goalie – Brian Elliott – allowed six.

If the Flames call up Brian Connelly, I'll be paying attention. He's a top AHL scorer among defensemen who probably would have had a long look in the NHL last year if the Blackhawks weren't so deep. Since Jay Bouwmeester is an overrated puck-mover, as the Flames are now seeing, and Anton Babchuk has been terrible, Connelly could make an impact. With all due respect to Mark Giordano, Calgary desperately needs to find a gem in this area.

I say the above knowing that Jay-Bo has seven points in his last eight games. That's a number I don't think he's ever reached since joining the Flames, so I won't let that cloud my judgment.

Adam Proteau has an interesting interview with Donald Fehr that can be found here.

If you want a statistical-odds look at the playoff picture, here is an interesting analysis at Fear the Fin. It gives you a good idea as to which teams will get in and the odds of some of the "non locks" getting in.

Adrian Dater figures another two weeks for Matt Duchene's return from injury.

Still adding awesome new features in Frozen Pool – we have added a new hot/cold feature that can be found here. Still tweaking this one, open to suggestions. And haven't decided on free or a paid tool yet.

Patrick Kane as Superman…

Love Corey Perry's creativity here: