Havlat's tests today were promising – his shoulder is getting stronger and he is targetting a November 28 return to the lineup.

The Caps traded 25-year-old pivot Brian Sutherby to the Ducks in exchange for a second rounddraft pick in 2009. This has no fantasy impact.

Reports out of Minnesota are indicating that defenseman Petteri Numellin has asked the Wild to release him from his contract so that he can play in Switzerland.

Tom Kostopolous has been suspended for one game for instigating a fight in the final five minutes of Saturday's game. Mikhail Grabovski will replace him in the lineup.

Kukla's Korner reports that Juuso Riksman has been suspended by Peoria of the AHL. The Blues traded Bacishihua to Colorado so that Riksman could come back to North America (as Riksman requested). However after just a handful of games Riksman has decided he misses home and has flown the coop.

Martin St.Pierre has 20 points in 14 AHL games since coming back from the RSL. He is a candidate to replace Bourque in the Chicago lineup. We shall see.

Patrick Kane turns 19 today. For his birthday he gets to lead all rookies in scoring with 22 points and seamlessly make the transition into the greatest hockey league on Earth.

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After just six points in his last 13 games (and a minus-3), Nik Zherdev picked up three points yesterday.
Martin Havlat will undergo strength tests on his shoulder today. If all goes well, he will be back in the lineup for Thursday's match against the Flames.

Colby Armstrong will be re-inserted back into the Pittsburgh lineup tonight.

Simon Gagne was back on the ice yesterday for the first time since suffering the concussion on Nov. 7.

He is still symptom free, but plans to really test it out today with some hard exercise.

Yesterday, I had said Columbus recalled Kirill Starkov from ECHL and commented on how it was quite the promotion. It turns out that they promoted him on paper so they could further demote him. After going pointless in eight ECHL games, he was further demoted to the CHL!

Mattias Ohlund has been suspended for four games for his slash on Mikko Koivu.

Rene Bourque is out for four to six weeks with a broken thumb.

Kari Lehtonen was back in practice yesterday after missing a month with a strained groin. Don Waddell feels that he should practice for a week or two before getting back into the lineup.

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Johan Hedberg will get the start tonight.

The line of Eric Belanger, Marian Gaborik and Mark Parrish looked very good yesterday, despite being held off the scoresheet.

Lukas Krajicek was forced back into action early with the suspension of Ohlund. The team originally wanted him to get into game shape first.

Tuukka Rask was sent to Providence yesterday but was only there to play last night's game (a 3-2 loss) and will be called back up today.

Paul Ranger's 14 points are good for eighth in the NHL among rearguards. He's still not getting the PP time…although last game he finally got a couple of shifts out there so maybe Tortorella is coming around on the issue.