Paul Hunter of the Toronto Star: Mike Komisarek will return to the Maple Leafs lineup tonight after missing 3 weeks with a small tear in his quad. Defenceman Garnet Exelby and Jeff Finger will find themselves in the press box, that’s about a $4.75 million cap hit for the press box. Vesa Toskala returned to practice but isn’t ready for game action yet.
Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch: Losers of 5 straight games, there’s no hiding the fact that the Columbus Blue Jackets are struggling, but Jackets GM, Scott Howson, says he’s not actively pursuing a ‘skake-up’ trade.
Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News Observer: With changes on the horizon for the Carolina Hurricanes, President and GM Jim Rutherford, said that coach Paul Maurice won’t be part of them.
Mark Everson of the NY Post: The New Jersey Devils are getting healthy, and the replacements were pretty impressive, which may mean they could be trade bait later on in the season. Johnny Oduya, Jay Pandolfo, and Rob Niedermayer could return this week, and Paul Martin is only 2 weeks away. Defensemen Mark Fraser and Matt Corrente, and forwards Rod Pelley, Tim Sestito, Dean McAmmond, Vladimir Zharkov, Matt Halischuk, Illka Pikkarainen and Andrew Peters, have filled in admirably.
Michael Obernauer of the NY Daily News: The frustration level of John Tortorella is growing, and so is his doghouse, winger Ales Kotalik could be the next. Could trades or some other player movement be the next step?
