- DJ Bean of WEEI: Bruins Milan Lucic skated with the ‘healthy scratches’ yesterday at practice and wouldn’t blame coach Claude Julien if he made him a healthy scratch.
“Nope. Nope. I wouldn’t blame anyone but myself. If that’s what needs to be done in order to get myself going, I’m for what’s best for the team and not best for myself,” Lucic said. “Like I said, I want to be a part of the team. I want to be better. I want to contribute. I know I can be a big part of the team. Ultimately it all comes down to myself, so there’s no one to blame but myself.”
Lucic has 6 goals this season, only 2 in his last 27 games.
“You saw where he was this morning and it indicates that he may not play tomorrow,” Julien said. “But I haven’t decided that yet.”
- Tom Pedulla of the NY Times: Martin Brodeur says that Patrick Elias, a UFA at the end of the season, wants to remain with the Devils.
“Patty belongs here and he wants to stay here,” Brodeur said. “Contract situations are always a little different from guy to guy. But, hopefully, he will stay.”
Elias understands that it’s just not up to him.
“It’s special for me to play for one team,” he said. “It would be special to play here my whole career. But I understand the business side.”
“We’ve negotiated with Lou before,” he said. “We know that is not the way he approaches it.”
- Frank Seravalli of the Philadelphia Daily News: Flyers Simon Gagne, UFA at the the end of the season, would like to remain with the Flyers if given the opportunity.
“This is a place, I always say, that’s maybe the best place for me to play,” Gagne said. “Is that because it’s the only place I’ve really played? I don’t know. Philly is one of the places that I have good memories, good friends, and my family is comfortable there.
“It would be an easy choice if ‘Homer’ would come to me and ask me to stay. We’ll see. I’m not sure if they’re going to want to make a lot of changes, or what they are thinking. It’s tough to look at our team, tough to judge why we play so poorly sometimes. We don’t have a full lineup, it’s a shortened season.”
Gagne said he would take less than the $3.5 million he’s making this season.
“I’m at the point of my career where I made really good money for a while,” Gagne said. “As a player, your goal is to win the Stanley Cup. I did that . I still want to win the Stanley Cup. At the end of the day, money is just a small question. Being happy is important. If I like the place, I’ll make things work – for everyone to be happy, to make sure that it doesn’t hurt the team.”