Morning Hits: DiPietro, Salvador, Duchene and Lindback
  • Eye on Hockey: Rick DiPietro signed a tryout deal with the Hurricanes AHL team in Charlotte. Hurricanes GM Jim Rutherford: “It’s a safety net and could give us more depth. At this point it’s a PTO. We’ll see what kind of shape he’s in, how he plays.”
  • Rich Chere: Devils Bryce Salvador will be back on Tuesday, headed back to New Jersey after a death in hies family.
  • Adrian Dater of the Denver Post: Avs Matt Duchene wasn’t happy playing for former coach Joe Sacco.

    “There were very few people in this (dressing) room who were happy. Our style of play, it wasn’t right for this team. We knew it would fail,” Duchene said. “That was the hard part. We knew (any) success was going to be short-lived. It was hard to really be excited about it. For myself, it was really hard to look at what we were doing and think it would keep on working. I can honestly say now, it’s not like that.”

    “The one thing with Patrick is, there’s no doghouse. If you’re not doing what you’re supposed to do, he’s going to bring you in, he’s going to sit you down and you’re going to correct it constructively and then you’re going to move on from there. You don’t stay in that doghouse,” Duchene said. “It’s the first time I can honestly say everyone in this room is excited.

    “I think there’s always been a plan (here). People are professionals and they always have a plan, but is it the right plan? We’ve had a young, fast, offensively gifted team for four years and haven’t been able to show that every night. The only time we ever seemed to play that way was against a team that really opened it up and let us play that way.”

  • Damian Cristodero: Anders Lindback will start in net for the Lightning against the Panthers.