- Chris Johnston of SportsNet: Senators president Cyril Leeder admitted they are having some challenges. Attendance is down and there is some talk in the industry that GM Bryan Murray might have to cut salary if the losing continues. The Senators are currently $8 million below the cap ceiling. Leeder differs,
“I don’t see any scenario where (that will happen),” says Leeder. “I’ve been here for all 23 years and our payroll has gone up every year. When you retool you’re going to dip a little bit, but we’re where we thought we’d be — we’ve got to have a payroll that’s consistent with the age of our players as well.We need to have room to grow to keep those guys over time.”
- James O’Brien: “Jim Rutherford won’t trade Cam Ward because that would be a bold decision and bold decisions aren’t welcome in Caroliner.”
- Sadie Gurman of the Denver Post: Avalanche’s Semyon Varlamov has had his domestic violence case dropped as “they couldn’t prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.”
“Most of the time, additional investigation strengthens our case. This time … it became clear we didn’t have a belief we could prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.”
- Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal: (from several days ago) Matheson wonders if teams like the Coyotes or Senators would be interested in Ales Hemsky.
- John Shannon: Bruins Shawn Thornton’s hearing started around 9:00 am yesterday morning and ended around 2:00 pm. A decision could come on Monday.
- Jeff Marek: Pavel Kubina retires from hockey.
- ESPN Chicago: Blackhawks Jason LaBarbera expected to be moved: “I figured something would happen, but I didn’t know how, when, where, why, who.”
- Toledo Walleye’s Christmas jersey that they will wear on Dec. 28th.
