dlbalr

Correct - the odds have not changed but whoever wins the lottery picks first overall regardless of where they were seeded.

Yep, so Delmas won't be up for long.

Sick but Budaj will have to get some starts between now and the end of the year even when Price is healthy.

Delmas has been recalled from Wheeling since Mayer is up with the Habs for a few days. That should mean that Tokarski starts tonight.

Mayer is up as backup tonight to take Price's spot on the roster.

The lottery weightings themselves didn't change in the new CBA. The team that finishes last has a 25% chance of winning and the team that finishes 14th last (or just missed the playoffs) has a 0.001% chance.

The good news? Hamilton won in the shootout with goals from Dumont, Leblanc, and Chaput. The bad news? Adirondack won so they're still in last place. Oh well, 3 wins in a row is 3 wins in a row, their longest streak of the year. http://theahl.com/stats/game-summary.php?game_id=1010589

And off to overtime we go, the Bulldogs had a much better 3rd period to earn that point.

Leblanc scores (the Hamilton one, not the Hershey one) to tie it at 2!

End of 2, it's still 2-1 Hershey. This game makes me reminisce about last night's Habs snoozer. EA Sports said Hamilton would win this one 5-3, that's looking a bit iffy right about now: http://www.easports.com/nhl/news/article/ahl-sim-hershey-vs-hamilton

Stoa scores his second of the game to make it 2-1 Hershey. That's the score at the end of the period.

Tinordi is back in tonight but the others are still out, Corbin sits as a result. It took over 7 minutes for either team to get a shot but it's now 1-1, Chaput has the goal for Hamilton. Tokarski will have to wait to make his Hamilton debut as Mayer gets the nod in net.

Yeah, and that was signed nearly two years ago, back when they weren't on the verge of bankruptcy.

One thing that should be noted with the Devils is that they were nearly in bankruptcy recently. I don't see them wanting to take on any big ticket deals, at least until they sort out the situation with their pending UFA's (Elias, Zubrus, Clarkson are the more prominent ones).

The Bulldogs (17-24-1-5) will look to not only put together their longest winning streak of the year but will also look to get out of the league cellar as they host the Bears (23-19-3-3), affiliate of Washington. There is still no word if any of the DTD injured players (Tinordi, St. Denis, Bournival, and Quailer) are ready to return. Dustin Tokarski is expected to be available although it wouldn't shock me if Mayer started. (based on previous +/- data) Kane - Potulny - Wellman Di Salvatore - Taffe - Stoa Almeida - LeBlanc - Mitchell Syner - Carman - Paquette Schilling - Stafford McNeill - Oleksy Weller - Brouillette Grubauer Blunden - Tenute - Dumont Murovich - Holland - Leblanc Fortier - Chaput - Avtsin Hagel - Leveille - Stortini Beaulieu - Pateryn Stejskal - Ellis Corbin - DeSantis MayerPuck drop is at 7:30 PM, Funny820 as always will have the play-by-play, click the banner below to listen.

O'Reilly apparently has rejected the 'Duchene bridge,' a 2 year, $7 M deal from the Avs. It seems he's looking for Plekanec-type money which, given that he has one career season above 26 points, is asking too much. He absolutely would be a great player to have (he's even above average on faceoffs) but until his asking price gets into semi-reasonable territory, I can't see the Habs seriously considering him. As for the alleged rumour in the 1st post, beyond the fact it's someone proven to invent things (does he really expect us to believe that Therrien confides secrets to him?), Johnson is out indefinitely with a head injury. I think this one can be debunked, no one better be losing sleep over it.

He's a Hamilton-born centre who originally signed a tryout last month but has since been signed for the remainder of the season. He's on the small side (5'9 and that might be generous) but has provided some much needed offensive punch (7 points in 12 games). He spent the last few years overseas (Austria, Finland, and Germany) but before that was a legitimate top line forward in the AHL.

A win's a win, as ugly as it was. 4 points out of 4 on the road trip, that's as good as it gets even if it wasn't pretty. Game stats: http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20122013/ES020194.HTM

Unrelated to this but Aaron Palushaj just picked up his first goal with Colorado. It appears he was bumped up to the 2nd line tonight.

He's back now. What a snoozefest this is, I'm finding the Cricket match on RDS2 more interesting at times...and I don't watch Cricket...or speak French. Terrific news though, the Habs increased their faceoff percentage in the game from 33% all the way to 34%. Progress!

The Habs are 33% on faceoffs so far and the 4th line centre has taken half of the total draws. That last bit is a bit strange. Pacioretty-Galchenyuk-Gallagher have all played under 4 minutes so far, I thought they were going to get more ice time?

The seats behind the benches are ones with perks for the ticket holders. The thing is, the perks are better than the seats themselves I was reading; it's not that they're not at the game...they're just elsewhere at the arena. It's like the lower bowl seats in Toronto. As for the game itself, that period nearly put me to sleep.

I don't think he'll play much, if at all so he shouldn't have a big impact. Owuya will take over as the #1 and Rynnas will be back whenever Reimer gets healthy.

Not only is Versteeg out, but they're also missing Upshall, Bergenheim, and Jovanovski. That's a few useful players out for them. (I've also updated the expected lines/injury/scratch info for the Panthers.)

Mathieu Darche will not sign with the Devils. It seems as if he was asked to wait longer (they're still keeping Stefan Matteau, their 1st rounder, up) and after a month of skating with the team regularly, he has decided to give up on signing with them. Also, Manny Malhotra will be shut down for the rest of the season over concerns with his eye injury sustained back in March of 2011. If they're ending his year this early, it can't be good. Speaking of not good (for them at least), the Sens officially confirmed today that Karlsson is done for the year.