Here are your Puck Headlines: A glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.
• Pagnotta's all sorts of busy, so no podcast today; we'll pick it up again on Thursday.
• When teams win games at the clip the Vancouver Canucks are winning games, the media sometimes needs to poke the hornets' nest a little bit. So Roberto Luongo was asked why he's giving up a few too many soft goals, and he stung back by defending his puck-handling abilities and saying, "I believe my record is 14-2-1 in the last 17 games." Snap! Doesn't change the fact that at times he's been softer than Vince Vaughn's midsection in between movies ... but snap! [Vancouver Sun]
• Alex Burrows isn't just a royal pain in the rump; he's an elite fantasy hockey player, too. [Dobber]
• Spector takes a gander at the upcoming RFA class, including some really interesting names like David Booth, Jack Johnson, Phil Kessel and David Krejci. OK, to be fair, Ole-Kristian Tollefsen and Guillaume Latendresse are really interesting names, too. [Fox Sports]
• Another look at how the world perceives Sidney Crosby. [Chen]
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• NBC picks up the Detroit Red Wings' games against the Minnesota Wild and the Chicago Blackhawks. Which will confuse all those casual viewers who were convinced that the NHL was a four-team league involving New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Boston. [Khan!, via Snapshots]
• Randy Jones is out for the Philadelphia Flyers, which suits Travis just fine: "He turns over passes, he plays defense like a lost puppy, he gets way too much ice time and he makes way too much money." Wait, when did Wade Redden join the Flyers? [Broad Street Hockey]
• Glen Sather receives high praise for saving the New York Rangers' season ... from Mike Milbury. Which is a bit like Ed Wood congratulating Zack Snyder for changing the ending to "Watchmen." [CBC Sports]
• An interesting argument for introducing body-checking into hockey at a much earlier age than is currently suggested. We won't be satisfied until mothers play the sounds of Scott Stevens hip-checks to their children in the womb. [THN]
• The Dallas Stars could have and Brad Richards, Jere Lehtinen, Toby Petersen, Mark Parrish and Fabian Brunnstrom all back by the end of the week. They have the eight seed right now; barring Turco being Turco, this is a very dangerous first-round team. [Stars]
• Is Brendan Morrison worth keeping in Dallas a winger? [Stars Blog]
• "Adam Foote" joins the Twitter revolution: "I think I've got a headache. Guess I better take an Advil and sit out the next couple weeks." ["Adam Foote" ... note the quotes, Dwayne. "Adam" ... "Foote"]
• St. Louis Blues fans are beginning to remember that this whole playoff race thing is a sphincter-clenching experience. [Game Time]
• As Martin Brodeur nears the all-time wins record for the New Jersey Devils, a look at the intangibles that can make or break a goalie's NHL career; a.k.a. what if Hasek was a Red Wing as long as Marty's been a Devil. [Eyes on the Prize]
• Defenseman Mike Green and center Sergei Fedorov are expected back for the Washington Capitals for their big game against the Florida Panthers tonight. Big in the sense that the Panthers really need this one; and big in the sense that the Capitals can ill-afford to go 0-for-2 on what should be a manageable five-game road trip. [Capitals Insider]
• Paul Friesen takes a look at Sean Avery's return to the NHL and wonders if anger management counseling shouldn't be used more often -- even for players that don't make a sex joke in the locker room. [Sun Media]
• Terry Murray on the Los Angeles Kings' loss last night: "I don't want them to put this game behind them. There's learning points in the season and this is real important here for us to understand what is going on, why things happen and decisions that we made as a team to probably give them momentum." [Inside the Kings]
• The Wojtek Wolski Experiment Update: He's about as good as a center as he is a winger, but the Colorado Avalanche may have found their third-line scorer. [Mile High Hockey]
• The San Jose Sharks call it a playoff T-shirt. We call it unrepentant hubris for a team that has San Jose's postseason pedigree. [Sharks]
• The Chicago Blackhawks are in the running for some big-time sports business awards. All Bill Wirtz ever won was a Razzie. [Blackhawks]
• Interesting story about a son who helped his father find work after getting laid off by the Tampa Bay Lightning. [Deadspin]
It's St. Patrick's Day, so it's time for an annual tribute to the NHL's lone Ireland-born player, Owen Nolan. [Wild Nation]
• Finally, Philadelphia Phantoms fans continue the grand hockey tradition of butchering The Chicken Dance at hockey games (38 seconds in).