Bacon, Eggs, Roll. Your Line Starts.

Winter mornings in New York send the message early. Winds off the Hudson work the forecheck hard.

Bags, papers, hats. You better grip 'em hard because the wind wants to play, prove its strength. You are the fresh kid on the playground; your hat looks like a perfect item for keepaway.

Get wise to what the winter wind wants and you can play your hand. Call the first play that puts you in control, gives you the strength to mute that wind, to put it back in the box, where it will spring back out on someone less prepared, less fortified.

Bacon, eggs, roll. That's the call. Your street-corner agent works in a metal box no bigger than a hall closet. If he stands at the center, he can reach every corner without much difficulty.

Bacon, eggs, roll. At that bark, that action begins. Two eggs cracked into a metal bowl. Beat with a fork. Add small conversation. If he's cold, he doesn't show it.

A friend of the agent passes by. Greetings in Czech, Russian, Polish. All done while the eggs hit the grill, the roll is sliced and placed face down on the sheet. Two large barrels of Joe, prepared, bagged. The roll comes off, eggs and bacon folded in. Foil, ketchup packets, salt packets, pepper packets, five napkins. Into the bag, transaction complete. Bless you, my son. Go and sin some more.

Marching into the wind, I find a bench in Bryant Park. Two deep pulls of Joe; it hurts, but the sting cuts the cold quickly, trading one pain for another. Now the sandwich. See that smile? You know that it had to be as good as it smelled going into the bag.

Bacon, eggs, roll. The world never looked better. Warmer, yes. But better? No.

The rink is up now at Bryant Park, and I catch the show of early skaters taking a few turns before it's time to head to work -- stolen moments in a city where your time is already accounted for. Gotta be here, shoulda been there, need to make it up now. Late is the constant state. Early? Where the heck are you from? You are not from here, boss.

Get in the game. Play catch up. Make the call.

Bacon, eggs, roll. Your line starts.

Sunday's Scoreboard
NHL
Philadelphia 2, at N.Y. Islanders 1
Boston 2, at Florida 1
Buffalo 5, at St. Louis 3
Toronto 4, at Pittsburgh 3
At Chicago 5, Nashville 4
Vancouver 5, at Calgary 1
The standings are here.
The roundup is here.

Three stars from Puck Daddy.

AHL
At Manchester 2, Providence 0
Hartford 4, at Springfield 3 SO
At Worcester 3, Lowell 2
Rockford 6, at Chicago 4
Peoria 5, at Grand Rapids 1
At San Antonio 4, Texas 1
Lake Erie 7, Toronto 0
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 3, Albany 2
At Hershey 7, Norfolk 1
At Rochester 5, Binghamton 3
At Manitoba 4, Abbotsford 1
The standings are here.
The roundup is here.

ECHL
Cincinnati 3, at Kalamazoo 2 OT
Charlotte 5, at South Carolina 4
At Gwinnett 3, Florida 2 OT
Reading 4, at Trenton 3 OT
At Toledo 7, Johnstown 3
At Wheeling 4, Elmira 3
Bakersfield 3, at Ontario 2
At Victoria 7, Alaska 3
The standings are here.

QMJHL
At Quebec 10, Chicoutimi 1
At Shawinigan 7, Gatineau 5
Lewiston 4, at Victoriaville 3
Moncton 10, at Halifax 1
At Cape Breton 3, Prince Edward Island 0
Saint John 5, at Acadie-Bathurst 4
At Rouyn-Noranda 6, Val-d'Or 0
The standings are here.
The roundup is here.

OHL
No games scheduled.
The standings are here.

WHL
Vancouver 7, at Kelowna 3
At Kootenay 3, Calgary 1
At Medicine Hat 5, Regina 2
At Red Deer 1, Lethbridge 0
Tri-City 6, at Everett 3
Chilliwack 3, at Seattle 2 OT
At Kamloops 6, Prince George 1
Portland 5, at Spokane 4
The standings are here.
The roundup is here.

USHL
No games scheduled.
The standings are here.

WJC
Group A (at Saskatoon)
United States 3, Switzerland 0
Slovakia 8, Latvia 3
The recaps are here.

Group B (at Regina)
Sweden 7, Austria 3
Finland 4, Czech Republic 3
The recaps are here.

Three-stars from Puck Daddy.