My One Point on 3, 2 or 1 Point in the Standings

"I was trying to do my best because I was caught out of position."

The quote of the day, via The Orange County Register, comes from the lips of Ducks defenseman Cam Fowler, who was called for holding the Rangers' Ryan McDonagh in overtime Tuesday night.

Given the extra skater, the Rangers won the game with a power-play goal by Mats Zuccarello, 3-2. A nice gift by the overgenerous Anaheim squad this season.

The whole idea of the 3-on-3 overtime format was designed with this in mind. Create man advantages with quick passes and strong skating. OK, so Vancouver players said this week that they had found a way to save their season by playing keep-away for the extra session in order to get to the shootout.

That is another way to avoid being out of position.

All of it is garbage. We continue to see writers ask for a standings format where a victory in regulation time would be worth 3 points, a victory in overtime would be worth 2 points and, here is where the logic dies, the loser in overtime gets a point? Or if the score remains tied after the extra session, the game ends and each team gets a point?

Again, hot garbage.

The Ducks deserved nothing after last night's game. They lost, go home and stew in it. Or, you might say, they deserve a point because they at least tried to win in OT while the Canucks would have been (and are) content to skate around like zombies, much like they did Sunday against Florida. Ryan Miller was the left to pretty much his own extra large glove and XXXXL pads in the extra session.



Fix the system. Force the teams to play for the win in regulation. Game ends in a tie, fine, but no points for either team. In fact, drop the points for a winning team. Employ the winning is the only team approach and your standings would still say W-L-T, but the W is the only thing that would get you ahead in the game. Ties count the same as a loss. The winning percentage would be a simple computation, and that number would separate those who make the playoffs from those who get to watch. Yes, more coaches would be forced to go for it -- and perhaps be fired for failing to win -- but that is the point, so to speak, of the game.

Win, and you enjoy the glory. Lose, and you must try again. Lose too often, and you must find a new job. Thanks for trying, Ducks, but no soup for you.

Very simple, and much more entertaining.

Tortorella and That Hissing Sound

Pump yourself up like a balloon and somebody is going to take a poke at you.

The Canucks, proud and chests fully extended after their manly display -- oh, yes, and their 1-0 loss to the Kings -- left Southern California with nothing to show for it but a string of losses.

Anaheim's 9-1 victory was filled with lessons for all. For Canucks Coach John Tortorella, who went into his Mute Rockne act in front of reporters, there was nothing he was willing to offer in terms of insight on why he failed to get his team under control, why he continues to fail at getting his team to perform or come close to expectations. He's keeping a lot of things inside the room, as he likes to say, but the room is where the players are. What is going on in his room?

He won't say.

Torts: "There's no sense dissecting anything. It does me no good and the players no good to discuss anything that happened here."

— Ben Kuzma (@benkuzma) January 16, 2014

Ben Kuzma, the beat writer for the The Province, whose Twitter feed was upbeat after the Canucks' loss to the Kings, took a more sober view of the road ahead after the loss to the Ducks on Wednesday night, wondering what might be waiting for the Canucks in Phoenix.

But as far as insight, don't go there. Tortorella cannot offer what he doesn't have to give. So we will leave you with a blog post from The Province, which takes on the role of the angry fan because, is there any other type of fan in Vancouver? (At least one not linked however slightly to a news media organization that covers the team.)

Hockey at Chavez Ravine? A Big Yes

I am happy to hear there will be an outdoor NHL game at Chavez Ravine next season. Note, I am not a Dodgers fan, so I will refer to the structure built on the O'Malley landgrab as Chavez Ravine, the name the facility took when real baseball(the American League)was practiced there by any team playing the Los Angeles Angels of Los Angeles from 1961 through 1965.

Next Jan. 25, the formerly Mighty Men of Jade and Eggplant (Anaheim Ducks) will play the Los Angeles Kings at the Ravine in what will be a cool night for hockey. In Southern California, no January night spent outside is tropical. I expect a perfect night for hockey, which would include a Dodger Dog, a warm beverage or two and a Kings victory.

Many from the more frozen zones will complain about an outdoor event in Los Angeles. However, should they get a chance to be in Southern California for a few days, they will come running like the ghostly white and pink-fleshed folks from the Midwest (snowblowers, as my friend Steve the Anti-Puck calls them) do every January for the Rose Bowl.

Mixing Work and Play

Good news for Belarus, as well as for Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, the Kostitsyn brothers are set to arrive Friday in Europe for the rest of the World Championships.

Maybe any party antics by Andrei Kostitsyn will be met with the good humor that greeted Getzlaf and Perry last Saturday night.

I am trying to reconcile the treatment/judgment of Alexander Radulov and Andrei Kostitsyn in North America with the laughter and raised glasses that composed the approach to the antics of Canada's two players during a major tournament.

Double standards, clearly. And to be honest, when did we begin to think professional athletes were saints around here?

I just watched HBO's "Namath" documentary again on Sunday morning and took special note of the police officer noticing that a very tired New York Jets quarterback was leaving a Midtown hotel at an odd hour on the morning of the A.F.L. championship game with the Oakland Raiders.

The cop bet against the Jets, which he said was his team, and lost his money. And we all know that Namath enjoyed his adult beverages. So, again, why didn't the Jets suspend Namath for the Super Bowl? Because he got the job done.

By that standard -- of getting the job done -- if you want to punish Radulov or Kostitsyn for anything, punish them for their play in Game 2. Bag skate them, make them run in the hot sun or send them to a kitchen where a lard and cottage cheese sundae is being prepared for them. But make sure you are doing for their actions on the ice, not what they did the night before. I cannot name one person in the Lounge who hasn't stayed out too late the night before a big day at work.

Not one person. And you don't know of one either.

And now for an added starter, here's Elliotte Friedman of the CBC with his 30 thoughts, starting with the coaching power play in Chicago.

Flushing the System

Miss a few days with the flu and look what happens around here.

Bruce Boudreau is fired in Washington, Paul "the Gangster of Love" Maurice is fired in Carolina and Randy Carlyle remains employed as coach of the woefully uninspired squad in Anaheim.

Maurice is a little closer to my heart, first for allowing to make my former colleagues in Southern California chuckle when I added the Steve Miller Band reference to his name. And also for being a guy who understood his circumstances and appeared to be loyal.

In his first stint with the Hurricanes, he and his team came in and did not have a particularly good game against the Anaheim's then not so mighty waterfowl in jade and eggplant. The beat writer from Raleigh was banging out his copy in the press box and missed the first elevator down to the dressing room area at the Pond. Apparently he missed the second and third elevator down, too. But Maurice would not start the postmortem until the Raleigh beat writer appeared.

I wonder how fast the Gangster of Love started his pressers when he was coaching Toronto. And what a change to go from one, to too many, and back to one on the road, perhaps.



Before I got the flu, I was wondering what what happening to the Capitals. (As were many others, of course.)

George McPhee makes it clear the coach had lost the room, which many had said long before. Well, we cannot help but think the room needs to be adjusted. Maybe Dale Hunter can take charge, but it is one thing to coach a bunch of teenagers willing to do most anything just to make the NHL. It can be another task entirely to get a room of men to head in the same direction.



A team headed nowhere fast, which is a funny fact with freeways all around the home rink, exists in Anaheim. Can't stop goals from going in. Cannot score enough. Carlyle appears to be safe, we are told, but why should we believe that. The stench coming from the Honda Center is hard to ignore. The Orange County Register's Mark Whicker has managed to navigate around East Katella Avenue.

The verdict. Nothing is working, and the quotes reveal more questions than answers, more ifs than butts moving toward a positive outcome.

Last night I stuck with the Maple Leafs/Ducks game through its conclusion only because I was a little late in doing laundry. Halfway through folding towels I noticed that I was working harder than the Ducks. (Hard to believe, I know, but go with me a bit on this.) Carlyle was looking for help. Perhaps I should have offered him a fresh towel to hold over his nose.

Easy Picks for a Wednesday

The Pittsburgh Penguins are in New Jersey. The Devils, who once were my Colorado Rockies before they were rudely stolen from the West and dropped in the swamp, will recall those early, murky days when they wear the throwback -- I'll throw them back -- red and green uniforms tonight in Newark.

The Lounge will be watching that game tonight at 7 pm Eastern on the big screen. Calgary at Colorado, 9 pm, will get Internet radio play, that is, unless the Penguins/Devils game gets ugly. Internet radio play, you say? Gotta rest the eyes a bit.

At at 10 pm Eastern, it's time to see if the Chicago Blackhawks recover from losses to Philadelphia and Washington. The opponent is Anaheim. The big screen gets the Center Ice feed.

And now, before I closed these eyes early Wednesday morning, I was able to witness John Tavares playing, in the words of a former colleague, a man's game against the Vancouver Canucks. Matt Moulson, Tavares and Co. tore up the Canucks. Vancouver's BobbyLoo did not look so good in net. Down on his knees a lot, scrambling, looking like a kid trying to round up his marbles on a crowded sidewalk. Missed that one. Lost that one. Can't reach that one.

That won't play in late April, let alone May or June. Now excuse me while I rest my eyes.

The 6 PM Trade Deadline Update

Does anybody remember when the Detroit Red Wings drafted Anders Eriksson?

Well, clearly the New York Rangers do. They grabbed Eriksson from the Phoenix Coyotes, sending goaltender Miika Wiikman, a boatload of vowels, and a seventh-round pick to the Valley of the Sun.

The Coyotes made a deal with the Anaheim Ducks, landing forward Petteri Nokelainen. Headed to Orange County is a sixth-round draft pick.

That is it. Thanks for checking into the Lounge on trade deadline day. Now I'm going to check out what we have on the top shelf. I think I need a drink, or two.

As for you, our dear patrons of the Lounge, please offer your thoughts on any one of the trades today. Your input is encouraged.

Thanks for dropping in.

Updating the Trade Updates

More trades have been approved. Vancouver lands defenseman Andrew Alberts, sending a third-round pick to the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Florida Panthers have added defenseman Mathieu Roy. The cost was forward Matt Rust, who goes to Columbus.

Defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky is returning to Southern California. The Edmonton Oilers have traded Visnovsky, a former Los Angeles King, to the Anaheim Ducks. Headed to Alberta is defenseman Ryan Whitney. Lubo is a great addition to the Ducks.

Toronto has grabbed defenseman Chris Peluso from Pittsburgh, which will receive a sixth-round pick.

Forward Dustin Boyd is now with the Nashville Predators, who sent a fourth-round pick to the Calgary Flames.

Anaheim's Crease Grows Crowded

The Anaheim Ducks have added goaltender Joey MacDonald to their roster, sending a seventh-round pick in the 2011 draft to the Toronto Maple Leafs, who are cleaning house.

Ducks Add McElhinney to Roster

The Anaheim Ducks have traded for goaltender Curtis McElhinney. The return package owed to the Calgary Flames has yet to be determined. Have you seen McElhinney play?

Many have not, as Miikka Kiprusoff is the man usually in the net for the Flames. TSN now confirms that goaltender Vesa Toskala is the player headed to Calgary.

Aaron Ward Traded to Anaheim

Yet another defenseman has been traded. The Carolina Hurricanes send defenseman Aaron Ward to the Anaheim Ducks. The Hurricanes will get goaltender Justin Pogge and a fourth-round pick in return.

Ward adds yet another sweater to his collection and another sticker on his suitcase.

Trade Winds Update 11:30 PM Eastern

Just three trades to report since we mentioned that defenseman Andy Sutton was headed from the New York Islanders to the Ottawa Senators for a second-round pick.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have traded left wing Alexei Ponikarovsky to the Pittsburgh Penguins for defenseman Martin Skoula and left wing Luca Caputi. Caputi has spent some time with Pittsburgh and also in the American Hockey League with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

The Anaheim Ducks have sent defenseman Nick Boynton to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for future considerations.

The Edmonton Oilers have acquired left wing Matt Marquardt from the Boston Bruins, who are receiving defenseman Cody Wild. Marquardt has spent time this season with Providence of the AHL and Reading of the East Coast Hockey League. Wild has played in the AHL with Springfield and in the ECHL with Stockton.

We here at the Lounge will pass on any information we get on any player movement as we approach the NHL trade deadline, which is at 3 pm Eastern on Wednesday.

Things We Know So Far

Some things we learned after the first game in the Olympics for each competing nation:

Flames can burn brighter. Some players from the Calgary Flames look pretty good when they can get out from under the restrictive defensive system the team employs. Nik Hagman scored twice for Finland, both off his backhand, in the Finns’ 5-1 victory over Belarus. Hagman’s Calgary linemate, Jarome Iginla, had a hat trick for Canada in its 8-0 victory over Norway. Iginla did not ignite until he was put on a line with Sidney Crosby and Rick Nash, a group that was initially formed during Canada’s orientation camp in the summer. Expect them to stay together for the balance of the tournament.

The specter of the stopper. A hot goalie(s) will emerge during this tournament but we were reminded of just how much damage a netminder can do to Olympic hopes by the play of Vitali Koval of Belarus, who held his team in longer against Finland than it deserved to be, making 40 saves. Of course, a hot goalie can also cool like yesterday’s fish. In that same Finland-Belarus game, Antero Nittymaki of Finland, who was named the most valuable player of the 2006 Olympic hockey tournament, did not even suit up.

There is speed and then there is crazy speed. Russia has the latter. There seems to be a calculated frenzy to what the Russians do on the ice, always skating, sticks alert, flooding the zone, bearing down on the net. It’s nearly as wild as those skates of Alexander Ovechkin. Such a style is guaranteed to spawn defensive lapses but it sure is fun to watch. Additionally intriguing will be how long the Russians stick with this freewheeling nature as they move the deeper into the tournament. It is one thing to dangle against Latvia, quite another to dipsy doodle in the medal round.

Didn’t you used to be . . . ? Jaromir Jagr and Peter Forsberg both looked good in their openers, Jagr scoring once in the Czech Republic’s 3-1 victory over Slovakia. Forsberg played nearly 13 minutes in Sweden’s 2-0 win over Germany. He had no shots but still retains his eye for a nice set-up, dishing off to Nicklas Backstrom for a good scoring chance. Neither player will ever be as dominating as they once were but both looked inspired. Granted, it’s early, but nothing they did yesterday will tamp down talk about either of them returning to the NHL.

A big country. Brian Burke, the general manager of the United States, promised his team would be big. It is and it used its size effectively against Switzerland. That will please Burke to no end but, more important, it may also allow a young U.S. team to assert itself much quicker than one would expect. Oh, and the line of Zach Parise, Paul Stastny and Patrick Kane is definitely worth watching.

Quack, quack. How can the Anaheim Ducks have eight players in the Olympics – a goalie, two defensemen and five forwards representing four countries -- and be sitting on the outside of the Western Conference playoffs? Just askin’.

At the Intermission . . .

Some random thoughts before Canada decides between Ryan Getzlaf and Jeff Carter. Here at Vic’s, we keep the debate simple. Guacamole or more guacamole?

• Washington Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau is resolutely cheerful about his goaltending situation but imagine how happy he would be if one of Washington’s troika of netminders – Semyon Varlamov, Jose Theodore and Michal Neuvirth – seized the job in a dominating fashion. Varlamov only returned from injury last week so this may be a story that has yet to be written. Beltway hockey fans are sick of hearing muttering about their goaltending as their recent three-game road trip showed, Washington’s high-octane offense can only lift the team out of so many holes. The Caps give up an average of 31 shots a game; they’re going to need someone to stop a few of them this spring.

• Speaking of teams that allow a lot of shots – Hello there, Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks allow 33.2 shots a game, 28^th in the league, the byproduct of a flowing style that leaves large tracts of ice available for opposition forwards to revive their best pond hockey moves. Scott Niedermayer can’t be everywhere at once and that usually leaves Jonas Hiller to deal with the mess. He’ll be worn out by April. The Ducks are still in the Western Conference playoff race so it doesn’t seem likely they will be sellers at the trade deadline. That may change in the summer, though, regardless of where they land. This is a team that falls off markedly once you get past its first line and it could use another quality defenseman.

• The Calgary Flames don’t have an easy path ahead of them if they want to hold on to a playoff spot in the West. The Flames have 20 games remaining after the Olympic break, 11 of them on the road, where they are playing better (15-9-6) than at home (15-14-3). But there are few pushovers in their finish, which includes an Eastern road trip that concludes in Washington. The Flames still have two games left against San Jose (at home), two with Detroit (home and away), two with Vancouver (both away) and two with Colorado (both away), a team that has beaten the Flames in four previous games this season. The one wild card: four games (two in each building) against the Minnesota Wild.

• The Columbus Blue Jackets are 3-1-1 since they replaced Ken Hitchcock as coach with Claude Noel on Feb. 3. Has Noel made that much of a difference in such a short span? Maybe, but look at the play of goalie Steve Mason, who played four of the five games, posting two shutouts. Show me a good goalie and I’ll show you a coach you got really smart overnight.

• The NHL has not committed to making its players available for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia and it will be mighty interesting to see how that plays out when the new collective agreement between the league and its players comes up in a couple of years. Expect the league to wield this bargaining chip with a flourish in an attempt to rein in costs. Expect the players to cave on it, too, because most of them are really, really in love with the idea of playing in the Olympics. Even the guys who don’t go must enjoy the opportunity to unwind in the midst of the season. Only the owners are against the idea and we all know they can be swayed if the deal is right.

Clearing the Airwaves

*** Thought we'd start the Sunday reading period with some thoughts after Don Cherry detailed his thoughts about Daniel Carcillo and Sean Avery during the Coach's Corner segment Saturday night on "Hockey Night in Canada."

Little rats. If you are talking to Cherry, that's what he sees in Avery and Carcillo. Now I'd have to look into the archives, and I will during the Olympic break, but are these two rats doing anything different from the original rat, Kenny "The Rat" Linseman?

Cherry's argument about the instigator makes some sense at face value. You allow a tough guy to police the situation when an Avery or Carcillo takes on a star, and you take away the threat of an extra penalty for instigation, and things get put back in place. Order is restored.

But I don't remember Linseman ever having to defend himself in the old days. He'd poke some one and as soon as a Ranger or Islander came in to settle the score, instantly there was Paul Holmgren or another large Flyer fluent in fist arriving quickly to protect Linseman.

I'll have to check into this, because Cherry has a point about Avery and Carcillo taking advantage of the rules that allow them to play outside the rules to challenge star players.

But the Kenny the Rat played the same way in a tougher era. And I'm pretty certain he got away with pretty much everything without ever paying full price. We shall see.



*** All eyes of Canada, or a large share of them, will be tracking the progress of the Anaheim/Edmonton game tonight. More likely, they will be tracking the status of the Ducks' Ryan Getzlaf, who is considered to be a critical figure in Canada's drive for hockey gold in Vancouver.

This daily watch reminds me a lot of the daily updates about Paul Kariya before the NHLers went to the Nagano Games in 1998. Kariya, recovering from a concussion, never made it to the Olympic tournament. And right up to the point of his status being made official, hockey writers across Canada were making calls to determine Kariya's health and the likelihood of him being in the lineup.

We'll be watching tonight as well.

*** I'm not a big fan of the NHL taking a break so its players can play in the Olympics. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy most of the men's tournament, but I do not enjoy seeing the rest of the NHL shut down.

The junior leagues and U.S. colleges do not shut down for the World Junior Championship. In fact, junior-age players participate in more games outside of their leagues than you might imagine. If you count the WJC, Russia-Canada challenge series, league all-star games, CHL prospect games, etc., there are a lot of extracurricular activity.

But their leagues don't shut down.

During the New York Islanders/Tampa Bay Lightning broadcast on MSG-Plus, Butch Goring said he did not support shutting down the NHL to allow the Olympic tournament to have NHL players. He said it should be an amateur tournament.

Those days are not coming back, however. You dictate that Canada and the United States send only amateurs and that's where that movement stops. Sweden, Russia, Finland and the Czech Republic are going to send their best. The Olympics and the IIHF want the best in the world tournaments.

An amateur-only tournament then, is only likely in the World Junior Championship. If the NHL wants to skip the 2014 Games in Russia, I have no problem with it; others would disagree. But I don't expect the rest of the world to go along with the amateurs-only concept.

That ship has sailed.

Don't Look Too Far Ahead

Rearranging the coasters on the Lounge bar.

*** With a 4-2 victory last night at Honda Center, the Anaheim Ducks put a period on a record winning streak by the Los Angeles Kings. The downside? Ryan Getzlaf. Down on the ice. Sprained ankle.

Did you hear that, Canada? Someone you are counting on for grit and a scoring touch in the Vancouver Games is on crutches. Getzlaf's status will be re-examined today.

And that is what passes for heart-stopping moments as we approach the Olympic men's hockey tournament, which begins next week. Any injury, however slight, will cause GMs in the NHL as well as the men running the Olympic teams to reflect, re-evaluate and resolve to remain committed to NHLers in the Olympics.



*** This video might appear a bit old -- it's from Saturday -- but not as old as some of the pretzels served here in the Lounge.

Michigan at Wisconsin at Camp Randall stadium. Gotta warm up the hockey crowd somehow. Did someone say House of Pain? Time to jump around and recirculate the blood, or whatever antifreeze that is not doing the job at the moment.

The Badgers won. Camp Randall still standing. A nice scene. Glad I was indoors, watching in the Lounge.

*** Back to the Olympics. NHL.com has a page devoted to the Vancouver games -- All Access Vancouver -- with rosters, features, schedules and, one assumes, plenty of stats and summaries as we move toward Russia defeating Canada for the gold medal. Yes, that's my pick, even though I am not firmly behind the goaltending of Evgeni Nabokov and Ilya Bryzgalov.

As for the United States, I see problems in goal, a lack of size up front and a defense that is not a strong as some of the tournament entries. I see a loss to the Swedes in the bronze medal game.

What say you?

*** Some lucky fans in North America will not have to pay to watch the Carolina Hurricanes face the Minnesota Wild next season. Those two teams will open the 2010-11 season with a double dip in Helsinki.

Also heading to Europe for two games are the Columbus Blue Jackets, San Jose Sharks, Boston Bruins and Phoenix Coyotes. The Blue Jackets and Sharks will play twice in Stockholm; the Bruins and Coyotes will meet twice in Prague.

*** Roy MacGregor of The Toronto Globe and Mail gets to have the final word in the Lounge when it comes to Bob Gainey, who leaves the Montreal Canadiens in much the same way he found it. A franchise with great history, a hallowed sweater and few players worthy of wearing it.

Burke Adjusts the Storyline in Toronto

You have to admit that the royal suit worn by Don Cherry in the Coach's Corner segment last night was his most tasteful ensemble yet. Scary, but true.

Too bad there was so much time spent discussing life in Stratford, Ontario, during the Hotstove portion of the show, because it would have been nice to hear more about the moves that were being made by Brian Burke in Toronto.

Dion Phaneuf is coming from the Calgary Flames to the Maple Leafs. J.S. Giguere is leaving the Anaheim Ducks to help the Monster in Toronto. The Toronto Globe and Mail doesn't publish a paper on Sundays, but that doesn't stop them from putting out a full report when news happens.

Burke told David Shoalts of the Globe and Mail that the moves were made to break up the country club feeling of privilege that exists in Toronto.

Well, I don't know about Mr. Burke, but perhaps his team would feel less like the entitled class if the team wasn't granted the royal status on "Hockey Night in Canada," which usually schedules the Maple Leafs in the regal 7 pm Eastern time slot.

On Saturday, a very hot Ottawa team played host to Montreal in the afternoon slot. Sometimes, neither Ottawa nor Montreal merit a national audience on CBC, that is, unless they are playing the Leafs. (Francophones can catch the Habs nationally on RDS; Radio-Canada, the French television branch of the CBC, surrendered "La Soirée du Hockey" in 2002.)



Toronto is the center of the hockey universe, at least that is what we hear out of Toronto. Other teams that move from the end of the line to the middle are just that, middling teams. But when the Leafs move from the rear to a seat somewhere between the last row and the front row, they become contenders. That is what Burke is working against.

In Eric Duhatschek's thumbs up review of the Burke moves, he looks back at the 1992 Calgary-Toronto swap that included Doug Gilmour.

Gilmour’s presence turned the Leafs from a laughingstock into a contender.

He made them better, but a Cup contender? Well, they did lose to the Los Angeles Kings in the Campbell Conference finals in 1993. But contender should mean more than that. It should mean a contender to win the Cup from the start of the season through to the playoffs, not just in years when the really good teams are upset early and only the middling teams remain to win the Cup.

The good thing to come out of Burke's moves is that the Maple Leafs are now a more interesting team to watch the rest of the season.

Monday's Junior Hockey Report

Every elite junior league across North American got in a few games on Sunday before the Monday break. Tonight, the Ontario Hockey League selects and the Russian selects faceoff in Windsor. More on that under the OHL banner.

QUEBEC MAJOR JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
Cape Breton 3, at Moncton 2
At Prince Edward Island 6, Chicoutimi 5 OT
Gatineau 3, at Rouyn-Noranda 0
At Victoriaville 6, Halifax 1
At Quebec 5, Montreal 2
Saint John 7, at Lewiston 4

The roundup is here and the standings are here.

In league notes, Chicoutimi forward Nicolas Deschamps and Baie-Comeau goaltender Nathan Dunnett were selected as the players of the week. The release is here. Anaheim drafted Deschamps in the second round of the 2008 NHL draft. Patrick King of Sportsnet.ca says that Deschamps is steadily making his case to be among those being considered for a spot on Canada's entry in the World Junior Championships. You can read all of King's weekly notebook here.

In other league notes, Chicoutimi forward Rock Régimbald was suspended four games for a kneeing incident a week earlier against Prince Edward Island. The release is here.

ONTARIO HOCKEY LEAGUE
At Brampton 3, Belleville 0
Plymouth 4, at Kingston 1
At Ottawa 6, Kitchener 3
At Owen Sound 3, Erie 2 OT
At Windsor 11, Guelph 3
London 4, at Oshawa 1

The roundup is here and the standings are here.

In league notes, the final game between the Russian selects and the OHL selects is tonight at 7 in Windsor. The Russian squad is 0 for 3 in the series, having lost twice to the QMJHL selects and once to an OHL squad. After this game, the Russian squad moves on to British Columbia for two games against the WHL selects.

WESTERN HOCKEY LEAGUE
Prince Albert 5, at Edmonton 4 OT
Spokane 3, at Calgary 2
At Medicine Hat 3, Red Deer 1

The roundup is here and the standings are here.

In league notes, Chilliwack forward Ryan Howse has been selected as the player of the week. The release is here. In other news, Portland traded goaltender Kurtis Mucha to Kamloops for a draft pick. The release is here.

UNITED STATES HOCKEY LEAGUE
Fargo 6, at Team USA 3

The standings are here.