Chris Nichols

­Chris Nichols is Sportsnet.ca's fantasy hockey writer.

@Nichols_NHLPool on Twitter for timely NHL & poolie info, along with occasionally snarky comments.

Live blogging nightly: line combos, defensive pairings, analysis, statistical trends and more from every game on the NHL docket. Refresh the 'Live NHL Recap' page while the games are on to get new info as it is added.

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The Ottawa Citizen reports that Jason Spezza, who has been out with an injury to his right shoulder, will be back in the lineup when the Ottawa Senators face the New York Islanders on Saturday night.

Spezza will be on a line with Daniel Alfredsson and Nick Foligno. Foligno could be pressed into service to take faceoffs for that line if Spezza's shoulder is not strong enough to handle draws. Spezza said he's shooting pain-free but the verdict is still out on taking faceoffs. He'll see how he feels during the game.

Sportsnet.ca's Ian Mendes spoke with Spezza.

"I feel good, so I'm hoping to play Saturday. I'll have another good practice (Friday) and I'm excited to get back," Spezza said after participating in his first full contact practice in almost six weeks."

He added, "I expect to help the club out and hope to shake the rust off as soon as I can. I think I can bring a positive attitude and give the guys a little jump. Sometimes, when you can inject some different guys in the lineup, it helps the group out and gives other guys some confidence."

Also, The Citizen indicated that plans at the moment will see rookie goalie Robin Lehner accompany the team on its four-game trip to Long Island, Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton.

Devils coach Jacques Lemaire told Fire & Ice he likes the progress his team has been making over the last four weeks, but he said he’s still not focusing on where that improved play will lead.

That’s because, though the Devils are 7-1-1 in their last nine games, they haven’t moved up in the overall standings.

“We’ve been playing pretty good, but we’re still in last place,” Lemaire said. “When you look at it, it’s like you never get out of there and if one day we get out, oh, we’re a point ahead. Then, the next day the other team will win and you’ll lose and then you’re back where you were.

“It seems like we’ve been doing fairly good, probably among the good teams lately, the last 10 games as an example. We’re up there. And you know what? We’re still in last place. We don’t move. So, that’s why the only thing I can focus on and I want the players to focus on is try to play as good as they can.”

The article points out that because they are playing better, the Devils could find themselves to be a spoiler down the stretch for a lot of teams, but Lemaire’s not thinking like that either.

“I don’t look at it that at all,” Lemaire said. “We’re in a position where we have to get the team back where the team should be as a team that will play every night and you’ll look one night and say, ‘Hey’ this team is playing well. They’re playing good. They’re improving.’ This is what we want to be every night.

“What we do with that, we don’t really care about the rest of it. We want to play good and where it’s going to bring us, it will bring us good things, nothing else.”

The New York Post writes that little more speaks to the character of Vinny Prospal than his return to the Rangers following four months of rehab for tonight's Garden match against the Devils in which he will don his familiar uniform No. 20, but without the "A" he wore so proudly last season.

The scarlet letter will remain on the chest of Marc Staal, who was appointed an alternate captain the week before the season opened, which also was the week that Prospal underwent right knee surgery.

"I talked to Vinny, and he understands. He understands the transition," coach John Tortorella said. "He knew that this was going to happen. He almost wanted it to happen.

"That's where the team is going," he said. "We're trying to build a foundation with our young guys, adding responsibility.

"Vinny's a pro. He leads anyway. It adds to the development of Marc Staal," the coach said. "He's contagious, the enthusiasm he brings. . . . No one practices harder than Vinny Prospal, which is very important to a young team. Vinny Prospal is a pretty key guy that way. He's at a level young guys should look at. He brings a lot of little things. It's why he's so well liked and so well respected in the room."

The Post says that Prospal, who will turn 36 in two weeks, said he felt like a kid at Christmas following yesterday's practice in which he skated with 2009-10 running buddy Marian Gaborik and freshman center Derek Stepan, a combination that will open intact against New Jersey.

"I haven't played in such a long time, since last April, so it feels great to be back and help everybody be better but I'll be very nervous, too," said Prospal, who encountered a number of setbacks in his rehab, the latest and most disappointing the first weekend of 2011, but never wavered in his commitment to rejoin his teammates.

Yesterday when asked if he believed he might be able to jump-start Gaborik, who has scored 16 goals in 39 games, getting 10 in three games and thus six in the other 36, Prospal said jokingly, "I'm hoping he jump-starts me. I'm the guy coming back.But then Prospal turned serious.

"We need the guy to score important goals for us," said Prospal, who is Gaborik's neighbor in the practice rink room. "He knows himself it's been a little slow in that regard.

"I'm going to help him," he said. "I'm going to try to do everything possible to help him score."

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin is expected to return to the lineup Friday night against Buffalo, but centre Mark Letestu is facing arthroscopic knee surgery for a meniscus injury and is expected to be out four to six weeks. Coach Dan Bylsma relayed the news today after practice at Consol Energy Center.

Malkin has missed the past five games because of a knee problem and, more recently, a sinus infection. Letestu got hurt during Tuesday's morning skate at Madison Square Garden in New York and missed that night's game against the Rangers plus Wednesday's home game against the New York Islanders. The rookie, who recently signed a contract extension, has 10 goals, 20 points in 50 games.

Bylsma also said that centre and leading scorer Sidney Crosby, who has missed 11 games because of a concussion, is leaving town for a few days to visit his family but is expected to continue his regimen of light workouts.

Mike Smith cleared waivers today.

The Tampa Tribune notes that Smith, 28, has not played for the Lightning since spraining his knee in mid-December. His return to the team Monday from a two-week conditioning assignment in Norfolk created a logjam at goaltender, where recently acquired Dwayne Roloson is the starter and Dan Ellis the backup.

"He needs to play," Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman said of Smith after the organization placed him on waivers. "We have three goaltenders here and we don't want to go with any kind of a rotation. If Smitty gets claimed, it's obviously good for him. If he doesn't, he goes down and plays for us."

Smith will join Norfolk as a replacement for Cedrick Desjardins. Desjardins, who won two games for the Lightning while Smith was out, injured a shoulder playing for Norfolk on Jan. 16. After meeting with Yzerman and team doctors on Tuesday, Desjardins was headed back to Norfolk for a second opinion to determine whether he needs surgery.

"The idea behind the action in sending (Smith) back (was), 'Let's get him some ice time,' " Lightning coach Guy Boucher said. "It's not about promotion or demotion, it's about how do we improve the guys that we have in our roster.

"The whole purpose is to develop them. We don't take these things lightly. Players are not numbers to us. We care, so whatever it is we do, we try to find the best possible option for the team and the individual.''

Smith is in the final year of a two-year contract extension signed prior to the 2009-10 season and will receive his full $2.4 million salary whether he plays in the NHL or Norfolk.

According to The Orange County Register, Ducks rookie Brandon McMillan played his third consecutive game at centre between Bobby Ryan and Corey Perry on Wednesday against San Jose in the spot that is Ryan Getzlaf's (sinus cavity fractures) usual domain.

Ryan had been moved to centre while Getzlaf was out, but Ducks coach Randy Carlyle discussed his contingency plan with McMillan if that didn't work out, which appears to be the case.

"He'd asked me the game before we left on that trip (before the All-Star break)," McMillan said. "Right before the game (against Edmonton), I was a little nervous. I didn't really feel too comfortable. And then when we were in Montreal, right before the game he said, 'You're going to play centre tonight.'

"I kind of just tried to refocus my game because I didn't find out until 5 o'clock. Just tried to focus on trying to keep the game simple (and) just play well down low. If I do that, it'd be fine."

The Register notes that Carlyle said when he asked McMillan about playing centre, the response he got was, "If that's what it takes for me to play a regular shift, so be it. I'll go play it."

"I feel really comfortable playing centre," said McMillan, who played centre last season for Kelowna (WHL). "I played it last year for a full year. It wasn't too much of an adjustment. I'd say it was a little harder going from center to wing at the start of the year."

Carlyle said while he doesn't see the stout forward as a prototypical No. 1 centre, he does see someone he feels comfortable with in key situations.

"The thing is he understands defensive zone coverage," Carlyle said. "He understands that's going to allow him to play more minutes. "Usually what you find is coaches trust players that play in their own zone.

"It's funny how they seem to be able to stay in your lineup and get more minutes and earn that trust. But he has to earn it on a day to day basis."

The Register also indicates that the target date remains Feb. 9 for Getzlaf to return to action.

Thrashers general manager Rick Dudley told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he is actively looking to make a trade to improve a struggling team on the verge of falling out of the playoff race and that there is a heightened sense of urgency following a 4-1 loss to the New York Islanders Tuesday.

As of last night, yes [we are actively looking for a trade],” Dudley said Wednesday. “Are we looking to do something? Absolutely. We don’t want to let this go. Obviously we haven’t given up on the season. It would be ludicrous. We haven’t given up on improving either. If it doesn’t come from within, it will come from outside.”

Dudley said, ultimately, he would like to add two forwards and a defenceman.

“Those could happen now. They could happen later,” Dudley said. “Obviously we feel a sense of urgency because we think we are a better team than we displayed last night. We think we are capable of making the playoffs but it may take a move here or there.

“I’m not going to jeopardize the long-term future of the organization for the short-term gain. But if there is something that makes sense in both of those cases, long term and short term, we would do that for sure.”

Dudley told The Journal-Constitution that the Thrashers are capable of returning the top-level play as they showed in November and December.

“I don’t believe in overachieving,” he said. “I think what you saw for a period of 20 games was our optimal level or close to it. Nobody every plays at their optimal level but we were at 90 percent. We went through a horrible part of the schedule, lost some things, and now we are at about 70 percent. Seventy percent is not good enough in this league. We have to get back to 90 percent. That will take someone in that dressing room bringing them all together and saying ‘Hey, we can have a good thing here but we have to do it right.’”

The Boston Globe reports that Marc Savard, originally due back in town yesterday, is traveling to Boston today for an examination. While it's expected that Savard will not play again this season, a decision will not necessarily be made following his evaluation.

"It's our doctors, our medical people, our trainers that are going to be dealing with him," Claude Julien said. "With concussions, as you know, it could be a matter of saying, 'Well, we're going to give him another week and see how he feels.' We don't know when that answer is going to come. That's where we're at with Savvy."

The Regina Leader-Post writes that Lanny McDonald marvels at how much the game has changed since his Hall of Fame hockey career ended in 1989.

The trouble is, not all of those changes have been for the better.

“There’s a couple things I think about and kind of worry about,” McDonald said Wednesday from Calgary. “Obviously everyone is talking about the concussion challenges. The players today are bigger, faster, stronger, in phenomenal shape, moreso than they were 15, 20 years ago. With the speed of the game and the size of the players and how quickly those gaps close out there, they need to take a long hard look at the equipment, even if they take a step backwards (with more padding).

“Now, just a glancing blow with the new, lighter, harder-than-a-table-top equipment, you’ll end up with a concussion. That’s a big worry. And the respect factor and what we are demonstrating and trying to get across to our young people because they emulate everything that happens in the pros.”

That’s why McDonald told The Leader-Post he thinks education on concussions needs to start at the top.

“The NHL has a responsibility to push it down to junior hockey, down to midget hockey and all the way down,” he continued. “When you start losing the best players in the game, like a Marc Savard, like a (Patrice) Bergeron, like Sidney Crosby, for extended periods of time, holy God, get your head out of the sand, wake up. It is a tough game and they’re trying to address it but it seems like they waited too long.

“They have to move faster or the punishment has to be greater so those liberties can’t be taken. I don’t care who it is, whether you have kids of your own or family around you, this is not only a game, this is a life that you’re dealing with.”

The article points out that McDonald should know. The 57-year-old estimates that he suffered at least six or seven concussions during his 16-year NHL career.

“Back then they just gave you smelling salts and said, ‘Are you feeling all right? Can you get back out there?’ ” he recalled. “You didn’t realize that there was more of a problem. I remember playing shifts or even an entire period where you just played on instinct and then all of a sudden you start to come around. It’s like, ‘Holy god, I missed the whole second period,’ yet you played. Thank God you didn’t get hurt worse than you did.”

McDonald also feels fortunate that he hasn’t suffered any long-term effects.

“What’s your name again?” he jokingly asked the interviewer. “Yeah, very much so. Especially now, we have four kids, we just celebrated the birth of our third grandchild. I want to be able to hang out and play with them forever. So, yeah, I do feel lucky.”

The Chicago Tribune observes that the normally mild-mannered Duncan Keith unleashed a vigorous fist-pump after scoring Tuesday night, the telling punctuation to the end of a 15-game goal-free stretch.

Clearly, the Blackhawks won't rely on the Norris Trophy winner to fuel the offence by piling up goals. But if finally cashing in on a quality opportunity ignites more productive aggression from Keith, all the better for a team that needs high-level play from its stars during the stretch run.

"I'll start worrying about (scoring) when I'm not getting any chances," Keith said after a morning practice Wednesday at Nationwide Arena.

"The last little while, I got a lot of great chances and the goaltender made some good saves, and other times I just haven't buried it. More than anything, it was just nice to finish on the chance."

The Tribune points out that it was also Keith's first power-play goal of the season — coming during a must-score, 5-on-3 situation. Not matching his numbers from last season isn't entirely his fault, but rekindling an energetic, attack-minded approach is indeed something Keith can control.

"Duncs was very noticeable in his involvement in the attack," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said of the effort Tuesday night. "He had some speed off the rush, skated by some checking forwards and created some odd-man breaks.

"Whether it's the offensive part of his game or his whole game, when he's skating and being a part of our offensive attack, it helps our whole game."

Long before the ice storm turned central Ohio sidewalks into luge runs and driveways into treacherous terrain, The Columbus Dispatch believes Blue Jackets goaltender Steve Mason was having difficulty gaining traction.

It's hard to analyze Mason's troubles without noting he plays behind a porous defensive corps. Are his mistakes what make them look so bad, or is it their shortcomings that put a young goalie with confidence issues at greater risk? Most would agree it's a combination.

Mason's record (15-13-2) speaks to his inconsistency, and his goals-against average (3.30) echo his struggles from a season ago.

Whether he has made strides from his sophomore season is debatable. What's hard to argue is he's placing faith in virtually the same defencemen that many thought needed to be upgraded over the summer.

"Every time we feel like we're getting on a roll, we're taking a step backward," Mason said. "That has to change if we are going to make the playoffs. From a personal standpoint, I have to find a way to bring my 'A game' effort. It's something that has to be done sooner rather than later."

The Dispatch notes that coach Scott Arniel divides goaltending into three categories: physical conditioning, technique and confidence. He doesn't believe one facet is lacking in Mason's game more than others but adds that on too many nights "he's been 2 of 3, but not 3 of 3."

In the preseason, some wondered how the coach's system, which emphasizes defencemen joining the rush, would work without a talent infusion or an assured starting goaltender prepared to face odd-man rushes.

But Mason said he and Mathieu Garon - two wins in his past 12 starts - need to make clutch stops when assignments get missed and coverages are blown. One of those moments happened Wednesday with the Jackets trailing 4-3 and Toews in alone on goal.

"A big thing for me is that when nights aren't going my way, I have to find a way to make that next big save," Mason said.

“I don’t think I’ve ever lost this many in a row. It’s not fun. It’s not fun when you don’t win games,” Nikolai Khabibulin told The Edmonton Journal after the Los Angeles Kings skated out of Rexall Place with a 3-1 victory on Wednesday. He has lost 12 straight games and his last win was on Dec. 16.

“I’m not happy about it,” he said. “It’s frustrating, but there’s no way around it but going out and trying and trying until it turns around.”

There are fewer than four weeks until the NHL's trade deadline, but The Minneapolis Star-Tribune believes that if you plan on staying glued to your computer screen or television Feb. 28 in anxious anticipation of juicy Wild news, you may be disappointed.

General Manager Chuck Fletcher plans on "trying to make the playoffs with this group."

That means unless the Wild, 13-6-1 in its past 20 games, completely falls off the map, Fletcher isn't looking to dish off his unrestricted free-agents-to-be for midrange draft picks. And though Fletcher wants a boost to help in a playoff push, he won't do so at the mercy of trading first-round picks or assets such as 2010 first-rounder Mikael Granlund.

"We're right there, and this is going to go right down to the wire," Fletcher said. "So we haven't had conversations about moving our pending UFAs to other teams. The focus right now is 'What can we do to make the playoffs?' We'll look to do anything that makes sense without mortgaging the future.

"That means keeping this group together so long as we can continue to play the way we're playing."

The article posits that unless the return is too good to pass up, potential free agents Andrew Brunette, John Madden, Chuck Kobasew, Antti Miettinen and Jose Theodore could be here until April or beyond. And, the original plan of injured defenceman Marek Zidlicky and left wing Guillaume Latendresse returning instead of theoretical trade-deadline pickups remains.

Zidlicky, out since Dec. 29 because of a separated shoulder, is two weeks from practicing. Fletcher is hoping for a return date around March 1 for Latendresse, who hasn't played since Oct. 25 due to a torn labrum in his hip and sports hernia.

"He's skating on his own now and has ramped up the intensity of his off-ice workouts," Fletcher said. "Now it's a matter of getting back in shape."

Fletcher reiterated that trading players like Brunette and Theodore aren't in the plans.

"One of our strengths is depth," Fletcher said. "We have depth in goal, we have depth on defense, especially if Zidlicky comes back, and we like our forward group.

"We have four lines that can contribute, and one reason we're winning games on the road (14-8-3) is because our third and fourth lines are often better than the third and fourth lines of the team we're playing against. So if we're fighting for a playoff spot, I don't believe trading pending free agents sends the right message."

The Nashville Tennessean believes the Predators couldn't be happier with Martin Erat's recent production.

After an injury-riddled first half of the season, the veteran forward is fully healthy and on a hot streak going into today's game at Philadelphia.

"The last couple of games, I got my legs back," said Erat, who has five points in his last eight games. "The timing is also back so I'm hoping it's only going to get better."

Despite playing in only 35 of Nashville's first 51 games, Erat is still tied for fifth on the team in points (22).

He sat out a nine-game stretch after suffering an upper-body injury against Ottawa on Dec. 23. He had accumulated 11 points in the 11 games before the injury. When he returned on Jan. 15 for a home game against Chicago, some rust was apparent. But it didn't take long to knock it off. The next night, at Chicago, Erat scored and went on to be a key contributor during a successful six-game road trip going into the all-star break.

"When Marty is going real well, he's not trying to get too fancy," coach Barry Trotz said. "He plays north and south. He doesn't play east and west and try to be too creative. When he goes north and south, he makes quick decisions, shoots the puck more and heads to the net more."

The Tennessean writes that helping Erat is working on a line with Sergei Kostitsyn (28 points) and Marcel Goc (21).

"He protects the puck well and finds the open ice," Goc said of Erat. "It can't be one guy; it has to be the whole line. We all work together. But when he has the puck, he tries things. More often than not, it's going to work."

Going back to 2005, Erat has a goal in four straight games against the Flyers, who currently sit atop the Eastern Conference. That includes a game-winner in 2006.

"I don't look at who I do good against or bad against," he said. "I'm just trying to do my best every game."

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch knows it's not fair, it's not kind, it might not even be realistic. But if the Blues are going to guide this season down a more promising path, on many more nights than not, they're going to need their goaltender to be their best player.

"It's always that way, it's always that guy," Blues coach Davis Payne said. "It's always the ace of your rotation, it's always the quarterback, the cleanup hitter ... it's always the goaltender.

"When you make a mistake, they turn a red light on. They don't do that in many other sports or with many other positions. And when you play well, you're usually the last guy out of the tunnel, throwing a T-shirt into the stands. That tells you how valuable that position is."

Payne was just stating the obvious, not placing the onus. He expects the Payne Gang to have a team mentality, insists all are in when it comes to responsibility. But consider some background for perspective: The Blues rank 23rd overall in the NHL in goals-for, scoring 2.59 per game. The Blues are 19th in the league in goals-against, allowing an average of 2.90.

The Post-Dispatch reflects back that Blues made a significant move last summer, trading 2007 No. 1 pick Lars Eller to Montreal for goaltender Jaroslav Halak. How significant, perhaps, remains debatable given the 21-year old Eller has three goals and five assists in 47 games for the Canadiens.

But the jury seemed to reach a favorable verdict on the deal early on. In his first 10 starts, the 25-year-old Halak went 8-1-1 with three shutouts. He faced 266 shots in those games and stopped 251, a spectacular save percentage of .943. In games in which the Blues allowed fewer than 30 shots, he was 5-1.

In 29 games since, beginning with an ugly 8-1 loss at Columbus on Nov. 10 — in which he was evicted 3 minutes 46 seconds into the second period — Halak has stopped 85 of 814 shots, a save percentage of .895. In the games in that stretch in which the Blues allowed fewer than 30 shots, he is 4-10-4.

The article says that refreshed from the All-Star break, Halak is ready to rock.

"Obviously we were going through a tough stretch (when the break came), so it was good to get a break and get away from hockey completely," Halak said. "I think my approach, and everybody's approach now is to go game by game."

The Blues are not a high-scoring team, not an efficient power-play team. With 33 games remaining, with playoffs within arm's reach, if you had to identify a single player who, by himself, can most impact the destiny, it's Jaroslav Halak.

"He was in this situation a year ago," Payne said of Halak, who came on late to spark Montreal's postseason run. "He had an opportunity to play great hockey in front of him and he did exactly what he needed to do."

Now, if he can just do it again ...