Chris Nichols

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

Twitter: @Nichols_NHLPool/ Email: chris.nichols@sportsnet.rogers.com

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The Washington Post indicates that today Alex Ovechkin completed his first full practice with his teammates since the Capitals’ coaching and training staffs decided Monday to give him time to rest a nagging injury, the nature of which has not been disclosed.

During the practice session, Ovechkin appeared to have jump in his stride and didn’t hesitate on any of the drills. While he wasn’t in a no-contact jersey, he didn’t receive any significant hits from his teammates, either. After the workout, Ovechkin said he’s feeling “good.”

Asked what he looks for to determine that he is feeling better, Ovechkin replied: “I just skating over there like to see if it bothers me or not. It’s not bother me and I think I’m ready to go.”

Ovechkin wasn’t sure if he would be back in the lineup for Tuesday’s game against Carolina, though.

“I don’t know. It’s not my decision,” Ovechkin said. “How I said, I’m ready to go, but I don’t know how it’s going to work right now with tomorrow.”

Asked if he was 100 percent healthy, or could be at this time of the year, Ovechkin didn’t answer the question directly. “Everybody wants to be 100 percent, but right now it’s time to recover best from what happened to you.”

Fire & Ice reports that Devils left wing Zach Parise and center Travis Zajac have been reunited on a line for today’s practice. They were the first two players on the ice. Nick Palmieri is the right wing on the Parise-Zajac line.

Parise seems to be aiming to return to the lineup in Wednesday’s game against the Islanders. He has been out since Oct. 30 because of a torn meniscus in his right knee that required arthroscopic surgery to repair on Nov. 2.

Left Ilya Kovalchuk, who has been playing with Zajac and Palmieri, is not practicing today after he was struck in the left ankle with a Thomas Vanek shot in the second period of Saturday’s 2-0 loss in Buffalo. Kovalchuk played the remainder of the game and said an X-ray taken afterward was negative, but he was walking with a noticeable limp Saturday night.

Kovalchuk has missed only one game since joining the Devils in a trade on Feb. 4 of last season with Atlanta. That was when he was a healthy scratch for an Oct. 23 game against Buffalo because he was late to a team meeting that morning.

Defensemen Colin White and Anton Volchenkov, who both sustained lower-body injuries in Friday’s 1-0 shootout loss in Pittsburgh, also are not practicing today.

All of the lines are shaken up today. Mattias Tedenby is skating on the line with Brian Rolston and Patrik Elias. Dainius Zubrus is the left wing on a line with Jacob Josefson at center and David Clarkson on the right side.

Today’s combos: Zach Parise - Travis Zajac - Nick Palmieri/ Brian Rolston - Patrik Elias - Mattias Tedenby/ Jacob-Josefson - David Clarkson/ Vladimir Zharkov, Rod Pelley - David Steckel - Adam Mair

Count Penguins coach Dan Bylsma among those impressed with the on-ice workouts of center Sidney Crosby after Crosby's early morning session Sunday, according to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

"I was on the ice," Bylsma said. "I left before he got finished. He tired me out."

Bylsma, however, stopped well short of any prediction that Crosby, who is recovering from a concussion, is close to getting clearance to begin practicing with the team.

"That conversation has not been broached, and I don't have expectations for it right now," Bylsma said. "Obviously, I'm encouraged to watch him on the ice and watch him skate and go through the paces that he's going through. Those are encouraging signs to see him able to do that."

Crosby has been out since Jan. 6. Returning to practice and being cleared for contact would be big steps that would seem to need to come relatively soon if Crosby has a shot at playing in the regular season or the first round of the playoffs.

Bylsma hasn't heard that Crosby is lobbying doctors for such clearance.

"If he is, he's talking with the doctors about it, not our training staff and not me," Bylsma said.

The Chicago Tribune says that winger Troy Brouwer, who is mired in a 17-game slump without a goal, hopes a move to the top line with Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane will spark his offense.

"I feel I play well with those guys," said Brouwer, who skated with the pair during Sunday's practice. "I've been on and off with them for three years now and we always seem to have pretty good success. Hopefully (Monday night against the Red Wings) we can just get right into it and remember what it was when we played 20 games ago and just relax and play and know where we are on the ice."

Also from The Tribune, coach Joel Quenneville said leading goal scorer Patrick Sharp is making "rapid progress" in his recovery from a left knee injury suffered March 20.

"I'm really pleased and encouraged that he's been able to ratchet up his off-ice training and conditioning," Quenneville said. "I don't have a ... day for when he'll get back on the ice, but we've been happy with his progress."

The team remains hopeful the 34-goal scorer can return before the end of the regular season.

“You try to focus on each individual game but there is no question in your mind that players have to show you something,” Thrashers coach Craig Ramsay told The Atlanta Journal Constitution when asked if he'll use the remaining games to evaluate players for next season. “They have to show you their commitment to the team. They have to show you their commitment to battle and go in and do the things they are supposed to do. It isn’t about doing these things individually, it’s about doing them as part of the group.”

The Buffalo News indicates the Sabres, who were off Sunday, have generated plenty of their offense in posting a 23-10-5 record since Jan. 1. Since then, they are averaging 3.26 goals -- which is higher than Vancouver's league-leading total for the season of 3.19.

"We have pretty good balance and we work hard for each other," said Thomas Vanek, who has 26 goals and still has a chance at his fourth 30-goal campaign. "We're pretty underrated but that's OK. I think we really could have even more goals with the chances we've had. Each line is creating a lot and it seems a different one is scoring every night."

One of the prime pieces of coachspeak you'll hear from Lindy Ruff, or any other NHL coach for that matter, is "pucks to the net." The Sabres are doing that better than almost anyone else.

"When you're down on the wall, you don't just want to take a wrist shot and hand it to the goalie where he sucks it in and catches it and you get nothing out of it," said center Jochen Hecht. "From there, you want to get it deep, battle around the net, get a cycle and find the high slot.

"In the beginning of the season, we took a lot of shots from the outside that had minimal to no chance. Now we're making those plays to the middle."

"Maybe a shot from the half-wall can create a rebound for somebody else if it's a good shot," added Jason Pominville. "You might not score on that first shot but it's about creating something for someone else. We've had some goals go off pads, shin pads, skates and that's one thing we're trying to do. Detroit did that really well in the past and we've followed that mold."

The News points out that Brad Boyes joined the Sabres at the trade deadline from St. Louis and immediately noticed the difference in the style the Sabres were playing. It was a full rush up the ice often led by the defense and less cycling of the puck in the offensive zone.

"The biggest thing to me is the way our defense are involved," Boyes said. "They get the puck, skate with it and come over the blue line with speed to back off the other team's D and not allow them to stand up to us. We have four guys in the rush a lot."

Drew Stafford has had red-hot spurts that have produced four hat tricks and a team-high 28 goals. Vanek has dealt with plenty of frustration but continues to produce a lot of chances. Nathan Gerbe has been the hottest player of late and Pominville has 19 goals after hitting Dec. 1 with just one due to his concussion troubles.

Ruff insists the Sabres haven't made any major schematic changes to create offense but simply credits their work ethic.

"What has been better is we've been harder on pucks, been hanging on to pucks longer," Ruff said. "Players are determined not to give it up. And when we don't have it, I think for a good period of time the determination to get it back has been better."

One area the Sabres do seem to be utilizing more is a forward in the high slot to create more options in the offensive zone.

"We're trying to spread the zone out a lot," Pominville said. "Teams do such a good job collapsing that sometimes the play is to move it up to the defenseman, have a forward really high. Sometimes Boston will have a forward almost up at the blue line spreading everybody out. Once you do that, you usually create some havoc."

"That's a dangerous area, a great offensive tool to have that guy on both sides of the puck," Boyes noted. "You're in good position to get back [on defense] if you need to and to get a shot off from a dangerous spot."

On a day when the Blue Jackets offered their latest example of offensive futility, The Columbus Dispatch reports the club signed one of college hockey's most-dynamic goal scorers.

Boston College's Cam Atkinson, a 21-year-old winger, agreed to a two-year contract yesterday hours before the Jackets lost 4-1 to the Vancouver Canucks in Nationwide Arena.

Atkinson's 61 goals over the past two seasons are the most by anyone in NCAA Division I-A hockey. The junior is one of 10 finalists for the Hobey Baker award presented annually to the top collegiate player.

Atkinson, a 5-foot-8, 175-pound sniper, will report to the franchise's minor-league affiliate in Springfield, Mass., today.

"I'm an energy-type of player who loves to score goals and use my speed," said Atkinson, a sixth-round pick (No.157 overall) in the 2008 NHL draft. "I'm anxious to get my pro career started."

Because he was signed after the NHL trade deadline, Atkinson is ineligible to play in the NHL this season. His contract, which begins on July 1, is a two-way deal.

The Dispatch believes the Greenwich, Conn., native is comparable to Jackets winger Matt Calvert, who compensates for his lack of size with skill, shiftiness and fearlessness when playing in high-traffic areas.

"If you are going to have success at that size, you've got to be strong, and you've got to want the puck and be willing to compete for it," assistant general manager Chris MacFarland said. "He does those things."

Michigan Live reports that Detroit Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard was back on the ice this morning in full gear, but he didn't face any shots.

Howard just wanted to go through some movements, after suffering a sprained left shoulder on Saturday.

"Just skating, just trying to keep my legs under me,'' Howard said. "(His shoulder) is just a little stiff, sore still today, but it's better than yesterday. Just continue to do treatment.''

He hopes to practice on Tuesday. He hasn't ruled out playing Wednesday at home against St. Louis, but chances are he'll need to get in a couple of good practices before returning.

Goalie Chris Osgood (long-term injured reserve) also took the ice after the morning skate.

Forward Johan Franzen will return to the lineup tonight against the Chicago Blackhawks after missing four games with a sore groin. Pavel Datsyuk (lower-body injury) continues to skate but isn't ready to return. He said he's not sure if he'll be back Wednesday or Saturday in Nashville.

"It's hard to say,'' Datsyuk said. "My conditioning is back and forth, back and forth. We'll see.''

According to The Washington Post, one of the most popular questions for coach Bruce Boudreau regardless of where the Capitals travel for any given game revolves around Washington’s greater emphasis on defense this season. He consistently declines to offer details on the strategy, as coaches are wont to do, and insists it isn’t the miraculous change that some make it out to be.

Boudreau was asked about that change following the Capitals’ 2-0 win in Montreal, where they smothered any offensive hope for the Canadiens, and he summed up the change in attitude for the entire team.

“I think for most of them now it’s fun to win by not allowing the other team not to score,” Boudreau said. “Where as last year it was fun to win because we scored six goals when we didn’t have to. We’d get up 5-1 and it would end up 6-4 and they weren’t upset about it. Now they get upset when they get scored on and that’s the big difference.

“They want to win,” Boudreau continued. “I think as a coaching staff we convinced them this is what we have to do to win. When we were in that little bit of a slide there and they want to win so bad they all bought in and they started getting success. After the 0-6-2 [in December] we went 6-1-3 [from Dec. 19- Jan. 12] and said, ‘You know what this stuff works, let’s stay with it’ and they have. They bought in and so far it’s been OK.”

"Everybody is disappointed," Wild winger Martin Havlat told The Minneapolis Star-Tribune of where his team sits today. "It's going to be another year without the playoffs. We have to finish hard, play our best to the last game of the season. ... We were right there two weeks ago, and now everything is gone."

The St. Petersburg Times indicates that Lightning coach Guy Boucher got a solid thumbs-up from GM Steve Yzerman for how he has handled the team's recent skid.

"I'm pleased with the way the coaches have handled it," Yzerman said Saturday between periods of Tampa Bay's 4-2 victory over the Hurricanes at the RBC Center.

"I know how hard these coaches work, how much time they put into everything. Our players have stuck together and are playing hard every game. … We've done a pretty good job, despite our record, of not falling apart. We're working our way through this."

Funny how one win can change the emotional lay of the land. Tampa Bay, a dismal 3-6-4 in its past 13 games, needs only four points (on its own or with Carolina losses) to clinch a playoff spot for the first time in four years.

Worry in the locker room morphed into a party Saturday as players blasted celebratory music. Yzerman, though, personifies emotional calm.

He said he and Boucher never altered their pregame and postgame meetings in which they discuss the power play, penalty kill and line combinations. But Yzerman also reminded his first-year coach that bad times are as much a part of the team-building process as the good.

"To a point, it's good that you've got to face some adversity that you have to battle through as a team," Yzerman said. "You just stick with it and fight your way through it. It's a challenge to be mentally strong and get through it and survive it. I think you're a better team for it."

Also from The Times... two positive notes for the Lightning:

1) With six goals and 10 points in six games, LW Simon Gagne, who had two goals Saturday, is in his best stretch of the season.

"He's making it happen not because of his skill but because he's charging through, and that's what he's known for," coach guy Boucher said. "It's been a tough year for him, and for him to come up big, I'm pretty happy about that."

2) What was the best part of G Mike Smith's 33-save win Saturday?

"I liked the way he deflected rebounds to the corners, so he avoided rebounds in the slot," Boucher said. "He's a fighter, and he fought, so it's good for him and good for the team."

Smith, largely because of injury and a demotion to AHL Norfolk, had not won in the NHL since Dec. 18. He called the victory a huge confidence boost.