Hockey Hearsay

Hockey Hearsay runs weekdays, 12 months a year; mixing NHL stories, quotes and fantasy takes.

The Montreal Gazette writes that it's probably not enough to have him thrown out of the NHL Goaltenders Guild, the unofficial fraternity of padded puck-stoppers. But Carey Price doesn't think that Boston Bruins forward Milan Lucic deserved a suspension for running over Buffalo Sabres netminder Ryan Miller.

"Looch shouldn't have hit (Miller)," the Canadiens goalie said after Brossard practice Tuesday. "That shouldn't happen.

"I don't think it was suspendable, though I thought there might have been one. It's a tough call for the league to make, suspending a guy. It's a big decision.

"Hockey is a rough sport, obviously. It's a forward's job to get into a goalie's face and make his life miserable. At the same time, it's not to run (the goalie) over or put him in danger. It's a very fine line."

There's still a buzz around Lucic's thunderous check of - don't call it a collision with - Miller, which sent the Sabres star to the sidelines with a concussion.

On Monday, the NHL decided not to suspend Lucic, league disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan saying he saw no intent on the Bruin's part. Shanahan added that he was satisfied with Lucic's conference-call explanation that the forward had no way to avoid contact with a netminder who had skated out to play a puck in the faceoff circle.

Price told The Gazette he hopes that the league "doesn't see this as a green light (for players) to go for the goalies. But by the same token, I have a lot of guys in this room who won't stand by if that happens. I'm not too worried about it.

"You've got to be aware of what's coming at you when you leave the crease. You have to be able to read the play. In Ryan's case, he had just made the play and he didn't have a lot of time to do anything but brace himself.

"You can't fault Ryan on that. That's just not a good play by Milan. He battles hard, he's a big guy who's pretty talented. I don't have any disrespect for Milan, but I don't think it was a very good play."

The Buffalo News reports that the result of the Milan Lucic/ Ryan Miller contact could be an extended absence for Miller.

"I'm not as well as I'd like to be, but considering, I feel alright," Miller said. "I've just got to figure out if the neck is the source of some of these headaches, or what level these symptoms are at. Because right now it is concussion symptoms, and you have to figure out what the source is, eliminate that source where it could be the neck, and then you go from there.

"You always are concerned. Last year I thought I had a very simple 'get your bell rung,' and I missed five games. This, I don't know how to put a timeline on it, but I am encouraged that my neck feels better. Once that really feels good, I can start to make my way back."

Miller also wanted to make it clear he'll be recovering from the hit. The Bruins said Miller's concussion could have been caused by some other incidents during the game because there was no contact to the head from Lucic.

"I didn't know they were all doctors," Miller said. "Concussions are caused by many things, one of them including a whiplash motion that sends your brain moving laterally or however you're hit. It doesn't need to be a direct impact. That fact alone, I'm rolling my eyes."

The Edmonton Journal wonders: Did anyone predict that Edmonton Oilers forward Taylor Hall would be firing blanks in his sophomore National Hockey League season?

The first overall pick in the 2010 entry draft has 43 shots and just three goals in 16 games in 2011-12, including none in his last eight.

“Last year, I don’t think I went more than seven games without scoring, now we’re at eight. It’s new territory for me,” said Hall. “But all it takes, sometimes, is one goal or a point or a really good shift that turns your game around. I know, personally, when I have confidence I feel like a different player out there.”

Maybe he could try and score from two or three feet in front of the net, like Smyth. If you added up the distance of his shots on net, it might be the length of a hockey rink. Digging for the puck in the crease area, tip-ins are part of Smyth’s repertoire.

“I try to get goals like Smytty, but it never happens for me,” said Hall, who turned 20 on Monday.

“Like I said, there’s a lot of things in my game I like right now, but I’m trying to fix a couple of things. Sometimes I’m skating past pucks — evidently I’m not in the right position in the offensive zone to get a lot of chances. I know if you get four or five quality chances a game, eventually you’ll score. That’s the way it is. I have to work on getting those and be good away from the puck.

“I started off being good defensively at the start of the year, but now I’ve been on for a few goals and stuff,” he said.

“Taylor’s always at his best when he’s attacking,” said Oilers head coach Tom Renney. “But there’s a disconnect right now between our defence and our forwards, in terms of retrieving and moving pucks. The greater that gap becomes, the tougher it is to play the game because teams have awfully good checkers in your way.

“We have to work together as a line of three guys and five skaters coming up the ice and get the puck to the net. We have to become more connected”

Can a player be going too fast?

“Yup,” said Renney.

“I’ve had players in the past who get nowhere very, very quick, but that’s a hockey sense issue. That’s not Taylor. He’s a smart kid, with great instincts. He’s got power. He’s got the cajoles to want the puck, which is huge.”

Does Hall think he should take his foot off the gas pedal at times?

“I never want to be a guy who’s just really fast and doesn’t have a mind for the game,” said Hall. “I want to be a player who has really good timing, that sees holes and jumps into them. The special players have great timing and are always around the puck. Pucks seem to find them. I’m trying to get that going.”

"I knew everyone cared so much about hockey in Montreal," Erik Cole, who is happy to be playing for the Habs and living in Montreal, told The Raleigh News & Observer for an article about the differences between playing for the Habs vs. the Canes. "But I was picking up my kids from school one day and the school custodian says, 'Why does the coach hate you so much?' I was completely shocked by the question. I said to my kids, 'In the car, let's go!' "

"That's when I knew it was a different place."

The Toronto Sun indicates that if Marty Turco is going to find a job in the National Hockey League, apparently it won’t be with the Maple Leafs.

“No interest,” Leafs general manager Brian Burke said in an e-mail on Tuesday night.

There were reports that the Leafs reached out to Turco, who is a free agent.

The 36-year-old Turco has an NHL career record of 273-165-66 with the Chicago Blackhawks and Dallas Stars. Last season, Turco was 11-11-3 with the Blackhawks with a 3.02 goals-against average and an .897 save percentage.

There remains no definitive timetable for James Reimer’s return to the Leafs lineup. Reimer has been suffering from concussion-like symptoms since he was bowled over by the Montreal Canadiens’ Brian Gionta on Oct. 22.

If the Leafs are in the market for a veteran goalie, rookie Ben Scrivens doesn’t have much of an opinion.

“Until I hear someone from management say that, I do not give that rumour a lot of weight,” Scrivens said. “Even if that’s true, it doesn’t change my approach in any way. I’m getting an opportunity here and that’s all I can do.”

The Vancouver Province details how Ryan Kesler grimaced while stretching at the players' bench following a practice drill Tuesday.

It was another indication that the Vancouver Canucks centre has yet to fully heal following offseason hip surgery that has affected his speed, battle level and offensive production. However, there may be reason to believe that the Selke Trophy winner is starting to turn a corner, even though he may have hampered the process by returning too soon from the July 25 procedure when he faced the New York Rangers on Oct. 18. Kesler is still taking treatment for the repaired torn labrum, yet vows to be ramp up his game Wednesday against the Chicago Blackhawks.

That's Kesler. Driven. Determined. Stubborn.

"That's the thing," he said. "There's no machine to tell you if you're ready to come back or not. With me, I'm a guy who wants to push it and I wanted to play the first game of the season. Could I have? No. Who knows if I was right. I didn't think I was getting anything more out of practice and that's why I came back when I did.

"I've got to stay on top of it. It has taken a lot longer to feel good than I thought and I've just got to stay positive. I'm doing everything I can off the ice. Talking to guys who have had this surgery before and getting ideas from them on how to treat it and what to do off the ice has definitely helped."

Although he has just one goal in his last 11 games and just two in 13 games this season, Kesler did manage four shots Sunday during a 4-1 win over the New York Islanders. He also missed the net twice and had two efforts blocked, which speaks to soreness that restricts movement. Kesler is far from the pace that resulted in a career 41 goals last season, but he's seeing progress. Which, of course, makes you wonder if the Canucks should hold Mason Raymond out of the lineup as long as possible after he suffered a compression vertebrae compression in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup final.

"I thought my last couple of games have been my best," added Kesler. "I'm starting to skate better and feel like my explosion is starting to get there and I'm generating more offensively. Those are all good signs."

Teammate and current linemate Alex Burrows added that the fact Kesler is willing to take on the challenge in obvious discomfort hasn't gone unnoticed.

"It's contagious when you see guys playing with injuries, some soreness and not complaining about it and bringing the right attitude to the game."

The Winnipeg Free Press passed along yesterday that the Jets are about to lift a marketing strategy directly out of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers' playbook.

Winnipeg Jets specialty licence plates will be available Dec. 12, the province announced. The plates will cost $70 with $30 of that fee going toward the Winnipeg Jets True North Foundation, the provincial government said in a press release.

They can be ordered at any Autopac outlet.

The Winnipeg Jets plate is the third specialty plate issued by the province. In 2004, Manitoba approved the issuing of a specialty licence plate to honour veterans. Earlier this year, Winnipeg Blue Bombers specialty plates were offered for sale.

One provincial insider said he believes the demand will be strong for the Jets licence plates and doesn't think the team's recent troubles on the ice will have a negative effect.

"I don't think enthusiasm will be dampened. People are still pretty excited about the Jets. I think the uptake will be pretty big," he said.

Blue Bombers licence plates were a "huge success," according to the football club's director of media relations, Darren Cameron. The team sold out all 8,100 -- the number was chosen in honour of the Bombers' 81st anniversary -- in less than two months.

"The licence plates gave our fans another way to show their support for the club. I notice them everywhere. You see them all over the city," he said.

Bombers players have seen the support, too, he said.

"Our players and our organization appreciate it. You notice that kind of thing. The fan support in this province is second to none," he said.

The St. Petersburg Times relays that the way Lightning coach Guy Boucher sees it, the 30-minute, players-only meeting after Monday's 5-2 loss to the Jets might be the moment his players took control of their season.

It is one thing for coaches to yell, change tactics, yell, change pregame routines, yell, alter practice schedules and, — oh, yeah — yell. It is another, Boucher said, for players to hold each other accountable.

"What we're offering as coaches is direction, direction in task," Boucher said down the hall from Tampa Bay's locker room at the MTS Centre as players met inside. "You can't create superficial urgency all the time. Players have to feel that urgency. They do now and that's what I like."

It is an urgency born of failure.

The Lightning is 8-7-2 overall but 3-6-2 on the road, where it has been outscored 19-8 and outshot 150-102 in first periods. In 11 road games, only twice has it held the initial lead.

Tampa Bay trailed the Jets 2-0 in the first period and, as usual, played better once it was down. But the loss had a harsher vibe. Not only did it come after Saturday's brutal 3-0 defeat at St. Louis, Boucher had given the team Sunday off for "self assessment," and on Monday sent a message about intensity and focus with a tough morning skate that included offensive zone scrimmages and bad language when players messed up.

That's why after the final horn sounded, the door to the locker room closed.

"This happens two or three times a year on any team," goaltender Dwayne Roloson said. "There's times in a year the players need to take the bull by the horns and address some things that need to be addressed. Coach gives us a game plan, and Guy relies on us to do the stuff we need to be accountable."

"We realize we're in a game when we're down by a couple (goals)," center Steven Stamkos said. "We're a different team and that was the main message.

"At the end of the day we're still over .500, so it's not like we're sitting here thinking we have to make drastic changes or panic. We're fine. Obviously, something needed to be addressed and we took it upon ourselves. That's a good thing. It brings teams together. People step up, we say the right things and we follow."

For left wing Marty St. Louis that means "covering for one another" on the ice.

"We can't play a perfect game. Hockey is a game of mistakes," he said. "Everybody cares about everybody in here. A guy makes a mistake, we have to be there for him."

Email: chris.nichols@sportsnet.rogers.com

Submit your brief fantasy hockey question for a Hockey Hearsay blog via email. One per person, please and include your first name and hometown to represent!

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