Hockey Hearsay

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

The Chicago Tribune communicates that as every day of the NBA lockout passes without a resolution, the NHL and its players come a day closer to the expiration of their collective bargaining agreement.

With the NHL's deal with the players association set to expire Sept. 15, 2012, players from around the league — including in the Blackhawks' dressing room — are keeping close tabs on the situation involving their shorts-wearing counterparts.

"It will be interesting to see what happens with the NBA," Hawks winger Andrew Brunette said. "That will be something that as players we should be keeping an eye out and seeing how that falls out and if they miss the year or what they agree to. I'm sure it will have some sort of reflection on what happens with the National Hockey League."

Brunette is one of several former player reps on the Hawks' roster, including Jamal Mayers and Steve Montador. Sean O'Donnell also has been involved with the NHLPA and has joined his fellow veterans in helping discuss the issues with current Hawks rep John Scott.

"With the NBA, I don't know what they're doing over in that area," Scott said. "It just seems like they're bashing each other in the papers and it's going back and forth. It's a bad situation."

The NHL experienced the ultimate bad situation when NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman canceled the entire 2004-05 season after the league failed to come to an agreement with the NHLPA. The situation was resolved when the players relented on a hard salary cap based on league revenues and the NHL implemented revenue sharing, among other issues.

While Scott said the players "aren't really focused on it right now … we'll deal with that when the time comes," Hawks players recently met with NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr to begin the groundwork for discussions, which likely will intensify next summer.

"(Fehr's) been going around talking to all the teams kind of seeing what the players want, what we don't want, what we're willing to fight for and kind of gauge what we're thinking," Scott said.

O'Donnell told The Tribune he doesn't see the need to agree on many issues that would favor the owners.

"When the last CBA ended up there were certain things ownership wanted as far as a hard salary cap and competitive balancing … and they got all those things," O'Donnell said. "I feel like they got the business model they wanted and through some of their own moves if they complain it's not working then I kind of think they have to take a look in the mirror a little bit."

Hawks general manager Stan Bowman believes with a salary cap already in place, the process in '12 should be smoother.

"Bettman and his group are preparing very well for it and they are a very smart group of guys," Bowman said. "I don't think there will be an overhaul of the (NHL) system — there will just be some changes here and there."

It remains to be seen how the situation will play out and if the sides will remain cordial during the process.

"I'm being naive, but you hope both sides deal in good faith and try to improve the game," O'Donnell said. "Even when I say that out loud I kind of laugh to myself because that's never the way it goes. You just hope we don't miss any time."

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review paints a picture of how it all came pouring out of Sidney Crosby with one breathtaking rush.

Nearly a full year of doubt and darkness, all the bouncing from doctors to neuropsychologists to chiropractors for answers, all the rumors and whispers, all of it was reduced to this one rush.

This was an enemy he could see.

This he could beat.

The Penguins' captain stormed through center ice, with no trace of fear, no nod to the severe concussion that had kept him from the game he loves for 320 days. He took a lead pass from Pascal Dupuis and, chin up, saw three New York Islanders strung across the blue line. It was one-on-three, essentially.

Mismatch?

Oh, yeah.

This was defenseman Zbynek Michalek's view from the Penguins' bench: "You could just see it coming. I knew the defenseman was in trouble because Sid was coming with all that speed."

That's defenseman, in the singular.

Crosby darted to the right to reduce it to one-on-two, and New York defenseman Travis Hamonic then inexplicably failed to slide over for support. So, Crosby zipped to the right of his only obstacle, defenseman Andrew MacDonald, then charged into the slot, lowered the left shoulder and blazed a trademark backhander over the glove of rookie Anders Nilsson.

With that, he spun away from the lighted lamp and let out a primal scream — maybe with an unprintable word in there — and pumped both fists.

"Yeah, I was really excited," Crosby would say later. "Part of waiting to play is that you're also hoping to get that first one. It came pretty early, which was nice."

As for whatever was shouted, he smiled sheepishly: "Hopefully, everybody wasn't reading my lips at home. I couldn't hold that in."

It was vintage Crosby, in style, energy, emotion and, above all, drama.

It came on his first shot, 5:24 into the first period, and it was merely the tip of a mesmerizing four-point masterpiece Monday night in the Penguins' 5-0 pasting of the Islanders, one that left the enthralled 18,571 jammed into Consol Energy Center with a lifetime memory.

The Montreal Gazette writes that they were time zones apart and yet, in some ways, they were joined at the hip.

Boston Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron kept himself abreast of the reports about ailing Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby, about the latter’s two-good-days-one-bad-day recovery from a concussion that since last January had sidelined the greatest player in hockey.

Bergeron - who lost most of the '07-8 season due to a concussion - was perfectly placed to know the nightmare Crosby was living – strong legs beneath him one day, a marching band relentlessly pounding in his merry-go-round head the next.

The Boston Bruins forward keeps an eye on his old buddy Crosby, having kept in touch during the latter’s rehab with regular text messages and timely words of support.

“I wished him all the best, to try to stay positive and that he would get through it … that he would be a better player and better person,” Bergeron said. “I wasn’t trying to be a mentor. I was just trying to be a friend because I’ve been through it.”

Bergeron understands the anxiety and eagerness Crosby has felt through his unpredictable recovery, concussion an injury that is largely a moving target for medical science.

Witness Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty, who recovered from a severe concussion last March to become his team’s second-leading scorer this season.

“You want to come back as fast as you can,” Bergeron said. “It’s hard to be patient. It’s not easy, but he’s done the right thing. … “The nervousness is there (upon return), you’re anxious and excited. You want to get that first one out of the way. I’m sure (Crosby) will feel the same way.”

Begeron told The Gazette that timing and rhythm were the most elusive things when he returned, adding that it’s one thing to practice, quite another to immediately be in game shape.

Having a player of Crosby’s talent, influence and hockey-transcending appeal has forced hockey to take another look at headshots and the blindside hits, rules and enforcement of them dramatically reshaped.

“We’re going in the right direction,” Bergeron said. “Doctors are doing a good job of recognizing (concussions) and trying to prevent them, and a lot of things have been going on with equipment companies. The league is doing a great job.”

However they do things in Florida, The Vancouver Province indicates that it isn’t like they do things in Canuckland.

David Booth is still in the process of discovering that. His game isn’t obviously geared to succeeding on a team that, following the lead of the Sedins, likes to play as much tic-tac-toe as the Canucks do. Booth prefers a north-south game and he prefers to rely on his speed and size to drive the net.

Passing, shall we say, is not the first thing that pops into his mind.

“I think he’s trying to find his way with this new group,” coach Alain Vigneault said. “It’s going to take some time.

“I think you can tell on the ice in certain situations, with and without the puck, he’s not overly … I’d rather use the word ‘comfortable’ than ‘confident.’”

At practice on Monday, Vigneault had the left-shooting Booth skating on Ryan Kesler’s right, along with Mason Raymond.

Don’t read anything into it, the coach said, but that trio does contain a lot of speed.

They all like to have the puck, though.

“I think sometimes I try to do too much and that’s when I get away from doing the things that got me [to the NHL],” said Booth.

Vigneault told the Province he likes what he sees in Booth, even as he’s gone from describing Booth’s game-to-game progression as being promising to being a project.

But the coach sees an attitude and a willingness to do what’s necessary from Booth, who turns 27 Thursday, based on past seasons of 22 goals, 31 goals, and then — after Booth suffered two concussions in 2009-10 — 23 goals last season.

As a Canuck, he’s 2-5-7 and minus-6 in 12 games.

“No, we’re not disappointed,” Vigneault said. “We knew coming in he was off to a slow start with Florida ... we knew it was a project we were getting, a project that in the past has had some real solid years.

“There’s definitely a foundation there. We have to work with that foundation.

“We can adjust a couple of things.”

And say this about Booth, he comes across as just about the most eager person you could meet when it comes to making things better.

“With the right attitude and a willingness to learn and change certain things with his game, on what it takes to play the right way,” said Vigneault, “we’ll help him become the best player he can be.”

The Tampa Tribune points out that when it comes to learning how to play the Lightning way, for Ryan Shannon the devil is in the details.

The adjustment period for Shannon to adapt to a new system continues, perhaps a bit longer than anticipated after the 28-year-old signed as a free agent.

"I've found that the expectations and accountability are more detailed here and that has to do with how prepared the coaching staff is,'' said Shannon, who played the past three seasons in Ottawa.

"At times I feel like the players have to keep up with the coaches because things are so well thought out. I'm learning that while the veteran players, they understand that, they get it and know how to play within it. I'm just learning it.''

When he was acquired, the prevailing thought was Shannon, coming off a career-high 11 goals and 27 points with the Senators, could find his way into a top-six role. Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman thought Shannon was coming into his own as a goal scorer in the NHL and coming to Tampa Bay at a good time.

That hasn't been the case … yet.

Based on Saturday's game, Shannon could be on the verge of a breakout.

Shannon set up Marty St. Louis for the first goal of the game, taking the puck deep with speed and sipping a back pass from behind the net. Ninety seconds later, while coming down the right wing side with speed, he took a pass from Steve Downie and sizzled a shot off the top of the near inside post, past New Jersey goaltender Martin Brodeur.

On both plays, Shannon utilized his greatest strength on the ice – speed.

"He has started to believe in his speed,'' Lightning head coach Guy Bouchers said. "On the first goal, instead of slowing down and looking for a play in the high zone, he took it down deep and made a great play. He's a smart player. He has great vision. On the other play, he had speed wide, took it in and kept skating and took a shot instead of looking for something pretty.

"(Reporters) were asking last week how he was and I said, 'You'll see that he's coming.' And I see a lot of good things.''

Shannon is getting better, which will lead to better opportunities to play on the top two lines, such as tonight with Vinny Lecavalier and Marty St. Louis.

"There is a certain time when you can use your instincts more, and something that I'm learning is how to use my instincts within the way we are supposed to play," Shannon said.

"It really comes down to knowing how to use my speed, how to get open, where on the ice I'm supposed to have my speed, but really just playing to my instincts.''

LA Kings Insider believes it’s a question similar to the one a child might ask from the back seat at the start of a family vacation: is Drew Doughty there yet?

In this case, “there’’ means back to the elite level he showed in 2009-10 and in parts of last season. So far, reviews have been mixed. Doughty missed most of training camp because of a contract dispute, then had an early-season injury, and has two goals and five assists in 15 game so far. That’s similar to his 15-game start last season, when he had one goal and six assists.

Asked for his assessment of Doughty’s recent play, Terry Murray was not entirely complimentary.

MURRAY: “I think Drew, he gets his game to a pretty good level for a game or two, and then there’s a little bit of a lull there that kind of takes over. We’re just trying to get him into the games, playing lots in critical situations, and get his game to the level that we want it to get to. He’s a very determined guy. He’s a very positive player. When you have conversations with him, there’s real good feedback coming from him. Just keep pushing it along. Missing training camp is a big deal. It takes time, and then unfortunately you have an injury and it’s a setback, so you’ve got to work through it and stay positive with it and, on the other side, good things will happen.’’

The much-anticipated pairing of Doughty and Jack Johnson on defense hasn’t led to much so far, at least in even-strength situations, but Murray seems inclined to stay with it for now, with other pairings of Willie Mitchell with Slava Voynov and Rob Scuderi with Matt Greene.

MURRAY: “I didn’t like much of what happened in the Detroit game. That includes everybody, though. It was one of those games where Detroit came out with a lot of determination. They lost three in a row, and they’re coming with everything they’ve got, and pushed things to where we were kind of standing and watching, I felt. So it’s tough to evaluate any one pair, because when you play a team like that, you have to have all 20 guys on board, and the five guys on the ice at that time have to be playing very well. So we’ve got to regroup here and get back on track, ready to go tomorrow.’’

The Buffalo News says those daily discussions about which defenseman the Buffalo Sabres should scratch? You won't hear them for a while.

The Sabres' depth on the blueline is gone. Mike Weber remains out with an unknown upper-body injury and coach Lindy Ruff dropped a bomb after practice Monday at the Northtown Center of Amherst: Tyler Myers is going to miss 4-6 weeks with a broken wrist suffered Saturday night against the Phoenix Coyotes.

Myers suffered the injury late in the second period and sat out the third. It was diagnosed Sunday and he had surgery on Monday.

22-year-old T.J. Brennan has been called up from Rochester and has the daunting task of making his NHL debut in what figures to be a real pressure-cooker as November games go, with the Sabres and Bruins set for a grudge match.

"We've taken little hit here injury-wise with Weber and now with Myers," Ruff said. "[Brennan] is going to have to play a regular shift for us. He's played well down there and it's not easy to step in but we need him to play well for us."

Brennan has three goals, four assists and a minus-3 rating in 17 games for Rochester. Buffalo's second-round pick in 2007, Brennan was in his third full season in the AHL.

"It's just like any other situation, like playing your first game in the American League and junior," Brennan said. "You just try to play your game. These guys drafted me a few years back and drafted me for a reason. You just try to play your game and keep it simple early on until I get some confidence and see what happens."

Brennan said he was happy to hear he'll be back with Gragnani.

"It definitely helps that I played with him before so we'll spend the next couple days trying to find the chemistry I had with him last year," he said. "Just try to keep it simple out there. ... Just off the glass and out. Get the puck out because we have a lot of skilled forwards. I'm a defenseman, keep the puck out of my net."

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