Hockey Hearsay

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

The Edmonton Journal reports that unless Taylor Hall flunks coach Tom Renney’s Wednesday morning fitness test — a simulation of a hard game-type shift — before the Edmonton Oilers jet to Phoenix, you’ll see Hall on the left wing with captain Shawn Horcoff and Ales Hemsky against the Coyotes Thursday night.

That’ll be 19 days and seven games he’ll have missed since his left shoulder got the worst of a hellacious hit from Colorado Avalanche defenceman Ryan Wilson in Denver on Nov. 26. So, the club’s two-to-four-week prognosis was pretty accurate.

With Hall back (18 points in 22 games, missing one other game with the flu), left-winger Ryan Smyth will likely move to the third line with Eric Belanger and Ryan Jones.

“I’ve played with Horc and Hemmer before I was hurt, for the last year and a half, and felt really good with those two guys. We’ll have some chemistry,” said Hall. “I really like playing with Horc because he wins a lot of faceoffs and we start out with the puck. Hemmer is so skilled and creative and you have to be ready all the time for the puck, but I’ve gotten used to that.”

Renney will keep Sam Gagner on the left side with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle, and will see how Smyth, who has looked a little tired the last few games (no points in the last four games, 20 minutes a night) and will still get power-play time, looks with Belanger and Jones.

“Smytty has a real influence in our roster in the core area. He’s got such good work habits that that line could end up scoring a lot of goals for us. It’s not something for sure I’ll use in Phoenix, but I want to look at it for a couple of days (practice). I don’t mind the combination,” said Renney.

PhillyNews.com indicates that for the first time since Claude Giroux was rocked by an accidental knee to the head by teammate Wayne Simmonds on Saturday night, the Flyers officially labeled the NHL's leading scorer as concussed. Giroux failed a baseline concussion test on Monday. There is no timetable for his return.

"Over the last few days, the symptoms have gotten gradually worse," GM Paul Holmgren said. "Obviously, we're concerned. Claude is one of our better players. We're just going to err on the side of caution."

Holmgren said Giroux, who remained in Philadelphia as the Flyers traveled to Montreal late last night, will take a complete day off today before being evaluated again.

On Monday, Holmgren told a reporter in Chicago that their concern surrounding Giroux regarded a whiplash effect from Simmonds' knee. Curiously, the website CrossingBroad.com reported (with one photo, submitted by a reader) that Giroux got into a minor fender-bender in his black Chevrolet Camaro outside the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday morning before the game when he rear-ended the car in front of him.

"That wasn't related to this at all," Holmgren said, confirming the accident. "Other than that, he had a bad day."

The article points out that news of Giroux' concussion comes only a day after the Penguins announced that Sidney Crosby, who missed 68 straight games between Jan. 5 and Nov. 21, will be out indefinitely again after running into teammate Chris Kunitz on Dec. 5. Crosby has helped spur hyper-awareness about concussions throughout NHL locker rooms.

"It's raised the awareness," Holmgren said. "Sidney is probably the best player in the league. The protocol that we use to treat players has changed drastically over the years. That's a good thing. We're looking after the players."

No matter the treatment, the trouble with concussions is that you just never know. This is the first reported concussion of Giroux' career. For now, the Flyers will take it slow.

"He's a stubborn guy," Holmgren said. "He wants to get back in the lineup. We might just have to pull back the reins a little bit. So much depends on how the player feels. There's times that he feels good and there's other times that he doesn't. We'll just kind of play it by ear."

The Winnipeg Sun relays that Teemu Selanne says he’s looking forward to returning to the city in which he started his NHL career.

On a conference call with reporters, Tuesday, the Anaheim Ducks star, who’ll play here, Saturday, says he hears Winnipeg crowds have been pretty raucous with the return of the Jets this season.

“I heard that building is rocking,” Selanne said. “It’s going to be very special.”

One of the most popular Jets of all time, Selanne was with Winnipeg for parts of four seasons, beginning with his sensational rookie campaign in 1992-93.

The 41-year-old Finn says the trade that sent him to Anaheim in February, 1996, hit him hard, especially considering the incoming owners of the team had reassured him he wasn’t going anywhere.

“I was shocked,” he said. “You almost feel you have failed. The first couple of days I was just totally shocked about what happened.”

Going into this season, the Jets put in a call to Selanne’s agent about a possible return, but Selanne said the Ducks are the only team for him, now.

Selanne has maintained friendships in Winnipeg, and nearly 16 years later hopes to bid the city a proper farewell, Saturday.

“When I was traded I didn’t really get a chance to say goodbye,” he said. “In three days, I was gone.”

The Ottawa Sun notes that Sens winger Bobby Butler has 24 shots in 21 games. Tough to be a sniper when you're not pulling the trigger.

Having tested goalies just three times in his past five games, Butler was a healthy scratch on Tuesday night against the Sabres.

Butler scored 45 goals in 106 games for the organization in 2010-11, but in 65 periods of play this season he has just two — and he got them both in the same period.

As a guy they're paying over a million a year for this season and next, the Senators want to get Butler going.

"Confidence is a big thing for goal scorers," said coach Paul MacLean, who knew a thing or two about putting the pea in the pond when he played. "You just need one to go in, off your rear-end. But you have to make sure you're shooting the puck. The concern for me is the last couple of games Bob hasn't been getting any shots."

Butler has spent some time on the first line, but probably not enough. Of course, Milan Michalek has become the better option as Jason Spezza's winger.

"I just need to get my confidence back. If I get the puck, shoot it," said Butler. "I talked with coach it was very positive. Just got to get back to doing what I do."

How come he's not shooting more?

"I'm just not getting the puck ... not shooting enough," he said. "I've been trying to do all the little things ... if I'm not getting the puck I can't shoot it ... a little bit of everything."

The Orange County Register shows that as the Ducks' coach, Bruce Boudreau is 1-3-1. That is not good. But there are worse things. Like 0-0-0.

Boudreau endured a three-day eternity between his firing in Washington and his hiring in Anaheim.

Since the beginning of the 1996-97 season, Boudreau had been a head coach for every game, somewhere, leaving a trail of drills, greaseboards, expletives and attaboys from Biloxi, Miss., to Manchester, N.H.

Before that he coached the Fort Wayne Komets, and met his wife, Crystal, who has been on the ride ever since.

"She's a true hockey wife," Boudreau said the other day. "My first wife was great, too. But she wanted to stay in the same spot. So I tried to do something else. Her sister was a teacher and made up a resume for me. I didn't even know what that was.

"I was one of three finalists for a personnel director's job, and I found out I'd have to be negotiating with city unions and I said, 'whoa, I can't do that. I'm a hockey guy.' She wanted to start a new life and that was that."

Fort Wayne's rival was Kalamazoo, coached by Ken Hitchcock, who is now coaching St. Louis and won the Stanley Cup with Dallas in 1999.

"He had a real good player named Rob Brown so one night he used only two lines the whole game," Boudreau said. "I'm stubborn, too, so I played two lines right along with him."

"I actually got my third line out there once," Hitchcock said.

"But did he (Hitchcock) remember who won?" Boudreau retorted. "I do. It was 2-1 for Fort Wayne. Ian Boyce scored with two minutes to go."

Only 17 seasons ago.

The Register recalls that a mediocre start this year sent him packing and General Manager George McPhee explained that Boudreau had "emptied the bucket."

This is the "different voice" theory. Boudreau points to Nashville's Barry Trotz and Buffalo's Lindy Ruff, the two longest-serving active coaches. "What, do they get their vocal cords changed?" he asked.

"I think what you see in Bruce's teams is a great deal of joy," Hitchcock said. "There is a edge there but it's a different edge. They play with a fluidness about them. They have fun at the rink."

"If I have a strength, and that's for others to decide, it's that anything one of my players has been through, I've been through," Boudreau said. "I've been called up, sent down. I can identify with all that."

The Boston Herald writes say this much for Brad Marchand: When the Bruins winger gets caught doing something naughty, he usually admits to the offense.

Such was the case yesterday when Marchand was asked about the $2,500 fine he incurred from the NHL for his obvious slew-foot of Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Matt Niskanen last week.

“It was definitely a slew-foot and those are dangerous plays. Guys can get hurt off that. It’s something I shouldn’t have done. They penalized me for it and it’s time to move on now,” said Marchand, who moved on very well by scoring two goals in the B’s 3-0 win over the Kings last night at the Garden.

Marchand was aware of his transgression immediately and knew there was going to be a price to pay, so at the time he offered Niskanen a chance to punch him in the nose. The combatants wound up with matching fighting majors.

“I realized it was a bit of cheap shot and I wanted to get it over with, I guess,” said Marchand, who received a two-game suspension last season for a head shot on the Columbus Blue Jackets’ R.J. Umberger.

Coach Claude Julien let Marchand know how he felt about the slew-foot.

“When it happened, I addressed it right after the period. There are certain things that we all can deal with with certain players and what they do, but slew-footing is not something I like to see, whether it’s for us or against us,” Julien said. “If he’s going to be doing that, he’s going to get fined and he’s deserving of it. He has to own up to his mistakes and he’s done a good job of that. We’re talking about a young player who is trying to find that fine line and not crossing it.

“There are times when he does (cross the line). Again, we’ve addressed it. I want him to be a good brat, not a bad brat. I used that term with him and that means don’t cross the line and I thought he did that time. His response was, ‘I thought I was going to get away with it.’ That’s not what you want to see from your players.”

The Chicago Tribune reports that Ray Emery will make his third consecutive start in goal, and fourth in the last five games, when the Hawks face the Wild. Meanwhile, No. 1 netminder Corey Crawford will continue to watch from the bench.

"When a goalie gets a chance you don't want to disrupt it," coach Joel Quenneville said. "You give him some confidence by putting him back in the net. (Emery has) given us what we're looking for and Crawford is working on his game, anticipating a chance."

The New York Post remembers that back in the '70's when Montreal had Yvan Cournoyer in the lineup, the Canadiens had a play where they'd flip the puck out of either their own or the neutral zone and let the winger nicknamed "The Roadrunner" use his unparalleled speed to chase it down and thus create scoring opportunities off the rush. Now that the Rangers have their own uniquely gifted skater in left winger Carl Hagelin, the Blueshirts are developing a similar approach in seeking to exploit the 23-year-old Swedish born rookie's world-class speed.

"Hags is so fast straightaway, his first couple of strides are probably the quickest I've seen, so that if he sees we have control of the puck, he should just go," John Mitchell, who has played on Hagelin's line both with the AHL Whale and since their Thanksgiving recall to the Rangers, said before last night's 1-0 Garden defeat to the Stars.

"Even if the puck goes all the way down to end, all he has to be is even with the defense when he starts to go in order to win the race. We know his speed is a weapon that we can use as an edge. Haggy reads the play very well; he knows when to go and we know when he's going."

Coach John Tortorella said Hagelin is likely the fastest player he's ever coached, noting Tampa Bay winger's Martin St. Louis' "quickness," but acknowledging the Ranger freshman for "his top-end speed."

"We don't sit down as a coaching staff and so much as make plays for him, but there are definitely situations where it's more advantageous for him not to have the puck so that we can chip it into areas where he can chase it down," the coach said. "We want to play a tempo game, a forecheck game and Hags adds to that.

"What he is with his legs is the way we want to play. He's a really good fit."

The Post notes the rookie, who is the Rangers' fastest straightway skater since Gene Carr wore the Blueshirt three decades ago, said that while he looks to exploit his speed on those type of "area plays," it's critical he not turn up ice too soon.

"I can't take off if I'm not sure we have control," said Hagelin. "Last game, I knew Brian was going to get it out, so that's when I went.

"It's not something we can do all the time, but when we have control, I make eye contact with my linemates or the defense and then I can release. As long as we have possession, it's a good play because I can win the race."

Or as they said back when Cournoyer was terrorizing the opposition throughout a 428-goal Hall of Fame career: "Beep-beep."

The St. Petersburg Times indicates that Dwayne Roloson says his confidence level is "fine."

He feels good — no, great — on the ice, and his coaches say he is working as hard as ever in practice and in the video room.

Then what the heck is wrong with the Lightning goaltender's game?

"It's just things are finding ways in right now," Roloson said. "I'm seeing the puck real well. Circumstantial things happen and things go into the net."

It wasn't supposed to be this way. Signing Roloson to a one-year, $3 million deal was to ensure stability in net while the team devised a long-term plan.

Instead, backup Mathieu Garon has played more games and speculation is general manager Steve Yzerman is looking for an upgrade.

One also has to believe Dustin Tokarksi, 9-5-0 with a 1.94 GAA, two shutouts and a .918 save percentage in his past 14 starts for AHL Norfolk, might get at least a brief look with Tampa Bay.

"In regards to Roli, he's having a tough time," Yzerman said. "He's working at it. He's trying to get back into form. If he sticks with it he can get back on track. In the meantime, myself and the coach, we need to do anything we can to help our team win games, so it's a tough spot for him."

An added wrinkle: Roloson, at 42, is the league's oldest player.

Asked if he believes age is catching up to him, coach Guy Boucher said, "I can't really say because I'm not in his head. He's the only one who knows where he stands in terms of that."

The coach added, "I still have confidence he will find his way back. He's very professional and you can't care more than that. He had a great attitude (Tuesday), and that's the first step."

Roloson has to "focus on the process" at practice, goaltenders coach Frantz Jean said. "Come to the rink with a positive attitude and leave the bag of bricks at the door. The worst thing you can do is start shooting in every direction and hope to hit something."

"You've got to dial your frustration into the right avenues," Roloson said. "If you put your frustration level where you shouldn't, things get worse."

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