Hockey Hearsay

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

The Washington Post details how Alex Ovechkin reminded us Tuesday night of the impact he’s still capable of making in a game.

He sparked the Verizon Center crowd — and put the Nashville Predators on notice — with a variety of crushing hits in the opening minutes. He fired shots from all angles, a game-high seven in all.

Most important, the Washington Capitals’ captain scored the type of goal that made all the morning highlight shows, the type Washington fans had grown used to seeing regularly but now find themselves craving.

For one night, at least, Old Ovi was in the house. And, predictably, his teammates followed his lead.

They always do.

“When he’s getting scoring chances, hitting, bringing that energy, it fires everybody else up,” defenseman Karl Alzner said after a 4-1 victory, perhaps the Capitals’ most thorough of the Dale Hunter era. “He’s the most exciting guy in the league.

“When,” Alzner added after a pause, “he’s on his game.”

And there’s the rub.

Ovechkin has only been “on his game” a handful of times this season. So few, in fact, it would be wise not to let one good performance fool you.

The Post goes on to point out that just as troubling as anything is the fact that Ovechkin is on pace for a career-low 318 shots on goal, 49 fewer than he took last season and 210 fewer than he launched in 2008-09. Once the perennial league leader in that category, Ovechkin’s 124 shots are tied for fourth most and 12 off the lead.

“Good question,” he said when asked why hasn’t been shooting more. “That’s probably one of the things that hurts my stats.”

Something Ovechkin no longer questions, however, is the fact that he’s a marked man. As recently as a month ago, he often dismissed such talk, placing the onus on effort level rather than tactics.

But now he seems more receptive to what his coaches have implored him to do for more than a year.

“I talk to guys from different teams,” Ovechkin said Monday. “In meetings, they show video of what I did. So, of course, they know what I’m going to do exactly, in a certain time.”

The most obvious adjustment has been Ovechkin’s plan of attack, particularly when carrying the puck into the offensive zone.

Instead of cutting to the middle at the top of the left circle time and again, he’s also been luring defensemen low into the circle before cutting hard to the crease in recent games.

“You try lots of different things,” he said. “You switch wings. Maybe make a move [down low]. . . . That’s creativity. I’m learning and trying to do better.”

The New York Post describes how the most important thing to know about hockey chemistry is that it is not science. Rather it is an undefinable mixture of preparation, communication, instinct and work ethic.

Or else, perhaps it’s just as Professor Artem Anisimov explained it when asked why his line featuring Derek Stepan in the middle and Marian Gaborik on the right is evolving into such a perfect union by saying, “I don’t know; we just play hockey.”

They play hockey with three working and thinking as one, merging their talents to create off the rush, rather than play dump-and-chase, aided immeasurably by the re-identification of Gaborik as a world-class goal-scorer after a season in which an imposter inhabited the Rangers’ No. 10 jersey.

“I don’t think I’ve changed my game a whole lot. It’s just that I’m trying to move a lot to be in position to get the puck and then when I do get it, I look to move it quickly so I can get it back,” Gaborik said following yesterday’s practice in preparation for tonight’s Garden match against the Islanders. “The three of us are always moving, always looking to give-and-go, and we always have a guy down behind the net while we circle.

“Nobody’s standing still and waiting. We’re supporting one another. It’s all about support. And confidence.”

Gaborik has recorded nine goals in his last 11 games, 19 in 31 overall, just one behind league leader Steven Stamkos prior to last night’s matches. Stepan has 13 points (3-10) in his last 13 games, including his three-assist performance in New Jersey on Tuesday. Anisimov has nine points (5-4) in his last nine matches.

“I think that our lines moves its feet and plays hard all the time, and in doing that we generate space for one another,” said Stepan, who is accelerating his emergence as a force in his sophomore season. “The biggest thing is that we work so hard to get the puck, and that allows us to use our skills.

“I think we see the game the same way, but I think that’s basically the case with everyone in our locker room and in that I mean that we all want to play a hard game and take advantage of that philosophy to create offensive chances.”

The Edmonton Journal notes that Oilers coach Tom Renney has some history with the world junior hockey championship, which is being held in Edmonton and in Calgary during the Christmas break.

He coached Canada’s juniors when the tournament was in Winnipeg in the late 1990s and had a hand in a significant rule change by Hockey Canada for selection of their team after the ’92 team’s miserable performance (sixth place) in Fussen, Germany.

Eric Lindros was a late arrival from his junior club in that tournament.

“Eric came in on Dec. 23 with his mother,” said Renney, who didn’t like the idea of any kids riding in just before the tournament started. He let the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association know his views in a sharply-worded long letter.

Now, Hockey Canada mandates that all players — including those playing for major junior teams, attending college or being loaned by their NHL teams — have to attend the selection camp.

“I had quite a lengthy debriefing. I had eight pages of notes after they asked me to put something together,” said Renney.

Now, all kids have to go through an audition. Is this the Renney Rule?

“I wouldn’t call it that, but I quietly take some credit for the players being there from start to finish,” he said.

Milan Michalek was the last one off the ice Wednesday, according to The Ottawa Sun.

The Senators winger was happy to be back practising with his teammates after suffering a concussion Dec. 13 vs. the Buffalo Sabres. But he’s not sure if he’ll be ready to return before the two-day Christmas break starts Saturday.

Michalek, the club’s leading scorer with 19 goals, won’t be ready to return Thursday as the club wraps a four-game homestand against Florida. There’s a chance he could suit up Friday against the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh.

“I feel good. It was my first practice with the guys and I feel great,” said Michalek. “We’ll see how it’s going to feel. I just want to see how it’s going to be (Thursday) because it was my first time practising with the guys.”

Michalek was leading the NHL in goals when he was hurt, and remains among the leaders.

“I skated pretty hard, but my conditioning has to be better as well. I’m going to take it day-by-day. I’ve had some good days, for the last three days, but you never know with a concussion.”

This is the third concussion of Michalek’s career, so he has to be cautious. The Senators aren’t going to rush him back into the lineup, either.

“All I know is that if when you’ve got 19 goals out of your lineup and he says he can play, you’d probably like to have him in the lineup,” said coach Paul MacLean.

“(But) we’re going to be careful and Milan is going to be careful to make sure he’s ready to go. We’re not just going to put him in to put him in just so he can say he got 20 (goals) by Christmas.

“But, if he says (he’s ready to go) and he passes his baseline test and all that stuff, then we’re going to follow the protocols, just like we did with Daniel Alfredsson. When all those things say that (Michalek) can go, then he’ll go.”

** Sportsnet.ca's Ian Mendes tweeted this morning that Michalek says his return date will likely come after Christmas, which would mean the December 27th game against the Habs at the earliest.

The Calgary Herald reports that Mark Giordano skated Wednesday.

Apparently, it wasn’t the first time the Calgary Flames’ top-two defenceman has taken a whirl on the Scotiabank Saddledome ice since he tore a muscle in his leg in a Nov. 29 game against Nashville, but it was the first time the media had caught him in the act.

“It’s a good thing,” acknowledged coach Brent Sutter. “It’s a slow process, but it’s just another step in the right direction. He’s still a long ways away, but it’s definitely very encouraging.”

While Gioradano is almost irreplaceable in the lineup, such young guns as Derek Smith and T.J. Brodie have been doing a solid job of stepping into the breach.

“When you don’t have your top defenceman who can play in every situation and with his physicality he brings in the back end and stuff, it’s not something you can just replace,” said Sutter. “You do it by committee, putting other players in those situations and the young kids, for the most part, are all doing a very admirable job.”

Closer to returning from the injury list is defenceman Anton Babchuk, who skated with the team for the first time Tuesday and took the optional skate again Wednesday. He suffered a hand injury Nov. 8 against Minnesota.

“It’s about 99.9 miles per hour,” he said of the slapshot that’s led to his tag of Boom Boom. “Not at 100, but it’s getting there.

The Columbus Dispatch points out that it took eight seasons for the Blue Jackets to finally acquire an All-Star center, Jeff Carter, to play alongside Rick Nash.

It took less than three months for the floundering Blue Jackets to break up their marquee pairing. Nash and Carter skated on separate lines for the first time in a loss on Sunday at St. Louis and likely will do so again tonight against the Nashville Predators.

After Carter was acquired in a trade with the Philadelphia Flyers in June, Nash envisioned a potent partnership, such as those formed by Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg in Detroit and Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau in San Jose.

But Nash said he wasn’t surprised when Mark Letestu joined Carter and Vinny Prospal on a line and Nash moved to a line with Derick Brassard and R.J. Umberger.

“Some of the top lines, they always get shuffled to gain a spark or for any number of reasons,” Nash said. “I’m sure I’ll play with (Carter) someday again. I’m sure after that I’ll get bumped off his line again, too.”

Coach Scott Arniel said “lots of good things happened” with Nash and Carter together on the top line.

“But I also think there were times … I think over the long haul they will be good together,” Arniel said. “The chemistry is going to take a while to build.”

Nash and Carter will likely play together on the power play and will sometimes skate together at even strength, depending on the situation, Arniel said.

The Blue Jackets plan to have them resume their full-time partnership in the future.

“You had to figure we weren’t going to go through a full year playing together,” Carter said. “I think we were playing pretty well together as a line. We were starting to get some goals and some opportunities. But maybe it’s just trying to balance it out a little more, get some more scoring from other lines.”

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch recalls that the six days that Blues goaltender Brian Elliott had off before Wednesday's start in Colorado was actually short rest. Elliott has twice sat out seven consecutive days this season.

Despite leading the NHL in three major categories, Elliott climbed even with Jaroslav Halak in games played this season at 17 after meeting the Avalanche.

The Blues are one of 14 clubs in the NHL that has two goaltenders with double-digit appearances, and it's hard to argue with the success of a few of the tandems. Four of the teams are in the top six in the league in goals-against average: the Blues (Elliott and Halak), Boston (Tim Thomas, Tuukka Rask), Minnesota (Niklas Backstrom, Josh Harding) and Vancouver (Roberto Luongo, Cory Schneider).

"You look at teams like Boston; they've done a really good job with that," Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. "You look at Minnesota; they've done a really good job of managing consistent ice time for their goaltenders. And that's what we need to do.

"One of the things that happens when you've got two good goalies, and then you decide to stretch out one, the other guy suffers. Then you end up with one goalie and hoping that he doesn't get hurt because the other guy has lost his mojo. We don't want to do that. We've got two good guys going and we want to keep them both going. And it has to be a routine that they understand, that they're not going to go 15, 16 days without playing."

The upcoming schedule will not force the Blues into using one goaltender. After Friday's game in Phoenix, the club will return from the Christmas break and twice next week play games on back-to-back nights.

"I don't worry about whether the guy is happy or not happy. ... I just expect them both to contribute," Hitchcock said. "I know what the season is like. We have over 50 games to play still. That's a lot of hockey. Our guys are going to have to play a lot. For me, keeping both guys going is really important."

The Buffalo News indicates that Sabres forward Brad Boyes is taking a cautious approach to his injured ankle. Both skated on a regular line in practice Wednesday in Air Canada Centre but Boyes said after he's probably going to wait another few days.

"It's feeling pretty good but based on timetables you don't want to come back too early and have a setback," said Boyes, who had his ankle rolled Nov. 23 by Boston's Johnny Boychuk and figured to miss 4-6 weeks. "I've felt real good out there for what I've done. There's been limited stuff when it comes to pucks along the boards, really getting into battles where I might put a lot more pressure on my ankle. So those are areas I want to be ready for."

Thomas Vanek missed his second straight practice for maintenance but will play tonight. Vanek, Buffalo's leading goal scorer with 17, did not have a shot on goal in Tuesday's game and appears to be nursing some sort of minor lower-body injury.

Randy aka The Hockey Hitman: "Hey Chris,

Hope you're doing well. I see you're Oilers have finally fallen back to earth....well, my Lightning haven't been the same team all season so, at least yours has shown some promise! haha

The reason I am contacting you is, Basically have a team in my Dynasty Keeper league I am searching for someone to take over for an inactive owner.

Its 10 teams, yahoo H2H dynasty keeper league, no limit on how long you keep players. 60 players max. per roster. G, A, P, +/-, PIM, PPP, GWG and Wins, GAA, SV%, shutouts. We need a replacement for one GM who has been given several chances over the past couple years to be more active.

If you know of anyone or have anyway of passing this along to anyone who may be interested, feel free to have them contact me either via twitter.com/thehockeyhitman or email at gambit84nhl@yahoo.com.

Thank you in advance for your time and attention."

Chris: Hopefully you get a nibble or two from a few interested potential owners Randy. Looking over the roster, it looks like a pretty sweet opportunity. Stamkos, Toews, M. Richards, Carter, Sharp, Vanek, Hartnell, Kane, Byfuglien, Burns, Enstrom, Suter, Goligoski, Halak and many more.

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