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The Montreal Gazette describes how P.K. Subban used the word six times in less than three minutes of conversation on Monday, describing the emptiness of having been a healthy scratch last Thursday in the Canadiens’ 4-0 loss to the Winnipeg Jets.

“Embarrassing.”

Subban struggled mightily in last week’s road games in Boston and Chicago, some ghastly defensive-zone play leading to opposition goals that sent the Canadiens to their third and fourth consecutive defeats.

“It’s not a good feeling when you know that 22 guys, no matter if they say it or not, know you’re not pulling your weight,” Subban said after Wednesday’s game against the Blackhawks.

“I’m minus-4 in the past two games. It can’t happen, not when you’re playing 25, 26 minutes a night. You’ve got to be better. I know I have to be better.

“I know I cost my team two games in a row.”

A mature thing for a 22-year-old to shoulder full blame for losses to which he was a contributor, not the sole architect.

The thought in many quarters was that Subban would be prepared to skate through a brick wall to make amends the next night in Winnipeg.

But head coach Randy Cunneyworth chose to make Subban a healthy scratch against the Jets, and it was in the MTS Centre pressbox that the sophomore defenceman watched his team lose its fifth straight with an effort that was as delicately perfumed as the dozen eggs you forgot in the summertime trunk of your car.

The Gazette notes Subban was made a healthy scratch for five games last December by then-head coach Jacques Martin, a stretch of three early in the month and then two more later. Since then, he had played 88 uninterrupted regular-season and playoff games before he was scratched last Thursday.

That Subban responded strongly to his pressbox perch last season did little for his peace of mind on Monday.

“Being healthy scratched doesn’t change the way you play (upon your return),” he almost argued. “Last year, our team played better in the second half. The players we acquired helped and we had some great chemistry. It wasn’t because I was healthy scratched that you say: ‘Okay, now I’m going to start playing.’ That has nothing to do with it.

“It’s (six) guys on the ice, 22 guys working together. If you benefit from that, great. Last year, I was on the good end of it. I scored a lot of goals for our team and had big goals down the stretch,” said Subban, who had 14 on the year, seven of them in a nine-game stretch from March 18 to April 5.

“Those are positives. For me, it’s just about going out there and playing when I have the opportunity.”

Then came the string of embarrassings, Subban in part saying: “I don’t want to be a healthy scratch again. I shouldn’t be. … You’re walking through the airport going home and you don’t even want to look at anybody because people put so much hope in you for playing and helping the team. When they don’t think you can do the job, it’s embarrassing. It’s not fun. …

“(But) it doesn’t really matter what my feelings are, or how I feel about it. I don’t make the (lineup) decisions.”

The Ottawa Sun illustrates how on one side will be Milan Michalek, anxious to rediscover his scoring touch after missing five games with a concussion.

On the other side will be Daniel Alfredsson, anxious to score his 400th goal before a home crowd and while his parents are visiting from Sweden.

So as the man in the middle, Jason Spezza knows the drill.

"They're going to want the puck a lot this week, I guess," he said after Monday's practice to end the team's two-day Christmas break. "I like having the puck a lot, so as long as they give it to me lots going through the neutral zone, then I'll try to find a way to set them up in the offensive zone."

With Michalek's official return, the three were reunited as coach Paul MacLean did a bit of line shuffling. He kept Bobby Butler, Kyle Turris and Nick Foligno together, but had Colin Greening with Zack Smith and Chris Neil.

Even with Peter Regin likely gone for the season with an injured left shoulder, the acquisition of Turris to anchor the second line has allowed MacLean to put his three top shooters together.

"It solidifies that position and allows us to put those three back together and maybe give us a line that puts a little bit of fear into the opposition," he said.

"They're three real good players that we can play together and hope they create a lot of offence. So we'll see if they do."

MacLean also has his fingers crossed that a partnership with Turris might be the tonic to stimulate Butler's missing scoring touch.

"Bobby has really worked hard at being a good pro and a good player, and maybe this is an opportunity for him and Kyle to get together and have some chemistry," said Mac-Lean. "I think it's worth it for us, at this point in the season, to put those combinations together and give them a try."

The Winnipeg Free Press indicates that Jets centre Bryan Little didn't make the trip to Denver and there is some doubt he'll be ready to play before the ball drops on 2012. Little's foot is still quite sore, head coach Claude Noel said, and the forward couldn't do much when he tried to put a skate on Monday morning.

"He's slow going; it looks like it's going to be a while," Noel told reporters. "I'd like to say 'day-to-day' -- (that) would be wishful thinking."

Little, who had 11 goals and 20 points in 32 games before taking a Dustin Byfuglien point shot off the foot early in the Dec. 17 game against Anaheim, has missed the last three contests.

The silver lining in the Little injury: His absence gives sophomore Alexander Burmistrov a chance to climb the depth chart and show what he can do in the middle of a line that's expected to produce offensively. So far, three games and counting now, the young Russian has adjusted to his new situation pretty well, Noel said.

"It's a good viewing session for the coaching staff to take a look and see if he fits -- how he fits -- and (whether) he can handle that load," the coach said, noting that in a perfect world Burmistrov would get this exposure to first-line minutes on the wing.

"The problem that line is going to get is that they're going to get heavy checkers, especially when you go on the road. You get the matchups where the better defencemen and better checkers come against you."

Burmistrov has handled the assignment, picking up two goals in the three-plus games he's been situated between Evander Kane and Blake Wheeler, and with the news on Little not encouraging it looks like he's going to be there for at least the rest of the week.

"You can see good feelings and confidence going in his game," Wheeler said. "He had that early on (in the season) but like any young guy, it's just the ups and downs of it. He's done a good job."

The 2011-12 NHL campaign is turning into a season from hell for Edmonton Oilers defenceman Ryan Whitney, according to The Edmonton Journal.

Make that seasons from hell.

Whitney missed the last 47 games of the 2010-11 season after dislocating a tendon in his right ankle on Dec. 30, 2010.

He missed his 18th game of this season on Monday night after getting tendinitis in the surgically repaired ankle. Whitney sat out the team’s Boxing Day contest against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena. He might be ready for Thursday’s game against the Wild in Minnesota. He just can’t get any traction on the ankle.

Whitney didn’t play any pre-season games in September and October as he took it slow with the ankle, and also missed the first four regular-season games. He came back and played four in a row, then sprained his knee in a fluke collision with teammate Corey Potter against the Canucks on Oct. 25 at Rexall Place. He then sat out the next 13 games.

The 28-year-old Boston native has only played 17 of 35 games this season, and 17 out of the last 82, which is a full NHL season.

“There’s no real structural damage where Whit had the surgery,” said Oilers head coach Tom Renney, “but he’s having some difficulty with it.

“The ankle has been a little bit weak because he’s pushing himself to get back to where he wants to be and it’s inevitable that there’s some residual pain there. He’s developed the tendinitis because he’s pushed it. We’re being safe. On the heels of the Christmas break, if we can give him five or six days off, I think it’ll help him a lot.”

The Philadelphia Daily News says that at any given point during an NHL season - and especially as it progresses - the trainer's room may be a more popular hangout for players than the locker room itself.

Players skate through various bumps, bruises, strains, sprains and cuts during an 82-game grind that lasts from September through April, most often without anyone catching wind of an injury, without anyone knowing other than the player, his teammates and management.

Few players have dealt with more behind the medical curtain than James van Riemsdyk.

After sitting out for four games earlier this month with a muscular tear in his midsection, van Riemsdyk has been hampered by two different injuries recently that has limited his production on the scoresheet. Van Riemsdyk, 22, has just one goal and two assists in his last 10 games since returning from the muscular tear. He went nine straight games without a goal, a streak that was broken on Friday night at Madison Square Garden.

Multiple sources confirmed yesterday that van Riemsdyk has both a cam impingement in his hip, which has been bothering him since the onset of the season, and a knee that was "banged up a few games ago" but was aided by rest over the 2-day Christmas holiday break.

When asked yesterday after an hourlong practice, van Riemsdyk said he didn't want to delve into specifics about his injuries.

Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren denied both of van Riemsdyk's injuries when asked yesterday.

"Lots of guys have issues throughout the season," Holmgren said in a text message.

The Daily News reports a source said that van Riemsdyk could require offseason surgery to correct his hip injury, which is a common occurrence in hockey players. One recent report suggested that more than 50 percent of all NHL players have a similar hip injury due to overuse. A cam impingement occurs when the ball-shaped femoral head rubs abnormally or does not have full range of motion in the pelvic socket. This can result in damage to the cartilage surrounding the bone.

On the ice, van Riemsdyk has not appeared to be comfortable in his stride. At times, especially over the past three or four games, he appears to be laboring up and down the ice.

Overall, van Riemsdyk has nine goals and 10 assists in 29 games. When healthy, van Riemsdyk posted eight points in just four games from Oct. 27 to Nov. 5. He signed a 6-year, $25.5 million deal last summer, which kicks in next season. For now, it's safe to say that judgment should be reserved on that deal until he is given a chance to play at full-strength.

Van Riemsdyk will continue to labor through those injuries tonight in Tampa Bay, where he has collected nine points in 10 career games against the Lightning. He is the Flyers' second-best point producer against Tampa Bay after Jaromir Jagr's 71 points in 58 career games.

ESPN Dallas notes that Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen missed his 12th game Monday night due to a groin injury, but he could be in the lineup as early as Thursday when the Stars play the Columbus Blue Jackets at American Airlines Center.

After Monday night's 5- 3 loss to the St. Louis Blues, Stars coach Glen Gulutzan was asked if Lehtonen would return this week.

"Yeah, he will for sure," Gulutzan said. "He's been skating the last few days. He's very close. I wouldn't be surprised to see him against Columbus."

Lehtonen was injured in a November 26 game at Phoenix. The Stars have gone 7-5-0 in the 12 games he has missed due the injury.

Email: chris.nichols@sportsnet.rogers.com

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