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In a lot of ways, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune indicates that Pierre-Marc Bouchard cannot believe he's dealing with this all over again.

It's the nightmare of all nightmares.

After playing one game in 20 months because of a concussion and subsequent post-concussion syndrome, the Wild winger returned Dec. 1, 2010, and finished the season healthy -- one of the NHL's feel-good stories.

He returned this season determined to build on what he had started and help the Wild end its three-year playoff drought.

But with the Wild on fire, having won 17 of 21 games and leading the league in points, the team played in Winnipeg on Dec. 13. In the waning seconds, Bouchard played the puck behind the net and was crushed from behind by the Jets' Zach Bogosian.

"That hit from behind in Winnipeg just started everything again," said Bouchard, 27. "It is frustrating. I thought I was over this."

Bouchard missed a couple of games but felt good enough to return. He played eight games. He scored four goals, but an inadvertent elbow by Chris Higgins in the final seconds in Vancouver on Jan. 4 was the final blow.

It was announced Jan. 10 that Bouchard again had suffered a concussion and would be out indefinitely. He has missed 14 games and counting. The team is 4-8-2 since.

"I still have symptoms right now," Bouchard said. "Pressure to my head. My vision is a little off. I'm trying to stay positive because I don't feel as bad as I did in my first one -- that big one (March 25, 2009), but they're all different. I still have symptoms, so it's tough."

There is no indication that Bouchard will return soon -- or at all -- this season.

General Manager Chuck Fletcher has said a number of times in the past couple of weeks that barring a "stroke of good fortune," he isn't assuming that Bouchard or winger Guillaume Latendresse, another concussion casualty, will play again this year.

"I haven't quit on this season yet," Bouchard said. "I know sometimes concussions can be long, but right now I'm still hoping it can turn around quickly and maybe in a couple weeks I can feel good and be able to train and be ready."

Bouchard just wants to feel normal again, and he admits, he's starting to worry about his future.

Asked if there will come a point where he thinks about retirement, Bouchard said: "For sure, at one point, if you keep having concussions, it would be kind of not smart to keep going.

"But I've talked with the doctors. I'm having some symptoms, but they're not major. It's not like I'm vomiting. I'm not dizzy every five minutes. So for now, I'm positive I'm going to be back at some point and playing again. I just can't say when."

Tampa Bay Lightning coach Guy Boucher, via The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, on Penguins centre Evgeni Malkin: "[He's] not just racking up the points, but you look at the plays he's making, he looks like Mario Lemieux out there, just dangling [the puck] and doing what he wants to do."

Asked for specifics about what makes Malkin so good, Boucher obliged.

"He's gigantic," Boucher said of the 6-foot-3, 195-pound Russian. "On ice level, he's just a monster out there who can skate, sees everything, can put the puck inside out, inside your pants and out. He can shoot. He just has it all.

"You can't handle him one-on-one. That's what's tough. You don't know what he's going to do, first of all. And then he's got the strength, the size, the reach and the speed to really give it to you. With those dominant players, when they're not on, you can manage them. But when they're on, it's very, very difficult. You can ask your best defensemen to try to shut him down, but the reality is, he will get some scoring chances."

Blackhawks winger Patrick Kane knows Superman hasn’t shown up since the All-Star break, according to The Chicago Sun-Times.

Kane had hoped the All-Star game would be a turning point. But he has a goal and three assists in six games since the break.

Kane’s overall numbers (45 points in 56 games) raise concerns about his health. He had surgery July 19 to repair a scaphoid fracture in his left wrist. He insists it hasn’t been a factor, although it still requires care.

“Throughout the whole season, the wrist has been there,” Kane told the Sun-Times. “It has its good days and its bad days. But other than that, there’s only bruises. No sickness. Nothing. Sometimes it just doesn’t happen the way you want.

“[The wrist is] something I definitely I want to work on and get better. I’ll probably work on it a lot more in the offseason. We’re always doing stretches and massaging it, making sure it’s not getting any worse.”

Kane won’t use it as an excuse.

“My shot feels great to be honest with you,” Kane said. “My hands and everything still feel the same as they used to. . . . I feel like the game is there, the chances are there, the puck possession is there. I just have to put a few more on the board.”

If fighting ever came up in a game of word association, The Orange County Register believes the name Lubomir Visnovsky would probably induce head scratching and blank stares.

The two simply don't go together. At least they didn't until the Ducks defenseman decided to drop the gloves with Columbus center Derick Brassard on Sunday night in the second period of his team's 5-3 victory over the Blue Jackets.

It put the Ducks in a bind and wasn't the smartest thing to do at the time, but Visnovsky and his teammates could joke about it after the victory, which pulled them to within nine points of a playoff spot.

"Show the team something a little bit, you know," Visnovsky said.

"It doesn't matter. We win the game. We needed two points. It's perfect for us.

"The team was a little bit laughing about me because they never seen me fight."

Visnovsky had just 16 penalty minutes before Sunday, but he doubled that and tacked on an extra minute when he got into it with Brassard with 5:41 expired in the second.

Brassard got a fighting major, but Visnovsky also got the requisite five for fighting along with two for roughing and a game misconduct for not having his jersey properly fastened to his pants when it was ruled it was pulled above his torso.

It meant that the Ducks had to play with just five blue-liners for the remaining 34-plus minutes.

"Lubi's OK to get into once in a while," center Ryan Getzlaf said.

"As long as he picks the right door, I guess. It's nice to get those minutes up for him. We could have used him to have his tie-down though. We didn't need to lose him for the whole game."

Said Visnovsky: "I don't tie up the jersey because I never think I'm going to fight. Maybe I start to tie it up."

Visnovsky said that he has had five fights in his 11-year career, with the last one coming against Dustin Byfuglien while he played for the Kings.

Could he one day replace George Parros as the team's main pugilist?

"I told George, be careful for next season," he said. "I maybe take your job."

Said Parros: "He can have it. I'll take his job. No problem with that switch."

The Colorado Avalanche says Erik Johnson played like he had a score to settle with the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night. The young Avalanche defenseman was chippy but did not commit a penalty, and his mean streak was pure benefit to his team.

Johnson scored a power-play goal, using his big shot from the point to perfection, and did not commit a defensive-end turnover. Overall, it was the type of game the Avs expect Johnson to have regularly — and what the Blues expected from him when they took him with the first pick in the 2006 draft.

The Avs believe Johnson, 23, will fulfill his lofty long-term potential if he continues to play with a mean streak and keep his body in continuous motion during shifts.

"His progression has been a lot better," Avs coach Joe Sacco said of Johnson, whose minus-7 rating is almost half of what it was at the beginning of the season. "He got off to a tough start, but he's picked it up lately, no question.

"The big thing for E.J. is, when he keeps things simple and he moves his feet, he's a very effective player. We talk about that all the time with him. He's a big man who can move, but he gets himself in trouble when he's planted. When he's moving, skating, and he's physical, he's a difference-maker."

Johnson offered this: "Over the course of the last month and a half, I think I have stepped it back up," he said. "I'm trying to assert myself more physically. When I do that, I'm tougher to play against and I limit the scoring chances against. I'm just trying to help the team any way I can, whether it's on the power play, penalty kill or even strength."

Email: chris.nichols@sportsnet.rogers.com

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