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The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that the Wild has suspended Houston Aeros forward Justin Fontaine for the next two games after he used a gay slur during a Twitter exchange about the Grammys with a teammate on Sunday night.

Fontaine soon removed the tweet and apologized, saying, “My apologies to everyone, it was wrong. Twitter rookie and it came out totally wrong. It was a roommate battle, nothing more. #sorry.”

By that time, however, it was retweeted by another Aeros teammate and spread across the Internet.

“Minnesota Sports and Entertainment (MSE) apologizes for the offensive slur that was posted by Justin Fontaine on Twitter last night,” the Wild said in a statement Monday night. “Fontaine has been suspended from playing in the next two games for the Houston Aeros.”

Fontaine, 24, was unavailable for comment but wrote on his Twitter account to a fan Monday that he felt “awful” and “it’s a word I’ll never use again.”

Fontaine signed as a free agent after helping the University of Minnesota-Duluth to a national championship last spring. In his first pro year, Fontaine is the Aeros’ second-leading scorer with 34 points in 49 games.

Prior to the season, the NHL issued a social media policy, which includes a “blackout period” on game days.

Also, “the new policy makes it clear that players and club personnel will be held responsible for their social communications in the same manner in which they are held responsible for other forms of public communications.

“As a result, discipline is possible for any social media statements that have or are designed to have an effect prejudicial to the welfare of the league, the game of hockey or a member club, or are publicly critical of officiating staff.”

The Tampa Tribune says that Steven Stamkos does not want to be defined as a one-dimensional player who helps his team in one area, but is a liability on defense. The 22-year-old's play in his own zone has improved drastically as he becomes a better two-way player.

"I want to be that player that in both situations, whether up a goal or down a goal, is going to be out there,'' said Stamkos, who has tied his own franchise record with eight game-winning goals this season.

With 133 goals since the start of the 2009-10 season, Stamkos has 28 more goals than any other player in the league during that span. His knack for the net has earned him plenty of praise in his first three-plus seasons in the league and plenty of air time on the highlight clips.

He is, perhaps, the premier goal scorer in the game today.

While his presence on the ice when Tampa Bay needs a goal is a given, lately he's gotten opportunities to help protect leads.

Part of his evolution into a more responsible player in Tampa Bay's end has to do with how he carries himself in situations and how he takes fewer risks than he might have before.

"He's managed the puck better," head coach Guy Boucher said. "We all knew he was a skater and shooter, but he's evolved now into somebody who manages the game a lot better and uses different tools rather than just focus on some of his main tools.

"He still gets his offense without playing the chances … and that's a mark of maturity. He's really understood that and he's continuing to develop that and grow. He's still a young man and it's great to see how he's evolving right now. He's doing it all.''

For a player with quite a few achievements in his young career – including a Rocket Richard Trophy at 19 – it's difficult to fathom Stamkos requires more confidence in his game. But being counted on in defensive situations has done just that for the league-leading goal scorer.

"To be that two-way player that I want to be, you have to have confidence in those situations as well," Stamkos said. "To be out there, knowing that the coaching staff and your teammates have the confidence in you to get the job done at both ends of the rink, is something that does grow confidence in your entire game.''

The Calgary Sun notes that as the mountain of middlemen started piling up in the Flames sickbay, Cammalleri sought out head coach Brent Sutter to let him know he’d be happy to move from the wing back to centre, where he used to play, if need be.

On Monday, Sutter took No. 93 up on his offer.

“He said to me, ‘If something happens, he could do it,’ so Cammy will get a chance at centre,” said Sutter as Mikael Backlund, his former second-line centre, walked by with his arm in a sling thanks to a Saturday night run-in with Vancouver Canucks tough-guy Andrew Alberts.

“He’s actually excited about it. It’s his natural position.”

Cammalleri offered this of the position: “I don’t know if winger is easier – it’s different. Your skating patterns and sightlines change a bit. It’s kind of like playing point on the powerplay — when you first go back there it’s just different. I’ll have to adjust. It could just take a little while to get used to.”

That’s the thing — the Flames don’t have “a little while.” Against all odds, they’ve battled back into the thick of the NHL Western Conference’s playoff race despite a litany of injuries that continue to challenge a team surging nonetheless.

To his credit, Flames GM Jay Feaster noted Cammalleri’s ability to play centre the evening he traded back for the re-born Flames player. However, it’s unlikely Feaster saw him playing it so soon.

Acquired to score goals and bolster a powerplay that will be crucial down the stretch, Cammalleri insists the move won’t change him from a shooter to a distributor.

Nor is he worried his size will hamper his ability to play a position most teams see as a big-man’s domain.

“Joe Sakic was probably my favourite centre, and he was 5-10 or 5-11,” said the 5-foot-9 Michigan grad.

“I have no concerns that way. The size thing doesn’t factor into my thinking of the position. The way the game is played it’s more stick on puck and cover lanes.”

The Edmonton Journal indicates that the Oilers figure the newly-signed Andy Sutton (one year, $1.5M base with another $250K depending on his games played total) brings a lot to the table, and not just his enormous size at six-foot-six, 245 pounds. They also like his willingness to block a shot, kill a penalty, maybe intimidate smaller players trying to find space around the Oilers net.

Sutton has also become a voice to be heard in the dressing room, never a bad thing if you’re saying the right things.

“I love the city, I love the guys, the organization’s heading in the right direction,” said Sutton, who turns 37 next month. “You see the signs all over the place. The ups and downs are getting less and less. They’re building toward something that I want to be part of.

“I’ve done a lot of moving the last few years and I just got my family here (from California) and we weren’t looking forward to moving again. I didn’t want to leave and have to go through free agency again this summer,” said Sutton, who could be playing with Cam Barker in the third defensive pairing against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night at Rexall Place.

He has become a leader, without having a letter on his jersey.

“We’re all trying to learn how to play the right way, win the right way, lose the right way,” said Sutton. “We’re seeing more maturity out of our young players and the veterans have done a great job to show them the right way to do things.”

GM Steve Tambellini chose to keep a player he knows rather than maybe go out this summer to sign someone he only knows by reputation.

“He’s a big presence. He’s a goalie’s best friend the way he blocks shots,” said Tambellini. “He’s earned the respect of the coaching staff.

“You also need to have some fun around the dressing room and he’s a big part of it with his teammates. That’s important.”

Oilers head coach Tom Renney liked Jason Strudwick’s leadership with the young players when he was an Oiler, and Sutton brings the same sort of thing to the rink. He also possesses the sandpaper demeanour.

“He’s a big, strong man. He brings a calm to our dressing room,” said Renney.

The New York Post believes he is the officer as infantryman, the leader who volunteers for the grunt work.

He is Ryan Callahan, the right captain at the right time for the right team.

“He’s a second-, third-, fourth-effort guy who leads by example, you know what I mean?” Brad Richards asked rhetorically before the Rangers brought their seven-point conference lead over the Bruins here for tonight’s test in a series of them for Callahan and his band of brothers. “He’s not a rah-rah guy, he’s not 38 years old with 18 years of experience.

“But all our guys follow him, and we follow him because night in and night out, his level of effort is always going to be the highest of anybody on the ice for both sides.”

Callahan is 26, not 38, is in his fifth year in the NHL, not 18th, and is in his first year as captain after serving two years as an alternate to Chris Drury. And though he might have acted as de facto captain much of last season when injuries limited Drury to 24 games, never before had the “C” been stitched onto his Blue Shirt just up above where his heart beats.

“I would imagine it must have been overwhelming for him to be captain so early in his career, but you’d never know that with the way he’s responded to it,” said Henrik Lundqvist, a teammate since 2006-07. “He’s the same guy I’ve always known.

“To me, his leadership comes from the way he plays. The way he sacrifices, it makes it easy for guys to step up for him. If there’s a style, that’s what it is.”

Callahan told The Post that while the captaincy hasn’t altered his game or his relationship with his teammates, it has had an impact on his approach.

“The big thing for me is that I need to have the feel of the team and to make certain that as a group we don’t get too high or too low,” Callahan said. “My preparation is a little bit different in that regard.

“I try to get the feeling in the room on a daily basis of how to approach things. I’m not an especially vocal guy, but if there’s something that needs to be said, I’ll say it. I’ve been comfortable in the role, in interacting with my teammates. It hasn’t at all been a burden.”

There perhaps have been more charismatic Rangers captains, but never one who has better personified the team that he leads.

“Think of it, at his age, to be captain of an Original Six team, and in New York City; he handles it all properly, the way he represents himself and the team,” Richards said. “He’s done an unbelievable job as our leader.”

Fire & Ice reports that Martin Brodeur will be in net again for the Devils Tuesday night when they face the Buffalo Sabres at First Niagara Center.

Brodeur is 2-0-1 against the Sabres this season, allowing only one goal in each of his last two starts against them – including a 2-1 shootout loss on Jan. 24 at Prudential Center.

“I think that’s part of it, but this was going to be his start even if the numbers told a different story,” Devils coach Pete DeBoer said of the decision to start Brodeur again. “He’s rested. We’re in the stretch run here. (Johan Hedberg) will still get some games, but Marty’s going to play a lot.”

Brodeur has started 10 of the team’s last 12 games. Hedberg started in a 6-4 victory in Philadelphia on Feb. 4 – the first game of a back-to-back set – and then subbed for Brodeur in Thursday’s 4-3 shootout loss to St. Louis when Brodeur was nursing a sore right ankle.

Brodeur said he had no problems with his ankle in Saturday’s 3-1 loss to Florida or any residual effects Sunday.

Brodeur, who will turn 40 on May 6, had to adjust to playing a little bit less in the first half as part of DeBoer’s plan to keep him fresh for the stretch run, but has reacted well to the busier schedule of late.

The article notes that over his last 10 starts, Brodeur is 6-3-1 with a 1.88 goals-against average and .919 save percentage. For the season, Brodeur is 18-13-2 with a 2.65 GAA and .899 save percentage.

“It’s more of something natural to me if I’m in net and I don’t feel like I have to regain my confidence and the way that I approach the game,” Brodeur said. “It’s been a good little change for me to be able to play a little more. We haven’t played many back-to-backs compared to early on and that kind of helps a little bit with the flow of me playing.”

Brodeur feels ready for the stretch run, but doesn’t know if that has anything to do with playing less earlier in the season.

“I feel good,” he said. “I don’t know if I would be fresher or not, I don’t know where the season would be if I would have played more. For me, it worked out well just because of the injury to my shoulder early on (he missed six games in October with a right shoulder injury) and it took a while to play 100 percent and feel no pain with it. Now, I feel good with it, knock on wood, and I’ve just got to continue.”

Brodeur said he didn’t have pain in his shoulder when he returned to game action, but there was an initial mental barrier he had to get past.

“I could play, but I felt a couple of little things that my reflexes weren’t sharp enough just because of that little injury – be it a poke check or grabbing the puck, playing the puck,” he said. “I was babying it. Not that it was hurting, but I couldn’t be myself. When I passed that, I felt good. When I played (on Jan. 14) I did a move in warm-up that usually I didn’t even dare trying and I was like, ‘Wow, that didn’t hurt.’ That kind of triggered my brain that I feel as good as I’ve felt in a long time.”

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch details how while promising Blues defender Alex Pietrangelo has emerged as an offensive factor of late, Kevin Shattenkirk has been shut down. Pietrangelo's proud Sunday gave him points in 11 of his last 16 games (five goals and 12 assists). He has 10 goals and 19 assists overall and ranks third on the team's scoring list, with 29 points.

On a capable young Blues defensive corps, Shattenkirk is a veritable "Robin" to Pietrangelo's "Batman." The Greenwich, Conn., native generally is regarded as the more instinctive offensive player, and he led NHL rookie defensemen in scoring last season — nine goals and 43 points in 72 games.

But Shattenkirk has gone 15 games without a goal, 11 games without a point. His vision and puck-moving skills still are dynamic, whether they show up on the score sheet or not. He is a plus-5 over the aforementioned 15 games and his plus-20 rating for the season is higher than Pietrangelo's (plus-17), the highest among active players on the roster.

Still, it doesn't sit well with Shattenkirk, not one bit. He prides himself on creating offense and delivering points.

"For me it's very frustrating," Shattenkirk, 23, said. "That's my job, that's what I contribute to the team, what I bring to the table. And it's definitely fallen on my shoulders. I haven't been producing like I did at the beginning of the year.

"I've let if affect my total game, which I need to get a hold of. I think once it doesn't start working for you, you start forcing it a little bit, making some aggressive reads that you normally wouldn't. I think as a young player that's something I need to work on — nipping these things in the bud before they turn into longer slumps."

The Post-Dispatch believes Shattenkirk has been much better defensively than advertised. Although relatively small at 5-feet-11, he is deceptively thick at 208 pounds. He holds his own physically and uses his puck-maneuvering skills to escape problems.

In 80 games since coming to St. Louis, he is a plus-27. The plus-minus statistic is an ambiguous measurement at best. But such lopsided numbers clearly paint Shattenkirk as a more reliable guardian than the advance copy indicated.

Blues coach Ken Hitchcock analyzes Shattenkirk the way a baseball hitting instructor might preach about a slumping slugger, i.e. if he focuses on getting good pitches to hit, concentrates on making solid contact, the home runs will take care of themselves. Fundamentals carry a universal message in sports.

Asked if he would like more offense out of No. 22, Hitchcock changes the context of the conversation.

"No," Hitchcock said. "I'd like to see a little more simplification. I think 'Shatty' is forcing it a little too much. I think he's trying to hit the home run and we'd like to see him get back to hitting singles.

"It's like any other young guy that's got great offensive instincts. When it's not going well, you start forcing it, trying to swing for the fences. We've talked to him a couple of times about that and I think he's starting to realize that you're not going to get it all back in one shift."

Shattenkirk doesn't need to have a spectacular night like the one Pietrangelo had Sunday. He would be better served to search for his offensive mojo one good shift at a time.

"It's all about building good minutes," Hitchcock added. "And if you build good minutes, the offense takes care of itself. When you force the issue defensively, you push too much in the offensive zone, you end up chasing it back to your own net and getting yourself in all sorts of trouble.

"So we're looking for little easier plays out of the zone, not trying to hit the long bombs. Just finding it and kind of, at the end of the day, building good minutes and letting the offense flow from there."

The Buffalo News points out that less than a month ago, there were serious questions about Patrick Kaleta's career. He's working hard to answer them.

For a couple of games, it seemed like the Buffalo winger would sneeze on an opposing player and get a penalty. Coach Lindy Ruff even called him a marked man and said the Angola native basically can't hit anybody anymore.

Maybe that was hyperbole but Ruff was making a point. Kaleta could no longer get away with running a player while coming from as far as his hometown of Angola and then trying to send him through the boards in downtown Buffalo on the way to Niagara Falls.

Kaleta has had to make subtle adjustments in his game and Ruff has noticed. As he gets ready for tonight's matchup with the New Jersey Devils in First Niagara Center, Kaleta is coming off back-to-back games where he has played more than 17 minutes for the first time in his career. He can still hit. He just has to do it in a more controlled, reserved manner.

"A lot of people have said I'm just a mutt, a fourth-liner, and I'm just going to run around and hit," a smiling Kaleta said after practice Monday. "I take that personally and I take that as a challenge. I love challenges and having people say that about me. It motivates me to do even more and be even better."

He added, "I've been non-stop working on my game since the beginning of the year knowing I had to change it. Using my speed. And when I'm able to hit, I can use that to my advantage, too. But I'm just staying patient and going out and playing hockey."

"He's definitely altered his game," Ruff said. "He realizes that he's a marked man and he doesn't get any slack one way or the other. He's skated well and stayed away from some of those situations and hasn't put himself where the referee has an opportunity to make an easy call."

Email: chris.nichols@sportsnet.rogers.com

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