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The Denver Post reports that former Avalanche winger Steve Moore, whose lawsuit against Todd Bertuzzi and the Vancouver Canucks' ownership is pending in Ontario nearly eight years after Bertuzzi's infamous attack in a game in Vancouver, has won a separate court victory.

In a ruling handed down Wednesday, Ontario Superior Court Master Ronald Dash ordered the release of agreements tied to the recent settling of separate suits tied to the case. Those suits were Bertuzzi against former Canucks coach Marc Crawford; and the Canucks' ownership (Orca Bay Hockey Ltd.) against Bertuzzi.

Those details are to be provided to Moore's attorney, Timothy Danson, by Feb. 23.

Bertuzzi's "third-party" suit effectively added Crawford as a defendant, while Orca Bay's suit against Bertuzzi was a claim that the player had acted on his own in attacking Moore on March 8, 2004.

Last month, Danson argued the agreements leading to the end of those other two suits should be released to serve the public interest.

"This agreement ... is the hockey code in action," Danson said in court. "It's making sure that those on that side are making a united front against Mr. Moore.'

Dash ruled that the signed agreement setting forth the terms of the settlement of the other suits amounts to a "proportional sharing agreement" provisionally dividing up liability, if Moore wins his suit or there is a settlement. In his ruling, Dash wrote: "The operative part of the agreement provides for a specified percentage apportionment and payment by Bertuzzi, by Orca Bay and by Crawford of any monetary reward regardless of any apportionment of liability made in the action."

In the written decision, Dash called it "a secret agreement among some but not all parties that ends adversity among the settling parties."

Danson Thursday declined comment on the ruling.

After years of legal wrangling, Moore's $38 million lawsuit is scheduled to begin on Sept. 22.

Moore, then 25, suffered three broken neck vertebra and a concussion, and the Harvard graduate never played another game in the NHL. Bertuzzi was suspended for the remainder of the 2003-04 season and the Canucks' seven-game playoff series, missing a total of 20 games. The NHL didn't play the next season because of a lockout, and he was reinstated before the 2005-06 season after the labor settlement. Now 37, he is in the third season of his second stint with the Detroit Red Wings.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune describes how Mike Yeo is laying down the gauntlet with disgruntled defenseman Marek Zidlicky.

The Wild coach scratched Zidlicky on Thursday vs. Winnipeg, a day after Zidlicky's agent said his client would waive his no-trade clause to go to New Jersey.

Often times in situations like this, a player who is close to being traded is scratched in order to protect him from injury. Tampa Bay is currently doing that with Pavel Kubina; Carolina probably wishes it had done that with now-injured Tuomo Ruutu.

That doesn't appear to be the motivation with Zidlicky. This was Yeo's decision, not management's, although GM Chuck Fletcher supported it.

Yeo believes Zidlicky is not "all in" right now. Focus-wise, Yeo said, "I'm making an assumption that his head would not be in the right place to play this game."

Fletcher has been talking to other teams about Zidlicky, who requested a trade Jan. 31. But Fletcher has yet to ask Zidlicky to formally waive his no-trade for any destination.

"I don't know what's going on, and that's speaking honestly," Yeo said. "I don't know what's going to happen."

If the Wild doesn't trade Zidlicky quickly or at all, Yeo was asked if he plans on playing Zidlicky again.

"He would have to prove, just like every one of our players, that he's all in to what we want to do, and if you do that, and if you go out and show that night in and night, then absolutely," Yeo said. "Anybody who's here, we will treat them as part of the team. We will use every resource we will to be at our best every night."

Zidlicky was unavailable for comment, according to Wild media relations.

The Washington Post says that with 10 days to go before the NHL’s trade deadline, there have yet to be many major deals and Capitals General Manager George McPhee said it appears as though many teams may remain quiet until Feb. 27 draws much closer.

The Capitals are at an interesting place this season at the deadline. They’re fighting to work their way back into the Eastern Conference playoff picture and have had two key players sidelined by injuries.

Mike Green is expected to return from sports hernia surgery soon, possibly this weekend, and much depends upon how he fares upon being placed in game action once again. The murkier portion of the equation is the health of Nicklas Backstrom, who remains sidelined by a concussion and hasn’t skated for more than five minutes since Jan. 6.

“It’s hard when you don’t know what you’re going to have,” McPhee told reporters on Thursday. “Obviously Nicky’s a terrific player and we’ll certainly welcome him back but we don’t know when that’s going to be. We’ll get as close to the deadline as we can to figure out what we might be going with and make decisions accordingly.”

Whenever Green is activated off the long term injury list, it will decrease the amount of room the Capitals have to spend under the salary cap at the deadline. According to Capgeek,com, Washington’s room to add at the deadline will be roughly $1 million once Green returns.

The Post notes that’s not a large cushion of space. Asked if he would consider placing Backstrom on long term injured reserve in order to increase the amount the Capitals could add at the deadline, McPhee said it’s not the ideal path for the team to take. If the team would place Backstrom on the list, exceed the salary cap and then Backstrom were able to return before the postseason they wouldn’t be able to activate him.

“It’s an option certainly but Nicky’s not the kind of guy you want to LTI and then three weeks later he’s ready to go and you can’t use him,” McPhee said. “We’ll just see when, 10 days from now, if there’s a way to help the club we will if there isn’t a deal that makes sense then we won’t do it. You do have to put a team on the ice again in September. We have certainly lots of young talent that everybody would like to have, but we’d like to have them in our lineup too.”

All those elements considered, McPhee said the Capitals’ aren’t solely limited to exchanging salary for salary adding that there are “always ways to do things”. When questioned directly about Alexander Semin, and if he would consider trading the Russian winger, McPhee responded in a more broad fashion reiterating that he isn’t set on moving players out of Washington.

“We’re not interested in moving anybody,” McPhee said. “We have a solid team when we get healthy and we’ll see how healthy we are 10 days from now and what we can expect from Mike and Nick. Then we’ll make decisions based on that but we’re not that interested in moving people out.”

As soon as Danny Briere learned Ville Leino was headed to Buffalo, The Buffalo News says the former Sabres captain foresaw huge things. Briere, a linemate of Leino for two seasons in Philadelphia, figured Leino's offensive skills would mesh well with the Sabres' system and talent.

Briere is shocked there's been so little production.

"I'm very, very surprised with that, especially with the amount of offensive guys they have on that team," Briere said Thursday before the Sabres' 7-2 loss to the Flyers in Wells Fargo Center. "I thought it would have clicked with a few of their players at least. I always felt that myself and Ville were kind of on the same page as far as the way we saw the game offensively when we were on the ice. I know when I was in Buffalo I had some great years as well playing with [Jason] Pominville and Jochen Hecht, so I thought for sure at least those two guys would click well with him.

"But chemistry is a funny thing," said Briere, who played just one period before leaving with an upper-body injury. "You just never know, and you never know from year to year just how things are going to come back. It's one of those things you can't take for granted."

Leino entered Thursday's game with just four goals and 15 points in 45 games. He got blanked in his first game back in Philly.

He was excited to be back.

"It's always a good crowd in here. It's got this special vibe," Leino said. "It gives you a lot of energy. It's easy every night to come to play here. It's easy to get excited and ready to play because you're always in a loud building and fans will always be hard on both teams, so you kind of have to be [ready], even if you're the home team. It's just a special crowd out here, and it's definitely a fun place to play."

Leino admits the big payday (six years, $27M signed last summer) added pressure, but he wouldn't pin his scoring troubles on the contract.

"There's always more pressure if you've got a good contract and people are looking at you to contribute," he said. "It's always more pressure and a little harder, but I don't think that would be the reason. It's just been hard to get things going team-wise.

"I think I finally feel a lot more comfortable in the system and playing my own game. The last five, six games, I've been feeling good and been playing my own game pretty much the first time this year. I'm pretty excited every time I go on the ice now and looking forward to the games."

One of the NHL's premier events could be headed to the United Center soon, according to The Chicago Tribune.

Commissioner Gary Bettman said Thursday the Blackhawks are being considered to host an NHL All-Star Game. Chicago hasn't hosted the event since 1991 and Bettman said from the NHL offices in New York that Hawks President John McDonough has been in contact about bringing the showcase to the United Center.

"Chicago has been pushing us," Bettman said. "John McDonough, as he pushed us very hard on the Winter Classic (in 2009) — and we're glad he did — (has) expressed interest certainly in another All-Star Game. Generally we don't go all that far out but they're on the radar screen. We're not ready to fix dates. The good news is, we have a ton of interest for our events. That makes for good problems in trying to decide where, but Chicago has expressed an interest."

The 2012 game was in Ottawa and the 2013 event is scheduled for Columbus.

Meanwhile, Bettman said talks between the league and the players' association regarding a new Collective Bargaining Agreement have not begun and there is no timetable for discussions to start. The current CBA is to expire Sept. 15.

"When the players' association is ready, we'll begin," Bettman said. "We have plenty of time."

Funny scene this morning, as detailed by Blue Jackets defenseman John Moore for The Columbus Dispatch:

"We were having breakfast (in the player's lounge area), all the guys, this morning," Moore said. "(GM Scott Howson) came rifling in and, in front of all the guys, said, 'Hey, John, do you have a second?' Everybody around me kind of gave me that look, and my heart started racing.

"He asked me if I'd talk to (Al Iafrate) about shooting later in the week. I came back in (to the room), and they were all like, 'Uhhh, what are you doing?' I said, 'He was just asking me about Iafrate," and (Jeff Carter) was like, 'Man, he's gotta chill out with that, two weeks from the deadline."

The New York Post observes that when the Blackhawks put their third goal in the first four minutes past Rangers backup goalie Martin Biron last night, the chants for Henrik Lundqvist came raining down from the Madison Square Garden fans.

But coach John Tortorella stuck with Biron, even after he gave up a fourth goal 9:38 into the game and the Rangers were down 4-0.

Asked after the game if he ever thought about pulling Biron, the coach said, “Not for a second.”

“Because he didn’t need to be pulled, he needed to work through it and he did,” Tortorella said after the 4-2 loss that snapped their four-game winning streak. “That’s what I love about him. I thought he [worked through it], made some really good saves. There wasn’t a second I thought about taking him out.”

Biron was making his 15th start of the season, and so far has been an outstanding understudy, going 10-2-1 with a 2.02 goals-against average. But after the Blackhawks’ Jonathan Toews scored on a penalty shot 1:05 in, it seemed to be one of those nights.

Toews’ goal was followed just over a minute later by a blue line slapshot from Nick Leddy that went in off a post, then two breakaway goals from Patrick Sharp and Marian Hossa to make it 4-0.

“You don’t get that many opportunities to give up four goals in the first period and finish the game,” Biron said. “You give yourself a chance to do something good out of a miserable start. I was given that opportunity, so I was trying to make the best out of it.”

Biron has made the best out of the past two seasons since he signed as a free agent in the summer of 2010. He said that he has learned a lot from Lundqvist.

“I hope he’s learned one-tenth of what I’ve learned the other way,” the 34-year-old said.

Tortorella said, “He’s done a ton for this hockey club,” Tortorella said. “Don’t’ blame Marty for this game. We had a couple [of] breakaways and a few other things go on there. Do you want saves? Yeah, but it didn’t happen. I really respect how he hung in there, took a little s--- throughout the game but battled back and I trust and respect how he handled himself.”

Email: chris.nichols@sportsnet.rogers.com

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