Bourque relates to Iginla's plight

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The Calgary Sun writes that if anyone in the hockey world knows a thing or two about the decision Jarome Iginla will soon be facing, it’s Ray Bourque.

Having played his entire career with the club he was sure he’d retire with, Bourque asked for a trade out of Boston 11 years ago to pursue his first Stanley Cup elsewhere. What followed was a Colorado Avalanche Cup hoisting few hockey fans will ever forget.

While there is a growing faction of fans in Calgary who believe Iginla will soon have to make a similar move if he’s ever going to challenge for the Stanley Cup, the Flames captain insists he’s happy and committed to winning here.

Funny, as Bourque said he once felt the same way in a scenario that was strikingly similar to Iginla’s.

“It was very hard to leave because I always said that I would never leave Boston,” said Bourque, 50, in Calgary to be inducted Tuesday into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.

“The reason I left was because it wasn’t a healthy situation at all. It was time. In some ways, I don’t think it was a fair situation to be in after all those years. I was 38 years old, and I was affected mentally by the situation, and I needed to get into a better situation if I was going to continue playing. I wanted to get back into the playoffs and compete for a Cup, but that wasn’t going to happen in Boston and hadn’t happened for quite awhile.”

In Bourque’s case, the Bruins had won just one playoff series in his previous five seasons and were heading towards another post-season miss. The Flames have escaped the first round just once since 1989 and have missed the playoffs two straight years.

“I can’t speak for anybody else, but when you’re in a situation and you know it’s time or it’s the right thing to do you do it,” said Bourque, who lives just north of Boston.

“It’s different for everybody.”

The Sun wonders: Would the Hall of Famer have regretted saying goodbye to Boston had he not won in Colorado the following year?

“Before I left, they talked about how I was a great player and had done this and done that and they’d say, ‘But you’ve never won a Cup,’” recalled Bourque.

“I’d be foolin’ if I told you that ‘but’ never burned my butt. It’s good that they can’t say that anymore because there’s so much that goes into it and so many things have to go right. To put that on anybody that hasn’t won a Cup is so tough.”

That’s the scenario the 34-year-old Iginla is staring down. With no Cups in 17 years in Calgary, he’ll soon have to ask himself if the organization will give him a legit title shot in the next handful of years.

“I’m not saying anybody should do anything — if he’s happy here and feels right about the situation, that’s great,” said Bourque of Iginla, who would obviously be worried a trade demand would tarnish the iconic name he’s earned here.

“For me, I always thought I was (happy) and I’d never leave. But you know, I left something pretty special and never thought I’d do it. For me, it was always about treating people the way I wanted to be treated — doing it the right way and working hard and being a good teammate and respecting the game and respecting everything around it.

If you do things the right way, how can things go wrong? I think it was shown when I came back to Boston people appreciated how things were done.”

Whether Sidney Crosby plays Friday or not, he's seemingly on the verge of resuming his spectacular NHL career.

Thursday at 12pm et/ 9am pt, you can join me for a live chat here on Sportsnet.ca, where we'll go over the fantasy implications of his return. What can poolies expect production-wise and how concerned should we be about another concussion? What might the lines look like? If you need to drop someone from your roster to clear space, who should it be?

Whatever the angle, we can discuss it.

The Tampa Tribune details how the sizzling stick of Steven Stamkos is once again searing hot.

With four goals in his past two games and seven in his past six, Stamkos is back into familiar territory – among the leaders of the goal scoring category.

Since going without a goal in the opening three games of the season, Stamkos has 10, which puts him one behind Phil Kessel and tied with Thomas Vanek after last night's action.

"It's fun,'' said Stamkos jokingly, when asked about his recent streak. "But it's nice to be rewarded for the hard work. A lot of the time you are working hard and not getting the bounces. But when you are, this is where you can't let yourself cheat just because things have been going your way. If you keep working hard you are going to keep getting those bounces.

"It's nice to contribute, especially in wins, and that's what I want to do, keep contributing but realize that I'm getting those opportunities and bounces because I am working hard at both ends of the ice. And you live and learn from past experiences.''

The article notes that one of those learning opportunities came at the end of last season. Stamkos was primed to become the first player in franchise history to record back-to-back 50-goal seasons when he reached the 40-goal mark on Feb. 6. A year after tying for the league lead, scoring 52 goals to match Sidney Crosby, it appeared Stamkos was a shoo-in to capture consecutive Rocket Richard Trophies.

But Stamkos ended the season with only five goals in the final 28 games as Anaheim's Corey Perry was the league's only 50-goal scorer.

Instead of hiding in a shell, Stamkos handled all the questions about his scoring slump, didn't let his lack of offense deteriorate his defensive game and grew from the experience.

"When you go through stuff like that, sometimes you forget how hard you have to work to get yourself open or get to the front of the net to get the bounces,'' he said. "I've learned the lesson the hard way going through that last year, realizing now you have to work extremely hard to score in this league, it's not easy.

"You can't dwell on it, it's over and it's in the past so you do learn from those situations, and that's what I did. It's about finding different ways to score, and it's not always fun but it's fun when the puck goes in the net.''

The Tribune points out that Stamkos has been finding those other ways to score. Of his 10 goals, only one has come from his trademark one-timer from the left circle. Whether it's tip-ins from the crease, redirections from the slot, or rebounds around the net, Stamkos has evolved his game. That makes him more dangerous offensively.

"If you look at the beginning of the year, the goals were not going in that much,'' Lightning head coach Guy Boucher said of Stamkos. "Then without me even saying anything, he started going to the net even more and it's funny, he's scoring more. So I think that last year during that (scoring drought), he wasn't going to the net as much or was looking for open space to get off his shot. …

"He's really learned from last year and it's a credit to him, his game has grown up, that's for sure.''

The Boston Herald believes that if you said that the Bruins top line looked great in Monday’s win over the New York Islanders, you’d be correct. What would not be clear is just which line you were talking about.

As of now, the B’s boast two lines that are playing like top units.

The Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Tyler Seguin trio, now together for five games, could have some staying power. It only produced one goal in the 6-2 win over the Islanders — Seguin’s — but left at least two or three more out on the ice. From the drop of the puck, you could sense the 17,565 at the Garden sliding to the edge of their seats every time the trio stepped on to the ice.

Marchand and Bergeron have been together since the middle of last season, and the unit still sees the opposition’s top lines. Now Seguin, showing he can play in that role as well, gives the line, and the team, a dynamic element it hadn’t quite had.

“Right now, I think there’s a good balance on that line. There’s skill, there’s speed, there’s great two-way players and a line that takes pride in that,” said coach Claude Julien. “All three of them are hard-working guys, so it’s almost a no-miss kind of combination because of what all three of them bring.”

With four goals in his last two games, Seguin is up to eight for the season, which puts him on a pace to become the team’s first 50-goal scorer since club president Cam Neely did it in 49 games in 1993-94.

Seguin feels there still are some kinks to work out with his linemates.

“I think if we’re not on the same page, we’re getting pretty close,” he said. “Marchy and Bergy have great chemistry right from last year, and I’m just trying to find my way in there, trying to figure out their style of game. It’s one thing watching on film, on the bench or from up in the stands, but it’s another thing being out there. So I’m still trying to find my groove at that.”

Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury concedes to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that it is about time he won 40 regular-season games again for the Penguins.

"It was so early when it happened that I thought, 'Oh, I can do this again soon, yeah,' " Fleury said of the 2006-07 campaign, his first as the clear go-to goalie, that ended with 40 victories.

"It's been a little while now, and we've had great teams. So that's the goal."

In the past 65 regular-season games, Fleury has allowed two or fewer goals in 43 contests.

Three weeks removed from his 27th birthday and looking quite the bargain with an average salary-cap hit of $5 million, Fleury touched on a variety of topics in an interview with the Tribune-Review:

Q: Is there a connection between you playing so well in a Game 7 home loss this past postseason and the career-best start to this season?

A: The year before, after losing to Montreal (in the 2010 Eastern Conference semifinals), I was home for the summer and thinking about all those goals -- just, "what happened?" I just wasn't happy. Last summer, I felt after the loss to Tampa Bay, like, "You tried your best, gave it all you had, and it didn't go your way." When you think like that, you can put a hard loss behind you pretty quick, and (this) summer I did. Maybe that's the difference.

Q: Technically, what are you doing better?

A: Maybe there's a little less movement in my game. I'm a little more compact, not sliding everywhere. I'm in the blue (paint) more, and that gives me a chance for rebounds. Some nights, you're not feeling good and you're not into it, but if you're better technically you end up just getting hit by the puck instead of trying to reach for the big saves. That's pretty much it, really.

Q: It sounds like you now think of yourself more of a goalie than just a great athlete playing the position?

A: I was always taught to be technical, but when I was young and playing outside my house, it was more fun diving around, going for a big glove save, going for a two-pad-stack save. That carried over, maybe, early in my career. Over time, you play a lot of games, realize you need to save energy because it's a long season if you want to win the Stanley Cup, and maybe say, "Let's not try for a poke check and let them come at you." (Laughs) Does that mean I'm thinking more?

Q: What individual statistics do you think about?

A: Forty wins. It's not just a number. Not a lot of guys get it every year, and if you do, it that means your team is having a good season, getting points and making the playoffs. That's all that matters is getting a chance to play for the Cup, and if I get 40 wins, that means I've given us that chance.

Q: Not all goalies are leaders, but in an informal poll of teammates about the leadership structure on this team, your name is one of the first mentioned. How has that happened?

A: I'm not the biggest talker, but I've been around for a while and can talk about some things to the guys. Me and (defenseman) Brooks (Orpik) have been here longest. We've seen it all, seen a lot of guys come through. Sometimes, we talk about that with other guys, how it hasn't always been this good. Maybe we appreciate it more, take more ownership because we know how it was when we started. We're good every year now. People want to play in Pittsburgh. Brooks and I are, like, the old guys reminding everybody that it took a lot of hard work to make it like this.

Q: Go back to this past November. On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the 2009 playoffs as the standard for excellence, what number do you assign to your play over the last calendar year?

A: I didn't win (the Cup), so it doesn't matter.

The start was the worst-case scenario Tuesday night for Ryan Miller, according to The Buffalo News.

Two goals by the Winnipeg Jets on the first four shots in less than six minutes. Another 2-0 deficit and more jeers from the First Niagara Center crowd. This time, however, there was no early hook for Miller like he endured last Wednesday against Philadelphia. He recovered to limit the Jets to one goal in the final 44 minutes, finishing with 26 saves as the Sabres rallied for a 6-5 overtime victory.

"It was nice to make it to the second period this time," Miller deadpanned. "To be honest, after those first two, it was like 'Yeah, OK, we're gonna do this again, huh?' I just tried to slowly keep myself in the game."

It was Miller's first start since the three goals in seven minutes against the Flyers. He had not sat out back-to-back games when healthy since 2007.

"We all know that Ryan needs to be better," admitted coach Lindy Ruff. "He was fighting it, there's no doubt. You don't know what to expect after last game and he might fight it for a while but I like the fight the team put up. That's even more important than the fight Ryan was putting up."

Miller's season totals now read 5-5, a 2.74 goals-against average and .913 save percentage. But his last five games are downright ugly: 1-4, 4.10, .865.

"For all the seasons I've played, there's going to be stretches and I have to remind myself things aren't going to be perfect all the time and not going to go my way all the time," he said. "I have to battle through it.

"Things happen around you and you're not going to be on the puck every time and tonight was an example. Just a few things going wrong, a couple good bounces [for the Jets] and you're staring at letting in five goals again."

It was the 226th win of Miller's career, just eight shy of Dominik Hasek's franchise record. But it was only the seventh time Miller has won when giving up five or more.

Miller's teammates gave him plenty of pats of encouragement after Thomas Vanek's overtime winner.

"They know it's not an easy situation for me," Miller said. "I've had a lot of games here in a tight stretch where things didn't go my way. And I didn't play the best I could play. I want to be doing that. I want to help. I want to get victories."

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch says if the Blackhawks are in town, it must be time to debut a Blues coach.

For the third time in six years, the Blues introduced a new coach to their fervent fan base on a night they played host to a traditional rival, Chicago. Both of the team's previous mentors, Andy Murray and Davis Payne, lost their inaugurals to the Blackhawks. Third time was a charm for Ken Hitchcock.

With a packed house on hand, Hitchcock opened the St. Louis chapter of his distinguished coaching career with a convincing 3-0 victory over the Blackhawks at Scottrade Center. The win gives Hitchcock a clean canvas moving forward, as the Blues squared their record at 7-7 on the season. The Hawks slumped to 8-4-3 with their third consecutive loss.

The atmosphere was special for Hitchcock. "It was a playoff game," he said. "That's what it felt like. I think both teams went at each about as hard as you can go. Chicago is a heck of a hockey club, obviously, and they played with a lot of passion right to the end, and we did the same. ... I think far and away the weakest player was me."

Hitchcock has mentioned several times in these initial hours that he has to get a more consistent effort from the Blues.

"It's an overall belief that we have to trust our work here collectively," Hitchcock said. "We have to trust our work ethic, not just our skill level. It's very difficult to ‘skill' your way back into games; you have to work your way back into games.

"We show flashes of unbelievable play and then come off it when things aren't going good. Then we come out and just start trading chances. I don't think you can win long term playing like that."

The Chicago Tribune describes how it was an emotional night for members of both the Blackhawks and Blues organizations as there was a pregame ceremonial honoring the memories of Pavol Demitra and Igor Korolev at Scottrade Center before Tuesday night's game.

The two were among players who perished in early September when the plane carrying the Kontinental Hockey League team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl crashed in Russia.

Hawks Marian Hossa and Jamal Mayers were former teammates of Demitra and head coach Joel Quenneville and assistant Mike Kitchen coached him while with the Blues.

"(Demitra) was my close friend," said Hossa, who has the No. 38 affixed to his skates to honor his former neighbor in Slovakia. "He will always be with me. It's a great thing what they're doing honoring the former players. Those guys deserve it."

Added Mayers: "It's still surreal to think what happened. I was a teammate of Pavol's and a friend of his for a long time. It's hard to believe that he's gone."

Quenneville said of Demitra: "Some guys stick out in your mind that you were fortunate to coach. He was a special guy."

The Columbus Dispatch reports the Blue Jackets have acquired center Mark Letestu from Pittsburgh for a fourth-round draft pick. Letestu, 26, will drive to Columbus in the morning and join the Blue Jackets for practice provided he passes a physical.

"We like the player," Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson said. "It does not fill an immediate need on the roster, but you can never have too many centers. We think he's a top-9 talent. And we think he can help us win games."

The Jackets have a plethora of centers: Jeff Carter, Derick Brassard, Antoine Vermette, Sammy Pahlsson, Derek MacKenzie and rookie Ryan Johansen, though Carter is currently injured and Johansen is playing on the wing.

Howson said this is not a precursor to another trade. "This is not part of something else," Howson said.

Letestu is a product of Elk Point, Alberta. The 5-11, 195 pounder was not drafted but signed by the Penguins after a breakout college season with Western Michigan in 2006-07.

In 11 games with the Penguins this season, Letestu had no goals, 1 assist and a minus-6 rating. Letestu averaged 12 minutes, 50 seconds for the Penguins this season, playing mostly on the fourth line. The Penguins are getting healthy and looking to recast their fourth line as more physical and less skilled.

"He had a terrific year last season (14-13-27)," Howson said. "He played mostly center and some wing, but he saw power play time, too. He's a versatile player."

ESPN Dallas notes that Stars forward Adam Burish was on the Ben and Skin Show on ESPN 103.3 FM this morning and was asked if he was surprised by the Stars’ strong start to the season, which has them with the best record in the NHL at 11-3-0. Here's what Burish had to say:

“To be honest with you, going into the season, you can’t help but see what people are saying about your team, predicting about your team and everybody is picking you to finish last, to be a disappointing season, have no chance and write you off early. After last night’s game a bunch of us went to dinner and everybody said, ‘I’ve been telling people since training camp that if you look at our lineup and look our roster, we’re a good team.’ I think everybody, except the guys in our locker room, wrote us off. But you know what; we’ve got a pretty good darn team here.

“If you think back to last year, for 50 games into the season, until we had a bunch of guys get hurt, we were right up at the top of the league last year, too. Then we had a bunch of injuries that kind of set us back. This year we added a lot of new pieces. Sure, we lost our star player in Brad Richards, but we added a lot of pieces that are important to winning. Maybe not that prolific 40-goal scorer, but guys that do little things that go into winning. Right now we are clicking and we are a confident group of guys. We’re having a lot of fun right now.”

The Arizona Republic points out that prior to Dave Tippett's arrival three seasons ago, the conventional wisdom went something like this: "The Coyotes can't make the playoffs because they do not have an elite center."

It didn't take long for Tippett's structured style of play, which revolves around accountability on both sides of the puck, to take hold and upend that theory.

The Coyotes' center position has evolved into one in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, a factor that has allowed the Coyotes to play well recently without the injured Martin Hanzal, who could return to the lineup Thursday against Montreal.

Tippett admits the center position was a concern in the off-season but since has been solidified with new players who quickly adapted to the system.

"Now (Boyd) Gordon has come in and played very well for us," Tippett said. "Hanzal, we knew was a good player. Getting (Daymond) Langkow, a solid veteran, that really has added to our lineup."

Langkow played only the final four games last season with Calgary following a neck injury. Tippett said his game continues to show improvement.

"In talking to him, he thinks he's going to get better and better," Tippett said. "When you miss a whole year, that's a long time to be away from the game, and he's a player that plays a real smart game.

"He obviously fits in well with (forward Shane Doan), gives us some real stability at center ice, so he touches a lot of parts of the game, similar to Hanzal. He's both sides of special teams, good faceoff guy, just a real good pro."

The Coyotes also picked up Cal O'Reilly in a trade with the Predators and recalled Kyle Chipchura, and both have contributed, as has Patrick O'Sullivan, who also plays on the wing.

"We don't have a guy that's kind of an anointed superstar, but we have some very good players, very solid players," Tippett said. "That's the kind of team we are."

Gordon said all the centers have to do a good job supporting the defensemen, one of the elements of the team's style.

Dr. Doom in Latveria: "Hey Chris, Single year 10 team pool. we count G, A, PIM, PPP, SOG, FW, Hits

My current roster, sitting in second place; C; Stamkos, M. Richards, Krejci, Jordan Staal (c/lw) Seguin (c/rw) LW; Vanek, JVR, Sharp (c/lw/rw) RW; C. Giroux (c/rw), Pavelski (c/rw) Horton, Oshie (c/rw) D; Chara, Suter, Ehrhoff, M-A Bergeron, Kronwall G; Fleury, Niemi, Neuvirth, IR; Reimer

As you can see, I tried to draft a lot of wingers with C eligibility to try and help my FW stats. However, outside of Richards and Giroux I'm not doing too well in that category. Any advice on the FA's listed below would be awesome, thanks.

Notable FA's; Ray Whitney, Chris Neil, Pacioretty, Gerbe, Hejduk, Malone, Jokinen, Purcell, J-M Liles, Timonen, Gonchar

Thanks again for all your advice, keep up the great work on the nightly blogs."

Chris: The good thing about having so many guys with dual-eligibility is that not only can that give you more options on a nightly basis, but it also allows you some pretty good trade options if you need to upgrade somewhere else.

In terms of what to do now, I'd get rid of Kronwall to add more points into the line-up with either Liles or Gonchar. Kronwall has a few more hits, but the points are more likely with the others and I'd rather see you go that way.

Otherwise, I think you can be more or less patient for now. You have a few guys who need to step it up, but overall it's a strong team.

Steve in NYC: "Chris, I drafted Eric Staal with high hopes, but he is extremely disappointing only 5 points and a -16. My league does not count SOG as a category, but I know he is 4th overall in the NHL with SOG. So is it a matter of time for him to produce, or should I move him. Things are so bad for him that someone just offered me Purcell for him. That team also has: Getzlaf, Plekanec, Booth, Franzen, Gaborik, Hornqvist, Horton, Mihalek, JVR, Jordan Staal, Nash My forwards are: Eric Staal, Hossa, Eberle, Ovechkin, Crosby, Lucic, Hossa, Selanne, Stewart (also underproducing), Justin Williams, Alfreddson, Clarkson and Ott. Would you make the deal or counter or give Staal a few more weeks. Thanks."

Chris: I would not make the deal and there's little point in dealing Staal right now with his value diminished. Part of his fantasy worth is definitely tied to his large SOG total, which is useless for you. I'd give him more time though. He has a proven track record and chances are he'll turn it around. Selling him off now for less than his draft value just wouldn't be doing your team any favors in the long run.

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