Chris Nichols

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

Wondering why Columbus winger Jared Boll only has five fighting majors this season, which ranks 13th in the league? Coach's orders. Boll still has 44 PIM, including 34 in eight November tilts, but you may not see him fight as often as you'd like for your standard league fantasy team. He had 180 PIM last season, which was good for fifth place overall. In '07-8 he racked up 226 PIM, which was the second-best in the NHL.

The Dispatch notes that in a 3-2 win Monday, Boll turned down two invitations from the Edmonton Oilers' Zack Stortini to fight. It was exactly what the Columbus coaching staff wanted to happen.

The CPD reports that Boll was told to focus on harassing a particular Oilers player and to do so he needed to be on the ice, not in the penalty box. That Boll swallowed his pride, fought his urge and kept his gloves on was seen as a positive.

"(Jared) has the ability to get the attention of players further up the food chain," coach Ken Hitchcock said. "He can affect players on the other team who actually impact the game.

"We didn't need the energy changed at that time. He's getting smarter about it. We gave him a guidance to get another person's attention on that team, and he did a very good job of it."

Boll says he's got to do more than chip in with his fists to help his team.

"I don't want to be fighting every single night," Boll said. "Nowadays you need to be able to do more than fight, you have to contribute.

"I still love to fight, don't get me wrong."

Fourth line centre Zenon Konopka with Tampa Bay leads the league with 76 PIM, while Ottawa's Chris Neil (72) and Vancouver defenceman Kevin Bieksa (61) round out the top three so far. Boll is currently tied for 15th with Steve Downie and Brandon Prust.

Two-time defending penalty minute champion Daniel Carcillo has been too busy with his checking line role in Philly to fight like he has in past years and he's in a nine-way tie for 65th place with only 27 PIM. He had tallied 578 PIM in two seasons coming into this '09-10 campaign.

EXTENDED QUOTABLE
In today's Minneapolis Star Tribune there's a light-hearted piece on rugged winger Cal Clutterbuck and his former OHL linemate John Tavares, who will face off against each other tonight when the Wild entertain the Isles.

For fun, the Wild's king of smack is planning to hurl a bunch of one-liners at the direction of prized rookie John Tavares.

"Just to get him thinking, I'll be in his ear," Clutterbuck said, laughing. "I know too many things about him, so it'll be easy. Some of them I probably won't even use because I'd probably break his heart if I did. I'll make sure to tell him I still run his show.

"I'm excited to know what it's like to play against him."

BLAKE GETTING CLOSE
Rob Blake only has six points this season and he's currently sidelined with an injury or two, but he was just starting to produce before going down and had assists in three straight games with 11 SOG in that span.

Blake told The San Jose Mercury News that he's hoping to be back for the Canada trip that begins on U.S. Thanksgiving. "It was nice to be back out there. I'm close."

Blake was asked about his injury, saying it's described as "upper body," "arm" and "shoulder."

"Those are three pretty good descriptions," Blake said. "I would say that it's below the head, above the chest and on one side or the other. I think that's as much as I'm allowed to say."

GONCHAR BACK
Sergei Gonchar missed 12 games with a broken wrist, but return to action last night against the Senators. He played 25:30 in the 6-2 loss, including a team-leading 8:36 on the PP.

Anyway, the thing poolies are always wondering is how quickly can a player return from injury and make an impact? Get back to pre-injury form?

"It's hard to predict," he told The Post-Gazette. "I missed a month and it's going to take me a while to get going, I'm sure. But it's one of those things where there is no recipe. You just have to go out there and play."

Gonchar said he did not anticipate taking any steps to protect his damaged wrist - "With that kind of injury, you can't really put tape inside of my wrist on the bone" - and was adamant that he did not return to the lineup prematurely because of all the injuries the Penguins have had on defence.

"No, no, no," he said. "This kind of injury, you have to make sure everything is healed correctly. I'm not trying to do something because someone else is injured.

"We've talked to the doctors, we've done another MRI and X-ray and everything, and everything is looking good."

Speaking of injured blueliners for the Pens, it looks like Brooks Orpik is on the verge of returning too. That'll at least make Marc-Andre Fleury owners a little happier in Fantasyland.

QUOTABLE
"He stepped into some pretty key situations and didn't look out of place, and right there, you knew it was just a matter of time before you see him up here," Capitals assistant coach Bob Woods told The Washington Post of John Carlson when he joined Hershey for the AHL playoffs from London in the OHL last season. The puck-moving defenseman has 10 points and a +14 rating in 17 games with Hershey this season and will make his NHL debut tonight against the Habs. "He's just a guy who carries himself very well. He doesn't look nervous; he looks very confident. And there's a difference between cocky and confident, and I think he finds that right medium, and I think that's why he was able to step right in with us in Hershey."

PHILLY'S D DOWNRIGHT OFFENSIVE
The Philadelphia Daily News notes that in 18 games this season, the eight defencemen currently on the Flyers roster have accumulated 57 points. To put that in perspective, they only posted 141 points in all 82 games last season - which ranked them in the bottom five of the league.

"We want to attack with five," Flyers coach John Stevens said yesterday after his team's practice at the HP Pavilion. His team will take on the San Jose Sharks tonight. "We want to get our 'D' up the ice to join every rush. We've got guys now that can get the puck through to the net.

"Our defence is doing a great job of getting more pucks to the net and I think our forwards are doing a better job of getting them pucks in the offensive zone. We seem to have guys with that skill set that can contribute in that type of environment."

The stats definitely back him up. Chris Pronger (as you'd expect) leads the D with 17 points, which is only two points back of Jeff Carter's team-leading 19 points. Matt Carle is next with 13 points, although he has just one point in his last seven outings and five in his past 13 after starting the year with eight in his first five affairs. Kimmo Timonen has 12 points, including seven in his past nine. Braydon Coburn has nine, including seven in his past nine starts. Ole-Kristian Tollefsen and Ryan Parent have combined for four points overall.

ONE STEP FORWARD
The Vancouver Province reports that Pavol Demitra will take a significant step toward recovery from offseason shoulder surgery today when the Vancouver Canucks winger skates on his own prior to the game-day skate.

The best projection now is that Demitra may finally surface in the lineup next month and possibly before Jan. 1.

"That's what we're looking for and we're hoping it's before that," said Canucks GM Mike Gillis. "For him to skate [today] means he has to have the least amount of pain because you never just skate. There's a puck there and you've got to play with it and it affects the shoulder."

QUOTABLE
"It's tough when you're trying to get through the first five minutes without being down 2-0, 3-0, which seemed like it happened quite a bit last year," Islanders coach Scott Gordon said when relaying how much confidence his team has in new signees Dwayne Roloson and Martin Biron when compared with Yann Danis and Joey MacDonald in filling in for Rick DiPietro. "As much as Yann and Joey enjoyed their opportunity with Ricky injured, it was tough. . . . They put pressure on themselves and Dwayne and Marty, nothing's going to faze them. They know they're getting the job done, and that filters through the locker room."