Skip to main content

Top Line: Penguins GM no fan of Marc-Andre Fleury; more links

An annotated guide to this morning's must-read hockey stories:

​• Is Marc-Andre Fleury down to his last chance in Pittsburgh? It seemed like he had an endless reserve of goodwill with former GM Ray Shero, but new boss Jim Rutherford clearly isn't as enamored of the goaltender. ”I'm not in any hurry to do a contract with him,” Rutherford said when asked about Fleury, whose current deal expires next summer. Sounds like Flower might want to put off plans for any new Penguins-themed tattoos.

• Could less be more for Sidney Crosby? New Pittsburgh coach Mike Johnston is looking to lighten the load on the Penguins' captain this season ... which is the opposite of what everyone was suggesting last season.

Must-see video: Rich Clune calls nasty guy who chirped him on Twitter

​​• Show of hands: Who hasn't wondered how Major League Baseball logos would look on hockey sweaters? Hmmm .... that looks like just about all of you.

• Looking for some shinny highlights to get you through the dog days? Check out some of the beauties from the final day of Bio-Steel's summer camp. That play by Tyler Seguin at the end? Yeah.

• Is the Bruins' hole at right wing so gaping that a 2014 draft pick could break camp with the big club? Blogger Mick Colageo makes the case for Czech sniper David Pastrnak.

• Henrik Lundqvist talks about the lessons he learned from last year's slow start, and what the newest Rangers will bring to the team.

​• Islanders draft pick Josh Ho-Sang's out-of-hand dismissal by Hockey Canada rankles Jack Todd, who says he's seen this same sort of treatment from the hockey establishment before with P.K. Subban.

• Speaking of P.K., he and Max Pacioretty have had talks about the Canadiens' vacant captaincy and both are ready to step into the breech if asked to do so.

• Last season, the Avalanche just hoped to win back the trust of their fans. Now they're trying to make a serious run at winning the silverware.

• David Clarkson hopes that his second season with the Maple Leafswill be better than the first. Wait ... does that mean there's a chance it won't be?

• The Canucks feel as though they've done enough to return to the playoffs next season. Apparently they've found another—much weaker—conference to play in.

The new St. Louis Blues sweaters look pretty sharp!

​• This is odd: Blues general manager Doug Armstrong asked for the blessing of David Backes and Alex Steen before signing free agent center Paul Stastny.

• Is it possible for the Coyotes to lose recently acquired forward Sam Gagner to pro golf? Arizona's prime summer addition took over the team's Twitter account to answer that question and many others from the team's fans.

• David Staples says that the Oilers are making a mistake if they put Martin Marincin on their first defensive pair. The question is, what alternative do they have?

• Ryan Reaves is a player of color, but he's not this color.

• They've really tricked out the shootout in the KHL.