Top Line: John Tortorella's future; New York Rangers' next captain; more links

Author:
amuir29
Publish date:
Mar 21, 2014

Against the odds, John Tortorella may not be finished in Vancouver. (Scott Audette/NHLI via Getty Images)

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

• Ed Willes says there's still a chance that John Tortorella will be back with the Canucks next season, but some pieces have to fall into place.

• Here's the New York perspective on the Columbus homecoming of Rick Nash on Friday.

• Nash says that there's an obvious choice to succeed Ryan Callahan as the next captain of the Rangers.

• Nicklas Lidstrom may be gone, but a new captain of calm has emerged in Detroit as the season goes down to the wire for the Red Wings.

• Gentlemen, a moment of silence for Evgeni Malkin's, um, "midsection":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs7eDv54iwE

• The Blackhawks need a team effort, not Teuvo Teravainen, to overcome the loss of Patrick Kane. Number 88 was placed on LTIR this morning, meaning he'll miss at least 10 games or 24 days, and while the team called up the Finnish rookie this morning, Chicago is doing everything it can to lower expectations for the kid.

• The Sharks trailed the Ducks by as many as 13 points in January. This morning, San Jose finds itself atop the Pacific Division after knocking off Anaheim in an epic battle.

• Ducks fans really seem to dislike Luca Sbisa.

• Mike Heika says that the Stars failed another test last night in Philadelphia, but there's still time to earn the final grade they want.

• Don't think I agree with Sam Carchidi's assessment that the Flyers were "the winners" in the deal that brought Wayne Simmonds and Brayden Schenn to Philly -- after all, the Kings won the Stanley Cup with their end of the swap -- but it's fair to say that the trade has been working out pretty well for both sides.

• Sabres forward Cory Conacher has a little fun with the wrong helmet. Apparently John Scott's melon is a bit larger than his.

• Gary Lawless looks at the Jets' number one problem this summer and wonders if the Maple Leafs might help them solve it.

• Keep this non-call in mind if the Coyotes squeeze into the playoffs.

• Kevin Dineen is becoming the go-to guy for Team Canada.

• More evidence that Luke Gazdic is the best fighter in the league this season:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTVqFN-7PAE&feature=youtube_gdata

city was the first to have its name etched on the Stanley Cup