Concussed forward Marc Savard is making hopeful progress, but his return to game action is still a ways off. (Michael Tureski/Icon SMI)

By Stu Hackel

The Bruins’ Marc Savard, who has yet to play this season after a recurrence of concussion symptoms, has been cleared by doctors to practice with the team. Blogging for the Boston Globe, Barbara Matson reports that Savard passed a conditioning test and was cleared to return to practice with the team and take part in non-contact drills.

Read More…

Colin Campbell claims his hockey operations department is transparent, but fans and media see it differently. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

The NHL went on a big PR offensive yesterday in the “Colie-mail” matter, three days after the story broke. What was their hurry?

First, Gary Bettman went on his weekly radio program (audio) and, sounding like he was at times reading from a prepared text, acknowledged that – from a perception standpoint, no doubt — “it looks bad,” but the reality is different and Colin Campbell has never done anything inappropriate.

Bettman expressed his “full support” for his VP of Hockey Operations, saying those who accuse  Campbell of bias “have not had the opportunity to observe Colie’s professionalism and integrity….He takes his service to the game, the teams and the players as seriously as any human being can and he is somebody of the utmost integrity, and that’s the way people around the league view him.”

Regardless of the public’s perception that there might be a conflict of interest or some bias as a result of those e-mails, Bettman said, “There’s no basis to suggest that anything wrong, unfair, biased was ever done, because nothing inappropriate has happened with respect to supplemental discipline or any of his other duties.” He added the clubs — who “would never accept anything less than fair, unbiased treatment” — have expressed unsolicited overwhelming support for Campbell.

Bettman didn’t say unanimous, however.

Read More…

Goalie Devan Dubnyk is the latest addition to the Oiler kiddie corps. (Andy Marlin/NHLI via Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

The entire Western Conference is balancing on the Oilers, who sit at the bottom with 11 points. Apart from watching their uber-talented youngsters like Jordan Eberle, Taylor Hall and Magnus Paarjarvi grow, no one expected too much from Edmonton this season (they “resemble a sadsack lottery contender,” writes Bruce McCurdy in The Edmonton Journal Cult of Hockey blog). But what little they have been able to achieve has been in some measure thanks to the goaltending of 37-year-old Nikolai Khabibulin. Certainly, Khabi has had ups and downs, but for the time being he’s down — forced onto the Injured Reserve list by a groin injury, according to TSN. The Oilers have recalled Martin Gerber from Oklahoma City and he’ll team up with Devan Dubnyk, the former first round draft pick who could very well benefit from the additional work.

Read More…

The Islanders have fallen earlier than usual, and they aren’t likely to get up in time to make the playoffs. (Ric Tapia/Icon SMI)

By Stu Hackel

A new, albeit interim, NHL head coach steps behind the bench tonight when Jack Capuano guides the Islanders against the Lightning at Nassau Coliseum. But no matter GM Garth Snow’s stated goal for the season, you can’t expect this young, struggling squad to be transformed into a playoff team, not in the short term.

Read More…

By Stu Hackel

It sure is great to launch a brand new blog when the previous day’s stories include the NHL’s Senior VP of Hockey Operations accused of all sorts of improprieties, a head coach fired, the league’s most unpopular player lambasted for sucker punching an opponent and igniting a ’70s style brawl, the scion of a hockey dynasty demoted to the minors by his father the GM after he got tossed drunk from a bar and punched out a cab driver.

A nice time to start.

Read More…