News and Links of the Day

In Sabres news, it looks that Drew Stafford is going to be cleared for practice soon after the collision he took with Chris Neil during the Ottawa game on the 26th. He suffered some headaches during the Philly game on the 22nd and then had this collision which led to a greater concussion.

Staff was just being plain stupid trying to play through headaches because we have seen repeatedly what concussion symptoms can do to a player and adversely affect their career and their health. So, I just wish that Staff takes his time and returns 100% rather than trying to force himself into the lineup.

Link from the News

Other News Around the League

• The Anaheim Ducks traded Shane Hnidy to the Boston Bruins for Brandon Bochenski. Hnidy was the odd man out in Anaheim after Scott Niedermayer returned in the middle of December and Bochenski struggled in Boston after not scoring a goal in 20 games this season. This was just a move of necessity for both teams in that Anaheim needed to move a player and the Bruins needed the defensive depth after the rash of injuries that hit their blue line in the last couple of weeks.

• The Edmonton Investment Group (EIG) board of directors have voted to recommend rejection of Daryl Katz's $180 million offer to buy the Edmonton Oilers. While this is not a complete rejection of the deal because the the shareholder meeting is January 21st, this is a step backwards in terms of this deal. This isn't Katz's first offer for the team and EIG is just trying to get more leverage for the deal I guess because this has turned into a bigger mess than anyone could have believed. EIG sent a letter to Katz asking him to clarify a couple of things including keeping the team in Edmonton and whether he would pledge some of his own money toward the building of a new arena. Katz is worth $2 billion and owns the Rexall Pharmacy Chain which is based in Edmonton. Link to the story from the Edmonton Sun.
  

Link of the day comes from the Dallas Stars and their analysis of where the 30 NHL teams got their names from.