Latendresse paints the wall with a Flame. This slow version of the team is not good for turnover ratios. Gill, Laraque and Stewart are all puck-possession liabilities. They are each aggression assets, though. What horror when they’re on the ice simultaneously. I guess they’re our Boston-Philly antidote.

The Canadian desperation for franchises has seeped into and obscured our media's critical faculties when it comes to the perceived unfair road-blocking of Jim Balsillie's attempts to take a US franchise into the Southern Ontario area.

If the code is optional, maybe we should just accept that fighting as a way for the game to police itself has lost its integrity. Its followers can't even observe their own rules. Perhaps it's time for this ageing and addled institution to retire.

Old-school refs. Just making things even. Huet exaggerates the hit, too. Falls like a dehydrated, lunging elephant. Legit call, though.

Sergei is also back. And he's with his best linemate match this season. His older brother. Andrei is flying from the word go. There is nothing like playing with his younger brother for the reserved Belarusian.