Here are your Morning Puck Headlines: A glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.
• Steven Ovadia has an interesting look at how the Dallas Stars and Boston Bruins are building their lines this preseason, focusing on duos rather than trios: Like Marc Savard and Michael Ryder with the B's, and Mike Ribeiro and Brenden Morrow in Big D. Ovadia sees it as a symptom of the salary cap, which ignores a larger narrative: The scourge of crappy wingers. [Puck Update]
• Drafting a fantasy hockey team by how good-looking the players are. Sadly, Yahoo! has yet to install "beefcake" as a scoring category. [Not To Be Trusted With Knives]
• We can all blame Steve Reinprecht of the Phoenix Coyotes for Claude Lemieux's comeback attempt. [Denver Post]
• Edmonton Oilers coach Craig MacTavish has decided not to break up the Kid Line of Sam Gagner, Robert Nilsson and Andrew Cogliano. Kid Line ... really? When you can have either the GNC Line or the SARs Line? [Sun Media]
• "Do Hawks have a reason for not extending Savard?" Uh, yeah: What if the team blows this season, and they need a scapegoat? Because the Chicago Blackhawks aren't firing Brian Campbell now, are they? [Daily Herald]
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• Ryan Stone wants to leave the Pittsburgh Penguins organization after failing to make the team. There's something for the skills portion of the résumé. Then again, so is public drunkenness, right Mr. Stone? [Empty Netters]
• Speaking of the Penguins: Moving Evgeni Malkin to the power play point may be a necessity, but it's also a rather boneheaded move based on past performances. [Tribune Review]
• The Los Angeles Kings continue to play hardball with Patrick O'Sullivan, refusing to give the RFA forward a one-year contract just to get back on the ice. [LA Times]
• Japers asks a very interesting question about Michael Nylander. [Japers Rink]
• Making the case for free-of-charge exhibition hockey games. "My free-of-charge recommendation to markets like Washington would be for them to take a leap of faith: open those arena doors wide two or three times each September and pitch the exhibitions, gratis, to non-traditional communities: inner-city schools, Baltimore hockey fans, Washington's teeming immigrant communities." [OFB]
• Dennis Kane presents his letter from the Montreal Canadiens denying him of a stick boy job. [Dennis Kane's Excellent Montreal Canadiens Blog]
• Finally, as you can see by the photo to the right, Sean Avery is right at home in the Western Conference ... home in the this case being three inches away from Peter Budaj's face.
