Tuesday Roundup/Gamenight: Pens @ Caps

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In advance of tonight's game between the Caps and Pens, I initially was going to use this space to detail the fallacy of comparing the two teams' respective rebuilds, but Dave Fay made me move that post up a week.

I would have used this space to discuss GMGM's appearance on WashingtonPost Live last night (a clip of which you can watch here), but he didn't say too much that you didn't know already (unless you're host Russ Thaler, who GMGM had to correct a number of times).

There are notes from Tarik's article this morning (that initially appeared in his blog yesterday) worth mentioning - the Alex Semin/Bryan Muir fight at practice yesterday; the return to red, white and blue uniforms for next year; Brian Sutherby likely missing the rest of the season - but no real big discussion topics.

I could throw some Stan Fischler quotes out there for you to digest ("The Boston Bruins blew it, sending Milan Jurcina to Washington for a fourth-rounder. Jurcina is turning into a HUGE asset on the Caps blue line," or "Much as we admire Sid (Der Bingle) Crosby, some of his on-ice antics are infuriating the (non-Pittsburgh) hockey community. As Bryan Murray notes, The Kid is becoming a master at diving and its assorted penalty-getting variations," for example), but I swore off the Maven a while back.

So what's left on this Tuesday morning? Not much, I guess - seems I covered it all, though I would like to follow-up on something KB reported on Sunday, namely that Richard Zednik has taken a leave of absence from the Isles for personal reasons. Word is that he has headed back to Slovakia for a health-related family matter and won't be back any time soon. Obviously, we all wish him and his family the best.

Finally, a quick administrative note. I have to go in tomorrow morning for some surgery and will be out of commission for a couple of days, so it's up to you all to keep things around here lively in my absence. Cheers.

Daily Awards

• Hart: Dominik Hasek (25-save shutout win)
• Ross: Pavel Datsyuk, Tomas Holmstrom, Mathieu Schneider (1 point each)
• Norris: Mathieu Schneider (A, +1, 4 SOG)
• Vezina: Dominik Hasek (see above)
• Richard: Pavel Datsyuk (1G)
• Calder: Corey Perry (7 SOG, 2 hits, 2 takeaways)
• Aiken: Francois Beauchemin (-1, 0 shots on goal in 1-0 loss)