Puck Headlines: Sundin doesn't have ‘spine' to help Chicago win

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.

• Blistering words from Steve Rosenbloom of the Chicago Tribune, but Mats Sundin was asking for it with his actions: "Sundin has never been on a champion. He chose not to try last season. How can you not question his heart or spine at this point? I'm not sure I'd want Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews exposed to a whiff of that mentality." [Tribune]

• Ulf Samuelsson's practical jokes are ... involved. "Kevin Stevens and I were going back and forth with each other and one day I decided to go out right after practice and fiddle with the ignition cable on his brand new BMW." What, instead of cutting his brakes? [THN]

• Tom Hicks denies that he plans to demote Dallas Stars co-GM Brett Hull into another job in which he does nothing. [Dallas Stars Blog]

• Did Roberto Luongo suffer a setback at practice for the Vancouver Canucks? [Vancouver Sun]

• Singer Michael Buble will join Gordie Howe and Pat Quinn as a minority owner of the Western Hockey League's Vancouver Giants. Meanwhile, the Vancouver Giants puck bunny population has seen a sudden and unexplained spike ...[NHL]

Sports

Get today's sports news out of Los Angeles. Here's the latest on the Dodgers, Lakers, Angels, Kings, Galaxy, LAFC, USC, UCLA and more LA teams.

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Atlanta Thrashers GM Don Waddell: "I can tell you 100 percent on my grave, whose ever grave you want, I've never spoken to one team about trading Ilya Kovalchuk." Ah, but what about other methods of communication? "OK, I've never texted, e-mailed or spoken to anybody about trading Ilya Kovalchuk." Just as we suspected: he's using carrier pigeon! [Sporting News]

• The 1974-75 Washington Capitals, 1980-81 Winnipeg Jets and 1992-93 Ottawa Senators all make the Sports Illustrated gallery for worst seasons for a team. "Lose-ipeg." Still funny. [SI]

• Oh, the psychological games coaches play: Detroit Red Wings coach Mike Babcock creates a dozen wacky line combinations in practice before reverting back to normal combinations against the Flames. [Snapshots]

• Is Thomas Vanek making a serious bid for MVP or what? [Honk If You Love Justice]

• Len Barrie hits back at Barry Melrose: "I knew we were in trouble when we went to Prague ... and Barry wanted to play the left wing lock." Translation: Steven Stamkos can't win the Calder for being a checking center. [St. Pete Times]

• Fox Sports Carolina apologizes for cutting into Carolina Hurricanes games with unscheduled commercials during action. [News & Observer]

• We've received this Blackhawks story over e-mail on a few occasions in the last week, and Deadspin does a nice job clearing up the legend. Yes, players did hit a small town McDonald's after surprising their GM at his father's wake. But the bus wasn't some rickety, unheated rambler. Still, great story. [Deadspin]

• LCS Hockey has a new addition of their radio sitcom, "The Bettmans," featuring Gary's meeting with Sean Avery. [LCS Hockey, .mp3 file]

• Earl Sleek and Mike Chen face off in a segment of "it's about damn time" in preparation for tonight's showdown between the San Jose Sharks and the Anaheim Ducks. [Battle of California]

• Finally ... yes, all of this rough stuff between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Buffalo Sabres was fun last night. But it's just another needless brawl after a clean check. (H/T to PD reader Vance.)

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