Clicks and Clippings: Now it's Zach goin' Back

We knew it was coming. Just not who or when. With one of the injured forwards (Sergei Samsonov? Chad LaRose?) apparently able to play tomorrow night when the Hurricanes host the Tampa Bay Lightning, Zach Boychuk's name was announced as the call-up who is getting sent down to Albany. More announcements on the lineup for the game will certainly be made tomorrow.

HURRICANES REASSIGN ZACH BOYCHUK TO ALBANY - the press release

Canes Now - Boychuk sent back to Albany Boychuk's reassignment may signal that forward Sergei Samsonov is ready to rejoin the lineup for tomorrow's game with Tampa Bay.

LaRose, Samsonov Could Return Monday - Carolina Hurricanes - Blog Paul Branecky with an injury update after practice Sunday.

And with Boychuk headed back to Albany, I've got a few stories about injuries, new and old, which our AHL affiliate is working with, and still winning some games. Then a few worthy links that look at what's happening here in Carolina and around the wonderful world of hockey, all after the jump.

From Albany, news on the River Rats there and the upcoming AHL All-star Game

The Infestation: Rats beat Sound Tigers in OT, 4-3 Lots of links to a variety of re-caps and game quotes from last night's come-back thriller.

Rats notes ‘n quotes: Murphy adds injury to insult - Hockey Spoken Here - timesunion.com Friday night, the Rats went down to the Hershey Bears, in a game that at one point showed a talley of 10 - 1 on the scoreboard. Rookie Mike Murphy relieved starter Justin Peters after the fourth Hershey goal but lasted just 4:26, getting hurt late in the first period. Peters had to finish up, and his goals-against average went from 2.17 to 2.44 and his save percentage dropped from .928 to .921. 

The Infestation: Rats recall Morrison from the Florida Everblades Now, with Mike Murphy injured, 30-year-old ECHL goaltender Mike Morrison will back up Justin Peters. 

The Record Blogs: On The Fly: Borer takes another step forward Defenseman Casey Borer continues to make progress in his comeback bid from neck surgery as he shed his yellow (non-contact) jersey in River Rats practice this week.

All-star goalie knows score - Times Union - Albany NY Rats' Justin Peters braces for next week's onslaught.

The Hockey News put together a feature issue on the AHL All-Star game, set for Tuesday January 19, which is available as a downloadable .pdf. Must read about Tom Kostopoulos's experience in the game 7 years ago, which appears on page 3. Excerpt: Get Kostopoulos, Dumont and the rest of the fortunate 93 percent together in a room, and some could tell fantastic tales of their AHL all-star success.

The Hockey News: Around The AHL: First-half wrap The American League is chugging toward its mid-season point. Here are the current standings. The River Rats are 7th in the East, a whopping 16 points behind the Washington Capital's AHL team, Hershey Bears. 

The Hurricanes still working through this season

ESPN.com no longer has their video clip of Cam Ward's "bare-faced" save vs Detroit available (It was in the top-10 plays of the day in all of sports). Never fear. Here is the Detroit Red Wings' game highlight video. Same stunning save, replayed from 5 angles in slow motion. Go to the 3 minute mark and enjoy. (And I'll post it again when it makes "save of the week".)

Moving on to last night's game: Canes fast running out of time -  NewsObserver.com  From the N&O Sunday morning print edition, recapping last night's loss to the Thrashers. Chip Alexander writes: The Carolina Hurricanes are fast approaching the breaking point in their season - if not already at it. [Apparently it takes a couple months to get news stories published in newsprint.]

Karmanos already looking ahead - Sports - NewsObserver.com During a trip to Raleigh two months ago, Carolina Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos Jr. talked mostly about the possibilities of this hockey season.  Chip had a chance to talk with PK when the Canes were in Michigan this week and got an update. Interesting to hear what he's thinking.

Southeast: Hurricanes' Ward closing on franchise mark - NHL.com - Division Notebooks  Cam Ward has played just over four seasons with the Hurricanes and already is closing in on the franchise win mark. Plus some other news and developing stories from our division.

This just in at CanesNow: Canes Now - Forwards, goalies are foes, friends Learn more about the Rats connections: Jiri Tlusty and Atlanta's Ondrej Pavelec; Drayson Bowman and the Bolts' Dustin Tokarski. 

And your last link focusing on the Hurricanes are these post-game comments from last night, led off by our latest call-up, #21 Drayson Bowman.

Some news on Team Finland : When it comes to Olympics, Lehtinen knows the score - NHL.com - All-Access Vancouver Finland's Jere Lehtinen knows a thing or two about the Olympics

And related, with veteran Finn Olympian and Anaheim Ducks' Teemu Selanne's recent surgery to repair a broken jaw, Chip Alexander tweeted this after talking with Jussi Jokinen yesterday:

Jussi Jokinen said he has not been contacted by anyone from Finland's national team about being a possible Olympic replacement.......Teemu Selanne has a broken jaw and word is be may have to miss the Olympics. But Jokinen said he did not expect to get the call.

TSN.ca: Oilers face serious cap issues as they ponder rebuild  It's almost impossible in today's NHL to do it via trade so you have to do it via the draft," says Dreger. "The Oilers see great things in (potential No. 1 selections) Taylor Hall, Tyler Seguin, and defenceman Cam Fowler, so there's tons of promise looking ahead here in 2010 in the NHL Entry Draft. 

TSN.ca - NHL on TSN panel selects their 2010 All-Stars  Since there will be no NHL All-Star game this year because of the Olympics, the NHL on TSN panel deliberated over who they would select to take the ice on the first line, if there were an All-Star game in 2010.

GREAT ICE-PECTATIONS: A Tale of Two (Non-Traditional Hockey Market) Cities A couple familiar names on this blog talk about how much Carolina loves its hockey team and what at least one other NHL club might learn from us. Good stuff, kids!

Stunning Numbers: Fisher disengaged;  - Puck Daddy   Last month, we noted how well Fisher had been playing since cozying up to the American Idol. This new comparison arrived at Y! Sports this morning. Check it out on this rainy Sunday, hockey fans. (Hockeymom rolls her eyes to learn about such problems this pretty young couple has to deal with!)