by Eric Duhatschek , Breaking News from globeandmail.com

ABSTRACT

All the news that's fit to print from around the National Hockey League

Edmonton Oilers forward Andrew Cogliano may be having a hard time finding the back of the net of late (only two goals in his first 13 games), but he hasn't lost his sense of humour. For the Oilers' annual Halloween party, Cogliano dressed as Dany Heatley, in an old Ottawa Senators sweater. Get it?

Cogliano was one of three Oilers players who were to be traded to the Senators for Heatley until the latter nixed the deal. ? Jordan Staal, long capable of playing as a top-six forward, will line up as the Pittsburgh Penguins' No.2 centre, in the wake of a nagging shoulder injury that will keep Evgeni Malkin, last year's NHL scoring leader, out of the lineup for two to three weeks. The decision ends Malkin's run of 254 consecutive games played. ? Is the Tampa Bay Lightning's Steve Stamkos pushing his way into Canadian 2010 Olympic team contention? Stamkos has nine goals already this season; it took him until Feb. 17 last year to reach that number. ? The Atlanta Thrashers' respectable start will get a test now that leading scorer Ilya Kovalchuk is out up to four weeks with a broken bone in his right foot. In theory, the Thrashers have the horses to pick up the scoring slack, in Slava Kozlov, Todd White and Nik Antropov, who combined for 76 goals last season, but had zero among them through the first eight games of the season until White broke through in Thursday's 4-3 loss to the Washington Capitals. ? Good news for the St. Louis Blues, who got defenceman Eric Brewer back in the line-up for Thursday's date against the Phoenix Coyotes - his first action since Dec. 11 of last year. In the interim, Brewer - the former Oilers rearguard traded to St. Louis for Chris Pronger - underwent two back surgeries and at one point, feared he might never play again. ? In the hopes that Lightning will strike twice for them, the Los Angeles Kings picked up defenceman Randy Jones on re-entry waivers from the Philadelphia Flyers. Last year, the Kings received a big payoff when they grabbed Kyle Quincey off waivers from the Detroit Red Wings; got a lot of mileage out of him; and eventually flipped him to the Colorado Avalanche as part of the deal that brought them Ryan Smyth. Philadelphia made Jones available for the usual salary-cap reasons - $3.25-million (U.S.) was too much to pay for a defenceman who dropped down the depth chart after they picked up Pronger from the Anaheim Ducks. ? Luca Sbisa, who went the other way in the Pronger deal, was sent to the Lethbridge Hurricanes of the WHL. Sbisa played 39 NHL games as an 18-year-old last season. ? The one-year contract signed by Kyle Calder with the Ducks will pay him $500,000 if he cracks the NHL lineup, but is worth $105,000 for now, while he is in Bakersfield of the ECHL getting in shape. Calder attended Ducks camp this year on a tryout basis after playing the last two years for the Kings, but was cut after training camp. Presumably, the Ducks' dismal 3-6-1 start had something to do with the second thoughts.

Eric Duhatschek

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