from Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal,

- Best wishes to the game’s second-winningest coach, Al Arbour, who’s in tough shape medically and living in Florida. Arbour (782 wins) coached the New York Islanders to four Stanley Cups, and was quiet and understated, but always had his players on their toes. Arbour used to have sneak weigh-ins. Guys like Bryan Trottier, Billy Smith, Clark Gillis and Potvin, stocky or heavy-looking, could be in trouble. A player like Bob Nystrom? Nothing.

- The Washington Capitals have a manhole-sized decision to make on unrestricted free-agent Mike Green since he’s the No. 5 defenceman making $6.25 million. John Carlson is No. 1, Matt Niskanen, Brooks Orpik and Karl Alzner are the others in the top four. They’ve got Carlson and Niskanen who can play the point on the power play. They don’t want Green walking for free, but there’s no way they’ll give him that dough to keep him. Niskanen got $5.7 million a year last July on the open market. Washington could deal Green for possibly a second-rounder at the trade deadline, but they also might keep him for seven or eight home playoff games and say 11 years in the organization is a healthy return on a draft pick. The Capitals have Dmitri Orlov to plug into a No. 5 hole when he gets healthy and Canadian junior star Madison Bowey (Kelowna Rockets) coming.

- Have the years caught up to Patrick Marleau? Or is this a one-off, an awful scoring year for the longest-serving San Jose Shark? He has eight goals in 47 games, only five of them five-on-five. Swedish call-up Melker Karlsson has seven goals in 18 games.

more plus Matheson takes a look at Aaron Ekblad here...