from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet,

- During a Saturday morning chat, Mike Babcock was asked about the top teams in the league. He grabbed the daily stat sheet and circled the five with the best goal differential — Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, Chicago, Nashville and St. Louis. “There you go,” he said. Note to NHL: Babcock thinks that statistic should be on the front of the package. It’s on Page Two.

- Mark Giordano leads all defencemen in scoring and stands 11th overall. You expect he’ll cool down at some point, but he’s averaging 1.05 points per game. No blueliner has accomplished that in 70 games since 1993-94. He’s also shooting 10.9 per cent. In the 21st century, only four defenders have played 82 games and done it: Tom Gilbert (13.3 in 2008), Drew Doughty (11.3 in 2010), Andrei Markov (11 in 2008) and Mattias Ohlund (10.9 in 2004).

- Brenden Morrow was in the Dallas organization when it won the Stanley Cup in 1999, an NHL rookie as the Stars came within two wins of a repeat in 2000. That was a team of veterans. Are the young Lightning ready to win? He was honest: “I can’t answer that right now. I don’t know,” Morrow said, then added: “You need to understand adversity.” He pointed at Steven Stamkos’s stall. “He’s been through it, with the injury.” He pointed at Victor Hedman’s stall. “Him too. So they have some experience understanding it.”

more including Todd McLellan may be on the hot seat...