from Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal,

- In New Jersey on the Winnipeg Jets’ recent road trip, Evander Kane had to be dragged out by a team public-relations representative to speak to the media after getting the winning goal, his first goal since late October, and offered up two-word or one-sentence answers, then walked away. Is this diva ever going to grow up?

- Teemu Selanne’s farewell tour is soup for the soul, seeing the classy first-ballot Hall of Famer for the last time in lots of rinks, but Selanne finally looks human at 43. He can still skate, but he has three goals in 24 Anaheim Ducks games, and he’s playing the fewest minutes of his career, an average of 14 per game. Against the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday, he didn’t get on the ice 4-on-4 in OT and had just 15 shifts in 65 minutes.

- I keep thinking the Ottawa Senators will unload forward Milan Michalek, who is having a miserable year (four goals, minus-13) to the Phoenix Coyotes, with whom Milan would be with his brother, Zbynek, in exchange for a young defenceman and a different type of forward. Milan was traded for Dany Heatley. Now, neither can’t score.

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Also from Matheson,

Oliver Ekman-Larsson is the best defenceman nobody knows.

He belongs in the same grouping as Ryan Suter and Duncan Keith, Shea Weber and Zdeno Chara. Drew Doughty and Alex Pietrangelo. But the Coyotes blueliner toils in one of the NHL’s outposts in Phoenix, not in Toronto, New York, Montreal or Chicago, where almost nobody sees him on national TV.

But while the 22-year-old Swede might be well under many NHL fans’ radars, he’s well-known to other players.

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