Daily Cupcakes - Links From Around the NHL - April 2nd, 2012

Edmonton Journal takes a look at the odds of who will be the next Montreal Candiens GM. Patrick Roy, Francois Giguere, and Vincent Damphousse all make the list.

It’s folly to try to say who’ll be the new GM in Montreal. Whoever he is, former GM Serge Savard — a savvy businessman, but out of the NHL loop for the last 15 years — will actually be doing the hiring. Savard won two Stanley Cups as Habs GM in 1986 and 1993 but who is going to get him abreast of the league? Agent Don Meehan is a good friend, and certainly is current with today’s players. Maybe he will help. Savard has friends in high places like Harry Sinden and Bobby Clarke, but they aren’t active as GMs any longer. Maybe he can give Rangers president/GM Glen Sather, his former Habs teammate, a call in New York.

If you’d like a list handicapping the candidates’ odds, here goes:

Some U.S. citizens are suing the NHL over broadcasts.

A group of disgruntled U.S. hockey fans is going to war against the National Hockey League, accusing the league of conspiring to overcharge customers for its game broadcasts in an antitrust lawsuit.

The litigation, if successful, could cost the NHL hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, several legal experts said.

The lawsuit focuses on the NHL’s practice of giving teams broadcast exclusivity in local markets. That exclusivity means customers who buy the NHL’s season-long viewing packages on the Internet or satellite and cable TV cannot watch broadcasts of games featuring teams in their own market.

Because of these restrictions, there is no way for U.S. consumers to obtain live Internet streaming of games involving a team from within the exclusive territory of that team, the lawsuit alleges.

The Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers 's game got pretty intense.

Giroux just smiled when asked if the Flyers were in the Penguins' heads after another emotional comeback.

"I hope we are because we're going to play them in the playoffs," he said. "I think it's important for us to be sure that they know it's going to be a tough one and it should be pretty fun."

And pretty physical too.

Some news about fights in hockey.

According to hockeyfights.com, the leading resource for on-ice pugilism, there have been fewer fights this year than in each of the previous four. Excepting the two years following the 2004-05 lockout — when new rules changed the game on the ice, as well as off — the NHL season is on pace to end with fewer fights than seen in at least the last decade.

There are plenty of theories to explain why, from evolving coaching strategies to a hyper-competitive schedule borne from the NHL’s quest for parity among its teams. Those who might once have made a living solely as a fighter have faced a choice: adapt or disappear.

"I don’t particularly think there’s a conscious effort, I think it’s just the direction that the game’s kind of moving," Harrison said. "The incidents are becoming less and less frequent, and games are more and more important. Nobody wants to take an extra [penalty]. No one wants to lose a guy for five extra minutes — you see the parity in the league, I mean, playoff races are starting in mid-December."

Graham James has returned his "Man of the Year" plaque.

The Hockey News says twice-convicted pedophile Graham James has returned a plaque the magazine gave him in his heyday as a junior coach.

The hockey publication declared James "man of the year" at its annual awards luncheon in June 1989.

Columnist Ken Campbell says The Hockey News stripped James of the award when he pleaded guilty last December to the latest sex assault charges against him.

Campbell says he wrote at the time that James should give back the plaque he received.

Campbell says that happened recently when James approached a longtime NHL scout and asked him to return the plaque to The Hockey News.