Daily Cupcakes - Links from around the unlocked out NHL - January 15th, 2013

The Calgary Flames have a bunch of players sitting out. One of them, like a former Colorado Avalanche player, is due to blood clots. Apparently 300 to 400 people were at their first training camp day.

Forward Roman Cervenka and defenceman Anton Babchuk also missed the first day of training camp with the Flames.

Although the blood clots that Cervenka developed while playing for Lev Prague of the KHL earlier this season are no longer present, the Czech forward is still on anti-coagulant medication. Feaster explained that Cervenka won’t be cleared to skate until being examined further by a hematology specialist in the United States.

"As soon as he’s free to come off the anti-coagulant medication, then he would be cleared to skate," Feaster said. "He is disappointed. He’s anxious. He wants to be out there. This is about a career for the Calgary Flames and Roman together. It’s not about the first day of training camp."

While some have said that Joe Sacco is in the Hot Seat, SportsNet thinks that Greg Sherman might be feeling the heat too.

3. Greg Sherman, Colorado Avalanche - The air in Colorado is as thin as their lineup and the GM needs to address this.

Jessica Redfield's - a Colorado Avalanche corespondent- parents are some incredibly strong and thoughtful people. By the way, here is the link that shows Dater confirmed the Avs would do something for her.

She and her husband, Lonnie, traveled from their home in San Antonio, Texas, to help Newtown families with their grief. She came to offer her connection as a mother of a massacre victim, she said.

"We wanted to put our arms around them as parents and understand the pain that they are going through, the shock that they are still in," Phillips said

"We're just five months ahead of them in the loss, and we know the pain, we know the shock, we know the frustration."

Markus Naslund says that he was never approached to testify in the Steve Moore - Todd Bertuzzi incident.

On Monday, a story in the Toronto Star, citing sources, said that Naslund and current Canucks Henrik and Daniel Sedin, among others, had refused to testify for Moore in the case, which is slated to go to court in April.

In a text message, Naslund, now the GM of Modo in the Swedish Elite League, said: "??? I’ve never been approached to testify …"

Naslund didn’t respond to a request for a phone interview.

This was in response to this Toronto Star article that came out Monday January 14th. It's worth a read if you'd like to know how Moore is doing lately.

It’s unclear whether any current or former NHL employees will cooperate with Moore’s lawyer Tim Danson. In court filings Danson has discussed his frustrations over hockey’s "code," an unspoken agreement by players not to publicly discuss the unseemly side of the game.

Several current and former Vancouver Canucks players, including Markus Naslund and Henrik and Daniel Sedin, have refused to testify on behalf of Moore, a source told the Star. Naslund and the Sedins could provide details about what was said in the Canucks locker room before Bertuzzi’s attack.

"The hockey club, its parent company and its legal representation will refrain from any public comment that pertains to an issue before the courts," said Ben Brown, a Canucks spokesperson.

CBC Sports seems to think that the Colorado Avalanche will have more difficulty locking up Ryan O`Reilly than the Montreal Canadiens will with P.K. Subban and that Dallas Stars will with Jamie Benn

Metallurg Magnitogorsk, the KHL team that O'Reilly plays for, is paying the 21-year-old forward a prorated $4-million US to play in Russia this year.

It is also believed that Metallurg Magnitogorsk is willing to increase O'Reilly's contract if he agrees to stay in Russia. Negotiations between O'Reilly's agent Mark Guy and the Avalanche have yet to produce a new deal for native of Varna, Ont. (near Stratford). The two sides are believed to be far apart.

The Globe and Mail has an interesting story about the KHL and how it isn't quite the "small" league that many North Americans want to believe it is. There is a lot going for it.

The KHL came close to landing its very own Bobby Hull last week.

Ilya Kovalchuk, who has had the misfortune to play in two markets – Atlanta and New Jersey – of limited hockey interest, is said to have given serious consideration to KHL overtures to bail on his New Jersey Devils and stay with SKA St. Petersburg.

According to the Devils, he has now agreed to return to New Jersey for this truncated season of discontent, but before returning he and fellow Russian star Pavel Datsyuk insisted on sticking around for this past weekend’s KHL all-star game.

Something than many may have missed is the game limit for young players this season.

The 48-game schedule opens Saturday and features five of seven Canadian franchises, including Toronto at Montreal.

From then, teams are expected to have five games to decide on whether to retain their junior-aged players (in past years they’ve had up to nine games).

Doing so will activate that player’s three-year entry-level contract – some teams evidently believe it doesn’t make financial sense to burn one of those years on a shortened season.

Could be bad news for the New York Islanders.

The New York Islanders were without the services of veteran defenceman Lubomir Visnovsky for a second straight day at training camp.

He stayed away on Monday for "personal reasons," according to an ESPN report, even though he is still under contract with the Isles.

Visnovsky is with the KHL's Slovan Bratislava and plans to play in its game in Prague on Tuesday, according to TV NOVA Sport.

The Isles could suspend Visnovsky if he refuses to play.

The Winnipeg Jets had around 5,000 fans show up to their first day of training camp!

The idea of an NHL boycott never stood a chance.

Claims that hockey fans would snub the league and its players after the 113-day lockout vanished as training camps got underway.

Across the league, from Toronto to San Jose, fans rushed into arenas when offered a chance to watch their favourite players practise for the first time.

Some cities enjoyed bigger turnouts than others, like the 5,000 fans in Winnipeg compared to 150 in Toronto, where an odd tension separated players from supporters Monday at the MasterCard Centre.

Lastly, a follow-up to the Donald Brashear story. He will serve a six-game suspension.

Former NHL tough guy Donald Brashear was suspended six games by the minor-pro Ligue Nord-Americaine de Hockey on Monday for a nasty attack from behind during a game last week.

Video of the incident showed Brashear punching opponent Gaby Roch in the back of the head from behind, touching off a bench-clearing brawl between his Riviere-du-Loup 3L and the visiting Jonquiere Marquis.

If history repeats itself, it's not necessarily the first team out of the gate that will win the Cup of a shortened season.

There has been plenty of chatter that teams need a fast start to make the playoffs and contend for the Stanley Cup championship in the NHL's 48-game shortened season.

A good start always helps the cause, but the 1995 Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils took their time before they found their way. They started slowly, finished strong and prevailed in the lockout-shortened season 18 years ago.