Marc Savard, a sometimes impatient patient, did what he was told. For bone strength, he diligently drank milk, although he sometimes opted for the chocolate variety, just to break up the moo-notony.

Once a day, he applied an electric bone stimulator, shooting silent and painless healing rays for 20 minutes into and around the fractured bone in his left foot that sidelined him last month.

“I don’t know if that helps, might be a gimmick, who knows?’’ offered the Bruins’ top center, who is expected to return to the lineup tomorrow night in St. Louis after a five-week absence. “All I know is, I’m ready to get back and I’m glad about that. It will be great to get back in there with the boys.’’

Meanwhile, things have been looking better for the battered Bruins, who got top winger Milan Lucic (fractured finger) back in the lineup Thursday and proceeded to win two straight games.

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Just writing the name “Uwe Krupp” brought back a little tingle to my fingers.

It’s probably been about three years since I have done that, and that’s far too long. Uwe Krupp will be back in Denver Monday night for “Uwe Krupp Night” at the Pepsi Center, and even though I have Monday off, I can’t miss Uwe Krupp Night. So I’m going to go, maybe just sit in the stands and watch the game with the rest of you. Screw the press box. The view is the worst in the building anyway.

Lots of old memories when Krupp’s name comes up, none bigger, of course, than the goal he scored to win the 1996 Stanley Cup. It’s a night I can never forget, naturally, not the least of which because I still have a t-shirt with the front page of the next day’s Denver Post reproduced on it. Ever see a t-shirt with a story you wrote on it? It’s a weird thing, believe me.

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• You watch the Capitals on Saturday night and see Mike Green commit a horrific giveaway in the final seconds of OT and you think there’s no chance the talented blueliner can be part of the Olympic. He’s super-skilled, but oh-so-casual and a little too-cool-for-school.

• Everyone’s focussed on the Phil Kessel trade. But a far more costly transaction for the Leafs in the short term was that which sent Pavel Kubina to Atlanta for Garnet Exelby.

• Georges Laraque sticks out a knee on Nicklas Kronwall, Wade Belak viciously reefs Jarred Boll in the groin - in the grand tradition of the departed Chris Simon, it’s usually the NHL policemen who commit the crimes.

Laraque, by the way, should be gone for 20 games. But don’t hold your breath.

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Mike Fisher made a vow to his girlfriend of almost a year when she wrote a love note to him for all the world to see.

“I told her that when my CD came out, I’d return the favour,” the Senators centre said with a laugh after Saturday’s 5-3 win over Buffalo.

In an exclusive interview with Sun Media, Fisher also chuckled when asked if he had any immediate plans to propose to country singing superstar Carrie Underwood, who he has been dating since near the start of this year.

“Who are you, Ellen?” he joked, referring to Ellen DeGeneres, the popular daytime TV host who last week pressed Underwood with similar questions.

While saying there are no marriage plans in the immediate future, Fisher admitted Underwood is just his second “serious girlfriend.”

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...it was up to a few of the Edmonton Oilers veterans to offer some insight as to what was discussed in a long Sunday morning meeting with head coach Pat Quinn.

“Honestly, we went over everything imaginable,” said Shawn Horcoff after the group finally emerged. “That’s a good thing to do. He vented to us, he told us some things we needed to hear, and we let him know what we’re seeing as well.”

Roll call was early. Real early. At 9 a.m. — a mere 10 hours after the Chicago Blackhawks thumped the Oilers in a 5-2 drubbing — the players sheepishly filed back into Rexall Place and, not so many minutes later, most filled back out. The exception being the seven veterans who were holed up in a meeting room with the head man.

Captain Ethan Moreau, defencemen Steve Staios and Sheldon Souray, goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin, and wingers Dustin Penner and Ales Hemsky rounded out the gathering.

“Sometimes you don’t take the necessary time to address some problems you have, or issues, or philosophical differences you might have,” Moreau said.

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I know the game moves so fast,and there is no way Laraque had time to think “I am going to stick out my leg and hurt Kronwall”. However, that is exactly what happened. Again, look at the play. Laraque’s leg was off the ice, that meant he could,and did, stick his leg into Kronwall’s path.

This will be suspendible, but for how long? Kronwall will be out anywhere from four to eight weeks with a sprained MCL. With my history of knee problems, I’m guessing it is closer to eight weeks than four weeks.

To me, it appears that the message a suspension is supposed to send often gets lost on the players. Anything less than five games for this play is, in my opinion, too light and no deterrent at all. Most NHL viewers usually agree on what is suspendible, but I want the suspensions to be more firm.

I do understand how difficult it would be to get GMs, coaches and players to agree on anything, let alone longer suspensions. Injured players or suspended players, what do you want? I want less of both. If it can be agreed upon, send a memo, state that as of January 1st, there will be a new standard.

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“The Sharks trio seem to compliment each other well,” Yzerman said in an e-mail to Sun Media yesterday. “Marleau’s got the speed, Thornton’s the playmaker and Heatley the goal scorer.”

Another plus: The threesome has played together before. Because of a lack of practice time between the suspending of the NHL season and the Olympic tournament, familiarity and chemistry are lucrative selling points.

“I think having the ability to bring guys that are currently playing together is a definite bonus for the reason you stated,” Yzerman said.

“I doubt we would leave off a better player for the sake of continuity but it’s starting to look like we might have combos up front and on defence that have played together.”

Some of those potential combos include:

+ Any two, if not all, of Marleau Thornton and Heatley.

+ The Flyers’ Mike Richards and Jeff Carter.

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It seems stupidly arrogant and self-defeating for a sports writer to ridicule his readers, to tell them in so many words that they’re a bunch of dopes. Why would you want to knock the people you hope will read your column?

But there he was, David Shoalts of The Globe and Mail, sneering at the Toronto Maple Leaf fans and heaping scorn on them from a high place.

Shoalts explained in his Saturday column that “your agent” – that’s him – had been cooped up at home for two days and, therefore, was able to put his ear to the pulse of “Leafs Nation” by listening to the radio. And guess what he learned?

“If most fans had their way, Brian Burke would be busy this weekend firing Ron Wilson, trading Nazem Kadri, Tyler Bozak, Luke Schenn and just about any other prospect the Toronto Maple Leafs have, and presto, they would no longer be the worst team in the NHL…

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“Obviously, there’s a rivalry,” understated (Alex) Burrows. “I know a lot of guys in this lockerroom don’t really like their players and we’re not big fans of them. But at the same time we’ve got to play smart.”

Puck drops just after 10:00pm ET tonight, Chicago vs. Vancouver, I’ll be watching, need a hockey fix quick…

“I think it starts individually. I think it’s everybody’s job, in this room. When you lose a couple games, you can’t point fingers at other people or look elsewhere at what’s going on. You have to take a look at yourself and correct the problem with your own game. That’s how we’re all going to get out of this, by making sure that we’re all, individually, doing what we need to do to win these games and prevent a tailspin, like what happened last year.

“Everyone knows what it takes to win. You can’t use the youth excuse. That was last year. Now it’s about preparation and it’s a personal thing. Everyone has to look at themselves and realize that they have to be better. That’s what is going to make our team better.”

-Matt Greene of the LA Kings via Rich Hammond of LA Kings Insider.

LaFontaine will always refuse to let hockey define his life. He knows there are greater highs than perfectly placed slap shots, understands there are worse tragedies than three-game winless streaks.

He also knows it is important to share that wisdom. The Hockey Hall of Famer and Buffalo Sabres legend visited Western New York over the weekend. As usual, he brought smiles, kind words and perspective.

“Hockey is a dream come true,” LaFontaine said. “You pinch yourself that you get to play at this level. It’s a privilege.

“But there’s so many things you learn along the way, people you meet and experiences, and I truly believe that everything you do in life prepares you for what you’re supposed to do next. You have to get to that point where you take those experiences and be proactive and say, “OK, I’ve learned this. I’ve gone through these situations. Now what can I do to use that and make a difference in someone else’s life?’ ”

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The medical report on on Niklas Kronwall’s left knee wasn’t as encouraging as the Red Wings had hoped, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been.

An MRI Sunday showed that Kronwall has a significant sprain of his medial collateral ligament in his left knee. He will be out at least a month, and could be out as long as eight weeks.

“There is no ACL damage and that’s good news,” general manager Ken Holland said, referencing the fact that Kronwall had his left knee surgically repaired in 2005. “They are saying it’s between a Grade 2 and a Grade 3 sprain; Grade 3 being the most severe. So he’s out a month for sure and beyond that, it depends on how he heals.”

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Montreal Canadiens’ tough guy George Laraque may be in a bit of trouble with the league.

The NHL has decided to review Laraque’s knee-on-knee collision with Red Wings’ defenceman Niklas Kronwall that occurred half-way through the first period of Detroit’s shootout victory over the Habs on Saturday.

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Nobody tries to lose. Nobody wants to lose. Especially players.

But this potentially painful Wild season might not be the worst thing for the long-term future of the franchise.

The Wild is depleted of top-end, young talent like few other teams. Just turn on the “Center Ice” package or study other teams’ depth charts, and it’s plain as day.

The Wild has no game-breaking forwards coming up, and developing these players might be the Wild’s only option. The next five months living through all the losses would be excruciating, but a top-five pick in the 2010 draft would be a nice “reward” for such a lousy year.

Look at the Colorado Avalanche. One horrific season got the Avs potential superstar Matt Duchene with the third overall pick.

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Chicago ran the streak to 6-1-3 with a 5-2 victory and left Alberta 2-0 for the trip. Again.

When a team can blow out the opposition like that, the temptation is to pigeonhole the Hawks as a squadron of gunners, what with Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp, Kris Versteeg, Dustin Byfuglien and others able to light it up.

It gets worse for NHL opponents, presumably, considering the fact that free-agent sniper Marian Hossa is set to make his Blackhawks debut next week after recovering from off-season surgery.

But the young Hawks aren’t one-way offensive divas; far from it. They’re defensively responsible, ranked third in the NHL in goals against and second overall on the penalty kill.

read on

Adrian Aucoin barely kept the puck in at the blue line - the Flyers protested that it had gone out of the zone - and fed Matthew Lombardi on the right side. Lombardi then found Yandle in the left circle, and he fired a shot past Ray Emery.

After the game, Stevens was baffled by the lack of a call.

“We thought it was offsides. One lineman had his arm starting up to call it offsides, and the other guy waved it off,” Stevens said. “It’s unfortunate. If they would have just waved it off right away . . . but you still have to kill the penalty. It looked like the guys on the ice maybe relaxed for a second.

“It’s unfortunate it ends up being the difference in the hockey game."…

On the controversial goal that made it 2-1, Emery said “guys stopped,” when they thought it was offsides, “but it’s no excuse. . . . I know it didn’t look like he [Aucoin] thought he kept it in because he kind of stopped for a second.”

more on the Flyers loss to the Coyotes and watch the play below, although we really don’t get a great angle on the play at the blue line, Also in the game, Blair Betts dislocated his shoulder.

I thought hockey fans could be tough and nasty in their player critiques on the Oilogosphere, but CBC announcers Mike Milbury and Kelly Hrudey just got as harsh as any anonymous Internet hater. The two CBC announcers thrashed and trashed Oilers forward Patrick O’Sullivan after the first period of the Oilers-Hawks game on Saturday night, bashing him for not going hard after a puck along the boards, evidently so he could avoid body contact with Hawks defender Duncan Keith.

At least that’s how it looked to me, and that’s certainly how it looked to both Hrudey and Milbury. Hrudey started off the hammering, then tagged off and Milbury utterly put the boots to the young Oilers forward.

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Shanahan arrived early in 1996-97 and by late the following March the Red Wings were beating up the Avalanche in the regular season before beating them in the playoffs a couple of months later. Detroit had twisted history its way to become one of the great teams of the post-expansion era instead of its most underachieving one. No one benefited more from Shanahan than Scotty Bowman in their three-Cup partnership.

He was the NHL’s quintessential power winger, scoring 656 goals while making enemies along the way as does anyone unafraid to express an unpopular opinion and articulate enough to express it well. He is one of the last of the Old Lions of Winter, one of the last originals.

Shanahan will enter the Hall of Fame in three years and when he does so, he will go in because of what he did for the Red Wings and for Detroit, where he surely deserves to see his No. 14 raised to the top of Joe Louis.

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Are you happy about your return and about today?

Yes, of course I am happy. The first thing I am happy for is my team’s victory.

And three points on your first match...

Yeah, I picked up three. But I never get to a match planning how many points collect, if score or not...The first thing is that my team wins. Especially now that CSKA had a long losing streak it’s a good thing that we interrupted it. We played an excellent game and I think that we deserved to win.

Any regrets for your play in Columbus?

I didn’t even think about it. I will follow the guys and their matches. There is a good team there too. I had no such intentions as to prove something to them. Not now and never before…

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On July 1st, the Toronto Maple Leafs may have as many as 17 free agents to contend with, and 11 of those players will be unrestricted.

For many teams this would be considered a horrendous challenge.

The Leafs look at it as a great opportunity.

The corps of the 11 unrestricted free agents includes Alexei Ponikarovsky, Lee Stempniak, Matt Stajan, Vesa Toskala, Garnet Exelby, Wayne Primeau and Mike Van Ryn.

Matt Stajan is believed to be a prime trade target and isn’t likely to be back.

Ponikarovsky is valued and will likely be offered an extension, however after that the interest in those remaining is quickly fading.

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