Earlier today, we blogged about the shootout and how players who are serving a penalty when the 4-on-4 overtime ends should have some form of sanction for the shootout. In the post, reader Cory S. thought it "would be interesting to see just how many penalized players with time remaining to serve have then gone out to score in the shoot out."

Puck Buddy Will, a.k.a. "hockeymaster4789" (sounds like a cyborg Lou Lamoriello unleashes to make players with fat contracts disappear) decided to waste the better part of a morning to meet that challenge, a least for the last two seasons.

What he found are a couple of examples in which a player in the penalty box at the end of the 4-on-4 helped win the game for his team in the shootout; and yes, one of those examples is a certain goaltender for the Dallas Stars pictured here.

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Here are your Puck Headlines: A glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.

• Fancy pants! George Richards gives us a teaser of what the new Florida Panthers third jerseys will look like by showing us their spiffy new bottoms. The new duds are set to debut this evening. [On Frozen Pond]

• Georges Laraque had his hearing with the NHL this morning for his knee-on-knee hit with Niklas Kronwall that'll sideline the Detroit Red Wings defenseman for at least a month. According to TSN: "Because the meeting was still considered an in-person hearing by the NHL, the league can suspend Laraque five or more games if it so chooses." [TSN]

• Brian Burke appears willing to take veteran defenseman Brent Sopel's contract from the Chicago Blackhawks, provided the 'Hawks kick in a draft pick in the salary dump. Spector has more on Fadoo. [Globe & Mail and Toronto Sun]

• San Jose Sharks center Joe Thornton, Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price and Ottawa Senators center Mike Fisher have been named the NHL 'Three Stars' for the week ending Nov. 22. [NHL]

• Speaking of Fisher, he had an interesting chat with the Sun about his celebrity relationship with Carrie Underwood, ranging from marriage plans to Regis Philbin calling him a "good-looking brute." Which has to be somewhat life-fulfilling. [Sun Media]

• Making excuses for the Ottawa Senators' attendance issues this season. [Cornwall Standard]

• NHL Fan Association co-founder Jim Boone has asked Gary Bettman to resign in an open letter to The Hockey News, and for some reason it's getting some play today. It's sarcastic "go out on top" tone clashes with its occasional indictments of his tenure as commissioner, making it ineffective as a call to action. The logic behind the NHL becoming as chaotic at the top as the NHLPA for the sake of labor peace is lost on us. But hey, give it read; maybe you think it's the rhetorical right hook to the jaw that could be delivered three dozen ways based on Gary's fumbles. [THN]

• Preparing for the glories of "Uwe Krupp Night" at the Pepsi Center for the Colorado Avalanche. He played three seasons with that Avs; or nearly two more than that No. 77 hanging from the rafters. [All Things Avs]

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Once more, with feeling: You're never going to convince us that a skills competition, which doesn't feature a pass attempt or a defenseman on the ice, is an equitable manner by which to determine the victor of a professional hockey game; or, indirectly, the teams that eventually make or miss the postseason.

But our therapist keeps asking us to learn to live with the shootout, so we've offered some suggestions here and there to improve it.

Sometimes it's about increasing the fun factor, like the "superstar provision" discussed recently. Other times, it's bringing some level of competitive fairness to the proceedings, like our contention that the NHL should increase it to five shooters for each side.

But there's a complete, total, absolute, change the League should have already made to its overtime format but hasn't; something that was on display in the Columbus Blue Jackets' game against the Nashville Predators over the weekend.

Why are players serving penalties at the end of the 4-on-4 OT allowed to participate in the shootout?

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Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend's events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it.

Prior to the start of the season, everyone was just brimming with optimism. Hockey was, after what felt like a painfully long summer, almost back. The glee was palpable.

As so many pundits do, I made what I called 20 bold predictions (where "bold" usually either meant "sarcastic" or "painfully obvious" but occasionally bordered on "somewhat daring").

Now that every team in the league has played at least 20 games and we're more than a quarter of the way through the season, I figure it's as good a time as any to see how those predictions are coming along.

My guess: Not well. Feel free to hold me accountable.

[Coming up: Your ol' pal Lambert looks at his miserable failures, Anaheim needs to hire new doctors, Kyle Okposo loves him some mediocre AHL players, the best ever fight between two French Canadians, St. Louis will keep but maybe not keep Alex Pietrangelo (I swear), Rick Nash goes on a European Vacation, the top 10 reasons it hurts to watch the Avs, and Evgeni Nabokov doesn't like your line of questioning.]

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No. 1 star: Steven Stamkos(notes), Tampa Bay Lightning

The 2008 No. 1 overall pick continued his breakout year as his 15th goal of the season in overtime gave the Lightning a 4-3 win over the Atlanta Thrashers. Currently tied for fourth in the NHL in goals scored with Jarome Iginla(notes), Stamkos, along with Ryan Malone(notes), is carrying the Lightning offensive load as Vincent Lecavalier(notes) and Martin St. Louis(notes) struggle with a combined nine goals. 

No. 2 Star: Antti Niemi(notes), Chicago Blackhawks

The 26-year old Finn backstopped the 'Hawks to a 1-0 win in Vancouver by making 30 saves for his second shutout of the season. Chicago swept the Western Canadian portion of their roadtrip and will finish things up with three games in California beginning Wednesday at Anaheim. With the win, Niemi improves to 4-1-1 on the season.

No. 3 Star: Antero Niittymaki(notes), Tampa Bay Lightning

Making 28 saves on the evening, Niittymaki won his sixth game of the season and his 15th straight over a Southeast Division opponent. Atlanta rallied back with three goals in the third period, but was unable to record a shot in overtime before Stamkos won it. Niittymaki currently owns the NHL's best save-percentage at .936.

Honorable mention: Martin St. Louis had three assists including one on Stamkos' overtime winner ... Stephane Veilleux(notes) and Kurtis Foster(notes) both scored their first goals of the season for the Lightning ...  Evander Kane's(notes) seventh goal for Atlanta puts him in second place behind New York Islanders forward John Tavares(notes) among rookies ...  Bryan Bickell(notes) scored the winner for Chicago 1:12 into the third period. It was his first goal in over two years ... Roberto Luongo(notes) did all he could for the Canucks making 16 saves, but was let down by his offense ... Ben Eager(notes) and Rick Rypien(notes) discussed the MLS Cup Final in their own special way:

Did you know?: With his win against Atlanta, Niittymaki is now 15-0-0 against the Thrashers in his career. (AP)

Dishonorable mention: Atlanta ended their homestand by losing their last three games ... Not a good weekend for Thrashers captain Ilya Kovalchuk(notes). A day after earning 19-penalty minutes against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Kovy couldn't beat Niittymaki on seven shots and finished a minus-3 ...  Even with the win, Joel Quenneville couldn't have been happy that the Blackhawks were 16-for-42 in the faceoff circle.

The last time Jonathan Toews saw Vancouver Canucks defenseman Willie Mitchell on the ice ... well, it's safe to assume he didn't see all that much of him when Mitchell steamrolled him on Oct. 21. The Chicago Blackhawks captain was concussed, missed six games and the Chicago offense struggled without him.

He returned on Nov. 9; the Blackhawks haven't lost a game since then.

So they roll into Vancouver tonight to face a Canucks team that's won two in a row and gets Daniel Sedin back from injury to play on a line with brother Henrik and Alex Burrows.

It's a heck of a matchup between two increasingly bitter conference rivals -- and hey, you can watch the game live via Hockey Night on Y! -- but that's taken a back seat to Toews vs. Mitchell in the pregame hype.

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(Ed. Note: Our series "5 Reasons I Love Hockey" features puckheads from all walks of life revealing five things that either made them a fan or that keep them watching hockey. It will run every weekend. Have a suggestion for a "5 Reasons" guest blogger? Hit us on email. Enjoy!)

If you read the Puck Headlines every weekday, you've no doubt seen Ryan Kennedy's name before. He's a writer and editor at The Hockey News, and one of those columnists that will generally provide a take on the League's big issues and players that hasn't already been regurgitated throughout the rest of the media. Which is a good thing.

He's also a gear-obsessed, hockey culture guy; his latest venture at THN is a special lifestyle magazine called Fully Loaded, which features the best in hockey streetwear, NHL gear and hockey equipment.

Good writer, good dude. Here are five reasons why Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News loves hockey:

1. Fighting

We have a very tight-knit crew in the offices of THN, but nothing sets off the screaming like the fighting debate. As one of the resident hawks (it's not hard to figure out who the doves are), I maintain that fighting is part of the fabric of the game. Sure, maybe the sport can survive without it, but we all grew up watching fights and that's how we fell in love with the sport. It would be like taking the cheating and dullness out of soccer.

Plus, I just like it.

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No. 1 star: Stephane Robidas, Dallas Stars

After Brian Rolston opened the scoring for the New Jersey Devils, it became the Robidas Show for the rest of the first period: Primary assists on goals by Warren Peters and Mike Ribeiro, and then a power-play goal of this own. Tom Wandell's goal in the third gave the Stars the lead again after a Devils' rally, and it was Robidas that finished off the scoring with his fifth of the season for a 5-3 Dallas victory. It was the defenseman's second career two-goal game and first four-point night.

No. 2 Star: Jarome Iginla, Calgary Flames

Iggy now has 15 goals on the season, 11 coming in November, as his hat trick helped the Flames to a 5-2 victory at the Los Angeles Kings. As usual, Iginla's contributions to the win went beyond the score sheet, as Coach Brent Sutter said he was "just rock solid in a lot of areas."

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The Detroit Red Wings are expecting defenseman Niklas Kronwall(notes) will be out at least two weeks with a "a second-degree, possibly third-degree MCL sprain to his left knee" after a knee-on-knee hit by Montreal Canadiens tough guy Georges Laraque(notes) on Saturday night -- at hit Wings players and management have condemned as dirty.

Here's the hit, which came after Laraque had already been whistled for a high stick on Darren Helm(notes) that got him a double-minor:

The three penalties Laraque earned resulted in two power-play goals for the Red Wings, so there was some measure of revenge (to go along with winning the game in the shootout, 3-2). The question is now whether there will be something more coming Laraque's way, as everyone from the Detroit media to Don Cherry called it dirty. Laraque, however, was defiant after the game, according to the AP:

"There were four refs on the ice and they didn't call anything," Laraque said. "If they called a match penalty it would be different. There was no intent. There was no reason why I would try to go and hurt him. It was a pure accident, that's why they called it tripping, so I'm not worried at all."

George Malik has more. As he points out, it's a significant player for the Wings with a previous history of knee injuries; factor in that Laraque has a suspension history, and it's likely we'll see something more from the NHL.

But beyond the mandatory criteria for the NHL Wheel of Discipline: It's a dirty hit that deserves further sanction, and that's the case whether Kronwall was injured or not. Laraque's got a reason to worry here.

(No, the first decade of the 21st century doesn't technically end until 2011. Save your bellyaching. But we've had nine NHL seasons and one stolen from us since 1999-2000, and Yahoo! Sports has decided it's time to rank the best and worst of the last "decade." Enjoy, and snark freely in the comments.)

Let's get this out of the way right off the top: This isn't a list of the best individual teams that didn't win a Stanley Cup.

This isn't a list that will feature the 2000-01 New Jersey Devils, 2001-02 Carolina Hurricanes, 2002-03 Anaheim Ducks, 2007-08 Pittsburgh Penguins or 2008-09 Detroit Red Wings -- those four teams (or franchises) got their rings this decade.

This list is about the franchises that have excelled this past decade, but for one reason or another came up short in their quest for a title. Listed here are President Trophy winners, conference champions and annual Cup contenders that couldn't finish the job. They hold the fan bases that had their high expectations dashed by a less than fruitful spring.

With that, our 10 best teams to never win a Stanley Cup this decade are ...

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