Hype for December 26, 2009

When the Medicine Hat Tigers went looking for a new coach seven years ago, general manager Rick Carriere put in a call to Dave King.

King, one of Canada's most experienced hockey coaches, gave Carriere one name and one name only: Willie Desjardins.

"I said, 'OK, anybody else?"' Carriere recalls. "He said, 'No, just phone Willie. Willie is the guy you want to hire."'

The Ottawa Senators will try their best to enjoy the brief Christmas break before divulging the severity of captain Daniel Alfredsson's left shoulder injury.

A team spokesman confirmed Thursday that details of the injury won't be made available to the media until after the Senators conclude their pre-game skate on Saturday morning in Buffalo.

Alfredsson, 37, hurt the shoulder in the opening period of Wednesday's 8-2 loss at Pittsburgh and hinted afterward that he will likely be shelved for several weeks.

The formidable and dynamic trio of Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin and Ilya Kovalchuk headline Russia's star-laden, 23-man provisional hockey roster for the Vancouver Olympics unveiled Friday.

Other stars on head coach Vyacheslav Bykov's club include forwards Pavel Datsyuk and Alexander Semin, defencemen Sergei Gonchar and Andrei Markov, plus goaltenders Evgeni Nabokov and Ilya Bryzgalov.

The Russians, who head into the 2010 Winter Games as two-time defending world champions, will be one of the teams to beat. They last won Olympic gold at the 1992 Albertville Games.