Hype for March 12, 2010

The youth movement has injected some new life into the long moribund Toronto Maple Leafs, and the way the kids have played of late offers up some tantalizing visions of better times ahead.

The pieces fit together brilliantly in Thursday night's 4-3 overtime win over the fast-fading Tampa Bay Lightning, with rookies Viktor Stalberg, Tyler Bozak and Luca Caputi doing the heavy lifting in regulation and Phil Kessel, himself just 22, sealing the deal at 3:33 of the extra session.

Reebok is taking the $10,000 reward posted for Sidney's Crosby's missing Olympic gear and sweetening it to make three charitable donations.

The reward went unclaimed since Hockey Canada found the glove and stick had been misplaced rather than stolen.

But Reebok, which sponsors No. 87, is paying up anyway with separate $8,700 donations to the Hockey Canada Foundation, USA Hockey's "Come Play Youth Hockey" program and the Sidney Crosby Foundation.

Welcome to the Edmonton Oilers, Ryan Whitney.

Playing in only his fourth game as an Oiler on Thursday since being acquired from Anaheim at the trade deadline, Whitney took an Andrei Markov wrist shot off the right knee late in the second period of Edmonton's game against Montreal and hobbled off the ice.

He did not return to the Oilers' 5-4 shootout loss to the Canadiens, adding his name to a voluminous Edmonton injury list that already includes fellow defencemen Sheldon Souray and Ladislav Smid.

Paul Stastny had a forgettable game in Colorado's loss to Vancouver on Tuesday night.

He made up for it Thursday night.

Stastny scored twice, and Craig Anderson made 27 saves to move into a tie for the NHL shutout lead with seven in the Avalanche's 3-0 victory over the Florida Panthers.

The Montreal Canadiens survived a scare from the NHL's worst team on Thursday night.

The Canadiens needed a huge save from Jaroslav Halak on Shawn Horcoff in overtime and Andrei Kostitsyn's goal in the fifth round of the shootout for a 5-4 win over the lowly Edmonton Oliers. "It's not easy against these teams - they've got nothing to lose," said Canadiens defenceman Andrei Markov. "And then we try to get too fancy and sometimes it doesn't work.

Miikka Kiprusoff had a lot of help getting his fourth shutout of the season.

Sure, the Calgary goaltender made 33 saves, but his teammates combined for 30 more blocked shots as Flames won its their in a row, 2-0 over the Ottawa Senators on Thursday.