Hype for March 30, 2010

The head of Ice Edge Holdings says his company remains on track to purchase the Phoenix Coyotes, despite widespread speculation that the acquisition is in trouble over financing.

Chief executive officer Anthony LeBlanc also says the company has hired former Arizona lawyer general Grant Woods to finalize a new lease agreement with the city of Glendale.

In an email to The Associated Press on Monday night, LeBlanc quoted Mark Twain in saying "Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

Earlier in the evening, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly issued a statement saying the league has no agreement to move the Phoenix Coyotes to Winnipeg or anywhere else if owners cannot be found to keep the team in Arizona.

Cam Ward returned just in time to deal a major blow to Atlanta's playoff hopes.

After missing 19 games recovering from a back injury, Ward turned aside 26 shots Monday night to lead the Carolina Hurricanes to a 4-1 victory over the Thrashers, who squandered a chance to pull even with Boston for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

The way Ryan Miller and the Buffalo Sabres are closing out games could make them extremely tough to face a few weeks from now.

Tyler Myers had a goal and set up Paul Gaustad's score to lift the surging Sabres to their sixth win in seven games, 3-2 over the Boston Bruins on Monday night. Miller made 40 saves, including Marco Sturm's penalty shot in the first period and Mark Recchi's shot from the edge of the crease as the final horn sounded, in a matchup of last month's USA Olympic goaltenders.

After Teemu Selanne basked in pre-game cheers from a ceremony honouring his 600th goal, he helped an Anaheim teammate from the next generation make some history of his own.

And with an eight-shot performance, the Finnish Flash even showed why he still has a future in hockey if he decides to put off retirement for another year. Nick Bonino scored his first NHL goal with an assist from Selanne, and Curtis McElhinney made 30 saves in the Ducks' 3-1 victory over the Dallas Stars on Monday night.

A screaming, stick-breaking meltdown caught on video has turned Jim Playfair into an Internet sensation.

The intense but usually controlled head coach of the American Hockey League's Abbotsford Heat became enraged over the weekend following a call by referee Jamie Koharski during a game against the Hamilton Bulldogs.

A jaw-dropping video on the Internet shows Playfair violently shattering two sticks and ripping off his jacket while screaming at officials.

The video had drawn more than 600,000 views on YouTube as of Monday afternoon. It even made CNN.

Gritty Buffalo Sabres forward Patrick Kaleta has had surgery to repair a thumb injury and is expected to miss the final two weeks of the regular season.

The Sabres announced that Kaleta had surgery on Monday, before Buffalo's game at Boston.

Jared Boll and Chris Clark will miss the rest of the season for the columbus Blue Jackets because of injuries.

The club also added forward Tomas Kana to the roster on emergency recall from its American Hockey League affiliate in Syracuse.