Andrej Sekera had a moment of panic.

A Buffalo Sabres defenseman playing for the KHL's Slovan Bratislava (Miro Satan's team) during the NHL lockout, Sekera witnessed a botched line change on Saturday night against Lev Praha, putting his team at risk for a too many men on the ice penalty in the second period.

[Eric Adelson: With no Winter Classic, players should take it outside]

Sekera knew he had to get over the boards. So he did … leaping into his opponents' bench to try and avoid the referees' castigation (no sound in video):

He may have actually been too quick on his skates: A player leaping into the opposing team's bench tends to garner a wee bit of attention from the officials. Slovan was given a too many men penalty, although they killed off the ensuing power play. They'd eventually win the game, 2-0.

Alas, Sekera's ruse was discovered before he could get his Ryane Clowe on from the bench ...

s/t Aftonbladet,

Goalie Justin Hubert and defenseman Dalton Holt play for the Fresno Monsters of the North American Hockey League, a Junior A Tier II team. On Oct. 19, they had $6,000 worth of hockey gear stolen from their cars. Then they were offered a chance to get it back.

According to the Fresno Police Auto Theft Team, someone contacted one of the players via Facebook, offering to return the gear to the players for the tidy "finder's fee" of around $650.

[Also: Hockey card set features simplistic sketches by NHL rookies]

Ah, but what the, ahem, good Samaritans on Facebook didn't count on: The players going to the police, who took it from there. From KSEE News:

Sgt. Timothy Tietjen said, "One of our officers posed as one of the hockey players, and was on the phone and negotiating a deal. They met here at Milburn & Herndon in the parking lot, actually negotiated the deal with the females. For $650 they would exchange the property."

At that point, officers closed in on the suspects arresting

Getty Images(UPDATE: False alarm? Helene Elliott clarifies that Quick has only been allowed to work out with the Monarchs rather than play for them. The AHL says he can't, despite Dean Lombardi's feelings to the contrary. Congrats, Martin Jones -- you're safe!)

Martin Jones was an undrafted goaltender who played 39 games with the AHL Manchester Monarchs last season, serving as a Black Ace for the Los Angeles Kings during their Stanley Cup run. The 22-year-old is 5-2-1 for Manchester this season, with an impressive 1.62 GAA and a .939 save percentage.

But he's not Jonathan Quick. Which means he's going to be riding the pine with some frequency for the foreseeable future, as the Los Angeles Kings starting goaltender and Conn Smythe winner descends to the AHL during the NHL lockout.

Via Helene Elliott of the LA Times, why the Vezina nominee is allowed to play in the AHL:

Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick, winner of the Conn Smythe trophy as the most valuable player in the playoffs, will be assigned to Manchester (N.H.) of the American Hockey League this week as the next step in his recovery from postseason back surgery. General Manager Dean Lombardi confirmed on Monday that Quick will play for the Kings' top farm team, but Lombardi said he's not sure whether Quick's rehabilitation stint there will be limited to a specific number of games.

Although transactions are, in general, forbidden during the lockout this move is permitted because Quick's injury and surgery were hockey-related and occurred before the NHL imposed the lockout on Sept. 15.

Quick signed a 10-year, $58-million extension last summer with the Kings that kicks in for the 2013-14 season, should it actually occur.

His last games for the Monarchs came in the 2008-09 season, when he was 6-5-2 in 14 appearances. But a lot has changed since then. He's an elite, championship-caliber goalie. His puck-controlling Jedi powers activated. And his daughter provided the greatest interview moment of the Final. (Is she AHL eligible too?)

Ah, sweet, sweet exceptions to the rules. Say hi to Braden Holtby while you're there, sir.

Getty Images

Rookies carry some baggage when they arrive in the NHL, and not just because they're rookies and hence have to carry their teammates' bags. There are expectations for success; the promise of a bright future; and, of course, the millions of dollars built into their contracts that they'll never see, but that will allow their cap floor-challenged teams to reach the mandatory minimum for spending in this financial system.

[Related: What will NHL refuse to concede to union in lockout stalemate?]

Pop quiz, hot shot: How many rookies scored over 20 goals last season? That would be two: Matt Read (24) and Gabriel Landeskog (22).

How many had 35 assists? That would be one: Adam Henrique (35).

How many defensemen hit the 40-point mark? That would be zero.

These are all performance clause triggers in an NHL Entry Level Contract, giving young players bonus money on top of their base salary. Granted, many players will likely clear their hurdles in the next two years of their ELC deals; but as rookies, the most they'll get out of the bonus money is watching their team use it to reach the cap floor.

The New York Islanders' Nino Niederreiter, for example, had a base salary of $900,000 last season and bonuses that would have paid him $1.925 million according to Cap Geek. Alas, he played 55 games with the Islanders and scored a single goal. He didn't earn his bonus money, but the Islanders had his $2.795 million cap hit apply to their payroll.

Among the many issues being debated in this lockout: The salary cap floor and the "creative accounting" we've seen by teams to either get under the cap or to reach the floor. Things like … oh, you know … counting against the cap bonus money that a young player will never unlock, like it's an unattainable achievement on a video game.

[Also: Martin Brodeur favors short season, like when he won Cup in '94-95]

David Shoalts of the Globe & Mail believes that the practice could come to an end in the next CBA … and that there are some dire implications for AHL players in the fallout.

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.

• We don't often simply publish a photo and do the "Caption This!" thing. But for this image of Patrick Kane and Tyler Seguin playing for EHC Biel in Switzerland … have at it and CAPTION THIS in the comments. [@btmn99]

[Nick Cotsonika: The world according to Jaromir Jagr]

• The NHL and the NHLPA are preparing for a week of talks, and the great news is that they're not about where to hold the talks but actual, you know, negotiations. [CSN Bay Area]

• "Sidney Crosby inadvertently took a divot out of Matt Cooke's forehead with his stick during a drill last Friday." In a related story, Boston just purchased Sidney Crosby the beverage of his choice. [Post-Gazette]

• Finally … Thomas Vanek … HAS COME BACK TO BUFFALO (from Austria). [Sabres Edge]

• The epic failure of the New York Islanders leaving for Brooklyn: "The Coliseum was no longer fit for a professional franchise and the clown show that is often Nassau County government apparently didn't see the importance of keeping the team." [The Island Now]

• Great stuff from Charles P. Pierce on the Manchester Monarchs and how hockey continues while the NHL is locked out. From Larry Robinson of the San Jose Sharks: "It's big business now. If you look at what they're talking about in revenues, you're not talking about millions, you're talking about billions. There's got to be some medium somewhere where both sides can be happy. For me, it's very frustrating because I'm just starting with a new organization and I was happy and excited to start a new job, and all of a sudden there's no job to go to, and it's frustrating for me." [Grantland]

[Also: A glance at NHLPA perks in next CBA]

• Another good piece from Aaron Gordon at The Classical, on Gary Bettman: "No other league deprives their fans of their product with such regularity in the name of making the game more popular. This is The Bettman Paradox: the league that shrinks in order to grow, the league that stops existing so it can continue to exist." [The Classical, via Wayne Brown]

• Rick DiPietro is hurt. We'll alert the media. [Merkur, via Travis Hughes]

It's a Monday edition of Marek vs. Wyshynski beginning at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT, and we're talking about the following and more:

Special Guest Stars: The great Joe Haggerty of CSN New England joins us to talk about the NHL lockout and the Boston Bruins.

• The positive momentum in the CBA talks.

• More Winter Classic cancellation fallout.

• Our podcast of the year campaign continues, despite the haters.

Question of the Day: Give us your ultimate NHL presidential ticket, with president and VP, and why?

Email your answers to jeff.marek@sportsnet.ca or tweet them with the hashtag #MvsW to @jeffmarek.

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Getty ImagesBy now, we're all well-versed in the big issues for the NHL and NHLPA in their CBA negotiation, from the revenue split to contract limits. But what about all the little details; the peripheral stuff that we've about the sides finding common ground on throughout the process?

Michael Russo of the Star Tribune offered a glimpse at what the NHLPA could be getting from the next CBA, and it's a revealing look at how much goes into this type of negotiation beyond, say, escrow payments.

From the Star Tribune, the possible NHLPA "wins" in the second CBA include:

1) Joint NHL/NHLPA Health and Safety Committee with equal representation by the league and union;

2) Establishment of a "standard of care" and "primary allegiance" obligations between the team medical staff and players (this is directly due to the tragic Derek Boogaard situation that remains ongoing);

3) Offseason rehab activities would no longer be required in the team's home city;

4) Players have access to second medical opinions at the club expense;

There's no telling what kind of damage the Boogaard saga had on players' medical confidence in their teams. Maybe some saw it as an isolated case; maybe others saw it as a player that needed help that, in the eyes of his family, never received it.

[Nick Cotsonika: The world according to Jaromir Jagr]

But it sounds as if the next CBA will formalize a team's medical responsibilities to a player and, in the last two cases, allow players wider options for both rehab and diagnosis.

5) Ice time restrictions and days off during training camp;

Looking to clarify this with the NHLPA, but I can't imagine this is good news for old school bag-skatin' coaches that see the preseason as their own personal boot camp.

So, like, all of them then ...

Of course, the guys hauling ass trying to make the team probably aren't down with mandatory days off.

When the Cardiff Devils of the U.K.'s Elite Ice Hockey League signed Paul Bissonnette, they knew they were getting an accomplished pugilist and new media hockey folk hero. Little did they know there were also getting an offensive juggernaut.

[Watch: Puck Daddy's Harrison Mooney in parody video 'Call The Union']

The Devils defeated the Braehead Clan on Saturday night, 7-5; watch BizNasty score the first goal of the game just 72 seconds into the contest. (The goal is 12 seconds into this highlight clip; Bissonnette is, incidentally, No. 12.)

Wow, those hands. It's like if Peter Forsberg and Pavel Datsyuk had a baby, and that baby grew up to be a fourth-liner who makes references to panty soup on Twitter.