The Chicago Blackhawks have a chance to make NHL history against the San Jose Sharks on Friday night, attempting to become the first team to open the season with a point in each of its first 17 games.

And isn’t it funny how the Hockey Gods make these things happen?

To tie the record, set by the 2006-07 Anaheim Ducks, the Blackhawks needed a shootout win against their archrivals, the Vancouver Canucks. To break the record, they’ll have to beat an old friend: Antti Niemi, the Sharks goalie that backstopped the Blackhawks to the 2009-10 Stanley Cup championship.

Niemi was 0-1-1 with a 3.41 GAA at United Center last season and was 1-1 with a 4.80 GAA in the previous season.

The Blackhawks, meanwhile, will get a boost from a healthy Marian Hossa – who left the Canucks game after a hit from behind by Jannik Hansen – and Dan Carcillo, who is ready for this first action of the season.

So is there a buzz in the Chicago room for this NHL record-breaking opportunity?

Sorta. The Blackhawks are trying to play it somewhat cool.

Philadelphia Flyers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov is the Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson of the National Hockey League, having opined on the “humangous beeg” solar system and actually trained as a Russian Cosmonaut.

He’s also Russian, in case that last example was lost on you. Hence, there’s no better expert to opine on the meteor shower damage done to Arena Traktor, the home to the KHL's Traktor Chelyabinsk.

Or, for that matter, on the threat of meteors to the Earth.

Here’s Bryz, on WIP in Philly, talking about the final frontier [s/t Crossing Broad]

“It’s amazing. Probably every day our atmosphere was penetrated with smaller sized of the meteors and just burned high in the atmosphere, yeah. But this is a much bigger size, but not that big that it struck the Earth like far, far behind back in the days when dinosaurs were destroyed.

“It’s one thing that's very interested. On the other hand, it’s dangerous. And you know we can’t protect ourselves from the space danger.

“And the next day the asteroid, the bigger size, flied close to the Earth. And this metal thing, if it hit with huge speed into the Earth, it was going to be disaster right now. We’re not going to be thinking of hockey right now, we were going to be thinking about how to survive.

“We just have to be happy and thankful and enjoy our lives.

Listen to the full interview here, or read the highlights from Crossing Broad.

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.

• Lego Hockey Hall of Fame! We believe that’s Lego Pierre Turgeon on the outside looking in. [Facebook]

• Remembering the Miracle on Ice, which happened 33 years ago. [MPR]

• On Rick DiPietro’s future with the New York Islanders, an unnamed team executive in the NHL tells Pierre LeBrun: “You would think they will buy him out after this season. If they do, they might not use the transition buyout so that his buyout counts against the floor going forward." [ESPN NY]

• Marian Hossa and Dan Carcillo return for the Chicago Blackhawks against the San Jose Sharks. OK, well, Hossa didn’t miss a game, actually. [Tribune]

• In which Don Cherry helps his son scout the OHL. [The Star]

• Is Roberto Luongo just a big phony? [Sportsnet]

• Minnesota Wild blogger offers a message to Taylor Hall: “For a guy that his spent a good amount of time on the shelf with injuries yourself, one would think you’d be a little more careful and considerate with your hits. That type of play was inexcusable, plain and simple. Grow up. You are a vital part of the future for your franchise, and a role model to many, many people. Don’t think that, because your team also drafted Nugent-Hopkins and Nail Yakupov, you have suddenly become expendable. Don’t think you have to resort to being a thug to keep your place on the team.” [Gone Puck Wild]

• Cal Clutterbuck, on crutches: “Usually when I've got the puck, I'm pretty aware. When I don't have the puck, it's obviously out of my control." [@VickiHall]

When the NHL lockout cancelled 2012 Winter Classic, we lost more than hockey's marquee game. We also lost the big reveal of Detroit and Toronto's special, limited-edition jerseys, which is always a fun part of the annual festivities. With as much history as those two squads had to draw from, there was no doubt it was going to be neat.

But if a few recent eBay postings are any indication, there's no need to wonder what sweaters the Red Wings and the Leafs would have been wearing -- you're looking at them.

The Maple Leafs jersey popped up online on February 14th, originally at Icethetics after it was posted on eBay by TheHockeyJersey.co, and a close look at the Leafs sweater suggested to the jersey aesthetes at Icethetics that they aren't simply counterfeits:

I'll level with you guys. I feel no need to help prove that this isn't a counterfeit. I'm just here to share information. You can believe whatever you like. That being said, based on my years of research and knowledge, I'm comfortable saying this jersey came out of a Reebok factory.

Icethetics notes that, while the Winter Classic uniforms weren't released due to the game's cancellation, it was cancelled late enough in the year that the jerseys would likely have been produced.

LISTEN HERE!

It's a (gettin' down on) Friday 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 Star: This is awesome - Boston Bruins organist @RonPoster joins us to talk arena music. Also, it's GAME SHOW FRIDAY ... Rick DiPietro edition!

• Taylor Hall defends his kneeing penalty against Cal Clutterbuck is a snippy little way.

• Erik Karlsson calls out Matt Cooke, sorta.

• Previewing the weekend.

Question of the Day: What's your favourite song to hear at a hockey game?

Tweet your answers with the hashtag #MvsW to @wyshynski and @jeffmarek.

Click here for the Sportsnet live stream or click the play button above! Click here to download podcasts from the show each day. Subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or Feedburner.

Getty ImagesWhen Rick DiPietro signed his record 15-year deal with the New York Islanders in Sept. 2006, it sparked debate around the NHL. And by debate we mean ridicule.

"It means the owner is a moron," one NHL executive told ESPN.com. "It makes no sense. This is all about Charles Wang's ego."

Of course, no one could have predicted that DiPietro would have a seemingly endless parade of injuries that limited him to 47 games since 2008, or that he’d be abjectly horrendous in 2013 for the Islanders at age 31.

Or that DiPietro would be placed on waivers by the Islanders, as Arthur Staple reported on Friday. Ouch.

From Newsday:

DiPietro, 31, still has eight years remaining on the 15-year, $67.5 million contract Charles Wang gave the former No. 1 overall pick in 2006. Injuries derailed the once-promising goaltender's career, and he has lost all three of his starts this season as Evgeni Nabokov's backup.

Coach Jack Capuano has refused to discuss DiPietro's performance after his last two starts, most recently a 3-1 loss to the Senators on Tuesday. It was clear before then that DiPietro had lost the faith of his coaches.

The intention is to call up Kevin Poulin and send DiPietro to AHL Bridgeport in order to get him some work, unless of course he’s claimed on HAHAHAHA oh we can’t even finish that one.

So the Islanders will have a $3.6 million cap hit down in Bridgeport and a $5 million cap hit in Tim Thomas somewhere in an undisclosed doomsday preppers bunker. Both of whom help the Islanders hit the salary cap floor, by the way.

For many fans, DiPietro has become a figure of sympathy, a victim of bad luck anchored down by a contract he had the nerve to sign when it was offered to him (for shame). As the Islanders creep forever closer to their Blackhawks-like franchise revival lovefest among NHL fans – and to a glorious move to Brooklyn – it would have been gratifying to see DiPietro have his fortunes reversed with them.

To not, for once in his career, be a punchline.

Even if he makes a great punchline.

APInjured Ottawa Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson met with the media on Friday to declare that Pittsburgh Penguins forward Matt Cooke intended to injure him and end his season.

Thankfully, he didn’t go all the way and claim, as others have, that Cooke intentionally sliced his Achilles with his skate during that collision along the boards. Which is probably a good thing, considering that the “Matt Cooke deliberately Ginzu’d Karlsson” conspiracy theory is completely insane.

Courtesy of Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun, Karlsson said of Cooke:

"He knows exactly what he is doing out there. That is why I am sitting here with leg in cast."

“I don’t think he did it on purpose … He meant to hit me hard and knock me out.”

"I still think it was a situation that could have been prevented.”

[On Cooke’s text message to Karlsson] “He has been after me before. … At least he reached out which I didn’t expect. We’re going to leave it at that."

Karlsson added that he didn’t believe this would have occurred had it been another player other than Cooke hitting him.

One more, via Ian Mendes:

"I don't think his intention was to cut me with his skate. I refuse to believe that anyone would do that."

You have to sympathize with Karlsson, who saw his season end and the fortunes of his team potentially altered in one brief horrific moment. But accidents will happen, this was one of them, and it’s a shame to see a bright young burgeoning star stoop to prosecuting a Matt Cooke that hasn’t been in the League for close to two years.

Getty Images

Trending Topics is a column that looks at the week in hockey, occasionally according to Twitter. If you're only going to comment to say how stupid Twitter is, why not just go have a good cry for the slow, sad death of your dear internet instead?

Hockey is one hell of a dangerous sport.

You have giant men moving really quickly around on rock-hard ice with little knives on their feet and weapons in their hand, surrounded by hard glass and even harder boards. While they do that, other huge guys, also with knived feet and sticks with blades on them are trying to knock them into the ice and the boards and the glass, also at high speeds, as hard as they possibly can.

Sometimes, those other huge guys also punch the first huge guys in the face. Wow. That's really dangerous, and it doesn't even count when accidents happen, as they so often do.

The latest of these incidents was Matt Cooke stepping on Erik Karlsson's Achilles tendon a little more than a week ago, putting the defending Norris Trophy winner on the shelf for the season and sparking an absurd amount of outrage because Cooke clearly obviously plainly meant to do it.

But another thing it sparked: Everyone noting how this particularly gruesome injury was also particularly avoidable, had Karlsson just been wearing a pair of kevlar socks. If he had been, his Achilles tendon might still have gotten a bit nicked up — that's what happens when a 200-pound man accidentally steps on your ankle with a knife strapped to his foot — but he sure as hell wouldn't be done for the season and facing a tough rehab.

As a consequence of the hockey world all of a sudden realizing there's an easy way to prevent this kind of injury from happening — namely, picking up a phone and ordering some socks from the company that makes them and then putting them on when you play hockey — it seems the entire NHL is now trying the socks out. And we've had to suffer through the requisite trend-pieces about these players marveling at how much these socks will help keep them off the long-term injured reserve as though this should come as news to anyone. I wonder if, when the NHL made helmets mandatory for 1979-80, guys like Mike Bossy sat around telling reporters, "Jeepers, this big thing of plastic and foam on my head really makes my head feel safe!"

The Detroit Red Wings, for example, now have more than a few players adopting them, and also wearing kevlar shirts. George McPhee dropped off a whole crate of them at a Capitals' practice. Most of the Anaheim Ducks were already on board, but the few holdouts are making the switch as well. Since Karlsson got hurt, 10 more Predators have also started wearing them. Yesterday, the Jets' Zach Redmond got a cut on the back of his leg just above where the kevlar socks he wears ended, which is a tough break.

"[T]here's no real point in not wearing them," Ryan Getzlaf told the Orange County Register.

And yet, it took a superstar player having an Achilles tendon nearly severed for everyone to say, "Wow, hey, maybe we should start wearing these things that could save our asses big-time if the unexpected happens!" I'll never understand it, I guess.