You'd think that Jack Johnson might be looking especially forward to Friday night's game in Los Angeles, his first return to the Staples Centre since he was traded from the Kings to the Columbus Blue Jackets last February.

It's always a gut punch to be traded, after all, and in Johnson's case, watching the Kings turn their season around and march all the way to their first ever Stanley Cup the moment he left had to be difficult. For many players, this is a game that would draw a bright red circle on the calendar.

But not for Johnson. "It’s just another game now," he told Jon Rosen of LA Kings Insider.

If there were any strange emotions, they've worn off with time. The trade, which sent Jeff Carter to LA (a place where his frosted tips would be appreciated) in exchange for Johnson and a first-round pick, happened almost a year ago. Since then, Johnson has faced the Kings twice, both times in Columbus. "It’s not a surreal thing anymore or a weird thing," Carter said.

"I’ve already

(Ed Note: Robert Ullman blog over at Atom Bomb Bikini. He can be followed on twitter at @robullman. Anyone interested in contributing an article, column or post to the blog can pitch yo stuff here. Now, here's Robert.)

by Robert Ullman

Ottawa Senators' owner Eugene Melnyk is upset.

You can understand why. On Tuesday night, his club lost their star defenceman, Erik Karlsson, to a brutal skate cut that will likely keep the reigning Norris trophy winner out for the remainder of the season. It's big loss, one that drastically diminishes the Senators' attack. They lead the league with 463 shots, in large part because, at the time of the injury, Karlsson led the league with 63.

Furthermore, it severely damages the Senators' hopes of contending for the Cup in this shortened season.

It's tough to accept, and tougher still considering the injury came via the skate of Matt Cooke, who has something of a spotted history. Cooke will see no discipline for the hit, largely because it was a freak accident, but the Senators and their fans are too busy seeing red to see reason.

On Friday, Melnyk expressed his outrage over the situation and the divisive Cooke's part in it to Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun:

Melnyk wondered why Cooke -- who has been suspended five times -- is allowed to play in the league. All this incident did was reinforce Melnyk's thinking.

"This guy should be kicked ... He doesn't belong in the league. He belongs somewhere where the goons play," said an emotional Melnyk. "Get him in the Central league. He can be a $60,000-a-year guy playing pick-up hockey there.

"The guy does not deserve ... He's got one purpose. I remember when this happened with Spezza. I said, 'If these are the rules, I just want to know.' We'll play with the same rules. Make sure you have one or two goons whose job is to do this either intentionally or unintentionally.

I'm going to assume Melnyk meant kicked out, not just kicked, because I don't want to believe he's advocating a retaliatory skate kick. We'll save assuming the absolute worst out of someone without cause for others.

You can understand where Melnyk is coming from. If Cooke had been suspended forever some time ago, Karlsson wouldn't have been cut.

Of course, just because you can understand it doesn't mean it isn't ridiculous.

In what has to be an historic first, a professional hockey arena has been temporarily shut down after suffering damage in a meteor shower.

The Russian city of Chelyabinsk was hit by a massive meteor on Friday. Hundreds were injured, and the meteor also caused a great deal of property damage, as you might imagine. Arena Traktor, the home to the KHL's Traktor Chelyabinsk pictured above, was among the facilities put out of commission. From the KHL's Facebook page:

The meteor shower which struck Chelyabinsk and its environs has also caused some disruption to the hockey season schedule. The emergency services have confirmed that the walls of the Arena Traktor were among those structures to suffer damage, and therefore large-scale events at the stadium have been postponed.

The sporting facilities will undergo an inspection by experts to assess the readiness of the arena to return to full operational use.

For the time being, the facility shutdown hasn't affected any KHL games. Chelyabinsk

Game action from the Turkmenistan President's Cup, where the local teams are racking up "decisive victories", according to Turkmenistan's state run media.

The United Arab Emirates isn't exactly a hockey superpower, but the nation is working at developing the game within its borders. They've had some success at the IIHF Challenge Cup of Asia, winning gold in 2009 and in 2012, but there, they're playing against other developing hockey nations like Chinese Taipei and Thailand. We can assume that they're not quite ready to go up against, say, a Russian team.

But we don't have to assume. This week, the UAE sent their U17 squad to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, for the inaugural Turkmenistan President's Cup. There, they faced off against the U17 HC Silver Lions from St. Petersburg, Russia. It didn't go well.

They lost by a final score of 60 - 0. From Ria Novosti:

The Silver Lions 95 under-17 hockey squad have produced an amazing score in the maiden Turkmenistan President’s Cup as the Saint Petersburgers put 60 goals past the United Arab Emirates national team.

The regular time of a hockey match is 60 minutes, which means the Russian players scored a goal every minute on average.

Yes, that is what that means.

Way to run up the score, St. Petersburg. Just wait until Don Cherry hears about this.

But don't feel bad for the Emirati team. Their boys may have been severely overmatched on the ice, but at least they were on the ice. The largest issue holding hockey back in the UAE is that there are only a handful of rinks. (Meanwhile, Google Maps shows six rinks in St. Peterburg alone.) National team player Faisal Saeed explained the need for more ice to the IIHF in 2011:

“There are a lot of kids waiting to play this sport, but we don’t have enough ice time for them. If we had more rinks, then we could really move the sport forward. We need to expand and I hope we do that.”

Now the Emirati want to look up to the top nations with the prospect of additional rinks. They think about an entry in the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship program for 2013. The first goal is to qualify for the Division III, but the dream is to become the first Arab team to challenge the traditional powerhouses from North America and Europe in the Top Division one day.

Clearly, that dream is still a ways off.

If it's any consolation to the UAE club, it could have been much, much worse. It would have taken another 32 goals to match the record for hockey's most lopsided loss. In 1998, South Korea defeated Thailand 92-0 at the Asia and Oceania championships.

Follow Harrison Mooney on Twitter at @HarrisonMooney

Max Pacioretty and Shawn Matthias go head-to-head.

No. 1 Star: Carey Price, Montreal Canadiens

It was a goaltender's duel in the Sunshine State, and Price came out on top, stopping all 26 shots he faced in a 1-0 overtime win over the Florida Panthers. The lone goal came courtesy of Rene Bourque, who ruined Jose Theodore's shutout bid at 2:10 of the extra frame.

No. 2 Star: Eric Fehr, Washington Capitals

Fehr is on fire right now. Two nights after putting up a goal and an assist in a win over Florida, Fehr continued producing for the Capitals in a 4-3 victory over Tampa Bay, scoring twice. He now has 5 points in his last 3 games, all of which the Capitals have won. Mathieu Perrault added 3 assists for Washington.

Here are your Puck Previews: Spotlighting the key games in NHL action, news and views as well as general frivolity. Make sure to stop back here for the nightly Three Stars when the games are finished.

NHL 94 chair mat. I must have this. [Dave's Geeky Ideas]

Preview: Toronto Maple Leafs at Carolina Hurricanes, 7 p.m. ET

Who'd have thought, this late into the season, this would be a matchup between two of the better teams in the Eastern Conference? Not I. But the Hurricanes currently sit atop the Southeast Division, and the Leafs have been on a tear of late. They're now just two points back of Boston atop the Northeast (although Boston has two games in hand). The Leafs will have to continue their tear without Matt Frattin and James Reimer, both of whom went down with injuries over the weekend. If they can, a win tonight will give them their first five-game winning streak since 2007.

Preview: New York Islanders at New York Rangers, 7 p.m. ET

If you're a betting man, take the Rangers. It's not just that have the better record or that they're at home. They've also won 3 straight, and if that's not enough, the Islanders haven't won at MSG in 8 straight tries. Guys to keep an eye on: Matt Moulson, who's been a point per game player versus New York over the last 20 affairs, and J.T. Miller, who's still trying to prove to the Rangers that he deserves to stay with the club.

(Ed Note: Gerald Morton is a part-time Zamboni operator, PhD Candidate, occasional lecturer at Vancouver Island University and former hockey target. Anyone interested in contributing an article, column or post to the blog can pitch yo stuff here. Now, here's Gerald.)

by Gerald Morton

In nine to thirteen minute intervals I work magic. I transform a broken patchwork of rutted snow, too tired to shine, into a smooth reflection of overhead lights and parents’ hopes. When I’m finished my eight lap pattern, like so many shattered childish dreams, only the scars remain as memory. I have one of the coolest jobs in the world.

I drive a Zamboni.

My job is joyful monotony. I’ve been doing this long enough that my heart doesn’t quicken every time I climb aboard my machine. But every day I get smiles from parents, waves from children and smirking, half-waves from teens who aren’t too jaded yet. These are the things that keep me going when I have another toilet to unplug, or endless glass to clean. These bright, happy faces warm me a little when I am up at 5 a.m., edging and chipping the ice in a cold, empty building.

An ice clean renews me as well. The Zamboni is so cool it erases histories and personalities and turns the operator into a symbol of adoration and admiration—if only for a brief time. The resurfacing of the ice is normally considered the coolest part of my job. It is the part that gets the most attention, to be sure. And the visual appeal of the conditioner turning old to new is undeniably hypnotic. But, I think it is only a potent symbol of a larger, and more interesting, phenomenon.

I am responsible for protecting and renewing a transformational space. The ice surface is not simply a place to play a game. It is a space where ordinary children become hockey players. It is a place of magic and mystery, outside the boundaries of ordinary society, where rituals turn children into adults and grownups are able to ignore the rules of their lives and simply play once more.

I guard the boundary of that space, and am responsible for its eternal return. The true power of a Zamboni operator comes from the acknowledgment that the space is mine until it is ritually cleaned by me and my machine. Hockey players will stand at an open doorway, with no physical boundary preventing access to the ice, until the Zamboni guy blesses the space by closing the Zamboni pit doors. Of course, the kids sometimes push this boundary and try to enter the space early. But, like any good Shaman of the mundane world, I jealously guard my sacred space.

I yell at a lot of kids.