Here are your Morning 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.

• Still battling through technical difficulties here (yippee, viruses!) and working with less-than-optimum equipment ("That's what she said..."). Thanks for understanding.

• Hey, did you hear the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings are playing tonight? And that they don't really like each other? It's pretty remarkable that a single defection from one conference champion to the team that beat them for the Stanley Cup could cause so much tension. Sort of makes you wish Ty Conklin had just stayed in Pittsburgh. [Empty Netters]

• George James Malik has a rather superb collection of links to get you ready for the Pens and Wings this evening, a game we shall be live-blogging here on Puck Daddy. Included in those links was a notebook from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that included this nugget: Marian Hossa and ConkBlock actually stayed in the locker room while the Red Wings raised their Stanley Cup banner. [Post-Gazette]

• Here are the lines from today's Penguins skate. Hooks Orpik breaks down the matchup, and notes some cracks in the Detroit armor. [The Sweater Ted]

• Finally, Evgeni Malkin says he's not injured and will play this evening. Because, you know, he's never played against Detroit with undisclosed injuries before ... [Steel City Sports Fan]

• Should Nashville Predators Coach Barry Trotz be worried about his job? Better question: If Trotz hit the open market, would be get snatched up faster than a tin of Skoal at an Opryland bar? [Forechecker]

• Mirtle takes a look at the Dallas Stars and thinks the team made a huge mistake by not bringing in a dependable backup for Marty Turco. Then again, who knew that the Marty Turco we saw in the postseason was in fact hatched from an alien pod? [From the Rink]

• Earl Sleek gives the San Jose Sharks the 16-game sniff test. You guessed it: Patchouli. [Battle of California]

• First Cuts with an awesome eBay find: Fifteen years of The Hockey News for $2,300. Imagine being able to go back and see how many predictions they got wrong back in 1962 ... [First Cuts]

• Brendan Shanahan is getting mighty close to making a decision on where he'll play this season. Boy, the Chicago Blackhawks would be a good time, but something tells us he's going to say in the East. The St. Louis Blues ... boy, would he do that to himself for a swan song? [Courier Post]

• Brian Gionta and Bryce Salvador are back on the ice for the New Jersey Devils. [Fire & Ice]

• Alexander Ovechkin or Babe Ruth? Evidently, AO called his shot on his third-period goal last night. [Japers' Rink]

• Barry Melrose held his press conference in a darkened Verizon Center doorway last night, and it was downright creepy. Like Eric Roberts speaking from a sarcophagus. That goofball from ESPN? Yeah, he's tied up in the trunk of a car somewhere in Tampa, waiting to be freed when Barry's fired. [On Frozen Blog]

• Another look at that creative St. Louis Blues "pay a fan's mortgage" promotion. [CNBC]

• Finally, the video quality is poo-poo, but it's still a Jeremy Roenick and Bryan McCabe fight:

Related: Stanley Cup Playoffs, Hockey Fans, Goons and Pugilism, Puck Videos, Crosby vs. Ovechkin vs. Malkin