The last time Jonathan Toews saw Vancouver Canucks defenseman Willie Mitchell on the ice ... well, it's safe to assume he didn't see all that much of him when Mitchell steamrolled him on Oct. 21. The Chicago Blackhawks captain was concussed, missed six games and the Chicago offense struggled without him.

He returned on Nov. 9; the Blackhawks haven't lost a game since then.

So they roll into Vancouver tonight to face a Canucks team that's won two in a row and gets Daniel Sedin back from injury to play on a line with brother Henrik and Alex Burrows.

It's a heck of a matchup between two increasingly bitter conference rivals -- and hey, you can watch the game live via Hockey Night on Y! -- but that's taken a back seat to Toews vs. Mitchell in the pregame hype.

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(Ed. Note: Our series "5 Reasons I Love Hockey" features puckheads from all walks of life revealing five things that either made them a fan or that keep them watching hockey. It will run every weekend. Have a suggestion for a "5 Reasons" guest blogger? Hit us on email. Enjoy!)

If you read the Puck Headlines every weekday, you've no doubt seen Ryan Kennedy's name before. He's a writer and editor at The Hockey News, and one of those columnists that will generally provide a take on the League's big issues and players that hasn't already been regurgitated throughout the rest of the media. Which is a good thing.

He's also a gear-obsessed, hockey culture guy; his latest venture at THN is a special lifestyle magazine called Fully Loaded, which features the best in hockey streetwear, NHL gear and hockey equipment.

Good writer, good dude. Here are five reasons why Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News loves hockey:

1. Fighting

We have a very tight-knit crew in the offices of THN, but nothing sets off the screaming like the fighting debate. As one of the resident hawks (it's not hard to figure out who the doves are), I maintain that fighting is part of the fabric of the game. Sure, maybe the sport can survive without it, but we all grew up watching fights and that's how we fell in love with the sport. It would be like taking the cheating and dullness out of soccer.

Plus, I just like it.

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No. 1 star: Stephane Robidas, Dallas Stars

After Brian Rolston opened the scoring for the New Jersey Devils, it became the Robidas Show for the rest of the first period: Primary assists on goals by Warren Peters and Mike Ribeiro, and then a power-play goal of this own. Tom Wandell's goal in the third gave the Stars the lead again after a Devils' rally, and it was Robidas that finished off the scoring with his fifth of the season for a 5-3 Dallas victory. It was the defenseman's second career two-goal game and first four-point night.

No. 2 Star: Jarome Iginla, Calgary Flames

Iggy now has 15 goals on the season, 11 coming in November, as his hat trick helped the Flames to a 5-2 victory at the Los Angeles Kings. As usual, Iginla's contributions to the win went beyond the score sheet, as Coach Brent Sutter said he was "just rock solid in a lot of areas."

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The Detroit Red Wings are expecting defenseman Niklas Kronwall(notes) will be out at least two weeks with a "a second-degree, possibly third-degree MCL sprain to his left knee" after a knee-on-knee hit by Montreal Canadiens tough guy Georges Laraque(notes) on Saturday night -- at hit Wings players and management have condemned as dirty.

Here's the hit, which came after Laraque had already been whistled for a high stick on Darren Helm(notes) that got him a double-minor:

The three penalties Laraque earned resulted in two power-play goals for the Red Wings, so there was some measure of revenge (to go along with winning the game in the shootout, 3-2). The question is now whether there will be something more coming Laraque's way, as everyone from the Detroit media to Don Cherry called it dirty. Laraque, however, was defiant after the game, according to the AP:

"There were four refs on the ice and they didn't call anything," Laraque said. "If they called a match penalty it would be different. There was no intent. There was no reason why I would try to go and hurt him. It was a pure accident, that's why they called it tripping, so I'm not worried at all."

George Malik has more. As he points out, it's a significant player for the Wings with a previous history of knee injuries; factor in that Laraque has a suspension history, and it's likely we'll see something more from the NHL.

But beyond the mandatory criteria for the NHL Wheel of Discipline: It's a dirty hit that deserves further sanction, and that's the case whether Kronwall was injured or not. Laraque's got a reason to worry here.

Urgency. Desperation. These were the words Michael Cammalleri used to characterize the mindset of his Montreal Canadiens heading into last night's game at the Washington Capitals.

Not just because they were one game under .500 and near the bottom of the conference standings, but because their positive momentum was again anchored by bad injury news, as his linemate Brian Gionta's broken foot shelved him indefinitely.

"Much didn't have to be said tonight. It was a real good team, on the road," said Cammalleri, whose power-play goal in the third period gave the Habs a 3-2 win in D.C.

"Usually, it's the team that's the most banged up that sacrifices the most. The bumps and bruises feel good when you get a win."

There wasn't a chance to ask Cammalleri's linemates Scott Gomez and Travis Moen about that theory after the game; both were injured in the win, and are questionable for tonight's game against the Detroit Red Wings back in Montreal. So for a team that's shown signs of consistency recently, the roster shuffle could be on once again.

"I got used to it," said center Tomas Plekanec, whose line with Andrei Kostitsyn and Max Pacioretty produced a goal and was arguably the best in the game. "For most of the season, I played with almost every single winger on our team. But obviously it would be better for us to have constant lines."

Especially when the top line looked as promising as it did for Montreal, albeit briefly.

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No. 1 Star: Dany Heatley, San Jose Sharks

Coach Todd McLellan stacked his best players on the same line against the Philadelphia Flyers: Heatley, Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau. The result? A 6-3 win over the Flyers and a hat-trick for Heatley. His first goal was on a patient 2-in-1 with Thornton; so was his second goal, set up by Jumbo Joe (4 assists on the night) while shorthanded. He completed the hat trick with a power-play goal in the third. Heatley now has 17 goals on the season, best in the NHL.

No. 2 Star: Owen Nolan, Minnesota Wild

Nolan scored the game-winning goal with just 67 seconds remaining on a quick shot in front of Marty Biron (26 saves) after an Eric Belanger pass. It was his second of the night, having opened the scoring in the first on another feed from Belanger. Good win for the Wild, rallying with two goals in the third for the 3-2 win over the visiting New York Islanders. 

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Mike Vallely is a pro skater and a celebrity fan for the Anaheim Ducks, who had done some blogging for them in the past (screen cap here).

That relationship has been severed by the team, according to the OC Register, which reported that police said 'Mike V.' was arrested and cited for fighting in public for his part in the wild fan brawl over Scott Niedermayer's(notes) stick. Video of the fight was posted here on Friday morning.

We were tipped off earlier today that the "little girl" Niedermayer referred to in his awkward postgame interview on Fox Sports was in fact Vallely's daughter, and that Vallely became physically involved when another fan attempted to snatch the stick after Niedermayer tossed it to her over the glass.

Curtis Zupke of Ducks blog confirmed those details and that Vallely, 39, had been arrested, though police said "none of the parties involved wished to press charges."

Zupke writes that the Ducks were doing a bit of damage control today:

A link to Vallely's blog had been on the Ducks' official Web site. The link was taken down by Friday afternoon. Ducks spokesman Alex Gilchrist said that Vallely was not an official employee of the organization, but that the Ducks have terminated their relationship with him.

The Ducks are evaluating the practice of players handing their sticks to fans in the stands, Gilchrist said. The tradition began this season.

Puck Buddy Bredan emailed us about Mike V participating in the fight, telling us that he's obviously cut his hair (and we imagine had a shave since this George Parros(notes) photo in 2007) and that the Web is littered with clips of him involved in other fights.

The Ducks incident is already up on Mike V's Wikipedia page, whose references to Powell Peralta in 1987 have made us feel about as old as watching John Carlson(notes) (D.O.B.: Jan 10, 1990) skate for the Capitals tonight. Sigh.

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.

Preview: Philadelphia Flyers at San Jose Sharks, 10 p.m. EST. The big news here, according to the Sharks, is Coach Todd McLellan putting together the mega-line of  Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton and Dany Heatley. McLellan told Working The Corners: "Things may be going great for (the Thornton line), but if it's not going good for the other three lines, we can't leave them out in the dark and have a one line game." Aw, who cares about those other nine guys; play these dudes for 60.

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James Neal(notes) of the Dallas Stars is getting a two-game suspension for his hit from behind on Derek Dorsett(notes) of the Columbus Blue Jackets last night, after a hearing earlier this afternoon. He was given a five-minute major for boarding and a game-misconduct in the Stars' 4-1 loss to the Jackets.

Here's the hit and a TSN roundtable about the hit.

Bob McKenzie, as Bob McKenzie does, nails it: The "optics" of the hit make this a slam-dunk suspension, according to the NHL Wheel of Discipline. High hit to the back of the head, sandwiching Dorsett's noggin against the glass, and then the Blue Jackets player flopping to the ice like a marionette with his strings cut.

Anyone that's been following Colin Campbell's thought process on these things had to know something was coming Neal's way.

Was it malicious? Neal said he had no intent to injure. One can argue he was coming in to split the defenders and not even to hit Dorsett, and that's the argument made by Brandon Worley on Defending Big D. Without the injury, it's a fine and a game misconduct; with the injury, it's a 2-game example made by the NHL.

Worley and Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News both make the point that this is Neal's first disciplinary incident in his two NHL seasons, and Heika thinks the suspension is bad news because of that fact:

He is a player at age 22 who now has a record, and we have seen that the league treats players who have records differently than others. "Repeat offender" will be on his resume for any future hits.

Too true, and the NHL has shown us suspension after suspension that once you're on the Wheel of Discipline, it's not easy to climb off. At least according to the flow chart.

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.

• The Ari Gold Jersey Foul? Llllllllloyd! At least now he'll have something to wear when E rocks his Tavares jersey. [NHL]

• In Year 2 of a four-year contract and being the coach of Brian Burke's U.S. Olympic hockey team, Toronto Maple Leafs Coach Ron Wilson could be spared the axe despite presiding over the biggest disaster in the NHL this season; and, after last night's loss, the worst team in the League. [Sportsnet]

• The Vancouver Canucks are the latest team to fight allegations that they jumped the line for H1N1 vaccine. No word if they attempted to pass Kyle Wellwood off as pregnant to do so. [Fox Sports]

• Making the case for Ryan Wilson of the Colorado Avalanche to be suspended for his hit on Ethan Moreau of the Edmonton Oilers. The "driving upward into the hit" argument is a pretty good one. [Jibblescribbits]

• Meanwhile, James Neal's hit on Derek Dorsett of the Columbus Blue Jackets last night (hearing at noon EST) may earn the Dallas Stars winger a suspension; Brandon suggests it has everything to do with bad timing and the current media climate. [Defending Big D]

• How nice of Marty Havlat to wait until after his free-agent contract to begin getting injured again. [@russostrib]

• A rather mind-blowing blog about UFC replacing the NHL in some pubs on a Saturday night in Canada, and whether that speaks to the "de-masculinizing and feminizing" of hockey. Mike Milbury already has this article memorized. [Vancouver Observer]

• Really quality piece by Stu Hackel on Twitter and sports journalism today, looking at the Alan Walsh/Montreal Canadiens dust-up and the recent Dion Phaneuf screaming match tweet controversy. [Slap Shot]

• The Phoenix Coyotes lost $5 million in October alone, but the Globe & Mail offers some really fun financial news later in this story: "The court filings also revealed that the club had some unusual expenditures in October. It spent $3,500 on Hockey Hall of Fame 'induction tickets', $970 on the Boy Scouts of America 'scout night patches', and $332.67 on 'tattoos' from California Tattoos Inc. New head coach Dave Tippett, who took over after Wayne Gretzky quit, received $31,000 in October." Tattoos? [G&M]

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