Hi. The Penguins are in town. How’ve they been doing lately?

Oh. Well, that’s cute.

ICYMI

Leafs swap Enroth for Bibeau in advance of the NHL Holiday Roster Freeze

The Leafs

NHL’s ice guru working non-stop ahead of Centennial Classic | Sportsnet
“We had obviously a bit of a snow event yesterday that we kind of worked through, and we expect to see more during the event, so we’ll work through some of that,” he said. They’ll work through blizzards, wind, hail -- you name it.

Frank Corrado is unwanted in Toronto - but in Boston, he could be a Christmas present to rival any other this festive season | SCOC
I don’t think your headline is long enough SCOC.

Leafs must find a way to end shootout curse | Toronto Sun
“Sidney and shootouts. Dealing with one is unavoidable for the Maple Leafs on Saturday night, as league scoring leader Sidney Crosby drops by the ACC, while the other might haunt them all season.”

Toronto Maple Leafs’ Martin Marincin out four to six weeks with injury after going hard into boards | National Post
"The long-limbed Marincin suffered a back or lower-body injury in Boston on Saturday when he went hard into the boards."

Bobby Pulford: all-time Maple Leaf, and a power forward before they coined the phrase | MLHS
“The Maple Leafs have never honoured the old number 20 of longtime forward Bobby Pulford, but he is certainly worthy of that kind of consideration.”

WJC

Maple Leafs prospect Bracco pumped to play in T.O. for WJC | Sportsnet
It went a little bit like this: “He told me to do what he did last year in [the OHL],” Bracco says, grinning, after a morning skate with the Kitchener Rangers. “I was like, ‘OK, I’ll work on it.’”

Canada begins quest to ‘be special’ at 2017 world juniors | Sportsnet
"This year Canada will call on a player (forward Mathieu Joseph) who has never participated in any international event in its jersey, two players (forward Tyson Jost and defenceman Dante Fabbro) who graduated from the less vaunted BCHL last season, and three players (defenceman Kale Clague and forwards Taylor Raddysh and Blake Speers) who weren’t even a part of the team’s summer development camp."

Canada’s WJC defence is balanced but is it gold medal calibre? | Sportsnet
"Picking up from where we left off with our comparative breakdown of Canadian goaltending at recent world junior tournaments, let’s look at the blueline corps that will be trying to win gold for the home team, a very tall task."

The League

Why the NHL should add a postseason play-in game | ABC News but actually ESPN?
"At the end of this season, we're going to look at a team that finishes No. 9 in the conference and think that it would have had a really good chance at causing damage in the playoffs."

Eakin Suspended Four Games | THW
"Dallas Stars forward Cody Eakin has been suspended four games for charging New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, the NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced on Friday." Good.

Mattias Ohlund in Vancouver spotlight | NHL.com
The guy who spawned the hashtag #isohlundplaying gets his props.

NHL Three Stars: Budaj blanks Penguins; Ristolainen scores in OT | Puck Daddy
“The veteran netminder stopped all 39 shots on goal from the Pittsburgh Penguins to lead the Los Angeles Kings to a 1-0 overtime win.” — So the Penguins lost last night. Is that good or bad?

From The Branches