Kimmo Timonen

Hockey will finally resume on January 19, but the talks concerning a certain letter in the alphabet has already begun for the Flyers.

Chris Pronger is nowhere nearing a return to the ice. And with his retirement inevitable - but not official due to his contract - the designated captain slot will remain vacant until the Flyers decide to finally fill the void.

Three names have been on the lips of fans during the 2011-12 season: veterans Danny Briere and Kimmo Timonen, and the young leader of the team, Claude Giroux. Only one of those players has remained a hot topic for the captaincy and it's the one who many around the NHL view to be the future of the Flyers and the league.

Sam Carchidi threw up a tweet that shouldn't come to a surprise to anyone. Giroux's best friend and locker room leader Scott Hartnell said that "Giroux is ready to be captain."

The NHL fined the Isles last year $100,000 for the brawl game vs. the Pens, but the Pens did not get fined anything despite a player leaving the bench as a sixth skater to join a fight on the ice - which, by the way, means the head coach should be suspended for one game - he wasn't. But owner Mario Lemieux stated that the NHL didn't do enough to punish the Isles for that disgrace of a game.
Keep in mind that Matt Martin and Trevor Gillies received suspensions. They rightfully deserved them, and Godard got the 10 games required for leaving the bench, but the Penguins didn't receive any other suspensions or fines of any kind.
Lemieux, despite the one-sided disciplinary action, still felt that the league didn't do enough.

Making Ilya Bryzgalov the story for every game has become tiresome to the fans, the front office and Bryzgalov himself.

But when he does something as special as he's done the past couple of weeks, it's hard to just take all the focus away from the Russian netminder, nicknamed the $51 Million Man.

The Flyers have been winning, and they have been playing a brand of hockey many expected them to play down the stretch. Scoring, defense and goaltending - those are the three things that win championships.

So why does the focus all come back to Bryzgalov? Because of the franchise shutout streak that he just broke that stood tall for 13 years midway through the second period.

Both the Philadelphia Flyers and Detroit Red Wings are racking up the injuries. Absences on both teams are taking their toll. The Wings have fell out of first place in the league and in the Central Division, so it is very important for the Wings to rack up the points.

The Wings are missing many defensemen, including star Nicklas Lidstrӧm. Jonathan Ericsson is still out from a fractured wrist. Jakub Kindl left the game against Chicago early due to an upper body injury. Pavel Datsyuk is still missing from the line up. Jimmy Howard and Todd Bertuzzi both have groin strains. Danny Cleary did not practice due to some issues with his knees, but is said to be fine to play against the Flye...