FanHouse Jason LaBarbera

Someone get Garth Snow on the line because there there is a goalie available through the NHL's waiver wire.

The Canucks have placed goalie Curtis Sanford on waivers today as they activated both uber-goalie Roberto Luongo and his injured groin from the injured reserve. While his groin was unavailable for comment, which is likely a good thing for us, TSN was able to get a word from the netminder himself.

"It's pain free. I wouldn't be on the ice if I wasn't," Luongo said. "That's done with as far as I'm concerned. I'm ready to go and back to 100 per cent."

Canucks blog Waiting for Stanley reports that Luongo will be the starter Thursday when the Canucks face the Coyotes. Sanford's days in the Canucks organization are over, according to CKNW via NHL.com. They say that "the Canucks will attempt to trade Sanford should he go unclaimed."

Putting Sanford through waivers is a vote of confidence in Jason LaBarbera, who started six of the Canucks seven games since New Year's. However, LaBarbera was pulled three minutes into last night's game against the Devils as he gave up two goals on six shots. He also gave up six goals in his previous outing against St. Louis on January 9th despite playing well in his other starts. It might be a curious vote of confidence but if Roberto Luongo manages to stay healthy, it will be more or less irrelevant.

After months of rumors, speculation, self-imposed deadlines and waiting, Mats Sundin finally took the ice on Wednesday night, making his debut with the Vancouver Canucks. The 37-year old Sundin played 24 shifts and logged 15:02 in ice-time, as the Canucks beat Edmonton, 4-2, snapping a two-game losing streak.

For nearly two periods it was a defensive battle, until the two teams had an offensive outburst combining for four goals in the final six minutes of the second period, including a pair from Vancouver's Steve Bernier just 12 seconds apart. With the game tied, 1-1, Bernier ripped a slap shot behind Edmonton goalie Dwayne Roloson at the 17:20 mark, and then tapped in a one-timer on a feed from Alexandre Burrows to give the Canucks a 3-1 lead heading to the third period.

After Erik Cole scored his eighth goal of the season for Edmonton, cutting the deficit to 3-2, Pavol Demitra added an empty net goal with 36 seconds to play, clinching the win for Vancouver.

Bernier and Burrows each finished with three points for Vancouver, while Jason LaBarbera stopped 23-of-25 shots to pick up his second win as a member of the Canucks.

The Florida Panthers scored three third period goals, including a game-tying score from Radek Dvorak with 1:38 to play, to force overtime at the Bell Centre in Montreal on Sunday afternoon. Defenseman Andrei Markov, one of four Montreal players voted to start in the All-Star game, scored the lone goal in a shootout helping lead the Canadiens to a 6-5 win.

The Panthers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period thanks to goals from Brett McLean and David Booth, only to have Montreal come out in the second period and take over the game, scoring four goals -- including a pair in the first two minutes of the period -- while outshooting the Panthers by a 19-5 margin.

Florida rebounded in the final frame with goals from Dvorak (two) and Jassen Cullimore, sending the game to overtime. .

As long as we're on the subject of the Panthers, Greg Wyshnyski over at Puck Daddy passes along the report (from George Richards of the Miami Herald) that Brett McLean thinks Sidney Crosby is a liar, and that no challenge was ever issued prior to the drop of the puck in Saturday's game. So, basically, it's all coming down to a bunch of he said, she said. Moving on ...

Pavel Datsyuk's goal (shown above) was perhaps the highlight of a great day of hockey in Chicago, and we have to give a well-deserved tip of the cap to Eric McErlain for giving us all a front row seat for the festivities and excitement around Wrigley Field.

Chicago jumped out to an early 3-1 lead after the first period, looking like it was out to send a message after Tuesday night's loss in Detroit, only to have the Red Wings roar back with five consecutive goals -- including a pair from Jiri Hudler -- to take the Winter Classic, 6-4. The Wings are now 4-0 against their original six rivals this season, while improving their record to 25-7-5.

This year's version of the classic, I thought, was far better than last season's game in Buffalo, mainly because this game wasn't played in blizzard conditions. Sure, that was exciting and awesome to look at, but it definitely hurt the on-ice play, while the ice itself was in horrible condition, resulting in multiple stoppages in play to fix massive holes. No such problems this year, just exciting hockey in a historic stadium between two classic teams wearing some awesome, awesome uniforms. Not a huge fan of the rendition of take me out to the ballgame, however. The hockey song would have been a nice touch, but, really, if that's the only negative throughout the event, well, that's a great, great thing for the sport.

Ty Conklin, playing in his third outdoor game in the NHL, stopped 33 shots in the win, while Chicago's Cristobal Huet had to be lifted early in the third period after giving up six goals on 30 shots.

The Boston Bruins won their ninth straight game on Tuesday night, picking up a 5-2 victory in Pittsburgh. Aside from winning nine in a row, the Bruins finish the month of December with a 12-1 record, while extending their lead in the Eastern Conference to nine points over the No. 2 team, the New York Rangers Washington Capitals.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ice, the month of December can't end soon enough for the Penguins, as they went 5-9 for the month, including four consecutive losses on home ice. Even worse, Pittsburgh has posted a 2-7 record in its past nine games at Mellon Arena. That's not good. Look, I realize the Penguins have been slow starters the past two seasons before kicking it in gear in February and March, but can you keep relying on that? Might make it a little easier on yourself to actually win some games in October, November and December because, you know, those games count too.

As for this game, Boston received a stellar effort in net from Tim Thomas as he turned aside 32-of-34 shots, while Phil Kessel, Dennis Wideman, Marc Savard, Zdeno Chara and Martin St. Pierre provided the offense. The Bruins went 2-for-8 on the power play, and scored a shorthanded goal on a 3-on-1 break in the third period, pretty much taking Pittsburgh out of the game. I think that speaks volumes about the Penguins power play when they allowed a 3-on-1 rush with the man advantage.

Highlight of the night for Pittsburgh was Tim Wallace, a recent callup from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, who squared off against Milan Lucic and actually held his own for a while, before getting dropped by Lucic. The two teams meet again on Thursday, in Boston.

Costly win of sorts for the Ducks on Friday, as they lost Teemu Selanne to a leg injury in the first period when it appeared his own skate cut his left leg. He was helped off the ice and didn't return to the game. If he's out for any extended period of time it would obviously be a tremendous blow to Anaheim's offense, as the 38-year old forward leads the team in goals (14) and is third on the team in points (27).

As for the game itself, Anaheim took it, 3-2, in a shootout, thanks to some stellar goaltending from Jonas Hiller, who stopped 51 shots in regulation and overtime, and all three shots he faced in the shootout. The 51 saves actually matched a franchise record, so, way to go Jonas.

The Ducks special teams provided the offense, as Rob Neidermeyer picked up a shorthanded goal with 20 seconds to play in the first period, while Corey Perry notched a power play goal midway through the second period, giving the Ducks a 2-0 lead.

That lead would hold up until the third, when Kyle Brodziak put Edmonton on the board at the 6:32 mark, while Erik Cole tied the game seven minutes later with a power play goal.

Perry scored the only goal in the shootout, giving Anaheim the win.

The Islanders jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on Tuesday night, thanks to a pair of goals from Doug Weight and Andy Hilbert less than a minute apart. Unfortunately for them, as has been the case all season, they couldn't hold it, as the Flyers roared back to take a 3-2 lead in the second period, and eventually win, 4-3, handing the Islanders their fourth straight loss.

After Aaron Asham put the Flyers on the board late in the first period, Darroll Plowe, a former undrafted free agent -- a fact Versus mentioned no fewer than 30 times -- tied the game midway through the second with his first NHL goal. Eight minutes later, Jeff Carter scored his 20th goal of the season -- tied for the top spot in the league with Buffalo's Thomas Vanek -- to give Philadelphia its first lead of the night.

The Islanders fought back at the 2:07 mark of the final period, when Blake Comeau scored a relatively weak goal on Martin Biron, after it essentially rolled into the net behind him.

Simon Gagne scored the game-winner late in the third, moving the Flyers into a tie for second place in the Atlantic Division with cross-state rival, Pittsburgh.

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

Last night I got my first chance to catch the Boston Bruins in action against the Chicago Blackhawks, who are not only improving steadily (5-5-0 and mostly w/o Martin Havlat) but might be recognized in their home town soon. And while Zdeno Chara finally got his right hook on early in the first period, this game was all about the skills of a couple of the future stars of the NHL.

Phil Kessel's (5th Overall pick in 2006) two goals were things of beauty. The first a gorgeous curl and drag wrister, using the defense man as a screen, sliding the puck against the grain to beat Nikolai Khabibulin and open the score.

The Hawks answered with an unconventional 5 on 3 goal by former 3rd overall pick , Jonathon Toews, who just walked in and snapped a wrister high glove on Tim Thomas to tie the game 3 minutes after Kessel's goal. The Hawks controlled play for most of the period hemming the B's in their own end.