Shrapnel - 1/31/12

Welcome to the second half (metaphorically) of the NHL season, as the league kicks back into gear following the All Star Break and teams start either charging for the trade deadline or taking a long look at their assets.

In Columbus, team president Mike Priest said that the newly awarded All Star Game for 2013 will not impact plans to rework the club, while I took a little time to write on the main SBNation page about why Columbus may be more prepared for this event than many expect.

Over at Backhand Shelf, they have top 10 goals of the season so far, (and yes, Jamie Benn's singlehanded one against us is in there), why Tim Thomas is now tied to his politics, an excellent All Star history lesson, the rise, fall, and rise of Carey Price, and a long look at the Crosby neck "abnormality."

Back home, a few more updates on how Columbus fans spent the break, including a protest wrap up by LTL, Martini Hockey's thoughts on the current game and anticipation for next year, some glass bangers at DBJ, and Ten Minute Misconduct headed out to the bonspiel.

Remember, Curling remains the only Olympic sport to allow smoke breaks.

At Puck Daddy, Baseball star Nyjer Morgan (and/or his alter ego Tony Plush) will skate with the Sharks, a look at the playoff picture in the West, the Montreal Gazette stuffs their foot, leg, and boots into their mouth, ratings indicate that Canadian fans were more interested in the skills competition than the game this year (it's the Ryan Johansen ratings bump, I tell ya), a look at Carolina deciding to hang onto previously pending free agent Tim Gleason, and why the Predators may choose to hang on to Ryan Suter despite the heavy trade interest.

Finally, Puck Rakers has the details on yesterday's recall of Andrew Joudrey and David Savard from Springfield, Filly don't do the KHL either, and a hockey agent responds on his blog about why you cannot always trust the media.