All Present And Accounted For

Tonight is a special night in the NHL. All 30 teams take to the ice for the only time this season. It doesn't matter what station you turn on, there has to be at least one hockey highlight. Yes, that includes ESPN. What makes this weekend especially weird is that there are no NHL games scheduled for tomorrow. Nada. Zilch. Zero. In any case, you get a huge helping of hockey tonight followed by a day of rest. I can live with that, so here's where you'll be tuning into if you want to follow a certain team tonight.

• 4:00pm EST - New Jersey Devils at Philadelphia Flyers: MSG Plus, ComCast SportsNet in Philly. Third vs. fourth in the Atlantic. No Daniel Briere for Philly tonight due to a torn abdominal muscle. Jamie Langenbrunner is questionable for New Jersey with a lower body injury.
• 7:00pm EST - Atlanta Thrashers at Boston Bruins: SportsSouth, New England Sports Network. Fourth in the Southeast vs. third in the Northeast. Marty Reasoner is questionable for Atlanta tonight with a lower body injury.
• 7:00pm EST - Ottawa Senators at Toronto Maple Leafs: CBC for Ontario and west in Canada, NHL Network nationally in the US. Third vs. fifth in the Northeast. Jeff Finger may return tonight for the Maple Leafs if his foot injury has healed. Jiri Tlusty of the Maple Leafs has been sent down to the AHL's Toronto Marlies, and will not be in the lineup.
• 7:00pm EST - Anaheim Ducks at Montreal Canadiens: CBC in Quebec, RDS in Quebec, KDOC in California. Third in the Pacific vs. second in the Northeast. Andrei Kostitsyn, Georges Laraque, and Carey Price are all questionable for the Canadiens in tonight's game. Kostitsyn is still suffering from a concussion, Laraque is nursing a groin injury, and Price is battling the flu.
• 7:00pm EST - Carolina Hurricanes at New York Islanders: Fox Sports Network-South, MSG Plus. Second in the Southeast vs. fifth in the Atlantic. Tuomo Ruutu is questionable for the Hurricanes in tonight's game with a groinm injury. Brendan Witt of the Islanders is questionable with a lower body injury.
• 7:00pm EST - Pittsburgh Penguins at New York Rangers: Fox Sports Network-Pittsburgh, MSG. Second vs. first in the Atlantic. Matt Cooke and Hal Gill are both questionable with Pittsburgh for tonight's game as both have upper body injuries.
• 7:30pm EST - San Jose Sharks at Tampa Bay Lightning: SunSports in Florida. First in the Pacific vs. fifth in the Southeast. Douglas Murray of the Sharks is questionable with a hand injury.
• 8:00pm EST - Los Angeles Kings at Nashville Predators: no television broadcast. Third in the Pacific vs. fourth in the Central. Neither team has anyone close to returning from injury.
• 8:00pm EST - Columbus Blue Jackets at Minnesota Wild: Fox Sports Network-North. Fourth in the Central vs. first in the Northwest. Marian Gaborik and Owen Nolan of the Wild are both questionable with lower body injuries.
• 8:00pm EST - Washington Capitals at Dallas Stars: ComCast Sports Network in Washington, KDFI in Dallas/Fort Worth. Second in the Southeast vs. second in the Pacific. John Erskine and Tom Poti are questionable for the Capitals tonight. Erskine is out with a calf injury while Poti is nursing a groin injury. Doug Janik, Jere Lehtinen, and Steve Ott are all questionable for Dallas tonight. Janik has a face injury, while Lehtinen and Ott are nursing groin injuries.
• 8:30pm EST - Detroit Red Wings at Chicago Blackhawks: Fox Sports Network-Detroit, WGN in Chicago. First vs. second in the Central. Niklas Hjalmarsson and Brent Sopel are questionable for Chicago tonight. Hjalmarsson is out with a rib injury, while Sopel has an undisclosed injury. The Blackhawks have confirmed that Nikolai Khabibulin will start in net against the Wings. As a special treat for those tuning into this game, the Red Wings and Blackhawks will show off their Winter Classic uniforms tonight during an intermission.
• 8:30pm EST - Florida Panthers at St. Louis Blues: Fox Sports Network-Florida, KPLR in St. Louis. First in the Southeast vs. second in the Central. Gregory Campbell of the Panthers is questionable with a hip injury.
• 9:00pm EST - Buffalo Sabres at Colorado Avalanche: MSG-Buffalo, Altitude Sports in Colorado. First in the Northeast vs. second in the Northwest. David Jones of the Avalanche is questionable for tonight's game with an illness.
• 10:00pm EST - Edmonton Oilers at Vancouver Canucks: CBC nationally in Canada, NHL Network nationally in the US. Second vs. fifth in the Northwest. Steve Staios of the Oilers is questionable for tonight's game due to personal reasons. Darcy Hordichuk, Rick Rypien, and Sami Salo are questionable for the Canucks. Hordichuk is out with a knee injury, Rypien is out with an undisclosed injury, and Salo is suffering from a groin injury.
• 10:00pm EST - Calgary Flames at Phoenix Coyotes: AZTV in Arizona. Fourth in the Northwest vs. third in the Pacific. Viktor Tikhonov is questionable for the Coyotes with a shoulder injury.

So there's the rundown of tonight's games. Get your remote out, and start channel surfing because there's a ton of NHL all over the television waves tonight. Heck, there's even a few AHL games on television today too.

• 4:00pm EST - Quad City Flames at Toronto Marlies: Rogers Sportsnet in Canada.
• 6:30pm EST - Chicago Wolves at Milwaukee Admirals: ComCast Cable in Chicago.
  
• 7:00 EST - Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins at Portland Pirates: TWC in Portland, Maine.

Grab yourself a couple of cold beverages, something to munch on, and get all of your hockey fix today. It's literally a buffet of hockey, and you can pick and choose which games you want to watch based upon their availability. It's good to be a fan of this game, isn't it?

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!