Friday Roundup: How To Cover The Off Day

With no game to recap or preview, both the WaPo and the WTimes turn to the sports writer's old standby - the fluff piece. Equal parts substance and human interest, the piece puts a face on the athletes and ties in loosely with current events. Today's local papers provide good examples of this not-so-lost art. Over at the WTimes, readers will find one such fluff piece. But not just any fluff piece. This is one on new Rink favorite BabyRay Bourque. Read it. Go on, I'll wait. I'm not going to continue with this post until you read it, so you might as w- Thank you. Now, are you ready for a double dose of C-Bo? Because the WaPo's fluff piece is on, you guessed it, Chris Bourque. As if this smorgasbourque (clever, ain't I?) isn't enough, Eric's covered the coverage over at Off Wing Opinion. Brilliant.

Not much else going on in Capland, except for this picture of Jeff Halpern with a baby who survived Katrina (my wife is so loving it), so off to Thursday's Scoreboard:

• Peter Bondra (never heard of him) scored twice but it wasn't enough as the Thrashers fell to the Panthers 4-3. Panthers goalie Roberto Luongo made 31 saves on 32 shots in just over half of the game, and Stephen Weiss scored a pair of goals for Florida in a game that saw a grand total of 10 minutes, 54 seconds of even strength play, including 4-on-4s (Congrats, NHL).
• The Blue Jackets beat the Wings 3-2 in overtime on a goal by 2005 sixth overall pick Gilbert Brule. Pascal Leclaire stopped 37 of 39 shots for C-bus.
• The 'Canes keep scoring goals, another five on Thursday night as Carolina downed Tampa 5-2. Josef Vasicek netted two goals for the Hurricanes for the second straight night and Erik Cole added four assists (what, no helper on Chad LaRose's penalty shot?). Next up for the Hurricanes - Galveston, Texas.
• Rookie Kyle Wellwood scored twice for the Leafs in their 4-3 win over the Habs.
• Finally, Chicago's Pavel Vorobiev scored in the third period and then in the shootout to lift the 'Hawks over the Wild 3-2.

In other news from around the League:

• Jan Hrdina and Radoslav Suchy left the Columbus game last night with injuries and did not return.
• Dave Scatchard may miss a couple of weeks for the Bruins with a groin strain.