Puck Headlines: Yzerman to lead Team Canada; Ovechkin’s struggles; Connor Crisp, emergency goalie

Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.

Panthers fans were horrified when BankAtlantic Center was suddenly devoured whole by Mega Python. Where's Gatoroid when you need him?!

• Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller, Detroit Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall and Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Ray Emery have been named the NHL's 'Three Stars' for the week ending March 4. This press release says nothing about Miller presumably getting laid on the West Coast. [Sabres]

• Steve Yzerman will be back at the helm for Team Canada in the Sochi 2014 Olympics; Mike Babcock to follow? [TSN]

• The Detroit Red Wings say that Jimmy Howard's injury is "nothing serious," so that's good news. The bad news: Jakub Kindl, Tood Bertuzzi and Howard, Pavel Datsyuk, Nicklas Lidstrom and Jonathan Ericsson will all miss Tuesday's game against the Flyers. [Detroit News]

• Ray Ratto thinks there's an identity crisis in San Jose: "Thus, this isn't a talent issue, or a coaching issue, the two most common culprits cited by message board genii and chat-show experts. This is an image issue, as in, 'Who do they think they are?' The evidence suggests they are a defensive team with grit and meanness, but their inner desires suggest a team that can go firehouse shinny with the best of them. They can do both, but they can't do them at the same time." [CSN Bay Area]

• Terrible news for the Montreal Canadiens' draft position: Andrei Markov could be back before the end of the season. [CBC]

• Thomas Boswell on Alex Ovechkin: "The biggest problem is that for large chunks of many game Ovechkin JUST ISN'T THERE. You don't FEEL him in the game. I've watched — usually on tape — more than 100 periods of the Caps season so far. (Narrowly defined: What a waste of time.) I'm shocked at how often I said, "Where the hell is Ovechkin?" Many times he's on the ice and you don't even notice him; that NEVER happened in his MVP season." [WaPo]

• Will Ovechkin hear the message sent by Dale Hunter with last night's not-benching? [CSN Washington]

• New York Rangers Blog would like to place a New Orleans Saints-style bounty on Milan Lucic. [NYR Blog]

• Coolness from Lepore: Every TV rating for the NHL since 1998-99 on major U.S. networks. [Puck The Media]

• Do yourself a favor and read Neate Sager's essential account of Connor Crisp of the Erie Otters going from spectator to emergency goaltender. [Buzzing The Net]

• Washington Capitals fans talks about her experience in the Verizon Center's "standing room only" section. [On Frozen Blog]

• A complete history of shutouts by New York Islanders goaltenders. [Lighthouse Hockey]

• In praise of Ray Whitney. [Polished Pucks]

• Injuries are haunting the Calgary Flames, as they have all season. [QMI]

• The St. Louis Blues rolled through their road trip to the tune of 5-1, and wore Road Warrior T-shirts to bring the message home. Said David Backes: ""It shows that we finally put our mind to winning some games on the road. I think it got better and better as the road trip went on, and it's a good sign of things to come. We won't jinx it but yeah, it's indicative of our team's play. When times get tough, we bear down and get the job done. I think a lot of credit goes to our goaltending." [P-D]

• Victor Hedman says he's 100-percent and could face the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night. [Lightning Strikes]

• Looking at the dismissive nature of Brian Burke toward advanced stats. [Backhand Shelf]

• Linus Omark is back with the Edmonton Oilers, which means we're in a rare position for the foreseeable future: Hoping to see the Oilers in a shootout. [CP]

• Jarret Stoll on getting physical against the Anaheim Ducks: "It should have been a physical, intense game, and it was. It was a battle. I wanted to make sure that we were ready, and not feeling our way into the game. Maybe I went a little bit overboard there, taking a penalty, but we killed it off. Those are probably good penalties that we can kill, and want to kill. I was just trying to be intense and ready to start the game." [LA Kings Insider]

• Finally, this right here is a charge on a goalie from the ECHL. Brayden Irwin of the Everblades was given a charging major and a few shots from Justin Taylor of Kalamazoo. [via HockeyFights]