Ryan Suter’s productive talks with Nashville; clutch Kopitar; remembering Lidstrom (Puck Headlines)

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.

• Here's a Nicklas Lidstrom tribute from Howell High School in Michigan, via the Red Wings twitter feed.

• Ryan Suter, his agent and Nashville Predators GM David Poile talked contract: "Both sides were candid with each other. What we agreed to do is to continue our dialogue. Ryan, it's no secret, loves Nashville. Ryan is just considering a lot of things. But David gave us more things to think about." [ESPN]

• More on the Suter talks from Josh Cooper of The Tennessean, who calls them constructive. [Tennessean]

• The Los Angeles Kings appreciate how clutch Anze Kopitar has been. Matt Greene: "He's awesome. He's got a lot of skill. He's been working hard. He's been clutch for us. When he gets chances, he's been making them really count, and he did that last night for us." [LA Kings Insider]

• How the salary cap rising to $70.3 million could affect the Pittsburgh Penguins and Jordan Staal. [Sporting News]

• What does the future hold for Tomas Holmstrom now that Nicklas Lidstrom has retired? [Red Wings]

• Dave Church with an interesting take on "While The Men Watch": "In the end, CBC will get what they were looking for: ratings for the network, discussion on the internet and television to enhance their visibility, and ordinary people talking about them around water coolers both proverbial and literal. They'll get the quick fix of a ratings or pageview boost. But they're not helping to advance the cause of quality sports programming, or doing a lot for the reputation of their brand." [Flame For Thought]

• Here are the top 10 sound bites from the NHL this season. Oh, Torts. [Backhand Shelf]

• Can Marc Crawford get an NHL job with the Moore/Bertuzzi trial hanging over his head? [Offside Law Blog]

• "Prosecutors have dropped rape charges against a Boston University Max NiCastro saying during a brief hearing today in Brighton District Court they are no longer pursuing the case — without detailing their reasons." [Boston Herald]

• Why the NHL needs to add a puck's width of more space to its nets. [The Republic]

• Sizing up Los Angeles vs. New Jersey. [Battle of Cali]

• An interior decorator admitted in federal court Wednesday that she bilked wealthy clients out of more than $1 million, including the wife of ex-St. Louis Blues player Doug Weight. [STL Today]

• Interesting bit on the "non-hockey towns" that watched Game 1 of the Final vs. the hockey towns that didn't. [SB Nation]

• Nick Cotsonika talks with Brendan Shanahan. Shanny on the critics: "We stick with it because this guy might think we're idiots tonight, the next night he thinks we're brilliant. People are entitled to their opinions. We really don't react to that. We respond to direction, constructive criticism, knowing that lots of times you're just going to hear angry people." [Y! Sports]

• If you missed John Shannon on "Marek Vs. Wyshynski" this week, here are the talking points and some great analysis on the show. [Fehr Thee Well]

Finally, it's the end of an era as Lidstrom retires.