Edmonton Oilers phenom Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is expected to miss three-to-four weeks because of a left shoulder injury, the team announced Thursday.

Nugent-Hopkins, the No. 1 pick in the 2011 Entry Draft, missed Edmonton’s game Tuesday in Buffalo, and had been sent home to Alberta for further evaluation. He leads all rookies with 13 goals and 35 points in 38 games for the Oilers.

It is the second straight year that a No. 1 overall pick playing for the Oilers has had a significant injury. Taylor Hall, the No. 1 pick in the 2010 Entry Draft, missed the final 17 games of the 2010-11 season with an ankle injury.

The Florida Panthers have signed veteran center John Madden to a one-year contract, general manager Dale Tallon announced Wednesday.

Madden, whose potential signing with the Panthers was first reported last week, has played in 867 NHL for New Jersey, Chicago and Minnesota and won the Stanley Cup three times -- twice with the Devils and once with the Blackhawks.

Florida has been one of the surprise teams in the first half of the 2011-12 season. Tallon overhauled the roster this past summer, but new coach Kevin Dineen has his club atop the Southeast Division standings. The Panthers could also have more reinforcements in the coming days as injured players Marcel Goc and Mikael Samuelsson both participated in the practice and weren’t wearing no-contact jerseys.

The Panthers begin the New Year with road games against the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils before a three-game homestand against some of the NHL’s elite – Vancouver, Pittsburgh and Boston. They continue to lead the Southeast, but Washington has won four straight and Winnipeg is on a three-contest winning streak. The Capitals are within three points of the Panthers and the Jets are four back.

With defenseman Jordie Benn set to make his NHL debut tonight for the Dallas Stars, joining brother Jamie Benn, a forward on the team, it brings to 15 the number of brother combinations currently playing in the League.

The Benns joined Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin as the only current set of brothers playing on the same team. While the Sedins are twins, Jamie Benn is actually two years younger than Jordie, despite already being a veteran of 188 NHL games.

Here is the full list of brothers playing in the League:

Foligno (Nick, Ottawa and Marcus, Buffalo)

Koivu (Saku, Anaheim and Mikko, Minnesota)

Kostitsyn (Sergei, Nashville and Andrei, Montreal)

Michalek (Zbynek, Pittsburgh and Milan, Ottawa)

Miller (Ryan, Buffalo and Drew, Detroit)

O'Reilly (Ryan, Colorado and Cal, Phoenix)

Pyatt (Tom, Tampa Bay and Taylor, Phoenix)

Schenn (Luke, Toronto and Brayden, Philadelphia)

Sedin (Henrik and Daniel, Vancouver)

Sestito (Tom, Philadelphia and Tim, New Jersey)

Staal (Jordan, Pittsburgh; Eric, Carolina and Marc, NY Rangers)

Stewart (Chris, St. Louis and Anthony, Carolina)

Stuart (Mark, Winnipeg and Colin, Buffalo)

Wellwood (Kyle, Winnipeg and Eric, Philadelphia)

Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Joni Pitkanen underwent surgery on his left knee on Tuesday and is expected to miss the next four weeks, the club announced.

The procedure was performed by Dr. Marty Isbell of Raleigh Orthopaedic at Rex Hospital.
 
Pitkanen, 28, has totaled 3 goals and 12 points in 21 games this season. The Oulu, Finland, native has earned 54 goals and 268 points in 504 career NHL games with Carolina, Philadelphia and Edmonton.

The Anaheim Ducks acquired left wing Luca Caputi from the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday in exchange for left wing Nicolas Deschamps.

Caputi, 23, has appeared in 21 contests for the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League (AHL) this season, collecting 2 goals and 3 points with 10 penalty minutes. The 6-foot-3, 200-pound winger split time with the Maple Leafs and Marlies in 2010-11, appearing in seven NHL contests with the Leafs, going scoreless with four PIM.

A native of Toronto, Ontario, Caputi made his NHL debut with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2008-09 and scored his first career NHL goal Feb. 3, 2009 against Montreal's Carey Price. Caputi appeared in a career-high 23 NHL contests with Pittsburgh and Toronto in 2009-10, registering 2 goals and 8 points. Originally selected by Pittsburgh in the fourth round of the 2007 Entry Draft, Caputi was acquired by Toronto from Pittsburgh with Martin Skoula in exchange for Alexi Ponikarovsky on March 2, 2010.

Deschamps, 21, was a second-round pick by the Ducks in 2008 and appeared in 31 contests with the Syracuse Crunch (AHL) this season, collecting 5 goals and 7 points. The Lasalle, Quebec native has recorded 20 goals and 54 points in 113 career AHL contests.

Nearly a month after suffering a concussion that has cost him 10 games so far, Carolina forward Jeff Skinner was back at practice today in a yellow no-contact jersey, according to reports.

The 2011 Calder Trophy-winner was having an impressive sophomore season for the Hurricanes with 12 goals and 12 assists in 30 games before being placed on injured reserve. Skinner last appeared for the Canes in their 5-3 win in Edmonton on Dec. 7, the first NHL victory for head coach Kirk Muller. Skinner had a goal in the game.

The Hurricanes maintain that there is no timetable for the 19-year-old's return.

At the time of his concussion, Skinner was leading Carolina in scoring for the season. With 24 points, he was on pace to better his impressive rookie totals of 31 goals and 32 assists from the 2010-11 season.

One of the biggest questions heading into Sunday's practice day apparently has been answered.

According to goalie Ilya Bryzgalov, he will not be starting in the Winter Classic. That means backup Sergei Bobrovsky, who turned in a strong performance in Thursday's win against Pittsburgh, will Play against the Rangers Monday afternoon.

Peter Laviolette has not spoken to the media yet, so the announcement is not official. But, Bryzgalov said he will not play and several players said after Sunday's practice that Bobrovsky is being rewarded for his consistent performance this season.

Bobrovsky has a 1.55 goals-against average in his past eight games. Bryzgalov, meanwhile, has lost four straight and has allowed 18 goals during that span.

Bryzgalov, brought in during the off-season as a free agent to answer the Flyers goaltending problems, has struggled in the month of December. But, he is the unquestioned No. 1 and this is the biggest and most high-profile regular-season game the Flyers will play during the 2011-12 season and there was some expectation that Bryzgalov would get the start for those reasons.

With practice complete, it is time for the families to take the ice at Citizens Bank Park.

As mentioned, it is always one of the highlights for the players. This year is proving to be no different.

Some youngsters are out there playing a bit of shinny, skating through other skaters treating the session as perhaps the greatest public-skating session of their lifes.

As always, there were indelible moments that won't be forgotten.

Scott Hartnell had several kids on the ice with them. Suffice it to say, they already have the Hartnell Down move down pat

Max Talbot, who enjoyed a family skate last season as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2011 Winter Classic at Heinz Field, took him mom out for a twirl, holding her arm as she navigated the crowded ice surface.

Rookie Zac rinaldo was out on the ice with his father, both men deep in conversation -- perhaps about all the early-morning ice sessions of Zac's youth.

Defenseman Brandon Coburn, meanwhile, was rocking a baby as he glided across the ice.

Other players posed for pictures with family and friends, talked on the phone with those that could not be on hand or just skated leisurely around, soaking in all the details of a picture-perfect morning.

While the Flyers are trying to make Sunday's practice as normal as possible, there is no denying that it is different -- mainly because it is out-of-doors in the home of baseball's Philadcelphia Phillies instead of their usual practice site in Vorhees, N.J.

In Vorhees, the playing surface is not surrounded by 48,000 seats and the lighting is soft and artificial. Here, the rink is smack in the middle of a vast expanse of seats and the sun is just starting to come over the facade of the stadium, beating down in the far corner of the left-field end of the rink surface.

Many players are wearing eye black to battle the glare. Goalie Ilya Bryzgalov, meanwhile, is going retro for practice with his Philadelphia-themed Winter Classic mask and the brown pads and old-school blocker that were commonplace in the 1970s and early '80s.

The Flyers spent the first 15 minutes of practice working some transition drills before moving on to line rushes.

Certainly, Philadelphia will take the full hour allotted for practice before giving up the ice surface for a family skate, which is always the highlight of the practice day. Many members of the Flyer family are watching practice from the far side of the rink while the media observes from the home-plate side.

DETROIT -- Following a 3-2 loss on the road in Chicago on Friday
night, Detroit Red Wings coach Mike Babcock quickly ran through some
of the positives.

The penalty kill was great, stonewalling the Chicago Blackhawks on all
five of their power plays. The bottom two lines played well in his
estimation, including third-line center Justin Abdelkader -- who
scored the game's first goal while filling in for injured Darren Helm
(groin). The Wings' "baby" line of all rookies -- Gustav Nyquist, Cory
Emmerton and Joakim Andersson -- was also one of the few Detroit
bright spots, skating with the speedy Hawks.

Still, it's what went left unsaid -- but was strongly implied -- that
mattered most to the Wings heading into another Central Division
showdown Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena against the gritty St. Louis
Blues. Babcock didn't praise the work of his top two lines and
basically said they have to be better than they were at the United
Center.

"The bottom line is we weren’t good enough," Babcock said. "We got
out-played, any way you look at it. That’s not good enough. The whole
game was fine, but to me we just didn’t have enough play in their
zone. I thought the kids that we gave an opportunity to (were good).
We just needed more."

Pavel Datsyuk and Johan Franzen didn't record a point between them on
the top line, while the second line of Valtteri Filppula, Henrik
Zetterberg and Jiri Hudler each went without a point and finished with
a minus-2 rating.

No doubt, the effort will have to be better Saturday night against
the Blues, who dropped a tough 2-1 game in a shootout Friday night
at Scottrade Center to the Nashville Predators. The Blues, who lost in
Detroit on Tuesday after coughing up a two-goal lead, come into the
Motor City with a bad taste in their mouth after the five-round
shootout -- which spoiled a great performance in net by Jaroslav
Halak.

The Blues haven't won a shootout since March 7, 2011 and those woes
are starting to frustrate them.

"Five rounds, you expect to get at least one in," St. Louis center
David Backes said. "We don't do that. Jaro really deserved the win.
Jaro kept us in there long enough, but obviously it's an area you'd
like to get better at. If we're not going to win (the shootout), we
might as well win them in regulation or put one in in overtime and
skip that whole formality."

Here's a look at how the Blues and Red Wings may line up for their New
Year's Eve showdown at Joe Louis Arena:


BLUES
David Perron-David Backes-T.J. Oshie
Vladimir Sobotka-Patrik Berglund-Chris Stewart
Evgeny Grachev-Jason Arnott-Matt D'Agostini
Jamie Langenbrunner-Scott Nichol-B.J. Crombeen

Carlo Colaiacovo-Alex Pietrangelo
Barret Jackman-Roman Polak
Ian Cole-Kevin Shattenkirk

Joey Elliott
Jaroslav Halak


RED WINGS

Johan Franzen-Pavel Datsyuk-Todd Bertuzzi
Valtteri Filppula-Henrik Zetterberg-Jiri Hudler
Drew Miller-Justin Abdelkader-Danny Cleary
Gustav Nyquist-Cory Emmerton-Joakim Andersson

Nicklas Lidstrom-Ian White
Niklas Kronwall-Brad Stuart
Jonathan Ericsson-Mike Commodore

Jimmy Howard
Ty Conklin