Former NHL head coach and player Barry Melrose starts a new gig this season: He will be blogging for NHL.com throughout the 2011-2012 season.

I've got two lists for everyone this week. The first is the five greatest hockey buildings in the history of the NHL.

No. 5 -- St. Louis Arena, or the Checkerdome

Most people do not think this would be on a list of the best buildings, but it was a unique building. It sat close to 20,000 people and when I was there it was full. I saw great crowds, loud crowds. They were right on top of you. It was really an unbelievable building.

I loved playing there. If you couldn't get jazzed about playing in St. Louis, oh boy, you had problems. Purina owned it at the time, so it looked like a checkerboard on the roof of the building. It was a real unique building.

No. 4 -- Madison Square Garden

Any building that has the rink on the fifth floor has to be fantastic. New York is the greatest city in the world. MSG is as mentioned as the greatest sports building in the world. I don't have it as the best in the NHL, but that first time you play at MSG and you walk up that ramp when you get to the building and you start to think of all the great things that have happened in this building. All the great fights, all the great hockey games, all the great basketball games, the college basketball, the track and field events – it is pretty phenomenal. 

DENVER – Matt Duchene, who is coming off a career-high four-point performance Friday, will remain at left wing Sunday night when the Colorado Avalanche takes on the Calgary Flames at the Pepsi Center.
   
Avalanche coach Joe Sacco sees no reason to move Duchene back to center following his three-goal, one-assist effort in a wild 7-6 overtime loss in Dallas. Duchene, who had two goals and four assists in the previous 12 games, will stay on the left side with center Paul Stastny and Milan Hejduk.
   
“I thought they had a good night offensively, especially Matty,” Sacco said after this morning’s skate. “So we’ll keep it together and see how it works tonight. Matty was skating the way that he can. Once he started moving his feet, the work ethic was there. It’s certainly a step in the right direction for him.”
   
Duchene, 20, has made a habit of getting off to slow starts, but he’s taken over the team scoring lead with five goals and as many assists. Ryan O’Reilly, also 20, has two goals and eight assists.
   
Duchene played with a variety of wings while centering the second line for the first 12 games after starting the season between Peter Mueller and Hejduk. Mueller will miss his 11th consecutive game tonight with a head injury after he sat out all last year to recover from a concussion, but he’s beginning to feel better and skated this morning for the second day in a row.
   
“I thought I was playing better even before (Friday),” Duchene said. “I think it gives you confidence. I felt I was right on the verge of that for a long time and it was fun to finally have the floodgates open a little bit. It was nice. It’s too bad we lost, but there were some positives to take away offensively for our whole team.”
   
The six goals Friday matched the total number of goals the Avalanche has scored in five home games, four of them losses, and it doesn’t get any easier tonight.
   
The Flames have beaten the Avalanche six times in a row while scoring 28 goals, and the most recent meeting was a 4-2 victory in Calgary on Oct. 26.

Here are the projected lineups for the game Sunday night between the Calgary Flames and Colorado Avalanche at Pepsi Center:

CALGARY

Curtis Glencross – Olli Jokinen - Jarome Iginla
Alex Tanguay – Brendan Morrison - Lee Stempniak
Rene Bourque – Roman Horak - David Moss
Tom Kostopoulos – Matt Stajan - Tim Jackman

Chris Butler - Jay Bouwmeester
Mark Giordano - Cory Sarich
Scott Hannan – Anton Babchuk

Miikka Kiprusoff is expected to start in goal with Henrik Karlsson serving as the backup.

COLORADO

Matt Duchene – Paul Stastny - Milan Hejduk
Gabriel Landeskog – Ryan O'Reilly – Daniel Winnik
Joakim Lindstrom – TJ Galiardi – Chuck Kobasew
Cody McLeod – Jay McClement – Kevin Porter

Jan Hejda – Erik Johnson
Shane O'Brien – Kyle Quincey
Ryan Wilson – Ryan O'Byrne

Semyon Varlamov is expected to start in goal with Jean-Sebastien Giguere serving as the backup.

CHICAGO – It will be a game-time decision, but it looks like Vancouver Canucks defenseman Aaron Rome might get back into the lineup after missing the first 14 games with a hand injury.

Rome participated in the morning skate Sunday at the United Center and Canucks coach Alain Vigneault didn’t rule out the possibility of him playing against the rival Chicago Blackhawks. If he plays, Vigneault might opt to put Rome on the second defense pairing with Alexander Edler and re-pair defensive stoppers Dan Hamhuis and Kevin Bieksa on the top pairing.

“We’ll see how he feels tonight and we’ll make that call tonight before the game,” Vigneault said of Rome. “We’ll see what we have (for pairings) if Aaron goes back in, but we need our whole group to play well. I thought in St. Louis (on Friday), for the most part it was one of our better defensive games. Against Chicago we’re going to have to be real strong without the puck and I’m confident that we can do that.”

The Canucks will be missing forward Alexandre Burrows and defenseman Sami Salo against the Hawks. Both are considered day-to-day and Vigneault doesn’t expect either to become a long-term absence.

Burrows is dealing with a recent back issue that flared up this past week and didn’t skate Sunday. Salo, who tried to skate, left the workout early and has missed two games with a groin injury.

“We’ll see how they feel in the next couple days,” Vigneault said. “If either one had been able to go, they would’ve went. It’s just both of them feel they’re not quite there, so we’ll see how they do this week.”

CHICAGO – Duncan Keith will miss his third straight game with an upper-body injury believed to be his hand, which was hit with a shot last week against the Nashville Predators.

Keith made the Hawks’ recent two-game road trip to Florida but didn’t play in either game despite practicing. The Hawks didn’t skate Sunday morning at the United Center, but did do some team stretching drills and Keith didn’t appear to be participating.

In his place most likely will be 40-year old defenseman Sean O’Donnell, who will be paired with 20-year old puck-mover Nick Leddy . The pairing of Brent Seabrook and Niklas Hjalmarsson is being used as the top pair in Keith’s absence, with O’Donnell and Leddy the second pair over the boards.

“[Keith’s] not going tonight,” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “We’re looking for him on the next road trip.”

Chicago will hit the road for two games in St. Louis and Columbus this week before heading back to the United Center for a pair of games next weekend – which will lead into the annual “circus trip” that sends the Hawks to the West Coast and Western Canada.

Here's the projected lineup for the Vancouver Canucks and Chicago Blackhawks for their showdown Sunday night at United Center:

VANCOUVER

Daniel Sedin - Henrik Sedin - Jannik Hansen
Cody Hodgson - Ryan Kesler - Chris Higgins
David Booth - Maxim Lapierre - Andrew Ebbett
Aaron Volpatti - Manny Malhotra - Dale Weise

Dan Hamhuis - Kevin Bieksa
Aaron Rome/Andrew Alberts - Alexander Edler
Keith Ballard - Alexander Sulzer

Roberto Luongo will start in goal for the Canucks and Cory Schneider will be his backup.

CHICAGO

Andrew Brunette - Jonathan Toews - Viktor Stalberg
Patrick Sharp - Patrick Kane - Marian Hossa
Bryan Bickell - Dave Bolland - Michael Frolik
Daniel Carcillo - Marcus Kruger - Jamal Mayers

Brent Seabrook - Niklas Hjalmarsson
Sean O'Donnell - Nick Leddy
Steve Montador - Sami Lepisto

Corey Crawford will start in goal for the Blackhawks and Ray Emery will be his backup.

The Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers have rarely been among the top team in the Eastern Conference at the same time, which has made it tough for the two geographical rivals to foster a significant rivalry on the ice.

It is possible that could change this season. Second place in the Southeast Division is on the line Sunday when the Lightning travel to BankAtlantic Center to face the Panthers. Both teams sit on 14 points, and the winner of this contest will be two shy of the Washington Capitals for first in the Southeast.

Only once in the two franchise’s young histories have both Florida-based clubs reached the postseason. The Panthers made a surprise run to the Stanley Cup Final in 1996, while the Lightning were kicked out in the first round by Philadelphia. Since that season the Lightning have progressed – claiming the Cup in 2004 and reaching the conference finals last season. Florida has qualified for the playoffs only twice since that magical run and have not won a series.

The Panthers could be in the midst of a revival this season. General manager Dale Tallon made wholesale changes in the offseason, and Florida has been an improved team in the early stages. Even better, goaltender Jacob Markstrom looks like a future star, and Panthers fans eagerly await the arrival of potential franchise cornerstone Jonathan Huberdeau, who could help make the Panthers a more permanent fixture among postseason contenders.

One of the team’s new pickups, forward Tomas Fleischmann, has four goals and eight points in the past six games, and the Panthers are 3-1-2 in that span. He struggled mightily in the postseason for Washington in 2010 and missed several months with a blood clot problem, but Fleischmann has 32 points in 34 games for Colorado and Florida since leaving the Capitals.

Steven Stamkos dominated the NHL in the first half of last season, and he might just be getting warmed up to repeat the feat. Stamkos had a hat trick Friday night to help Tampa Bay defeat Chicago, and he now has nine goals – one behind Toronto’s Phil Kessel for the League lead.

The Lightning made “The Leap” into contention last season, but struggled at the start of this campaign. Tampa Bay lost five straight at one point, but the Lightning have now won five of seven and could climb has high as sixth in the East with a victory against the Panthers. 

At 16:40 of the third period in the Penguins/Kings game, video review upheld the referee's call on the ice that Kings forward  Dustin Brown deflected the puck into the net with his stick above the crossbar. No goal Los Angeles.

At :34 of the second period of the Bruins/Maple Leafs game, video review upheld the referee's call on the ice that Bruins forward Tyler Seguin hit the puck into the net with his stick below the crossbar. Good Goal Boston.

At 3:09 of the first period in the Flyers/Blue Jackets game, video review upheld the referee's call on the ice that Philadelphia forward Jaromir Jagr's shot went into the Columbus net in a legal fashion.