In the NHL, the stars get all the attention. But in reality, every successful team in the history of the NHL has been that way because of contributions from players who don't get as much of the spotlight.

When you think of the Red Wings and all of their Stanley Cups, you think of Nicklas Lidstrom, Steve Yzerman, Brendan Shanahan and even Brett Hull. But would they have won those Cups without The Grind Line? Can you even name the members of The Grind Line? Probably not, but without Kris Draper, Kirk Maltby and Joey Kocur and later on, Darren McCarty, those teams wouldn't be the same.

That's what it takes to win in this League -- contributions from surprising sources or from guys who are just playing better than expected.

Here are eight players I've seen this year who impress me not only as someone who played goaltender in this League, but as someone who watches them every night as a broadcaster/analyst:

Sheldon Souray

Defense - DAL

GOALS: 2 | ASST: 4 | PTS: 6
SOG: 21 | +/-: 6

Sheldon Souray, D, Dallas Stars -- Here's a guy who was a reclamation project after being banished in Edmonton. He can still play. People were saying he can't possibly play in the new NHL … that was garbage. Not only does have that big shot everyone knows about, but he's more mobile than people realize. He's really stabilized the Stars' back end. He's totally underrated.

Richard Park, F, Pittsburgh Penguins -- He's always good. He's just a good pro. How did the Islanders let a guy like that go? He's versatile, cheap, a leader and a true pro. The Penguins value him and he's a bargain at $550,000 on a two-way deal. They can play him on the third line, fourth line, power play, penalty kill. He's a very skilled guy and a steal for Ray Shero.

Eric Belanger, C, Edmonton Oilers -- He's been very good and in the same way Park has. He's been terrific on faceoffs, winning 60.3 percent of them. Last season the Oilers won 44.2 percent of their draws, worst in the League. With Belanger in the fold, they've won 50.2 percent. He's also been excellent on the PK. The Oilers are killing 91.4 percent of penalties, fourth in the League, after finishing 29th last year at 77 percent. He's a detailed-oriented, three-zone, high-character player.

Alexander Burmistrov, C, Winnipeg Jets -- He might be the best underrated player in the league. He's the best player on the Jets so far. He has an unbelievable hockey sense, high skill set. He can make plays in traffic or open ice. The kid has no fear. He's still only 20, but here's a guy where if he's on the ice, he jumps off the ice when you're watching.

VANCOUVER -- It will be a battle of backup goalies playing decidedly better than their team's would-be No. 1s when the St. Louis Blues visit the Vancouver Canucks tonight.
 
Blues backup Brian Elliott makes his third-straight start ahead of a struggling Jaroslav Halak for St. Louis, while Cory Schneider hopes to pick up where he left off after replacing embattled Canucks starter Roberto Luongo during the second period of Tuesday night's 3-2 loss in Edmonton.
 
The similarities between the two goaltending situations are as startling as the state of both team's starters.
 
Luongo, a notorious slow starter in October, is 2-3-1 with a 3.46 goals-against average and .868 save percentage after giving up three goals on 14 shots during a just over five minutes in the second period Tuesday. Schneider, who stopped all eight shots in relief, has a .935 save percentage in four appearances.
 
Similarly, Halak is sitting out with a 3.47 GAA and .835 save percentage in favor of Elliott, who is sporting the same .935 as Schneider.
 
If there's a difference, it's that Canucks coach Alain Vigneault insists starting Schneider was always part of the plan for these back-to-back games, which should mean Luongo won't be watching for long. But his counterpart, Blues coach Davis Payne, has clearly deviated from his plan by going with the hot hand over the more proven commodity for three straight games. And while he said that won't last forever, he wasn't ready to talk about when Halak might start next.
 
"You can't have a guy sitting there forever and then all of a sudden put him in," Payne said. "You’re setting a guy up for a pretty tough spot and we're not going to do that to a guy we know we're going to count on a lot -- and in heavy volume. Jaro is our goaltender, he's a great goaltender and he's going to win a lot of hockey games for us this year."
 
While Luongo is expected to be back in goal against Washington on Saturday to work out of what has become an annual October funk, Halak sounded less certain about both his next start and the philosophy of not letting him play through the early problems.
 
"Brian has been playing good, he won some games and obviously the coach wants to ride a goalie that won the game for him," Halak said. "Each goalie would love to play as much as he can but I didn't have a good start and the coach feels more confident with Brian, so here we are. I just need to stay sharp."
 
While the goalie stays the same, the Blues get their No. 1 center back with David Backes returning after missing the second half of Saturday's win in Philadelphia as the result of a collision with big Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger.
 
"Precautionary measures," Backes said after skating Monday morning. "Airing on the side of caution with big hits like that is going to become more the norm and because we took precautions like that I am able to be 100 percent tonight. ... There have been some hard lessons learned here in St. Louis."
 
Vigneault hinted at other possible changes, but with only five players on the ice after playing the night before it's hard to tell if they will be anything more than a continuation of the defensive pairings shakeup that occurred in Edmonton, with Keith Ballard and Kevin Bieksa, who are each minus-7, split up. The rest should remain intact, with David Booth playing his second game on the second line with Ryan Kesler and Chris Higgins after being acquired from Florida on Saturday.

These are how the lineups could look when the Vancouver Canucks face the St. Louis Blues tonight at Rogers Arena:

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

Dan Hamhuis - Alexander Edler
Keith Ballard - Kevin Bieksa
Andrew Alberts - Sami Salo

Cory Schneider starts in goal with Roberto Luongo serving as his backup.

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

Kent Huskins - Alex Pietrangelo
Barret Jackman - Kevin Shattenkirk
Carlo Colaiacovo - Roman Polak

Brian Elliott starts in goal with Jaroslav Halak serving as his backup.

We're live and ready to go at RiverCentre in downtown St. Paul, Minn., for the 2011 Lester Patrick Award dinner. There will be media availability with the honorees in a few minutes before a cocktail reception and the ceremony, which gets rolling at 8 p.m. local time.

Haven't been to Xcel Energy Center before, but it looks splendid from the outside. It is next door to RiverCentre, and this whole complex overlooks the Mississippi River. The view from what has been designated the media room alone is very nice. Given the time of year, the leaves are a million different colors and walking along the river made for a nice little afternoon in the Twin Cities. 

NEW YORK -- It's taken a little longer than coach Ron Wilson may have liked, but he'll likely be working with the roster he hoped to have on opening night when the Maple Leafs face the Rangers on Thursday night.

Tim Connolly, who signed a two-year, $9.5 million contract during the summer, has missed the team's first eight games while dealing with an undisclosed upper-body injury. He practiced with no problems at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday and said he's good to go.

"We'll wait till tomorrow before we make any decisions," Wilson said, "but Timmy Connolly's very, very, very, very close."

Tyler Bozak will definitely make his return after missing two games with a foot injury.

Follow Dave Lozo on Twitter: @DaveLozo

If the Calgary Flames hope to avoid a season-high three game losing streak against the division rival Colorado Avalanche tonight, they may have to do it without a key contributor.

Curtis Glencross, whose 3 goals are enough for a share of the team lead with Rene Bourque, is questionable for the game. He did not practice with the team Tuesday, citing lower-body soreness, but participated in today's optional skate.

"We need him to play like he can," Flames coach Brent Sutter said. "We don't want to have him playing if it's something where he's only playing at a part capacity he can play at. He'll let us know. He felt much better today. He wants to give it a shot, so we'll make that decision after warm-up."

If he does decide he can go, Glencross will be reunited with Olli Jokinen and David Moss, a line that found its share of success a season ago.

"We're all on the same page," Glencross said. "We have the same mentality of cycling the puck and getting pucks to the net. We make it tough on other team's top lines when we can play a lot of time in their end and keep them out of our zone. Any time we can get it in and cycle the puck around and kill time, that's our job."

The trio had 9 goals and 12 assists against the Avalanche last season, helping the Flames to a five-game win streak over Colorado.

The Avalanche are hoping struggling center Matt Duchene can step up in order to defeat the Flames and extend their personal road winning streak to seven games, which would tie the franchise record set in 1999.

"I think Matty knows that he needs to be better for us and I'm quite confident he will be better," Avalanche coach Joe Sacco said. "He has gotten off to bit of a slow start. The good news is the team has responded well. With him it's a matter of just sticking with it. It's only eight games into the season here. There's still a marathon left."

Duchene, who led Colorado in scoring a season ago, is coming off a season-low 11:35 of ice time in the club's 5-4 shootout victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday. He's expected to skate between Joakim Lindstrom and Chuck Kobasew against the Flames.

"It's only eight games in," said Duchene, who has just 1 goal to start the year. "I don't think you can classify it as a bad start until game 20. Hopefully I can recover and help this team, but we're winning so they haven't really needed anything from me yet. Hopefully when they do need it I can help out."

MONTREAL -- Philadelphia Flyers rookie Sean Couturier has come home to play his first game in his native Quebec, and he's hoping it won't be his final NHL game of the season.

Couturier will play his ninth game tonight (7 p.m. ET, TSN, RDS), against the Montreal Canadiens, which means his next one will trigger the first year of his entry-level contract.

But Couturier insists that decision is the problem of Flyers General Manager Paul Holmgren, and not his.

"I'm still waiting to hear," said Couturier, the eighth pick in the 2011 Entry Draft. "I'm trying to look at it one game at a time, one day at a time, and we'll see what happens."

With the Flyers' next game coming tomorrow at home to the Winnipeg Jets, Holmgren will have to make his decision sometime between the end of the game against the Canadiens and puck drop the next night.

"I don't think they'll base their decision on one game," Couturier said when asked if he felt added pressure because of the circumstances. "I don't know, we'll see what happens."

Coach Peter Laviolette would not shed any light on what Holmgren may be thinking, but there's no denying Couturier quickly has become an important cog on his team. He plays on the top penalty-kill unit with Maxime Talbot and has become a go-to player defensively.

"He's done a good job," Laviolette said. "He came in touted as a smart player defensively, and he's been as good in the defensive zone as he's been in the offensive zone. We put him in situations early on, 5-on-4, 5-on-3, out against other team's top players back in training camp to see how he'd respond, and he's done everything we've asked him to do and he's done it well. Regular season, we've just continued on with that. He's been a nice addition."

Talbot said Couturier reminds him of another 18-year-old high draft pick he played with who made the jump to the NHL right out of junior hockey by excelling in a defensive role.

"Sean Couturier makes me think of Jordan Staal when he arrived with the Penguins," Talbot said. "He's very mature defensively and in his understanding of the game. I think that's the biggest adjustment when you make the jump from junior to the NHL, to understand the game and be smart. He has those qualities."

Couturier is showing improvement in one area where a junior-age player tends to struggle, and that's in the faceoff circle. It's an important skill for a penalty killer to have, and he's clearly getting the hang of it. Through his first five games, Couturier was winning just 34.6 percent of his draws; however, over his past three games, he's won 50 per cent of his faceoffs.

"It's really hard," Couturier said of that particular skill. "My first games I was in the 30s, but you learn to know the players and how strong they are and you learn some tricks the more you play."

Couturier not only will have friends and family in the Bell Centre stands tonight, but his coach with the Drummondvile Voltigeurs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, Dominic Ricard, will be watching his star player perform.

The two haven't spoken since Couturier's adventure with the Flyers began.

"I think he's happy for me and proud of the Voltigeurs organization," Couturier said. "Their goal is to develop players and coaches. In the past few years I'd say they’ve done a good job."

So good, Couturier is hoping, that the Voltigeurs will have to add another name to their NHL alumni list as soon as Thursday afternoon.

These are how the lineups might look when the Colorado Avalanche face the Calgary Flames tonight at the Scotiabank Saddledome:

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

Jay Bouwmeester – Chris Butler
Mark Giordano – Scott Hannan
Derek Smith – Cory Sarich

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

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

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.

Four men who have helped thousands of Americans develop their passion and talents in the sport of hockey will be honored tonight at the RiverCentre here in St. Paul, Minn., as the recipients of the Lester Patrick Award for 2011 are honored.

U.S. Olympic hero Mark Johnson, longtime college coach Jeff Sauer, longtime volunteer Tony Rossi, and former player, coach and executive Bob Pulford will be presented with the award, given to people for their contributions to hockey in this country.

Johnson and Sauer have many ties to the University of Wisconsin, while Pulford and Rossi have been staples of hockey in Illinois at different levels. Check back here throughout the night for observations and stories and anything that comes an evening of celebrating hockey in the United States and particularly in the Midwest.

NEW YORK -- Brad Richards has been thinking about making his Madison Square Garden debut as a Ranger since July 2, when he signed his nine-year, $60 million contract.

"It just seems like it took forever to get here," Richards said Wednesday.

Forever ends Thursday night, when Richards finally gets to say hello to his new fans by skating onto the Garden ice in a Rangers sweater. He admitted he'll be nervous.

"It'll remind me a little bit of my first game," Richards said. "It's my first time in this type of market with these type of fans. When you sign with a new team the first thing you want to do is get in the building and play in front of those fans, but that hasn't been the case. I'm excited. I'm sure I'll have butterflies. I can't wait to experience it. It'll be a great experience in my life, my career."

Rangers coach John Tortorella, who was with Richards in Tampa Bay, is also eager to see the team's new superstar make his Garden debut. It'll be the first time Richards will be in the spotlight of Broadway.

"He wants this challenge and everything that comes with the city," Tortorella said. "It's a great city, a great sports town. There are different pressures coming here. There is accountability that comes into play when you come into a big market like this. But that's why Brad Richards is Brad Richards. He wanted this, and that's why we want him."

Follow Dan Rosen on Twitter at: @drosennhl