One of the cogs from last year's Cup team is back.

Niedermayer Returns

Scott Niedermayer is finally back where he belongs – with the Anaheim Ducks. After Anaheim won their first Stanley Cup last summer, Niedermayer was almost convinced he had played his final NHL game. At the beginning of the season, the Ducks were unsure of Niedermayer’s intentions.

Gradually, as he watched the Ducks play, he changed his mind. He was not sure when he would play his first game, but general manager Brian Burke hopes he can lace up in a week to 10 days. Niedermayer skated laps alone on Thursday after his teammates had left on a three-game road trip.

There is speculation on why Niedermayer came back at this point in the season. He may have had this period in mind since the beginning of the season, or perhaps he would like to help his struggling team - who currently has a 15-13 record this season. The Ducks are obviously in rough shape stemming from the absence of Niedermayer and star Teemu Selänne. Niedermayer is a youthful 34-years old – much younger than some players in the league who continue to play amidst rumours of retirement.

Niedermayer has little left to accomplish. He has four Stanley Cups, three with the New Jersey Devils before joining the Ducks – and younger brother Rob Niedermayer – in 2005. He has won the Norris Trophy as the league's best defenceman, and earned his first Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP this past season.

No team has won the Cup in consecutive years since the Detroit Red Wings did it in 1997 and 1998, and champions in recent years have mostly struggled the following season.

Niedermayer still has two years and US$13.5 million remaining on his contract. According to NHL regulations, the Ducks suspended him without pay when he did not report to training camp.

The Ducks have to unload some salary before Niedermayer can play, and general manager Brian Burke said he foresees no difficulty in making a deal with another team to accomplish that. The Ducks have already dealt goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov to Phoenix in anticipation of Niedermayer’s return.

Now that he is back, the Ducks are missing just one star - Teemu Selänne. The 37-year-old Selänne, who led Anaheim with 48 goals and 94 points last season and got his first Stanley Cup ring, also has been given time to decide whether he'll retire. Unlike Niedermayer, he is a free agent, but said if he does play, it will be for the Ducks.

Avalanche Stun Blues with Flurry of Goals

Colorado Winger Milan Hejduk picked up his fifth-career hat trick and added three assists to propel the Avalanche past the St. Louis Blues 9-5 on Sunday night earning their 1,000th win in franchise history.
Hejduk achieved this with the help of his linemates. Paul Stastny had two goals and three assists and Ryan Smyth had a goal and two assists to give that line 14 points in the highest goal tally in the league so far this season.

Colorado's nine goals were the most in an NHL game since Jan. 4, 2007, when Toronto beat Boston San Jose beat Detroit 9-4.
Hejduk's line accounted for six of the nine goals.

"When you score nine goals, there is a pretty good chance that those guys are going to be involved in a lot of them," Blues coach Andy Murray said.

The Blues took a 1-0 lead in the first period when centre Jay McClement, who scored two goals, took a cross-ice pass from Lee Stempniak and put it over goaltender Jose Theodore's shoulder from the top of the right circle. The Avalanche tied it when Smyth stole the puck in the Blues' zone and passed to a waiting Hejduk.

The trio combined for seven points in a critical second period, when Colorado scored five times to blow open the game. Hejduk broke open a 1-1 tie, and after Jay McClement tied the game again on a penalty shot, Stastny, Wojtek Wolski, Brett Clark, and Smyth scored in a hurry for the Avalanche.

Stastny's goal broke a 2-all tie with 9:59 left in the period. Wolski and Clark scored 3:10 apart, and Smyth's wraparound goal, his ninth of the season, made it 6-2 with 2:33 left in the frame.

"Nothing went the way we wanted," St. Louis defenceman Christian Bäckman said. "It was just not a good game."

St. Louis goalie Hannu Toivonen faced only eight shots in the first period but was shelled in the second. He allowed the five goals on 15 shots and was replaced by Marek Schwarz to start the third period. Toivonen returned at 3:05 of the third period after Doug Weight scored his seventh goal 24 seconds into the third, and David Perron scored a minute later to cut Colorado's lead to two goals.

"We didn't give Hannu a lot of help back there, and the game was back in reach, so we wanted to show him that we still believe in him," Murray said.

Colorado called a timeout to regroup and prevent a possible Blues' comeback.

The timeout worked. The Avalanche chased Toivonen again after Stastny's scored his 13th goal of the season and Hejduk completed his hat trick with 7:44 left.

Toivonen surrendered eight goals on just 25 shots.

"This is a really big win for us," said Hejduk, who has 14 points in the last seven games. "It got a little scary at the beginning of the third, but we came back and scored a couple and put the game away."
Both teams have similar records with Colorado sitting third in the Northwest with a record of 16-12 and St. Louis with a slight edge posting a 16-10 record.

Player Profile: Milan Hejduk

Milan Hejduk was born February 14, 1976 in Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic)

The 6-foot tall, 190-pound Hejduk was drafted 87th overall by the Quebec Nordiques in the fourth round of the 1994 NHL Entry Draft. Before he left for the NHL, he played in Pardubice, where he returned during the NHL lockout of 2004-05.

He was an integral part of Colorado’s 2001 Stanley Cup win, playing alongside Peter Forsberg.

He won the Maurice 'Rocket' Richard Trophy as the NHL's top goalscorer when he potted 50 goals for the Avalanche in the 2002-03 season, narrowly beating Markus Näslund of the Vancouver Canucks, who had been leading for most of the season. Hejduk scored a goal against the Calgary Flames in a 3-0 win for the Avalanche on 12 March 2006, putting him equal with Peter Forsberg in sixth place on the all-time Avalanche franchise goalscoring list with 216 goals. He has also won a Bud Light Plus/Minus award, which is given to the forward with the best plus/minus rating in 2003. He is currently on a seven-game point streak with seven goals and seven assists. He is tied with Paul Stastny for the team lead in goals, and he ranks second in scoring with 26 points. Hejduk was named the NHL's First Star of the Week for the period ending Dec. 9.