Isn't Phil Kessel the best?

NBC's Pierre McGuire wanted a word Wednesday night in Brooklyn, but Mr. Kessel wasn't interested. Like, at all.

Better luck next time, Pierre.

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Lindy Ruff is putting himself underneath the microscope.

The Dallas Stars head coach is preaching accountability as his team sits outside the Western Conference playoff picture, and that includes those standing behind the bench.

"I have to do a better job," Ruff said Wednesday, according to Mike Heika of the Dallas News. "I have to hold them more accountable. I've let too many guys off the hook."

The Stars had high expectations after winning the Central Division and coming within one win of the Western Conference Final last season, but following a 9-9-6 start, the club sits nine points behind first-place Chicago and one point back of a wild-card spot.

Last year's campaign, Ruff reminded, was not without struggles, giving reason to believe his players can pull themselves out of their collective funk.

"We went through this last year," said Ruff, pointing to 1-5-2 and 1-6-0 stretches Dallas endured last January and February. "I think we're struggling and saying, 'There's got to be an easier way.' But there is no easier way. You have to put the work in."

It's up to the coach to ensure everyone is on the right page, and Ruff admits he must do a better job.

"When I get my top guys on the right side, then we will win games on a consistent basis," he said. "I'm looking at the job I've been doing, and it hasn't been good enough because the guys I take so much pride in aren't on the right side for me, and that bothers me."

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Harnarayan Singh helped hockey take a step forward Wednesday night.

He became the first Sikh to work an English hockey broadcast when he served as the rinkside reporter for Sportsnet's telecast of the game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Calgary Flames.

Singh's work on the Punjabi edition of "Hockey Night in Canada" is well-documented. His viral call of Nick Bonino's game-winner during the Stanley Cup Final earned him an invitation to meet the Pittsburgh Penguins on the day of their championship parade in June.

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An unexpected coaching change hasn't prevented the Colorado Avalanche from falling further downhill.

There was a sense that Patrick Roy's abrupt departure was a bit of a blessing in disguise for Joe Sakic in that the team president and general manager was able to hire a more forward-thinking head coach in Jared Bednar. However, the team has stumbled to a 9-11-1 record through 21 games, good for 19 points and a share of last place overall.

As a result, the focus now shifts back to a group of six core players, namely Matt Duchene, Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon, Tyson Barrie, Erik Johnson, and Semyon Varlamov.

Johnson, for one, acknowledges change could be afoot if things don't turn around soon, per Terry Frei of the Denver Post:

It doesn’t matter how many points you have or how much you’re playing, it’s the record that indicates how you’re playing. Clearly, the record is not good enough. … Nobody can look in the mirror and say we’re playing good enough because our record doesn’t indicate it. As a group of individuals who feels a lot of responsibility for the team, I think you go out and do your best every game and you realize there are consequences no matter what.

We could be a bunch of games over .500 and they still might see a reason to make a change. So that’s up to them upstairs and all we can do is go out and play hard every night and do our best to get this team back to winning. At the end of the day, it does fall on our shoulders until the job gets done, and so far it’s not good enough.

That core group is under contract until at least the end of 2018-19, with Johnson and MacKinnon signed through 2022-23.

With the coaching card having been forced upon Sakic, his next move could very well be shaking up the roster.

Duchene has been oft-mentioned in trade speculation, but is trying to focus on his game.

"I’m not making any decisions on this hockey team," he said. "I just go out and play every night."

Colorado's next opportunity to turn things around comes Thursday against Columbus.

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Good news is, they're humming along at a 104-point pace when competing on at least a day's rest. The bad? Every fifth game on the completed schedule for the Toronto Maple Leafs has been contested on the latter half of a back-to-back.

The Maple Leafs fell to 0-4-1 while dealing with extra lactic acid in their legs, conceding twice in the opening 49 seconds before going on to suffer a 3-0 loss to the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night.

"Obviously (we) weren't ready as a team, as a coaching staff, as a goaltender - weren't ready. There's no excuse for that," head coach Mike Babcock said after the game, according to TSN's Mark Masters.

"(It) shows that you're not an upper-echelon team when you can't do it night in, night out," he added.

"Our preparation as a coaching staff, and our preparation as players in the room isn't good enough. We got some work to do."

It was the first time they were shut out under the short-rest condition (and just the second time all season), but the Maple Leafs have opened up a considerable deficit, having been outscored 19-8 over those five games.

Toronto has another 13 sets of back-to-backs on the schedule, and all but one of which involve travel.

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Good news is, they're humming along at a 104-point pace when competing on at least a day's rest. The bad? Every fifth game on the completed schedule for the Toronto Maple Leafs has been contested on the latter half of a back-to-back.

The Maple Leafs fell to 0-4-1 while dealing with extra lactic acid in their legs, conceding twice in the opening 49 seconds before going on to suffer a 3-0 loss to the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night.

"Obviously (we) weren't ready as a team, as a coaching staff, as a goaltender - weren't ready. There's no excuse for that," head coach Mike Babcock said after the game, according to TSN's Mark Masters.

"(It) shows that you're not an upper-echelon team when you can't do it night in, night out," he added.

"Our preparation as a coaching staff, and our preparation as players in the room isn't good enough. We got some work to do."

It was the first time they were shut out under the short-rest condition (and just the second time all season), but the Maple Leafs have opened up a considerable deficit, having been outscored 19-8 over those five games.

Toronto has another 13 sets of back-to-backs on the schedule, and all but one of which involve travel.

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In the process of salvaging an important win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday night, the New York Islanders made a little history.

Three seconds after Anders Lee reclaimed the lead with a deft deflection in front of goaltender Matt Murray, Nikolay Kulemin was on target with an attempt at the empty net from center ice, matching the NHL record for the fastest pair of goals ever scored by one team.

The 1935 St. Louis Eagles and 2004 Minnesota Wild are the only squads in league history to record two goals in three seconds, according to NHL Public Relations.

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Jared Cowen and the Toronto Maple Leafs won't have to wait much longer for an outcome in their contract squabble.

A decision on the case - currently sitting with an arbitrator - is due by Dec. 7, according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.

In the offseason, the Maple Leafs attempted to buy out the remainder of Cowen's contract - one year, paying $4.5 million. That move left Cowen's camp to cry foul, claiming the blue-liner is ineligible for a buyout due to an injury he sustained last season.

Cowen originally came to the Maple Leafs in a February deal that sent former captain Dion Phaneuf to the Ottawa Senators, but never suited up for the club.

The arbitrator's decision leaves a lot of money on the line for Cowen. The Maple Leafs would be on the hook for Cowen's entire salary should the arbitrator rule in his favor. At that point, Toronto could place Cowen on the long-term injured reserve to negate the salary cap charge.

However, should the arbitrator side with the Maple Leafs, the team would be freed of Cowen's contract, but would be penalized with a $750,000 cap hit for each of the next two seasons as a means of the buyout.

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