short takes

Silly push

Lightning forward Cedric Paquette felt the wrath of 6-9 Bruins captain Zdeno Chara when he jostled with him last week. When Paquette pushed Chara, Chara dropped Paquette with a punch to the throat.

"I don't know what that kid was thinking. I mean you know, you don't mess with Z," said Brad Marchand. "He must have forgotten that we play them three more times, so hopefully he'll be sent down by then for his sake."

Wild his favorite foe

Chicago's Bryan Bickell loves playing the Wild. He has 14 goals in the past 21 regular-season and playoff games against Minnesota, 31 in the past 171 vs. everyone else: "I wish I'd play Minnesota 82 games."

Wild assistant coach Andrew Brunette's cabernet sauvignon-colored suit caused quite a stir last weekend when he wore it behind the bench against Nashville.

"Last time I wore it was in Dallas in November. I looked up and all the ushers were wearing the same suit," Brunette said, howling.

Less painful that way

After losing back-to-back at Minnesota and Winnipeg earlier in the month, Toronto Maple Leafs coach Randy Carlyle told the Toronto Sun, "In my mind, I thought this could be my last game."

He said GM Dave Nonis sent him a text that he wanted to meet at 8 a.m. two days later.

"He knew where I was because I told him I needed to drive my mother-in-law and my wife to Sudbury," Carlyle told the newspaper. "So there was a red flag automatically, a light went on in my mind. ... Well, if he wants to meet me at 8 o'clock, obviously it's pretty important. So I just said, 'Call me.' And we had a conversation. And I said, 'I'm not going to drive five hours back and through a snowstorm to get fired. You might as well do it now.'

"The disappointing thing is, we didn't play to a high enough brand of hockey on a regular basis. … I plan on coaching again. We'll see what the future brings."