Sidney Crosby suffered a neck injury, we were told. It was supposedly separate from his concussion issues, and announced by someone with the ominous title of neurological spine specialist, but we were reassured that it was fully healed. Nothing about that terse Penguins release was reassuring. Crosby has been more or…

Enjoy Hockey's best playing offense and chat about it all down in the comments.

The NHL All-Star Game—which is always an exciting contest—takes place this weekend in Ottawa. I think it's on Sunday at 4 p.m. on NBC Sports Network. Here is why you should watch, if the game actually is on that channel at that time.

Back when it looked like Alexander Ovechkin might not be named to the All-Star Game, he told a reporter he wouldn't be disappointed "because I'm going to go straight up to vacation somewhere." But he did make the roster, and also managed to get himself suspended for three games. So he decided no All-Star Game because he…

Perhaps our resident Drakeologist will weigh in on this later, but I just had to rush to tell you the exciting news: the NHL has tapped Drake to perform at the second intermission of this Sunday's All-Star Game, when the score will already be 8-6 and everyone will have tuned out.

When All-Star voting opened for this year's game in Ottawa, Project Mayhem was launched. The idea? Stuff the ballot box with ex-Senators to stick it to the home crowd. Someone screwed up big-time, because the first six players named to the team were announced today, and four of them are current Sens.

Because no one reads the newspaper, and SportsCenter's anchors are too perky for this early in the morning, Deadspin combs the best of the broadsheets and internets to bring you everything you need to know to start your day.

The West Captain on All-Star teammate Roberto Luongo: "[He's] a nice, dark, good-looking Italian guy." I choose to take this as conclusive evidence of his homosexuality.

The NHL Closer is written by Greg Wyshynski, of The FanHouse and The Fourth Period. He is also the author of Glow Pucks And 10-Cent Beer.