So Rod Brind'Amour is now the former captain of the Carolina Hurricanes and Eric Staal has taken his spot.  It seems that this was a peaceful transition in that Brind'Amour was given the option of keeping the captaincy and chose to (I assume graciously) decline.  There's some chance that the Hurricanes move Brind'Amour at the deadline this season (that is, if they can find someone to take the salary commitment).

Ethan Moreau, meanwhile, continues as Oiler captain, though he missed yesterday's bag skate (which followed that awful 6-0 loss to the Colorado Avalanche) due to a strained neck.  Now... that might be true... but the optics are just terrible.  T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E.  Derek has called several times for Moreau to be stripped of the captaincy and each time I've said that it wouldn't accomplish much of anything other than to make him look bad, which isn't particularly constructive when you're trying to trade him.  And I'll say it again here but... there's a little less conviction each time.

Other players missing the bag skate were Steve Staios, Gilbert Brule, Ryan Stone and Mike Comrie who are all out with various injuries.  It hasn't yet been determined how long Staios ("flu" i.e. concussion) and Stone (knee) will be out.  Brule is apparently still down with the flu (mono?) and Comrie is still out with mono.  Lastly, Marc Pouliot - who was just called up from a very successful conditioning stint in Springfield (1-5-6 in four games) - may have injured something in the bag skate yesterday.  I know you really need to include everybody in these things but I'm not sure it was smart to have Pouliot doing a bag skate after playing four games in four nights with travel between each one.  That said, he'll apparently be okay to go tonight against the Canucks... and so will Moreau...