NHL colorado Avalanche

Newsmakers in the NHL: During the regular season it's our weekday look at the previous night's action and some of the story lines taking place around the league. Have a tip or something you want linked? Send it in to nhlfanhouse@gmail.com.

Avalanche 4, Coyotes 1: Peter Budaj missed his first scheduled start of the season after he was diagnosed with swine flu. On Wednesday, he finally had a chance to step on the ice and stopped 28 shots in Colorado's 4-1 win against Phoenix, in what was a battle of early season surprises in the Western Conference.

Milan Hejduk scored a pair of goals for the Avs, who also received tallies from Marek Svatos and David Jones.

Undoubtedly, one of the best stories early in the NHL season is being written in Denver. The Colorado Avalanche have survived a stretch of 11 road games over their first 15 with a stunning 10-3-2 overall record, and they have an early lead in the Northwest Division.

To find out what has clicked with the Avalanche so far, we turned to someone who follows them. David Driscoll-Carignan writes for the wonderful site Mile High Hockey, and he joins us on the podcast. Listen after the jump.

Last year's top regular-season team, the Sharks, takes on the league's current top squad, the Avalanche, tonight at 10:30 p.m. Eastern and FanHouse will be there, blogging live and fielding questions.

Of the Western Conference's many surprise teams -- Phoenix and Los Angeles are also going strong and Columbus started off fast - Colorado might be the biggest. The Avs had a conference-low 69 points last season and they scored a league-low 199 goals.

Now, behind hot goalie Craig Anderson, Colorado is 10-12 and coming into San Jose to face a Sharks team that lost to the Avs 5-2 on opening night. San Jose is tied with the Kings atop the Pacific Division and has won three in a row, while Colorado has won four straight. Join us for what should be a good one.

There are a number of compelling stories in the NHL's Western Conference. Not only are the Colorado Avalanche off to a ridiculous start, but the Los Angeles Kings are playing great, San Jose is lurking, and Anaheim is still plagued by bad penalties and not enough offense.

FanHouse's Susan Slusser joins us from her West Coast perch this week, as we examine these issues and talk about her beloved Red Wings' slow start. Listen after the jump.

There's a lot of action around the NHL tonight, and we'll break it all down in our weekly NHL FanHouse chat. There are surprise teams, surprise players, and injuries to discuss. Not only that, but the first major disciplinary decisions of the season have been made by the NHL. As usual, they come with some controversy. Join us at 2 p.m. ET as we break it down with you.

The NHL acted fast in determining a punishment for Carolina Hurricanes forward Tuomo Ruutu, suspending him three games for his hit on Colorado's Darcy Tucker Friday night.

Avalanche forward Darcy Tucker was immobilized and taken away on a stretcher after he was checked into the boards by Carolina forward Tuomo Ruutu.

The hit came just over five minutes into the second period in Friday night's game in Colorado. Tucker had turned away from Ruutu to play the puck, and Ruutu drove Tucker into the glass from behind. The game was tied 2-2 at the time.

Video of the hit after the jump.

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Every Friday, FanHouse sifts through the rubble and picks the best NHL fight, with the help of HockeyFights.com.

Sometimes, one fight just isn't good enough. Such was the case in Calgary recently, as the Flames and Canucks met for one of six matchups between the division rivals this season. It took just 2:32 for two fights to break out. Even though there were two good scraps going on at once, there was a clear winner for our Fight of the Week honors.

While in the midst of a youth movement, it appears the Colorado Avalanche have something going. After a disastrous 2008-2009 season that led to what was nearly a full housecleaning in Denver, the organization picked up two bright young players early in the June draft.

Those players -- Matt Duchene and Ryan O'Reilly -- were thought to be big pieces of the future. Instead, the pair represent the club's future, too.

Every Friday, FanHouse sifts through the rubble and picks the best NHL fight, with the help of HockeyFights.com.

Some weeks, this job is just too easy. Our search for the best hockey fights includes a couple dandies this week, including a classic heavyweight battle in Toronto. It's the kind of bout that makes Brian Burke smile. Check out our runners-up, along with video of this week's best fight, after the jump.