Stamkos IS the headline today

Brace yourself, Stamkos and co. are in Toronto.

The buzz about Steven Stamkos' coming to Toronto has been building over the past few days in the media in Toronto. It's similar to when Lecavalier plays in Montreal, except well there's no google translate required. Maybe the hype isn't that big yet, but Stamkos is getting some serious attention right now by the local media as you can see in the links about the Lightning below.

Your Lightning links:

• Toronto Sun says the Leafs brace for the Lightning
• The Hockey News says it's all quiet on the Stamkos front right now as far as talks between Yzerman and Stamkos' agents
• In The Star, not only was Stamkos good on the ice, he was also good in his academics too
• The Globe and Mail says the current visiting teams this week (Tampa, Edmonton, Boston) must make the Leafs envious with Stamkos, Hall and Seguin coming to the ACC this week
• CBC Sports writes that between Ellis and Smith, there's no heated competition, only friendship.
  
• Lightning Hockey Blog wonders if maybe that friendship is what is keeping the duo from succeeding
• From the Rink's NHL penalty leaders so far. Notably veteran defenceman Mattias Ohlund is second on the list even though he's only played 16 games so far
• For Thanksgiving, Ryan Malone and his wife Abby hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for players who didn't have family around
• The Globe and Mail writes about how Steve Yzerman's on the job training with the Detroit Red Wings is paying off

Your links from around the NHL are after the jump

Your links from around the NHL:

• The Edmonton Journal has a really good list of the five most disappointing player in the West right now: Jiri Hudler, Shea Weber, Nikita Filatov, Keith Ballard and Ollie Jokinen/Niklas Hjalmarsson
• In the same article it called Carolina winger Jeff Skinner as one of the biggest surprises in the East. They also ask that since Tampa picked sixth and Carolina picked Skinner is seventh, with hindsight does it make us wish the Lightning took skinner instead?
• Houses of Hockey looks at what's more important: Power Play or Penalty Kill?
• At From the Rink, Mike Chen looks at motion control and the future of hockey video games
• At the two year anniversary of Brian Burke being made GM in Toronto, the Leafs and Burke have little to show for so far
• View from My Seats looks at how the NHL can take the next step of continuing to build the sport. Two huge decisions in the future will influence it's popularity: television rights and avoidance of a lockout
• This one is a bit of a long read, but Broadstreet Hockey writes about media feuds, the motives of bloggers and why we all belong