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Savard earns NHL First StarMonday, November 24th, 2008
Continuing what's been a banner week for the Boston Bruins, center Marc Savard was named the NHL's First Star in their 'Three Stars' for the week ending Sunday, Nov. 23. The wins and accolades just keep on coming for the Big Bad Bruins, who held practice at Ristuccia Area this season — with off days for Marc Savard, Dennis Wideman and Patrice Bergeron. The most notable sight at practice: Shawn Thornton's shootout practice attempt at the end of the session when he swept in right-to-left, faked forehand and then lifted a nifty backhander past Manny Fernandez.
When apprised that the backhander was a pretty "sick" move, Thornton promptly said "That's because I'm a sick player." Got to love that guy — a real "glue player" that help keep that locker room such a tight-knit group.
Anyway, on to Savard and his First Star Honors. Here's the release from the NHL and there was a conference call later this afternoon conducted by the NHL. II'll throw a full transcription on the site in the next few minutes, but here's Savard's take on the faceoff circle conversation between Milan Lucic and George Laraque. In case you missed it, the little centerman interjected into an A&B conversation between the two titans on Saturday night, and said something that seemed to stop Laraque in his tracks. It's a great nuanced example of the kind of leader that Savard has blossomed into during his time in the Spoked B:
"I just told Georges that there's going to be another time for this. Right now we're worried about wins. Milan Lucic is a hockey player and not just a fighter, so that's basically what I said. It kept him quiet for a little while anyway.
"If they wanted to put Georges out there that much then it was fine with us. We didn't want anybody fighting, especially because we're a little short on the defensive corps with Andrew Ference out. People are saying 'well, why didn't [Chara] grab him'. There'll be time for that. I'm not saying we're going to do it, but right now it wasn't the time. Especially playing up there when we were on the road. If they got hot on the power play, which they're capable of doing, we didn't want that to happen. We played it the way we wanted to play it, and there was nothing else about it."
FIRST STAR — MARC SAVARD, C, BOSTON BRUINS: Savard led all NHL scorers this past week with eight points (two goals, six assists) as the Bruins (14-3-4, 32 points) won four consecutive games, moved into first place overall in the Eastern Conference and increased their Northeast Division lead to seven points. Savard recorded two assists in a 3-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs Nov. 17, notched a goal and three assists in a 7-4 win over the Buffalo Sabres Nov. 19 and tallied one goal and one assist in a 4-2 win over the Florida Panthers Nov. 21. Savard ranks second in the NHL in assists (19), third in points (27) and third in plus-minus (+13). The 31-year-old Ottawa native has recorded 225 assists since the start of the 2005-06 season; the only NHL player with more is San Jose's Joe Thornton (272). The Bruins have earned points in 13 of their past 14 games (12-1-1) since Oct. 25, outscoring their opponents 49-26 in that span.
SECOND STAR — HENRIK SEDIN, C, VANCOUVER CANUCKS:Sedin recorded seven points, all assists, as the Canucks (13-6-2, 28 points) went 3-0-1 on their four-game road trip and extended their Northwest Division lead to five points. Sedin recorded one assist each in a 2-1 shootout loss to the New York Islanders Nov. 17 and a 6-3 victory over the New York Rangers Nov. 19, tallied a pair of assists in a 3-2 victory at Minnesota Nov. 20 and finished the week with three more in a 3-1 win at Pittsburgh Nov. 22. Sedin increased his season points total to a club-leading 21 (three goals, 18 assists), two more than twin brother Daniel (9-10–19).
THIRD STAR — NIKOLAI KHABIBULIN, G, CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS:Khabibulin posted a 3-0-0 record with a 2.90 goals-against average and .918 save percentage as the Blackhawks (10-4-5, 25 points) began their six-game road trip with three consecutive victories. Khabibulin stopped 36 shots and both shootout attempts in a 3-2 victory at Phoenix Nov. 18, made 31 saves in a 6-3 victory at Dallas Nov. 20 and finished the week with 34 stops in a 5-4 overtime victory at Toronto Nov. 22. Khabibulin improved his season record to 7-1-4 with a 2.51 goals-against average and .920 save percentage. He has not suffered a regulation loss in his past 11 appearances, going 7-0-4 since Oct. 15.


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This Morning: ECOM Soars, The $30 Cisco Story, Nibbles of AAPL
Here are some things going on this morning in your world of tech:
Shares of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) are up $2.48, or almost 12%, at $23.71, continuing gains of the after-hours session, following a better-than-expected fiscal Q2 profit report.
CEO Meg Whitman said parts of the business were seeing growth, such as its networking equipment. But she was frank about challenges ahead, such as making up for lost services revenue next year.
The stock got one upgrade this morning, that I can see, from Underperform to Hold, by Peter Misek with Jefferies & Co. Misek writes that "despite our skepticism" HP's strategy for its printer business is "not dead on arrival," as print supplies sales rose 1.5%.
"Printing accounts for 35% of HP's total profit and due to the lower margin profile of hardware, supplies likely account for 40% of HP's total profits," he writes. "Managing the ink profits may be the key to HP's success."
Following HP's report last night, Lenovo (0992HK) reported fiscal Q4 revenue of $7.8 billion, up 4%, year over year, missing consensus of $7.93 billion, but met the average expectation for a 1-cent profit per share. The shares rose 18 cents, or 2.5%, to close at $7.36 in Hong Kong trading.
CEO Yang Yuanqing called the results strong, and remarked that "Not only were we the fastest growing among all major PC players, with record market share, revenue and profitability, more importantly, our smartphone and tablet businesses saw dramatic growth."
"In fact, smartphone shipments were 3.7 times greater than last year globally and we are now number two in the China smartphone market."
The Financial Times' s Kathrin Hille this morning writes that Yuanqing expects the next couple of quarters to be difficult, as the PC market continues to struggle, but things should get better after that as use of Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows 8 picks up.
Shares of ChannelAdvisor (ECOM), a maker of hosted software that lets company sell products through multiple online marketplaces, including eBay (EBAY) and Amazon.com (AMZN), are just beginning trading, under ticker "ECOM." The stock is up $5.14, or 37%, at $19.14 after pricing at $14, the high end of a $12 to $14 range.
ChannelAdvisor made $54 million in revenue last year, according to its S1 filing, and had a net loss of $4.23 per share. It made $15 million in the first quarter, and delivered a net loss of $2.10 per share.
Shares of Cisco Systems (CSCO) get a thumbs up this morning from Citigroup's Kevin Dennean, who reiterates a Buy rating and a $26 price target, writing that he sees a case to be made for $30, based on upside in the venerable routing and switching business, writing that "Taking a detailed look at Cisco's router and switch businesses, the direct relationship between revenue growth and OECD growth is clear with both segments exhibiting correlation >0.75. An improving macro backdrop bodes well for revenue acceleration in Cisco's router and switch segments."
Cisco stock is up 5 cents at $23.49.
Seabreeze Partners's Doug Kass this morning tells followers in a missive he sent out that "Apple (AAPL) is ripe for a buy," noting that while the stock "remains a trading sardine not an eating (or investing) sardine," nevertheless, over the next six to 12 months, "downside is $400 to $410 a share and upside is likely $500 to $525 a share — though depending on the timing and context of new product release, this could be higher."
"While still elevated vis-à-vis my expectations, consensus sales and earnings expectations have been reduced dramatically and have now grown more realistic."
Apple shares are up $1.64, or 0.4%, at $442.99.

subset: commoncrawl