It's Valentine's Day on Thursday, a day dedicated to tenderness, sweetness and affection which is in no way a manufactured cash grab meant to stimulate commerce during the economically dry post-Christmas months.

But in this caustic and tumbledown world, it's all too possible to get caught up in everyday problems and obstacles of life and lose, in the words of those great poets the Righteous Brothers, that loving feeling.

That can't happen on Valentine's Day, it just can't. The holiday is just too sacred and unmanufactured and real. So if you're struggling to get into the mood, fear not. Hockey hugs is here to replace your struggles with snuggles.

I mean, just look at Matt Hendricks up there, breaking down and throwing his arms around Alex Ovechkin. How are you not moved by this display? (In case you're curious, this didn't come after a goal or anything. The Capitals are just hugging and sobbing a lot this season.)

And speaking of comfort, look right, where you'll see Nazem Kadri cradling a kneeling Matt Frattin's head in his arms. And people said the Leafs were the toughest they've ever been. I'll have you know This photo was taken after Frattin fell down during the pregame skate. "I fell down", he kept saying. "Ssshh, Sshhh, come to Nazem", Kadri responded.

So touching.

Now then. Let's make those warm and fuzzies you're feeling even warmer and fuzzier with today's top 5 hockey hugs.

Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.

• Days of Y'orr gives us three minutes of Jack Edwards jumping, set to Kris Kross's jump, because they're committed to giving the people what they want. [Days of Y'Orr]

• Jarmo Kekalainen's record as a drafter is pretty amazing. In addition to almost the entire Blues core, during his time with the Senators, he pointed them to Jason Spezza, Bryan Berard, Chris Phillips, Marian Hossa, Martin Havlat, Mike Fisher, Chris Kelly, Ray Emery, Chris Neil, Brooks Laich and Sami Salo. [Sportsnet]

• Don't expect Kekalainen to go heavy on the European players just because that's where he's from. "Passport's cover page is not why or how we draft players," he told reporters in Finland. "If anything, I'm going to be even more harder on Finnish prospects. [Blue Jackets Xtra]

• Do expect Kekalainen to utilize advanced analytics to make a lot of his decision. Here's his glowing endorsement of stats from the 2012-13 Hockey Prospectus guide: 'Stats are facts...In the long run they hardly ever lie. Thorough analytical work, like that done by Hockey Prospectus, is needed to make a proper evaluation of them."[Hockey Prospectus]

Austin Krause, the goalie who scored on his own net then flipped off his coaches, via Facebook: "They played this sophomore goalie for the starter, he was terrible, I would try and talk to the coaches about this and tell them I want playing time but they never really listen to me or gave me a chance to show them that I'm a better goalie but still wouldn't trust me so I had it it with I asked a few of my players if they care if I did it and they didn't care they thought it would be funny so at the third period they dumped it in I stopped it put in my net started to skate off then flicked the coaches not the team the coaches then I saluted them then got off. My hockey season is over. I did it for myself. (Like my status) if you think the coaches should quit.” [Farmington Independent]

• There was a fight in the stands of last night's Nashville Predators/San Jose Sharks game. Relive the entire thing here through the magic of social media. [On the Forecheck]

• If you wanted to see the NHL suffer a little, and it's been frustrating to watch everything go back to normal and their ratings skyrocket after the lockout, this will warm your heart: "Consultancy firm Brand Finance, which tracks the clout of brand names in the real world, estimates that the NHL will lose nearly US$328.2 million in brand value in 2013 as fans spend less money on hockey in the coming year." [The Score]

• John Tortorella, on his team taking their NHL-leading sixth too many men penalty: "“Another too-many-men, huh? No, I don’t want to expand on it. It [stinks], what do you want me to say. It’s stupid. It [stinks]. It’s brutal. I can use a lot of different things.” [NY Post]

• Tuesday saw the debuts of Anthony Peluso and Darcy Kuemper, which gave the ECHL over 500 players graduated to the NHL. [ECHL]

We've already talked some about the wonders that occurred in the final 10 minutes of Tuesday night's tilt between the Rangers and the Bruins (3 goals! Jack Edwards jumping up and down!). But a wonder occurred in the first 10 minutes as well, and we have yet to give it adequate praise.

If you haven't seen it yet, you really must watch the remarkable work that Rick Nash does to set up Carl Hagelin for the game's first goal. This is one of the best setups of the early season:

My goodness. That's how quickly Rick Nash can beat you.

Let's give credit to the second assist by Dan Girardi as well. His savvy pass to Nash at the blueline to catch the Bruins trying to make changes allowed this play to happen.

But Nash made it happen, and how. The big winger comes flying in with speed, catching Boston's defence pair of Andrew Ference and Adam McQuaid thinking line change. Both had been on the ice for over a minute, and I suspect Nash is well aware.

The moment he comes across the blue line, this thing's over. Ference tries to retreat, but he's gassed and, frankly, Nash might have too much speed even if he wasn't. In a flash, the Ranger is in the slot, having gone outside-inside on Ference. Then, when Nash stumbles over Ference's skate, he has the presence of mind to make the pass around McQuaid to Hagelin as he falls.

Shortly after this play was made, the Blue Jackets fired Scott Howson. Coincidence? Probably.

Follow Harrison Mooney on Twitter at @HarrisonMooney

(Ed Note: Molly Brooks is a freelance illustrator and comicker. You can follow her work at MollyBrooks.com. Anyone interested in contributing an article, column or post to the blog can pitch yo stuff here. Now, here's Molly.)

by Molly Brooks

On Monday night, the Flames went down pretty quietly in a home game against the Minnesota Wild that pretty much all observers agreed was in every way a dreadful, unwatchable hockey game.

That description fairly accurately covers most Flames games this season, as the team struggles to put together wins or even particularly convincing losses (shootout disappointment against Chicago a few weeks back aside). Watching them, as they skate around and outchance most of the teams they play but never actually do much to convince you that they're any particular threat to score, it goes a long way to explaining their minus-9 goal differential in 10 games, as well as their goals per game standing at a paltry 2.6.

I'm not sure what the term would be, except maybe that they just seem somewhat absent from all the proceedings. Like, mentally. And you could sit there and say that this phenomenon is just a consequence of the Flames having a thoroughly mediocre roster. Alex Tanguay and Jiri Hudler have been the team's two best forwards by a pretty wide margin, and there's a pretty credible case to be made for Lee Stempniak being No. 3.

The thing is, any reasonable person would have looked at this Flames roster at the beginning of the season and said it was a team for which goals would be hard to come by, so the fact that such a prediction turned out to be true should come as no great surprise.

However, not too many in Calgary probably had the team at three wins through their first 10 games, and without goaltending to blame for that latest 2-1 shootout loss to Minnesota, given Miikka Kiprusoff — a great early-season scapegoat with ghastly stats — was hurt and Leland Irving was, for the second game in a row, at least credible in the loss.

That was the third shootout loss suffered by the Flames in as many tries this year; they also won just 3 of 12 last season, so that's a probably an area that has to be more than a little concerning for these guys.

The facts are pretty clear at this point, not that they haven't been for a while: Either this was never a well-constructed team to begin with, or the team hasn't done enough to ensure that it's winning the skills competition that last year spelled the difference between their earning that long-sought playoff spot and, you know, not doing that.

Maybe the problem is that those two best Flames forwards mentioned above were grouped with Blair Jones of all people for the loss to Minnesota.

But that thing everyone has been saying for months, if not years at this point, is now no longer just being whispered by outsiders, and having their comments dismissed as hogwash by those within the Saddledome. Even those in the city, those who know the team best, are now openly questioning, albeit without actually doing so, what in the hell Jay Feaster was thinking not trading Jarome Iginla and Miikka Kiprusoff when he had the chance.

The Boston Bruins put together an incredible comeback Tuesday night versus the New York Rangers, clawing their way back from down 3-0 in the final 10 minutes to force the game into overtime. The final two goals were both scored with the goalie pulled, the last within the final minute.

It was very exciting stuff for fans of the Boston Bruins, and NESN announcer Jack Edwards is definitely that. Brad Marchand's game-tying goal had him jumping down in the booth. Watch the whole, dizzying sequence in this clip, or just catch Edwards' giddy bunny hops at 3:15:

"And the Bruins! Showing hearts of lions! Have tied it 3-3!"

Say what you will about Edwards. The man's way with words is legendary.

Especially when it comes to Boston, whom some have suggested he prefers over all others. Yes, Edwards has been called a homer in the past, and this clip (featured here in GIF form) probably isn't going to reinforce his impartiality.

That said, Edwards addressed it on the broadcast just moments after his happy dance. "Oh, he's such a homah. He's such a homah," he joked in a thick, Bostonian accent, before responding. "Get over it. You go to hockey games to get excited."

Fair point. This was pretty exciting.

Follow Harrison Mooney on Twitter at @HarrisonMooney

One could make the case for July 3 being named a Finnish national holiday. Not only is it the birthday of Teemu Selanne, the greatest human alive Finnish hockey player to ever play, but as it turns out, it's also the birthday of the first European General Manager in NHL history, Finnish-born Jarmo Kekalainen.

The Columbus Blue Jackets named Kekalainen as their replacement for the departing Scott Howson on Wednesday.

Kekalainen joins the Blue Jackets after three years as the GM of Jokerit (best known around these parts as the team that employs the puckish Jarkko Ruutu), but he does have some very pertinent NHL experience. He played 55 NHL games as a left winger, then transitioned into front-office work, spending five years as the director of player personnel for the Ottawa Senators.

More pertinent to this hiring, he worked closely with Columbus's President of hockey operations, John Davidson, when Davidson was the president in St. Louis. From the Jackets:

“Hockey is a truly global game and there are very few people whose knowledge of the game in North America and abroad surpasses that of Jarmo Kekalainen,” said Davidson. “He is intelligent, hard-working and a tremendous evaluator of talent. He is a terrific addition to the Blue Jackets family and will play an important role in our efforts to move our organization forward in the coming years.”

Kekalainen (pronounced kehk-uh-LIE-nehn) spent eight seasons with the St. Louis Blues from 2002-10 before joining Jokerit. He most recently served as the club’s assistant general manager and director of amateur scouting and was involved in all facets of hockey operations, including professional scouting efforts and overseeing the club’s amateur scouting and draft preparations. During his eight years in St. Louis, the Blues drafted players such as David Backes, Roman Polak, David Perron, T.J. Oshie, Patrick Berglund and Alex Pietrangelo.

The Blue Jackets have had all sorts of issues since they arrived in the NHL, but the most glaring one has been the drafting and development of their prospects.

A strange moment occurred in a Minnesota High School hockey game Tuesday night, and when I say strange, I mean absolutely flipping insane. Trailing Farmington by one goal with just over three minutes to go, Chaska needed a break to knot things up. Then they got one.

That's when the disgruntled Farmington goaltender Austin Krause decided it was time to make a statement by costing his team the victory. He casually walked the puck out from behind the net and into his own goal to tie the game, then gave the finger to his coaching staff, saluted the crowd, and left the ice. Thank god it was caught on video:

Spurred by their bizarre luck, Chaska was able to rally for another goal on the powerplay before time expired for the come-from-behind 3-2 victory.

Safe to say they felt a little weird about it. Chaska assistant coach Sean Bloomington expressed his sympathy for the rest of the Farmington squad after the match on Twitter:

What was Krause's motivation? The rumour, according to Minnesota high school hockey blog Follow the Puck, is that it was an ill-conceived protest over playing time. Krause, a senior, had been warming the bench while sophomore Gage Overby started in his place. (The last time Chaska and Farmington met, Overby got the start and posted a shutout.) But when he got the start -- on senior night no less -- because of an injury to the sophomore, he decided to take his revenge.

Rachel Markuson, a Farmington senior that claims to manage the team, says Krause has been talking about quitting the whole season. One assumes no one realized how spectacularly or disgracefully he'd do it.

Here's hoping Roberto Luongo doesn't get any ideas the next time Alain Vigneault tries to go with the fresh-faced Cory Schneider.

s/t to Puck Daddy reader Tim for the tip.

Follow Harrison Mooney on Twitter at @HarrisonMooney