A Day in the NHL: Tuesday November 23

Hopefully you got your hockey fill yesterday because unless some big news pops up, today should be relatively quiet.

The Night that Was:

In the surprise of the night, there was a shutout and five goals between New Jersey and Washington. Only catch is, it was the Captials getting shut out by Johan Hedberg, and the Devils scoring five goals. Go figure. Jason Arnott had two of the Devils’ goals and Mattias Tedenby scored on a penalty shot and added an assist as Hedberg stopped 30 shots. Afterwards Bruce Boudreau described the past three games (all losses) for the Capitals as “taking a crap”. Despite this time spent in the lavatory, they’re stilled tied for top spot in the NHL.

Tampa Bay and Columbus each won their fourth in a row last night. The Lightning hosted the Boston Bruins and Mike Smith shut them down. Smith allowed just one goal on 27 shots, while nine different players recorded a point for Tampa Bay, including Steve Stamkos who now has 20 goals before the month of November is over. He’s on pace for 78. Steve Mason faced 27 shots for the Blue Jackets and stopped them all for the shutout as Nashville became Rick Nash’s most recent victim: Nash had one goal against the Predators, giving him goals in six straight (nine total during that stretch) and a nine game point streak.

The Mike Richards/PK Subban re-match….really didn’t happen. There was a lot said by both teams heading in to this one, but the day belonged to Carey Price again. Price stopped 42 of 45 shots in a losing effort as Maxime Lapierre cloned the results on both of his goals (Benoit Pouliot and Jeff Halpern with the assists both times). James van Riemsdyk had the winner though as Philadelphia came back from that early 2-0 deficit.

Nikolai Kulemin seems to be out to prove his doubters wrong this year. When Kulemin signed his new two-year deal in the summer, he had been asking originally for top-six money. While his current $2.35-million pay check isn’t quite top-six, he scored two goals for the Leafs in their 4-1 win over Dallas last night. Kulemin has a modest 13 points in 20 games, is tied for second on the team with seven goals, and is tied for third in overall scoring.

What’s on Tonight?

So….there’s one game on tonight. Edmonton and Minnesota. It’s Tuesday. Movies are cheap. Go on a date or something.

The Injury Bug:

Matt Stajan left Calgary’s game against New York last night after getting decimated by Marc Staal. No word on the injury, although it’s of the head variety and will most likely keep him off of the ice for a bit.

Rob Niedermayer will be out of the Buffalo lineup for a couple of weeks after “minor arthroscopic knee surgery.” The injury is something he’s been trying to play through, but it’s finally gotten the better of him. Jochen Hecht missed Monday’s practice for the Sabres while Tim Connolly left part-way through with what’s thought to be a groin tweak.

Calgary’s Roby Regehr didn’t play last night against the New York Rangers. No more news on him from the Flames’ website.

Ryan Suter and David Legwand both sat out Nashville’s game against Columbus yesterday. Suter’s was more for rest because he was feeling a tweak from the injury he suffered early on against Calgary that had him out of the lineup for a bit. Both should be back for Wednesday’s game against St. Louis.

Seymon Varlamov was activated from injured reserve yesterday by the Capitals. He may be just what’s needed for the Caps to turn things around again.

Rumours and News Around the League:

Brad Richards was in Toronto yesterday and, from what I hear, he left with the Dallas Stars. Meaning he wasn’t traded, although the way everybody jumped on the bandwagon, you’d think he was. Judging from the way Joe Nieuwendyk answered questions yesterday, Richards and Mike Ribeiro will be with Dallas for the next little while, but without solid ownership and the fact that either could generate a healthy return, Nieuwendyk’s hands may be tied to moving them.

The Anaheim Ducks have put Ryan Carter on waivers. He was put on waivers during the summer but went unclaimed.

The Overlooked Fantasy Line of the Night:

Two goalies were amongst the NHL’s three stars last night, and Carey Price gets our award this morning. Most look at the box score and see “loss”, but Price stood on his head yet again. He’s had an outstanding season so far, and was deserving of a win last night.

All images are courtesy of YardBarker.

Bryan Thiel is a columnist for Hockey54.com—The Face of the Game! and TooManyMenOnTheSite.com. If you want to get in contact with Bryan, you can e-mail him at bryanthiel74@hotmail.com, or follow him on Twitter at BryanThiel_88.