A Day in the NHL: Thursday February 10
By Editorial Staff
If you haven’t heard about the Boston/Montreal game last night well….it was a good one. People called it the best game “in a while”, “of the season”, “in the history of anything.” There were a lot of trades too. Like four. None involving Boston or Montreal though.
The Night that Was:
There were 14 goals scored between the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens, but at any one time you could probably find that many players serving penalties combined between the two teams. Almost more impressive than the offensive output was the fact that there were more than 10 fighting majors handed out, a goalie fight (albeit a lackluster one), multiple line brawls, and Carey Price and Tim Thomas playing the entire game despite allowing eight and six goals respectively and jerseying each other. Things lost in the 8-6 win for the Bruins? Nathan Horton’s five point night (one goal and four assists), two-goal nights for Milan Lucic and Michael Ryder, Yannick Weber’s first NHL goal in the regular season (and a three point game), and Boston opening up a four-point lead in the Northeast division.
The Calgary Flames winning ways continued last night against the Ottawa Senators, winning 5-2. The Flames actually trailed 2-1 but came back with two goals in the second and two more in the third, shutting Ottawa out the rest of the way. Anton Babchuk had his second three-point game of the New Year, while Olli Jokinen had a two-point game and Tim Jackman scored two goals. The win gave the Flames sole possession of eighth place in the Western Conference.
In Detroit, the Nashville Predators continued to be a thorn in the side of the Wings as of late, with their second win over Detroit in four days. The 4-1 victory for Nashville has them outscoring Detroit 7-1 over their last two head-to-heads as Pekka Rinne stopped 34 shots for his 19th win of the season. Sergei Kostitsyn had his third two-point over his last five while Martin Erat and David Legwand each scored their eighth goals of the season. Ruslan Salei scored his first goal as a Red Wing in the loss.
Jordan Eberle scored his 11th goal of the season, but it was literally too little and too late. Eberle’s was Edmonton’s only goal of the game in a 4-1 loss, coming late in the third after Chicago had already built a 3-0 lead. While Corey Crawford’s shutout bid was lost, he did make 23 saves as Patrick Kane (two goals) and Jonathan Toews (two assists) each had two points, helping Chicago out of a two-game mini-skid. Taylor Hall recorded an assist on Eberle’s goal, giving the Oilers’ rookie points in six of his last eight games.
Quick Hits:
–Kent Huskin’s first of the season and Kyle Wellwood’s second as a Shark helped San Jose to a 3-2 win over Columbus.
-The two goals from David Jones weren’t enough for the Colorado Avalanche as they fell in Minnesota, 3-2 to the Wild.
–Keith Yandle continues to lead defensemen in points, increasing his totals with an assist last night on Radim Vrbata’s OT winner in Phoenix’s 3-2 win over Dallas. Ilya Bryzgalov’s shutout streak ended ten minutes into the first.
-The Anaheim Ducks jumped out to a 3-0 lead and one of Bobby Ryan’s two goals stood as the winner as Vancouver’s win streak stopped at six, losing 4-3.
What’s on Tonight?
New Jersey heads to the ACC to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs, while Carolina is in tough for a win against the Philadelphia Flyers. Los Angeles heads to Pittsburgh, while the New York Islanders look for a win against the Canadiens, who are looking for a better result than Wednesday night. Buffalo heads to Florida in hopes of pushing their winning streak to three.
The Injury Bug:
–Marian Hossa reportedly has an upper-body injury. Hossa is being listed as day-to-day although the injury isn’t serious.
-The New York Rangers have lost Chris Drury. The Captain will be undergoing surgery on his left knee and will miss six weeks.
–Daniel Alfredsson will be missing from the Senators lineup for the next little while thanks to a back injury.
-Calgary’s Alex Tanguay is also on the “indefinite” list with a neck strain. Tanguay had nine points in his last eight games.
-The most popular ACL in the NHL is going to have surgery. Evgeni Malkin is expected to have his ravaged knee surgically repaired today and be ready for training camp.
Rumours and News Around the League:
-The NHL handed out two suspensions yesterday. Anton Volchenkov was suspened three games for clipping Zack Boychuk in the head, while Matt Cooke’s hit to the head of Fedor Tyutin earned him a four-game ban.
-The Toronto Maple Leafs swung a deal yesterday, sending Francois Beauchemin back to the Anaheim Ducks (where he was signed from), for Joffrey Lupul, Jake Gardiner and a conditional fourth-round pick in 2013. On the same day, Jonas Gustavsson was pulled from a start due to an elevated heart-rate.
-Phoenix sent former New York Rangers’ first-rounder Al Montoya to the New York Islanders for a sixth-round pick. The Isles also announced Kevin Poulin’s season was over thanks to a dislocated knee cap suffered in Wednesday’s warm-up.
–Michael Frolik is now a Chicago Blackhawk. The Panthers sent him and Alexander Salak to the ‘Hawks while Florida ended up with Jack Skille, Hugh Jessiman, and David Pacan.
-And a fourth trade in the NHL. New Jersey sent Steve Zalewski and Jay Leach to San Jose for Patrick Davis and Mike Swift.
The Overlooked Fantasy Line of the Night:
Anton Babchuk’s three points earns him the award. Because two of his points (the goal and one of the assists) came on the power play, Babchuk ended up with an even-rating on the night, also firing four shots in just over 15 minutes of work.
E-mail Bryan at bryanthiel74@hotmail.com, or follow him on Twitter at BryanThiel_88.