They call him “Juice” in Carolina and for Jussi Jokinen his return to the Hurricanes lineup has been a huge boost of late. With the Hurricanes going 2-1-0 this past week, Jokinen’s efforts scoring four goals and three assists did not go unnoticed by the NHL as he was named the NHL’s #1 star of the week. Seven points in three games is pretty impressive and with the Hurricanes now just one point behind Atlanta in the race for the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference and seven points behind Tampa Bay and Washington for the Southeast Division lead, it’s time people started taking notice of the Hurricanes. The spark Jokinen has provided of late has been key to their rise up the standings.
Boston’s Patrice Bergeron did pretty well himself also earning four goals and three assists last week in helping the Bruins go 3-1-0 last week and earning the #2 star of the week. Bergeron’s play has been huge for Boston with Marc Savard having missed a good chunk of the season and David Krejci struggling. It’s taken a couple years, but perhaps this is the real Patrice Bergeron we’ve been waiting to see. A guy you can put on the ice in any situation and see positive results out of.
Phoenix goalie Ilya Bryzgalov earned #3 star status for the week helping the Coyotes to a 3-0-0 record during that time. Sporting a healthy 2.00 goals against average with a .938 save percentage will make sure you get noticed. Bryzgalov stopped 91 of 97 shots in the week and got the Coyotes to within four points of Dallas for the lead in the Pacific Division.
