The NHL’s ad campaign this year stressed that “questions will be answered” and tonight was loaded with questions. Could the Rangers stay hot? Could Steven Stamkos continue scoring points like Gretzky? Could the Devils get things turned around? Could the Hurricanes remember where the heck their home arena was? All these questions were answered tonight, here’s your recap of the night’s action.
So the Rangers couldn’t keep the hot streak going. It’s fair though since they ran into an Atlanta team playing pretty well themselves. A schizo effort out of the Rangers ran the gamut from looking great to looking abysmal defensively watching both Evander Kane and Bryan Little skate through the defense to score effortless goals. Starter Martin Biron wasn’t immune either getting beat a couple times badly up high. That said, the Thrashers continued to do their thing and playing tough hockey getting other goals from Niclas Bergfors, Dustin Byfuglien, Eric Boulton, and Andrew Ladd. Rangers forward Artem Anisimov suffered an ankle injury and may end up being out for some time.
Perhaps the Hurricanes would like to go back out on the road. After being terrors on their long bi-continental road trip to start the season, the Hurricanes returned home for the first time this season only to get shutout by Michal Neuvirth and the Capitals. The shutout was Neuvirth’s first in his NHL career and he made 29 shots to earn it. The Caps got a pair of third period goals from Nicklas Backstrom to seal the deal. The eventual game-winner went to Matt Hendricks.
The Canadiens continue to do well and stopping a very game Islanders squad made for a good test for the Habs. Montreal got five goals from five different players and never trailed in the game. The Islanders had a great game by James Wisniewski spoiled as the defenseman had a goal and two assists in the loss. Meanwhile, the Habs had goals each from Mathieu Darche, Andrei Kostitsyn, Travis Moen, and Tomas Plekanec. Carey Price made 18 saves in the win for Montreal, meanwhile Dwayne Roloson stopped 3o in the loss.
You could say this was a roller coaster of a game for both teams. The Lightning’s Dana Tyrell scored on the first shot of the game, only to see that followed up by Pittsburgh scoring shorthanded twice on the same power play to get ahead 2-1 thanks to Craig Adams and Matt Cooke. Pascal Dupuis followed up shortly after that to make it 3-1 and chased starter Mike Smith from the game. From that point on, Dan Ellis would shut the door and the Lightning would rattle off four straight goals to win. Martin St. Louis scored twice while Vincent Lecavalier and Teddy Purcell added goals as well. Wondering about Steven Stamkos? Sure, he didn’t score a goal but he had three assists in the win.
Patrick Sharp stays red hot for the Blackhawks as he netted his ninth goal of the year in the Hawks victory. Marty Turco did a stellar job in stopping 33 Kings shots for the win, allowing just a goal to Justin Williams in the first period. Marian Hossa left the game with an unknown injury to this point. The Hawks have done well given the limitations on their roster but losing Hossa for an extended amount of time would be a tough blow. As it is, the team expects to get defenseman Brian Campbell back this weekend so things are looking up elsewhere. For the Kings, rookie netminder Jonathan Bernier took the loss and stopped 25 shots.
The Devils tough start to the season continues and tonight it was Joe Thornton casting all the daggers in their defeat. Thornton finished the game with a hat trick and two assists, figuring in on all the Sharks goals in the win. Thornton’s linemates Dany Heatley and Patrick Marleau also got paid off from Thornton’s good night as each had a goal and three assists. Antero Niittymaki stopped 27 shots in the win while Martin Brodeur stopped 34 shots in the loss. Something is going to give soon for New Jersey, it’s a just a question of when. If there’s an upside for New Jersey it’s that they broke their road power play 0-for-the-season as defenseman Andy Greene netted a power play goal in the third period.
