Empty Netter Assists - Western Conference - 1-7-09

Central Division

-Former Penguins goaltender Ty Conklin made 23 saves for the Red Wings in a 3-0 shutout of the Blue Jackets. Fire Ray Shero. Pavel Datsyuk had a goal and two assists while Henrik Zetterberg and former Penguins forward Marian Hossa each added a goal and assist. Fire Ray Shero. Detroit defenseman Chris Chelios set an NHL record with his 880th career win. Steve Mason made 37 saves in the loss.

-Check out one of Conklin's saves:

-Fire Ray Shero.

-Check out this soccer-style pass by Datsyuk that set up one of us for Zetterberg:

-Columbus forward Rick Nash left the game with a "lower-body" injury.

-Cristobal Huet made 22 saves for the Blackhawks in a 6-0 shutout of the Coyotes. Jonathan Toews had two goals and an assist while Adam Burish added a goal and two assists.

-Check out this cheap shot Chicago's Matt Walker gave to Phoenix's Ed Jovanoski:

-The Winter Classic outdid every bowl game in terms of television ratings in Chicago.

-Can Blackhawks forward Patrick Sharp hit the 40-goal mark?

-The Blue Jackets demoted forwards Nikita Filatov and Stefan Legein to Syracuse of the AHL. Columbus also activated defenseman Ole-Kristian Tollefsen from injured reserve and put forward Jiri Novoty ("upper body") on injured reserve.

-The Predators recalled forward Ryan Jones from Milwaukee of the AHL.

-The Blues have been missing defenseman Eric Brewer.

-St. Louis forward Paul Kariya underwent hip surgery. He will be sidelined indefinitely.

Northwest Division

-Niklas Backstrom made 28 saves and led the Wild to a 1-0 shutout win at Boston. Manny Fernandez made 23 saves in the loss.

-Wojtek Wolski had two goals and helped the Avalanche edge the Predators, 2-1. Teammate Milan Hejduk added two assists while Andrew Raycroft made 22 saves in the win.

-Daymond Langkow had two goals for the Flames in a 5-2 defeat of the Sharks. Teammates Curtis Glencross and David Moss each had a goal and an assist.

-The Avalanche put defenseman Adam Foote on injured reserve due to an arm injury and recalled Philippe Dupuis from Lake Erie of the AHL.

-Former Colorado forward Peter Forsberg has resumed skating with Modo, a team in Sweden.

-Generally, it's not a good thing for your health to be a captain or alternate captain with Colorado.

-The Canucks have too many Sedins.

-Forward Mats Sundin (right) is expected to make his debut with Vancouver tonight at Edmonton.

-The Oilers are getting a ton of points from their offense.

-Wild goon Derek Boogaard is dealing with an "upper-body" injury.

Pacific Division

-Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger each had two assist for the Ducks in a 3-1 defeat of the rival Kings.

-The Stars demoted defenseman Ivan Vishnevskiy to Peoria of the AHL.

-The Kings recalled forward Oscar Moller from Sweden's national junior team.

Patrick Division

-Fighting has been a part of hockey for as long as the sport has existed.

-The NHL will soon be digitalizing a lot of its archived videos and documents.

(Photo: Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)