Empty Netter Assists - 01-24-10

Penguins

-Dave Molinari names his all-1990s Penguins team. There's a good chance a Samuelsson is on it.

-Can Alex Goligoski (above) break the "Curse of Greg Malone?"

-The Penguins go bowling:

-Kris Letang's "Dey call dat a durkey or sometin..." is priceless.

-Brad Thiessen made 29 saves for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in a 5-3 loss to the Rochester Americans.

-Happy 47th birthday to former Penguins defenseman Norm Schmidt. A fourth-round pick of the club in 1981, Schmidt spent his entire four-year NHL career with the Penguins. In 125 career games, he recorded 56 points. Injuries forced him to retire early in the 1987-88 season.

-Happy 31sth birthday to former Penguins forward Tom Kostopoulos (right). A seventh-round pick of hte team in 1999, one of the greatest players in the history of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton club's history, spent parts of three seasons with the NHL Penguins. He dressed in 79 games over that span and recorded 25 points. Prior to the 2004-05 lockout, he signed with the Kings' AHL affiliate in Manchester. He is currently a member of the Carolina Hurricanes.

-Happy 37th birthday to Chris and Peter Ferraro. The only set of twins to play for the Penguins, they each joined the organization when they were claimed off waivers from the Rangers prior to the 1997-98 season. Chris appeared in 46 games for the team that season and recorded seven points. Peter only played in 29 games for the Penguins that season also recording seven points before the Rangers re-claimed him off waviers in January, 1998. Chris left the Penguins when he signed with the OIlers in the 1998 offseason. Both currently play for the Los Vegas Wranglers of the ECHL.

-Happy 65th birthday to former Penguins goaltender Bobby Taylor. Acquired along with Ed Van Impe for Gary Inness in a trade with the Flyers late in the 1975-76 season for future considerations, Taylor appeared in two games for the Penguins before retiring. "The Chief" is currently a television broadcaster with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Atlantic Division

-Scoreboard Watch for the Penguins: Jamie Langenbrunner had a goal and two assists for the Devils in a 4-2 win against the Islanders. Travis Zajac recorded three assists while teammate Zach Parise added two goals. Martin Brodeur (above) made 20 saves in the win.

-New York's Kyle Okposo pulled out the crazy eyes while getting pressured by New Jersey's Johnny Oduya:

-New York's Rick DiPietro had issues with this puck:

-Jeff Carter had two goals and an assist for the Flyers who beat the Hurricanes, 4-2. Teammate Chris Pronger had a goal and an assist while Ray Emery made 33 saves in the victory which was Philadelphia's third in a row.

-Happy times for Pronger:

-Philadelphia's Darroll Powe mashed Carolina's Joni Pitkanen pretty good:

-Don't expect Rangers forward Marian Gaborik to fight Flyers forward Daniel Carcillo again anytime soon.

Northeast Division

-Scoreboard Watch for the Penguins: Brian Elliott made 32 saves for the Senators in a 3-1 win at Boston. Jason Spezza (above), playing in his first game after missing six weeks due to a knee injury, scored the game-winning goal. The win was Ottawa's sixth in a row. The Senators are in fifth place in the Eastern Conference with 60 points, three fewer than the fourth-place Penguins. Boston has lost four consecutive games.

-Jaroslav Halak made 32 saves in the Canadiens in a 6-0 shutout the Rangers. Mike Cammalleri had two goals and two assists while teammate Tomas Plekanec added a goal and an assist. The Rangers were shutou for the second consecutive game.

-Plekanec managed to bank the puck off all three posts for his goal:

-Montreal's Ryan O'Byrne and New York's Aaron Voros pounded the tar out of each other:

-We don't want to call the shooting accuracy of Rangers forward and former Penguin Erik Christensen into question, but...:

-The Bruins recalled defenseman Adam McQuaid from Providence of the AHL.

Southeast Division

-Scoreboard Watch for the Penguins: Alexander Semin had a goal and three assists for the Capitals in a 4-2 defeat of the Coyotes. Teammates Eric Fehr and Alex Ovechkin each had a goal and an assist while Michal Neuvirth (above, stopping Phoenix's Vernon Fiddler) made 28 saves in the victory which was Washington's sixth in a row. Lauri Korpikoski led Phoenix with two goals. The Capitals are in first place in the Eastern Conference with 72 points, nine more than the fourth-place Penguins.

-Tomas Vokoun made 39 saves and led the Panthers to a 2-0 shutout of the Maple Leafs. Jonas Gustavsson made 20 saves for Toronto which has lost three consecutive games.

-Vokoun stopping Toronto's Phil Kessel in tight:

-Jeff Halpern's shootout goal gave the Lightning a 2-1 defeat of the Panthers. Antero Niittymaki made 37 saves in the win which was Tampa Bay's third in four games. Atlanta has lost three out of four games.

-Atlanta's Eric Boulton and Tampa Bay's Matt Walker had issues:

-Painful times for Tampa Bay's Martin St. Louis:

-Thrashers forward Slava Kozlov was a healthy scratch last night and had his franchise record of 251 consecutive games played snapped.

-Panthers forward Nathan Horton will be out of the lineup four to six weeks due to a broken leg.

Central Division

-The Predators demoted defenseman Alexander Sulzer to Milwaukee of the AHL.

-Blues forward David Backes is dealing with an "upper-body" injury.

Northwest Division

-Henrik Sedin had two goals and an assist for the Canucks in a 5-1 rout of the Blackhawks. Linemates Daniel Sedin (one goal, two assists) and Alex Burrows (three assists) each contributed to the win. Roberto Luongo (above) made a whopping 43 saves in the victory which was Vancouver's fourth in a row.

-Check out Daniel Sedin's goal:

-Canadians just do national anthems better than us:

-Luongo and Chicago's John Madden (right) and Dustin Byfuglien kept their eyes on this puck:

-Canucks defenseman and former Penguin Nolan Baumgartner appeared in his first NHL game in three years.

-Mikko Koivu scored two goals and led the Wild to a 4-2 defeat of the Blue Jackets. Niklas Backstrom made 22 saves for Minnesota which snapped a four-game losing streak. Rick Nash and Antoine Vermette each had a goal and an assist for Columbus.

-The Flames have put forwards Nigel Dawes (leg) and David Moss (shoulder) on injured reserve.

-The OIlers demoted defenseman Taylor Chorney to Springfield of the AHL.

-The Wild is still trying to figure out what to do with former Penguins forward Petr Sykora.

-Check out the Canucks' new pregame introduction:

Pacific DIvision

-Scoreboard Watch for the Penguins: Jed Ortmeyer (above) and Joe Pavelski each had two goals and led the Sharks to a 5-2 win against the Sabres. Teammates Manny Malhotra and Scott Nichol each recorded two assists while Evgeni Nabokov made 38 saves in the victory which was San Jose's fifth in a row. Buffalo, which has lost three consecutive games, is in third place in the Eastern Conference with 67 points, four more than the fourth-place Penguins.

-Happy times for the Sharks. Not so much for the Sabres:

-Anze Kopitar had a goal and two assists for the Kings in a 3-2 defeat of the Red Wings. Brad Richardson had a goal and an assist for Los Angeles while teammate Wayne Simmonds added two assists. Jonathan Quick made 31 saves in the victory.

-Check out this goal Detroit's Valtteri Filppula scored:

-Check out this "save" by Detroit defenseman Brad Stuart:

-A section of stands were cleared out during the game at Joe Louis Arena after some fans were spotted walking around the rafters.

-Shootout goals by Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf and James Wisniewski gave the Ducks a 4-3 win against the Blues. Bobby Ryan had two goals in regulation for Anaheim while Wisniewski added two assists. Jonas HIller made 19 saves int he victory.

-Happy times for Wisniewski:

-Kings general manager Dean Lombardi threw a blogger he gave direct quotes to under the bus for the flap over defenseman Jack Johnson's coaching at the University of Michigan.

Patrick Division

-Ron Cramer and and Furman South each had two assists for the Robert Morris men's team in a 3-3 tie at Colgate.

-Nick Vandenbeld had a hat trick and led the Mercyhurst men's team to a 6-3 defeat of Bentley.

-Jennifer Kindret had two goals and an assist for the Robert Morris women's team in a 13-4 rout of Sacred Heart.

-Hillary Pattenden made 15 saves for the Mercyhurst women's team in a 4-3 defeat of Syracuse.

(Photos: Goligoski-Jerry S. Mendoza/Associated Press; Kostopoulos-Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press; Devils/Islanders-Paul Bereswill/Getty Images; Hurricanes/Flyers-Jim McIsaac/Getty Images; Senators/Bruins-Michael Dwyer/Associated Press; Rangers/Canadiens-Canadian Press; Coyotes/Capitals-Nick Wass/Associated Press; Maple Leafs/Panthers-Joel Auerbach/Getty Images; Thrashers/Lightning-Chris O'Meara/Associated Press; Blackhawks-Canucks-Rich Lam/Getty Images; Sabres/Sharks-Ezra Shaw/Getty Images; Ducks/Blues-Jeff Roberson/Associated Press)