Empty Netter Assists - 01-27-11
Penguins
-Maxime Talbot and Mike Rupp are good people.
-Sean Conboy of Pittsburgh Magazine has a wondeful Q&A with Ray Shero.
-Arron Asham is hosting a charity hockey game in his hometown of Portage la Prairie, Manitoba during the all-star break.
-Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo! re-examines the 1990 All-Star Game at the Civic Arena.
-Captain Ryan Craig and Dustin Jeffrey each had two goals for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in a 6-4 defeat of the Charlotte Checkers. Joe Vitale recorded three assists for the Penguins while teammate Robert Bortuzzo recorded two assists. John Curry made 34 saves in the victory.
-Highlights courtesty of The Wilkes-Blog:
{youtube width="480" height="385"}T_DasEsSWiU{/youtube}
-Wheeling Nailers goaltender Patrick Killeen made seven saves for the ECHL All-Star team in a 9-3 defeat of the Bakersfield All-Stars. Teammate Ben Walker recorded one assist.
-Former Penguin Gary Roberts was one of 18 current or former NHLers who lost money by investing in former Penguin Len Barrie's Bear Mountain golf resort in British Columbia.
Atlantic Division
-New Jersey's Jacques Lemaire said he will not coach past this season.
-The Islanders demoted goaltender Kevin Poulin and defenseman Dylan Reese, an Upper St. Clair native, to Bridgeport of the AHL.
-The Rangers demoted defenseman Michael Del Zotto and forwards Evgeny Grachev, Brodie Dupont, Chad Kolarik and Kris Newbury to Connecticut of the AHL.
Northeast Division
-Tim Thomas made 34 saves and led the Bruins to a 2-1 win against the Panthers. The Bruins have won seven out of their past 10 games. Boston swept the season series from Florida.
-Check out this laser of a goal by Boston's Milan Lucic:
_The Canadiens demoted forward Ryan White to Hamilton of the AHL.
-The Senators demoted goaltender Mike Brodeur and forward Bobby Butler to Binghamton of AHL.
Southeast Division
-Ondrej Pavelec made 36 saves and led the Thrashers to a 1-0 shutout of the Captials. Pavelec has two shutouts against the Capitals this season.
-If anyone can figure out what Washington "defense"man Mike Green was doing on this goal by Atlanta's Nik Antropov, be our guest:
{youtube width="480" height="295"}R2ICU5UsIbM{/youtube}
-How bad are things for the Capitals? Captain Alex Ovechkin is having issues with just sitting on the bench:
{youtube width="480" height="295"}RujmoKXjFd8{/youtube}
-Washington's Semyon Varlamov kept his eyes on this puck:
-Ditto Pavelec:
-Captain Eric Staal had two goals and an assist for the Hurricanes in a 4-2 win against the Islanders. Teammate Erik Cole recorded two assists. Cam Ward made 23 saves in the victory. Michael Grabner and Andrew MacDonald each netted a goal and an assist for New York.
-Panthers forward Shawn Matthias is dealing with an ankle injury.
Central Division
-Jimmy Howard made 23 saves and led the Red Wings to a 3-1 win against the Devils. New Jersey had a four-game winning streak snapped.
-Check out this pass by Detroit's Jiri Hudler to set up Valtteri Filppula for a goal:
{youtube width="480" height="295"}ZZGBQdFGdOQ{/youtube}
-Howard kept his eyes on this puck:
-The Blackhawks demoted defenseman Nick Leddy to Rockford of the AHL.
-The Blue Jackets demoted forward Matt Calvert to Springfield of the AHL.
-Blue Jackets defenseman Rostislav Klesla is dealing with a knee injury.
Northwest Division
-Roberto Luongo made 26 saves and led the Canucks to a 2-1 win against the Predators.
-Happy times for Vancouver's Lee Sweatt:
-Vancouver's Ryan Kesler didn't seem to appreciate the placement of Predators' defenseman Shane O'Brien's stick:
-Vancouver's Roberto Luongo kept his eyes on this puck:
-All kinds of goaltenders keeping their eyes on pucks last night. Nashville's Pekke Rinne:
-And all of a sudden the Flames are hot. (Pardon the lame pun). David Moss had two goals and an assist for the Flames in a 4-1 defeat of the Blues. Olli Jokinen recorded two assists while Miikka Kiprusoff made 28 saves in the win.
-St. Louis' Erik Johnson had a simply tragic mistake which led to one of Moss' goals:
-The Wild demoted forward Cody Almond to Houston of the AHL.
Pacific Division
-Two goals by Eric Belanger led the Coyotes to a 5-2 win against the Avalanche. Keith Yandle added a goal and an assist for Phoenix while teammate Lee Stempniak recorded two assists. Ilya Bryzgalov made 29 saves in the victory.
-Colorado's Peter Buday had issues with this puck:
-Captain Brenden Morrow scored two goals for the Stars in a 3-1 win against the Oilers. Teammates Jamie Langenbrunner and Mike Ribeiro each recorded two assists while Kari Lehtonen made 34 saves in the victory. Calagary is 10-3-3 in its last 16 games. St. Louis has lost four consecutive games.
-Dallas Mark Fistric > Edmonton's Colin Fraser:
-Edmonton's Theo Peckham and Dallas' Adam Burish got down and low battling for this puck:
-Edmonton's Zach Stortini and Dallas' Krys Barch had issues:
-Edmonton's Liam Reddox alone in the dark:
-Jarret Stoll's shootout goal gave the Kings a 3-2 win against the rival Sharks. Jonathan Quick made 22 saves in the victory. The Sharks have lost six consecutive games.
-Stoll beating San Jose's Antti Niemi in the shootout:
-At least one goaltender didn't keep his eye on the puck. Thank you Jonathan Quick:
-San Jose captain Joe Thornton kept his eyes on this one:
-Quick had to look around this battle between San Jose's Devin Setoguchi and Los Angeles' Jack Johnson:
-The Ducks demoted forwards Matt Beleskey and Dan Sexton to Syracuse of the AHL.
Norris Division
-Forwards Jeff Skinner of Carolina and Paul Stastny of Colorado were added to the All-Star Lame Game roster. Defensemen P.K. Subban of Montreal and Jamie McBain of Carolina were added to the rookie skills competition.
(Photos: Capitals/Thrashers-John Bazemore/Associated Press; Devils/Red Wings-Paul Sancya/Associated Press; Predators/Canucks-Rich Lam/Getty Images; Coyotes/Avalanche-Barry Gutierrez/Associated Press; Oilers/Stars-Ronald Martinez/Getty Images; Sharks/Kings-Victor Decolongon/Getty Images)