Empty Netter Assists - 02-24-11
Penguins
-Dave Molinari's recap from last night's game. "Four seconds left. That's tough." - Marc-Andre Fleury (above).
-The San Jose Mercury News' recap. The Sharks moved into first place in the Pacific Division.
-The Associated Press' recap. “It doesn’t feel much of a consolation prize to add a point there. We think we need to play better than that to get the result we want going forward.” - Dan Bylsma.
-NHL.com's recap. The Sharks are 7-0-1 in their last eight games against the Penguins.
-Highlights:
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-Fleury's overtime save on San Jose's Patrick Marleau deserves a second look:
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-Pascal Dupuis > San Jose's Douglas Murray:
-Mike Rupp > San Jose's Joe Pavelski:
-Cool Photo of the Night: Kris Letang and San Jose's Jason Demers:
-James Neal in his new jersey:
-Neal challenging San Jose's Marc-Edouard Vlasic:
-Matt Niskanen playing a puck:
-Tyler Kennedy being popular:
-Happy times at Consol Energy Center:
-Anthem time:
-Indifferent times for San Jose's Antti Niemi:
-Niemi held out this puck:
-San Jose's Ian White staring down a faceoff:
-Dan Bylsma speaks:
-Matt Niskanen speaks:
-James Neal speaks:
-Mark Letestu is close to returning to a lineup.
-As you may have noticed, the Penguins have taken a penalty or two this season (PG+).
-Despite going head to head with the Daytona 500, Sunday's Penguins-Blackhawks game drew 1.9 million viewers, the most for non-Winter Classic game in five years (PG+).
-The Penguins have a new commercial:
(Much better than the "Destiny Has A New Home" ones.)
-Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo! ranks the 20 most significant trade deadline deals in NHL history. Hint: The top one involves the Hartford Whalers.
-Bryan Lerg scored the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins' only goal in a 4-1 loss to the Binghamton Senators.
-John May had a goal and two assists for the Wheeling Nailers in a 6-3 loss to the Toledo Walleye.
-Happy 38th birthday to former all-star Penguins forward Alex Kovalev (right). Acquired from the Rangers along with Harry York in exchange for Petr Nedved, Chris Tamer and Sean Pronger early in the 1998-99 season, Kovalev spent parts of five seasons with the Penguins. He finished 1998-99 by playing in 63 games for the Penguins and scoring 46 points. In the 1999 postseason, he played in in 10 games and scored 12 points. His first full season in Pittsburgh was 1999-2000. He appeared in all 82 games and scored 66 points. During that spring's postseason, he saw action in 11 games and scored six points. In 2000-01, Kovalev, selected as an all-star, played in 79 games and set career highs in goals (44), assists (51) and points (95) while playing primarily on a line with Robert Lang and Martin Straka. The 2001 postseason saw Kovalev appear in 18 games and score 10 points. In 2001-02, Kovalev was limited to to 67 games, but once again was selected to the all-star game while scoring a team-leading 76 points. After 54 games and 67 points in 2002-03, Kovalev was traded back to the Rangers along with Mike Wilson, Alex Kovalev, Janne Laukkanen and Dan LaCouture midway through the season in exchange for Joel Bouchard, Richard Lintner and Rico Fata and Mikael Samuelsson. In 345 regular season games with the Penguins, Kovalev, the only player in franchise history to score hat tricks in back to back games, had 347 points, 16th-most in franchise history. In 39 postseason games, he scored 28 points. Kovalev is currently a member of the Ottawa Senators.
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Atlantic Division
-The Flyers placed forward Nikolay Zherdev on waivers.
-With defensemen Milan Jurcina (groin) and Radek Martinek ("lower body") dinged up, the Islanders recalled defenseman Mark Katic from Bridgeport of the AHL and demoted forward Jesse Joensuu to Bridgeport.
-The Islanders placed forward Jeremy Colliton on waivers.
Notheast Division
-Tyler Myers had a goal and an assist for the Sabres in a 4-1 defeat of the Thrashers. Ryan Miller made 40 saves in the victory. Atlanta has lost four consecutive games.
-Miller stretched out for this save:
-The Sabres got a win for new owner Terry Pegula.
-Prior to the game, Pegula was introduced along with the legendary French Connection line of (left to right) Rene Robert, Rick Martin and Gilbert Perreault:
-Jason Spezza had a goal and two assists for the Senators in a 5-1 win against the Panthers. Bobby Butler added two goals for Ottawa while teammate Ryan Shannon netted a goal and an assist. Craig Anderson made 23 saves in the victory.
-Following a failed trade attempt, the Sabres put captain Craig Rivet on waivers.
-The Bruins are bringing in former defenseman Shane Hnidy on a tryout basis.
-“We think we’re right in it. We’ve got to win games. We’re not expecting other teams to lose games. That’s not what we’re basing it on. We think we can win. And we’ve got to win a lot down the stretch here.” - Maple Leafs forward Tyler Bozak (right) on his team's playoff hopes.
-In 16 games, Maple Leafs goaltender James Reimer has a 9-4-2 record with a 2.12 goals-against average and .934 save percentage.
-The Senators recalled forward Jim O'Brien from Binghamton of the AHL.
Southeast Division
-A hat trick by Teddy Purcell led the Lightning to an 8-3 rout of the Coyotes. Captain Vincent Lecavalier netted a goal and four assists for Tampa Bay while teammate Martin St. Louis added two goals and an assist. Dwayne Roloson made 25 saves in the victory. David Schlemko had a goal and an assist for Phoenix which had an eight-game winning streak snapped.
-Purcell's hat trick:
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-Prior to the game, three veterans of the battle on Iwo Jima were honored:
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-Purcell being popular, dentally challenged:
-"My first since street hockey since I was 10 or 12." - Purcell on the last time he had a hat trick.
-The Capitals signed forward Matt Hendricks to a two-year contract extension worth a total of $1.6 million. He will have a salary cap hit of $800,000.
-The Thrashers signed general manager Rick Dudley to a four-year contract extension.
-Panthers forward Jack Skille is dealing with an ankle injury.
-The Lightning acquired goaltender Curtis McElhinney from the Ducks in exchange for goaltender Dan Ellis.
Central Division
-Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville (right) returned to the team after being sidelined a week due to a stomach ulcer.
-With forward Patrick Eaves dealing with a "lower-body" injury, the Red Wings recalled forward Jan Mursak from Grand Rapids of the AHL.
-The Predators placed forward Marek Svatos on waivers.
-It doesn't sound like Blue Jackets general manager Scott Arniel is going to be a seller come Monday.
Northwest Division
-Jordan Eberle and Taylor Hall each had a goal and an assist for the Oilers in a 5-1 defeat of the Avalanche. Teammate Tom Gilbert recorded two assists while Devan Dubnyk made 38 saves in the victory. Colorado has lost 11 out of its past 12 games.
-Avalanche defenseman Ryan O'Byrne took a skate to the face:
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-Edmonton's Steve MacIntyre > Colorado's David Koci:
-A good look at Dubnyk's lid:
-A good look at the lid of Colorado's Brian Elliott:
-The Avalanche demoted goaltender John Grahame to Lake Erie of the AHL.
-Hockey Hall of Famer and former Nordiques star Peter Stastny, father of current Avalanche star Paul Stastny, ripped the Avalanche in the wake of last week's blockbuster trade which sent forward Chris Stewart and defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk to the Blues in exchange for defenseman Erik Johnson and forward Jay McClement. Said Peter Stastny: "I don’t know what they were thinking in the Colorado organization. I should not have said this, but I’m so, so mad what they’ve done to this team. They’ve moved the team about two to three years back again.”
-With forward Kyle Brodziak dealing with an illness, the Wild recalled forward Kyle Brodziak and defenseman Nate Prosser from Houston of the AHL.
Pacific Division
-Jonathan Quick made 25 saves for the Kings in a 3-2 win against the rival Ducks. Justin Williams recorded two assists for Los Angeles.
-Check out this mid-air re-direction Los Angeles' Ryan Smyth scored on:
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-Ducks captain Ryan Getlzaf (child birth) and forward Saku Koivu (groin) each missed the game.
-The Ducks recalled goaltender Ray Emery from Syracuse of the AHL and demoted goaltender Timo Pielmeier to Syracuse.
-It looks like Ducks goaltender Jonas Hiller might be suffering fron Vertigo.
-Coyotes forward Scottie Upshall was suspended two games for a late hit to Flyers defenseman Oskars Bartulis Tuesday:
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-Thinking Out Loud: Seems to us Upshall deserved more than two games.
-With forwards Adam Burish and Krys Barch returning from facial injuries, the Stars demoted forward Aaron Gagnon to Texas of the AHL.
-The Kings will honor former forward and coach (and former Penguins coach) Bob Berry prior to tonight's game with the Wild.
Norris Division
-Former Canadiens/Islanders/Maple Leafs/Rangers/Kings/Red Wings/Ducks/Thrashers/Coyotes defenseman Mathieu Schneider joined the NHLPA in an adminstrative role.
(Photos: Sharks/Penguins-Christian Petersen/Getty Images and Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press; Kovalev-Photobucket; Thrashers/Sabres-Rick Stewart/Getty Images; Bozak-Abelimages/Getty Images; Coyotes/Lightning-Mike Carlson/Associated Press; Quenneville-Al Bello/Getty Images; Oilers/Avalanche-Barry Gutierrez/Associated Press and Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)