It was a slow Friday night in the NHL with only 4 games being played.
The Detroit Red Wings played the Anaheim Ducks in Detroit. Anaheim's George Parros scored his 1st goal of the year to get his team on the board. The goal was assisted by Rod Pelley and it was actually his 1st assist of the year and Parros 1st goal of the year. The 2 players only combined for less then 12 minutes on the ice the entire game! Detroit did tie up the game before the period ended with a goal by Jakub Kindl, only his 6th of the season. No scoring in the 2nd or 3rd periods, and each team had a chance in the OT to win it. Pavel Datsyuk had a chance to end it on a breakaway and Cam Fowler had a chance to break Detroit's 18 game home game win streak but it bounced off the post. It headed to a shootout. Pavel Datsyuk shot first and scored for Detroit. The Finnish Flash Teemu Selanne shot first for Anaheim and scored. Jiri Hudler of Detroit and Corey Perry of Anaheim were both shut down. Detroit's Todd Bertuzzi scored and Anaheim's Bobby Ryan was denied. Detroit wins their 19th home game in a row! WOW! Detroit is now one win away from tying the home win streak record set by the Bruins in the 1929-1930 season and the 1975-1976 Flyers Club. Detroit also played back up goalie Joey Macdonald last night. We will know Sunday when the Red Wings take on the Philadelphia Flyers in Detroit if they tie the record or not. Tomas Holmstrom also played his 1000th game in the Red Wings Jersey, only the 6th player in franchise history to hit that mark.
What is going on with Buffalo? The Sabers have won 5 of their last 6 games and the one they lost? They still got a point after a scoreless game and win by the Rangers in a shootout. That is 11 out of a possible 12 points. Buffalo played the Dallas Stars last night and what a game it was. Dallas's Michael Ryder scored late in the 1st. No scoring in the 2nd and Dallas again scored early in the 3rd by Tomas Vincour. It wasn't looking good for Buffalo. But less then a minute after the Vincour goal Buffalo's hotshot Tomas Vanek scored. Buffalo was back in the game. With less then a minute left in the 3rd, Buffalo had pulled their goalie for an extra attacker and what happens? Derek Roy gets one past Kari Lehtonen and it is a tie game. No scoring in OT and it was the 5th round of shooters that ended the game. Brad Boyes scored for Buffalo, Jamie Benn scored for Dallas and Nathan Gerbe got the winner for Buffalo. Final score 3-2 Buffalo. Another interesting record set last night was by Dallas's Jamie Benn. Benn now has the most points after playing 200 games by any Star. His current total, 146. Congrats Jamie Benn and we can only expect you to set more records.
The 3rd game of the night also ended after regulation. Colorado beat Carolina 4-3 in OT. Carolina scored 1st and it was back and forth Colorado, Carolina, Colorado, Carolina, Colorado to end the 2nd period in a 3-3 tie. No scoring in the 3rd period it wasn't until the end of OT with only 2 seconds left Ryan O'Reilly scored ending it 4-3 Colorado. O'Reilly was 3rd time lucky after hitting the post on a wide open net late in the 3rd only to have a breakaway 2 minutes later denied by Cam Ward.
The 4th game of the night was also a strange one. It was between the San Jose Sharks and the Chicago Blackhawks. San Jose won 5-3. It was a heated game right from the beginning. Joe Thronton #19 and Captain of the Sharks plus Team Canada 2010 Olympic forward tried to get under the skin of Blackhawks Captain also #19 and Team Canada 2010 Olympic forward Jonathon Toews. Three Blackhakws got roughing penalties including Toews and two Sharks got roughing penalties including Thornton. San Jose scored the first 2 goals in the 1st period. Chicago got two goals in the 2nd but Thornton got a 3rd goal for his team late in the 2nd period. Bryan Bickell scored early in the 3rd for Chicago to get his team within 1 but San Jose scored 2 more before the game was done. San Jose snapped a 2 game losing streak while Chicago has lost their last 7 games. They only one point they have picked up out of a possible 14 is an OT loss to the Vancouver Canucks at the end of January.
There are 12 games being played today in the NHL:
New York Rangers vs Philadelphia Flyers at 10:00am
Nashville Predators vs Boston Bruins at 10:00am
Florida Panthers vs the New Jersey Devils at 10:00
Los Angeles Kings vs New York Islanders at 10:00am
Winnipeg Jets vs the Pittsburgh Penguins at 11:00am
Edmonton Oilers vs the Ottawa Senators at 11:00am
Tampa Bay Lightning vs the Buffalo Sabres at 4:00pm
Montreal Canadiens vs the Toronto Maple Leafs at 4:00pm
Colorado Avalanche vs the St. Louis Blues at 5:00pm
Columbus Blue Jackets vs Minnesota Wild at 5:00pm
Chicago Blackhwaks vs the Phoenix Coyotes at 5:30pm
and Vancouver Canucks vs Calgary Flames at 7:00pm
One last thing. I did mention how the 1st Round of the Stanley Cup playoffs works. The 2nd Round works like this. After 4 teams have been eliminated (4 in the west and 4 in the east) in the 1st round 4 are left standing (4 in the west and 4 in the east). These 4 teams are lined up 1, 2, 3, and 4 based on their regular season standings. Then the 1st team plays the 4th place team and 2nd plays 3rd. Then again best of 7 games whoever wins 4 games first advances to the Western Conference finals and the Eastern Conference finals. The 3rd Round is again best of 7, whoever wins 4 games first. The winners of the 3rd round become the Western Conference Champions and the Eastern Conference Champions. Then these 2 teams play each other in the Stanley Cup Final. Again best of 7, whoever wins 4 games first becomes the Stanley Cup Champions! It is said the Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win in professional sports. You have to win 16 games but you could play up to 28 games. Last year for example Vancouver played 7 games versus the Chicago Blackhawks in round 1, 6 games versus the Nashville Predators in the 2nd round, 5 games versus the San Jose Sharks in the 3rd round and in the final round it went to Game 7 and sadly the Bruins won the Cup. Vancouver played 25 games and came within 60 minutes of being the Champions! In the next week I will explain the "seeding" process for how the 8 teams in the west and 8 teams in the east get into the playoffs. Interesting stuff.
The Detroit Red Wings played the Anaheim Ducks in Detroit. Anaheim's George Parros scored his 1st goal of the year to get his team on the board. The goal was assisted by Rod Pelley and it was actually his 1st assist of the year and Parros 1st goal of the year. The 2 players only combined for less then 12 minutes on the ice the entire game! Detroit did tie up the game before the period ended with a goal by Jakub Kindl, only his 6th of the season. No scoring in the 2nd or 3rd periods, and each team had a chance in the OT to win it. Pavel Datsyuk had a chance to end it on a breakaway and Cam Fowler had a chance to break Detroit's 18 game home game win streak but it bounced off the post. It headed to a shootout. Pavel Datsyuk shot first and scored for Detroit. The Finnish Flash Teemu Selanne shot first for Anaheim and scored. Jiri Hudler of Detroit and Corey Perry of Anaheim were both shut down. Detroit's Todd Bertuzzi scored and Anaheim's Bobby Ryan was denied. Detroit wins their 19th home game in a row! WOW! Detroit is now one win away from tying the home win streak record set by the Bruins in the 1929-1930 season and the 1975-1976 Flyers Club. Detroit also played back up goalie Joey Macdonald last night. We will know Sunday when the Red Wings take on the Philadelphia Flyers in Detroit if they tie the record or not. Tomas Holmstrom also played his 1000th game in the Red Wings Jersey, only the 6th player in franchise history to hit that mark.
What is going on with Buffalo? The Sabers have won 5 of their last 6 games and the one they lost? They still got a point after a scoreless game and win by the Rangers in a shootout. That is 11 out of a possible 12 points. Buffalo played the Dallas Stars last night and what a game it was. Dallas's Michael Ryder scored late in the 1st. No scoring in the 2nd and Dallas again scored early in the 3rd by Tomas Vincour. It wasn't looking good for Buffalo. But less then a minute after the Vincour goal Buffalo's hotshot Tomas Vanek scored. Buffalo was back in the game. With less then a minute left in the 3rd, Buffalo had pulled their goalie for an extra attacker and what happens? Derek Roy gets one past Kari Lehtonen and it is a tie game. No scoring in OT and it was the 5th round of shooters that ended the game. Brad Boyes scored for Buffalo, Jamie Benn scored for Dallas and Nathan Gerbe got the winner for Buffalo. Final score 3-2 Buffalo. Another interesting record set last night was by Dallas's Jamie Benn. Benn now has the most points after playing 200 games by any Star. His current total, 146. Congrats Jamie Benn and we can only expect you to set more records.
The 3rd game of the night also ended after regulation. Colorado beat Carolina 4-3 in OT. Carolina scored 1st and it was back and forth Colorado, Carolina, Colorado, Carolina, Colorado to end the 2nd period in a 3-3 tie. No scoring in the 3rd period it wasn't until the end of OT with only 2 seconds left Ryan O'Reilly scored ending it 4-3 Colorado. O'Reilly was 3rd time lucky after hitting the post on a wide open net late in the 3rd only to have a breakaway 2 minutes later denied by Cam Ward.
The 4th game of the night was also a strange one. It was between the San Jose Sharks and the Chicago Blackhawks. San Jose won 5-3. It was a heated game right from the beginning. Joe Thronton #19 and Captain of the Sharks plus Team Canada 2010 Olympic forward tried to get under the skin of Blackhawks Captain also #19 and Team Canada 2010 Olympic forward Jonathon Toews. Three Blackhakws got roughing penalties including Toews and two Sharks got roughing penalties including Thornton. San Jose scored the first 2 goals in the 1st period. Chicago got two goals in the 2nd but Thornton got a 3rd goal for his team late in the 2nd period. Bryan Bickell scored early in the 3rd for Chicago to get his team within 1 but San Jose scored 2 more before the game was done. San Jose snapped a 2 game losing streak while Chicago has lost their last 7 games. They only one point they have picked up out of a possible 14 is an OT loss to the Vancouver Canucks at the end of January.
There are 12 games being played today in the NHL:
New York Rangers vs Philadelphia Flyers at 10:00am
Nashville Predators vs Boston Bruins at 10:00am
Florida Panthers vs the New Jersey Devils at 10:00
Los Angeles Kings vs New York Islanders at 10:00am
Winnipeg Jets vs the Pittsburgh Penguins at 11:00am
Edmonton Oilers vs the Ottawa Senators at 11:00am
Tampa Bay Lightning vs the Buffalo Sabres at 4:00pm
Montreal Canadiens vs the Toronto Maple Leafs at 4:00pm
Colorado Avalanche vs the St. Louis Blues at 5:00pm
Columbus Blue Jackets vs Minnesota Wild at 5:00pm
Chicago Blackhwaks vs the Phoenix Coyotes at 5:30pm
and Vancouver Canucks vs Calgary Flames at 7:00pm
One last thing. I did mention how the 1st Round of the Stanley Cup playoffs works. The 2nd Round works like this. After 4 teams have been eliminated (4 in the west and 4 in the east) in the 1st round 4 are left standing (4 in the west and 4 in the east). These 4 teams are lined up 1, 2, 3, and 4 based on their regular season standings. Then the 1st team plays the 4th place team and 2nd plays 3rd. Then again best of 7 games whoever wins 4 games first advances to the Western Conference finals and the Eastern Conference finals. The 3rd Round is again best of 7, whoever wins 4 games first. The winners of the 3rd round become the Western Conference Champions and the Eastern Conference Champions. Then these 2 teams play each other in the Stanley Cup Final. Again best of 7, whoever wins 4 games first becomes the Stanley Cup Champions! It is said the Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win in professional sports. You have to win 16 games but you could play up to 28 games. Last year for example Vancouver played 7 games versus the Chicago Blackhawks in round 1, 6 games versus the Nashville Predators in the 2nd round, 5 games versus the San Jose Sharks in the 3rd round and in the final round it went to Game 7 and sadly the Bruins won the Cup. Vancouver played 25 games and came within 60 minutes of being the Champions! In the next week I will explain the "seeding" process for how the 8 teams in the west and 8 teams in the east get into the playoffs. Interesting stuff.
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