2/9/12 - Studs & Duds

[bondon]

There was a TON of fantastic action tonight in the NHL. Managed to catch snippets from a few games and wow were there some great performances. Let's get right into it:

Studs

3. Hartnelldown - A hilarious moment in tonight's Leafs/Flyers game as Hartnell scores the first goal of the game (his 26th of the season) and for his celebration turns around to drop the mitts with Phaneuf. Hartnell finished with a goal and an assist, plus-two, seven penalty minutes, and two shots on goal.

2. Sens end the streak at seven - The Ottawa Senators finally won a game after dropping seven straight contests. While some of the offense came from the usual suspects (Spezza with two goals and an assist, Michalek with two assists), Chris Phillips won first star honours as he scored two goals, including the eventual game-winner. For those of you that are wondering, yes Chris Phillips now has two goals on the season.

1. Scott Gomez scores, Max Pacioretty says “watch this” - Ah after all the ripping that we've done on him over the past YEAR he deserves his one night. Congrats to Gomer on busting his goal-less streak, just over a calendar year later. As Loch mentioned in the Gomez thread, your move Cam Ward.
On a related note, congratulations to Max Pacioretty on scoring his first NHL hat trick tonight. Rumour has it that he yelled GOMEZ at the top of his lungs as he scored the empty netter. Okay not actually. Pacioretty added 10 shots, two blocked shots, one hit, and was a plus-two to go along with his three goals.

Honourable Mentions

Schenn Brothers - They play on separate teams but both were fantastic in their second game against each other. Luke gets the edge on this one fantasy-wise, as he registered two assists, two penalty minutes, four shots on goal, five blocked shots, and three hits while going plus-one. Younger brother Brayden was not far off though, scoring what resulted as the game-winning goal, and adding two penalty minutes, three shots, one blocked shot, one hit, and eight faceoff wins while going plus-one.

Can-do Canucks - Daniel scored his 102 powerplay goal of his career and now sits tied for second on the Canucks' all-time powerplay goals list, and now trails Markus Naslund by 12. Daniel also added an assist in tonight\s contest, on the goal scored by his brother Henrik who kept the iron man streak alive by playing with an injured foot. Kesler also extended his point streak to seven games, and his goal streak to five games after scoring the empty netter. Kevin Bieksa now has points in four straight after getting an assist, and also rewarded fantasy owners with 12 PIM by throwing his glove at Cal Clutterbuck. One of the better games the Canucks have played in awhile

Agent Smith - Mike Smith deserves a mention here, as he's won all three of his starts this week allowing only one goal in each of them. Starting Smith alone this week would have been good enough to win most H2H matchups.

Duds

3. Capitals still can't figure it out - What looked like a lock for another shutout W for the Capitals tonight ended up as a 3-2 loss. Go figure. The Capitals took two penalties in the last five minutes of the third, giving the Jets the opportunity to tie it up and eventually win in the shootout. With tonight's SO loss and Florida's win, the Capitals now sit in ninth place in the East.

2. Quick exit and Halak makin' me yak - They were two of the hottest goalies in the NHL before tonight's action, but both were chased out of their games. For some reason I can't explain (because I didn't see the game), Quick was put on a very short leash as he was given the hook after allowing two goals on only 11 shots. Bernier came out to start the third period and stopped all 11 shots he faced.
As for the Blues, Halak clearly did not have it going early on. He gave up three goals on 12 shots and was quickly given the hook midway through the second period. All three goals were very soft, and it almost felt like the beginning of the season all over again. Worst part about this game for Halak owners is that Brian Elliott stepped in and shut the Devils' hot offense down, stopping all 15 shots he faced and Kovalchuk, Elias, and Parise in the shootout. Odds are Hitchcock turns to Elliott for their next game which is great news for Elliott owners. Not so much for Halak owners.

1. The Lonely Island - Letting Scott Gomez score vaulted the Islanders right into the #1 spot. Seriously though, overall just a very poor showing from the Islanders tonight. Not sure if Capuano purposely matched his top line with the Habs' top line, but if he was it clearly didn't work out. The Pacioretty-Desharnais-Cole line dominated the Isles' top line of Moulson-Tavares-Okposo, with Tavares and Moulson on the ice for all three of Pacioretty's goals. The Isles were able to score two goals in the third but it was too little too late.

Dishonourable Mentions

Blue Jackets - No explanation necessary, at this point it's a given. Good effort from Sanford though stopping 31/34.

Lightning or Biron? - Which one do I pick for a dishonourable mention: The Lightning for only getting 17 shots on net tonight, or Biron who let in three goals on those 17 shots?

Blues hopeless powerplay - The Blues were handed a gift as Foster was given a five minute boarding penalty, but watching it you wouldn't have been able to tell which team was on the powerplay and which was on the penalty kill. The Devils got more chances than the Blues did on that powerplay, which was eventually negated with 1:30 left as Perron took a very careless tripping penalty.

Quick Hits

Underrated Predators - Low-key fantasy options Martin Erat and Ryan Suter both added two points to their totals tonight. Erat now has 42 points (13G, 29A) in 47 games this season, and Suter now has 32 points in 52 games (6G, 26A)

Brad Richards - There, you all happy now? He scored a goal.

Ilya Kovalchuk - He didn't wait long to start putting points up after putting zeros across the board last game. Kovalchuk registered two assists tonight and logged a whopping 29:07 TOI, highest in the game for both teams.

Leafs top line staying hot - Bozak (2G), Kessel (2A), Lupul (1G,1A) were pretty much the only bright spots for the Leafs tonight. Bozak had a fantastic game logging the highest ice time of the three (20:27), and putting five shots on net. Kessel now sits two points back of Malkin for first in scoring.

Stephen Weiss – Was held off the scoresheet again, and now has 38 points in 51 games, cooling off significantly after his hot start.

[Big Ev]

For shame! Chris Phillips deserves his own "stud". It was his 1000th game.

[bondon]

For shame! Chris Phillips deserves his own "stud". It was his 1000th game.

Ah crap lol, sorry I wasn't aware of that , thanks for mentioning it.

He's had a solid career. Wasn't aware that he was a former first overall pick either.

[Big Ev]

Ah crap lol, sorry I wasn't aware of that , thanks for mentioning it.

He's had a solid career. Wasn't aware that he was a former first overall pick either.

Haha, no worries dude.

Fun fact pointed out by Denis Potvin that Phillips is only the 4th 1st overall pick in history to play 1000 games for the franchise that drafted him. The others: Potvin, Mike Modano, and Gilbert Perreault

[ericdaoust]

1. Max Pacioretty scores hat trick, Scott Gomez says "watch this" - Ah after all the ripping that we've done on him over the past YEAR he deserves his one night. Congrats to Gomer on busting his goal-less streak, just over a calendar year later. As Loch mentioned in the Gomez thread, your move Cam Ward.
On a related note, congratulations to Max Pacioretty on scoring his first NHL hat trick tonight. Rumour has it that he yelled GOMEZ at the top of his lungs as he scored the empty netter. Okay not actually. Pacioretty added 10 shots, two blocked shots, one hit, and was a plus-two to go along with his three goals.

Fixed the title

[bondon]

Fixed the title

Touché Eric haha.

[Kingchev]

How do you define the Elias G note from Kovalchuk as a "very weak" goal on Jaro? If Manute Bol and Yokozuna had a baby it couldn't of made that save. I believe the goalie switch was more to wake up the team than for the goals against (even though that second one to Henrique was odorous).

[GMGates]

Ah crap lol, sorry I wasn't aware of that , thanks for mentioning it.

He's had a solid career. Wasn't aware that he was a former first overall pick either.

Pfftr... I tweeted it last night twice while in attendance of the game! Lol...

His second goal celebration was hilarious.

Wanted to see fisher score in his welcome back game - the crowd sure loved him.

[bondon]

How do you define the Elias G note from Kovalchuk as a "very weak" goal on Jaro? If Manute Bol and Yokozuna had a baby it couldn't of made that save. I believe the goalie switch was more to wake up the team than for the goals against (even though that second one to Henrique was odorous).

Yeah fair, that goal was a tough one. Thought he should have had the first one though and as you said the second one was just ugly. Couldn't believe it when I saw it.

Pfftr... I tweeted it last night twice while in attendance of the game! Lol...

His second goal celebration was hilarious.

Wanted to see fisher score in his welcome back game - the crowd sure loved him.

Weird, I didn't see it. Whoops!

[Mr_Sausage]

Studs

3. Hartnelldown - A hilarious moment in tonight's Leafs/Flyers game as Hartnell scores the first goal of the game (his 26th of the season) and for his celebration turns around to drop the mitts with Phaneuf. Hartnell finished with a goal and an assist, plus-two, seven penalty minutes, and two shots on goal.

Perhaps Phaneuf was still miffed at this hilarious moment in the All Star game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0itC0wx6vg

lol..I still laugh