Studs & Duds - 10/16

[BenTrovato]

Studs

King Henrik
The struggling Rangers continued their nine game season opening road trip in Washington last night and had to face the Capitals without stars Rick Nash and Michael Del Zotto in the lineup. They needed some star power and they received it in the form of Henrik Lundqvist. He stood tall again and again stopping whatever the Caps could throw at them including 8 shots from Ovechkin and four power-plays. A solid first star performance for King Henrik's first shutout of the season.

The Return of Richards?
Brad Richards had an incredible game last night. The score sheet recorded two assists but this could have easily been a three or four point performance. He skated hard all game and was putting himself in positions where the puck would be. His first assist may have just been a flick to Moore who snapped in a beauty but his second was a timely pass to a streaking Callahan in front of the net that put the Rangers out in front for good. He was firing off some great point shots on the power play and hit the post on a nice play in the slot. If he continues this type of play, it could be a big bounce back year for Richards.

Victor Fasth
The game’s number one star pushed aside 35 saves in the Ducks 3-2 win over the Flames. It wasn’t necessarily pretty game, but lucky bounces could have had this one go either way. Fasth continued to make big saves at key times to keep the Ducks ahead or perhaps it could have got away from them. His first goal against came when Glencross stole a bobbled puck at the blueline and went in on a breakaway which Fasth nearly stopped and the second came from a point shot that he never saw. It was a great performance from Fasth who picks up where he left off last season as the Ducks improve to 5-1-0 to start the season.

Duds

Caps power play
The bread and butter of the teams offence looked anything but last night. They were passing the puck around nicely but could not generate enough scoring chances, especially with the amount of power play time they had last night. There were too many instances where they (Ovechkin) were just trying to fire a shot off instead of making some better plays to penetrate the penalty kill, which to the Rangers credit was very good.

Joel Ward
Ward makes the list as dud simply because he had an opportunity to change the complexion of the game early on when he floundered a chance in front of the net which would have gave the Caps the lead. He finished the night with one shot and a zero’s across the scoresheet.

Joey MacDonald
While the loss wasn’t entirely MacDonald’s fault and it's only his first loss of the year, he’ll need to play just a bit better to give the Flames a chance to win especially coming off a five day rest. He made 19 saves off 22 shots which is good enough to win a game when your offence scores a bunch of goals, but not good enough to win a close contest.


***Honourable Mention***
The NHL’s older player got his first goal of the season last night. Teemu Selanne who broke his stick on the play, skated over to the bench, picked up a new one, and the Finnish flash took off streaking down the ice. Jakob Silfverberg stretched out to make a one handed pass to unleash Teemu and his new stick on a breakaway where he put home his 676th career goal.