Studs

Matt Moulson: Who needs John Tavares? Moulson scored two goals last night, which now puts him in third place in Sabres scoring for the season. If that doesn’t say enough about how bad the Sabres offence has been this season, I don’t know what will. Moulson also contributed four shots, had two takeaways and finished plus-one.

Brooks Orpik: The Pens defenceman had a great game last night, finishing the night with three assists, a plus-three, one shot, two blocked shots and two hits.

Peter Budaj: The Montreal backup continues to post great numbers when he spells Carey Price. Last night was a 27-save shutout against the New York Rangers. So far this year, Budaj has only allowed one goal in two games on 55 shots. Last year, he went 8-1-1 for the Habs. He doesn’t start often, but when he does, he’s good for a win.

Alexander Edler: The defenceman had a great night for those in roto leagues. While he never managed a point, he did finish with a plus-one, two penalty minutes, four shots, three blocked shots, two hits and two takeaways. A great night all around.

Duds

Evgeni Malkin: The former Art Ross trophy winner has only one point in his last four games. It may be time to stop considering him one of the big three. This year he’s 49th in scoring, last year he was 64th, the year before he came first, the year before was 194th, the year before was 19th. Shouldn’t a top three fantasy player finish in the top three more than once in five years? He was held off the scoresheet again last night.

Nicklas Backstrom: The Capital probably would have been better as a healthy scratch last night, as most of his contributions were of the negative side. He was a minus-two, took a penalty with three minutes left and his team down a goal, three-for-11 in faceoffs, and one takeaway.

Shawn Horcoff: He’s been truly disappointing for the Stars this season. He has only three points this year, and last night was almost as big of a dud game as a player can get. The former Oiler contributed nothing except for three faceoff wins. But he also lost four. Ouch.

Andrew Shaw: Your team scores five goals, and all you managed to finish with was a plus-one? Not good dude. You were a horrible three-for-12 in the faceoff dot. You added nothing else in 15 minutes of ice time. Dude, that just sucked.

Strange but true facts:
  • Eddie Lack and Roberto had almost identical numbers before last night’s game. They had a win-loss ratio of 2:1, a save percentage of .909, and GAA average of 2.55 for Luongo and 2.58 for Lack.
  • Mikhail Grabovski, Steve Oleksy and Alexander Urbom are the only Capitals with a plus-minus in the plus, at plus-one.
  • Tyler Seguin has won 48 faceoffs, but lost 79 of them so far this season.
  • Mike Weber is a minus-12, worst in the league.
  • Sidney Crosby is only a plus-five, while linemate Chris Kunitz is a plus-11.
  • The top five faceoff guys on Carolina (Staal, Staal, Nash, Lindholmd and Sutter) all have a losing percentage.
  • Patrick Kane is a minus-eight, easily the worst on the team.