Studs & Duds - Wednesday 10/30

[BenTrovato]

Studding

Anze Kopitar
With the Kings down 3-2 late in the 3rd period, LA's assistant captain decided to step it up. Kopitar had the puck around the left face-off circle and spotted an open Justin Williams in the slot who made no mistake and tied the game. To top it off, Kopitar netted the game winner in overtime. After passing it to Doughty at the point, he set him self up for the return pass and fired home a rocket through Antii Niemi and gave the Kings a nice come from behind victory at home.

Jonathan Bernier
Bernier came into the contest winning just one game in his last five outings following a hot start to the season but tonight he came ready for action. Although the Flames are not considered an elite team by any means they kept coming all night. Toronto has had a tendency to be severely outshot this season but in this contest they were also outplayed. Bernier stopped 41 of the 43 shots that came his way while staying cool and focussed all night as he improved to 6-4-0 this season.

Logan Couture
Couture continued his best start to an NHL season and now ranks 5th in points. He won the games opening face-off and as the Sharks gained control and went into the Kings zone, couture had the puck on his knees and found a streaking Vlasic who made it 1-0 only 13 seconds into the game. He continued to play well and late in the second he gave the Sharks a 3-2 lead firing home a beauty in the slot on the power play. He also fired a nice one off the post late in the 3rd that could have meant a San Jose victory and a three point night. After the game he was humbled, saying "We just didn’t play well enough to win. We could have played in Florida tonight, and probably lost that game too”. Okay, no need to pick on the Panthers now do we Logan?

Dudding

Jiri Hudler
The Flames hot left winger was as cold as it gets last night ending the night minus 3 with one shot on goal in 19 minutes of play. He also had over five minutes of powerplay time that did not amount to very much. His best chance came in second period when Bernier robbed him with the glove hand. Visibly frustrated at times, it wasn’t a great fantasy night for Mr. Hudler.

Antii Niemi
Arguably the NHL’s best goaltender coming into the game at 9-0-2, Niemi couldn’t do enough to win the game and stay undefeated. It was a tough game for the Sharks who had multiple opportunities to put this one away, including a few goal posts and crossbars that kept this one close. Niemi was screened and had pucks deflected in front of him so you can’t put the loss all on him. Tonight was just an example of when Niemi only stops 19 of 23 for an .826 save percentage, it’s just not good enough for the Sharks to win.

Mike Santorelli
Coming into the game, Canucks coach John Tortorella remarked that it was the solid play of Mike Santorelli that has given him the option of taking Kessler away from center and putting him on to the wing of the Sedin line. However last night Santorelli seemed a bit spaced out. He was on the ice for both Red Wings goals in the 2-1 loss. On the first goal, Santorelli had the opportunity to poke the puck away from two Red Wings on two different occasions but just missed as he was a step behind. On the Wings second goal, he could have held up and made life more difficult for Tomas Tatar, instead he left him open as he sniped home the game winner. Minus two with one shot on goal in 22:25 of ice time wasn’t his best game in an otherwise solid start to the campaign for the Vancouver native.

Honorable Mentions
-Pascal Dupuis: 1 assist and 4 shots on goal including pulling out his own tooth on the bench
-Pavel Datsyuk: Only Datsyuk can finish the night with zero points, three shots on goal, and be named the games #1 star

[LawMan]

Nice writeup as usual. minor point, Kopitar wears an "A", Brown wears the "C".

[BenTrovato]

Nice writeup as usual. minor point, Kopitar wears an "A", Brown wears the "C".

Good catch! Can't believe I blundered that one. Thanks.