Nightly Scrap: Canes dominate Stanley Cup rematch
The Carolina Hurricanes simply continue to score goals in buckets. As an excellent combination of veteran presence and youth, the team seems to be finally establishing their identity. What better way to show that to the rest of the League than embarassing the team they beat in the playoffs just five short years ago.
Captain Eric Staal led all Canes in scoring last night, adding four assists in the 7-1 drubbing. His team got off to such a fast start that they chased starting goalie Nikolai Khabibulin from nets and brought about a Devan Dubnyk sighting. Besides Staal four other players– Jeff Skinner, Joe Corvo, Brandon Sutter and Joni Pitkanen— finished with a multi-point game while Cam Ward took the victory with 21 saves.
Moving on, the Ottawa Senators extended their winning streak to four with a win over the Atlanta Thrashers. Led by Jason Spezza, who put up a goal and two assists in the contest, the Sens continue to get healthier by the day as Milan Michalek returned to the lineup. Jesse Winchester and the well-hated Chris Neil both scored their first goals of the year and sophomore Erik Karlsson added two assists of his own.
Brian Elliott, who has a reputation of going on memorable winning streaks, now has won his last four games and allowed only seven goals over that span. He was likely available in your league in the beginning of the season and clearly has won the starting goalie battle for now.
The last time Roberto Luongo faced the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre he shut them out. Last night it was Carey Price returning the favor as the Habs beat the Canucks 2-0. Roman Hamrlik and Andrei Markov both scored their first goal of the year, which proved more than enough to beat the offensively charged Canucks team.
Similarly, Dan Ellis made short work of the Toronto Maple Leafs, earning as shutout of his own as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated their opponent 4-0. Despite holding out top line winger Steve Downie at the last second, the team found a way to beat a beleaguered Leafs team, who now have lost six straight. Steven Stamkos scored his 12th and 13th of the young season while Dominic Moore and Nate Thompson added markers of their own.
The Washington Capitals traveled to New York City, where they would win their fifth straight game. Brooks Laich scored two goals and Mike Knuble broke out of a 13 game scoreless streak as the Caps and Michal Neuvirth defeated Henrik Lundqvist and the Rangers. Brian Boyle scored twice for his team while Derek Boogaard scored his first goal since his rookie year, nearly five years ago against the then Anaheim Mighty Ducks and Ilya Bryzgalov.
In Colorado, the Calgary Flames scored three, third-period goals against the Colorado Avalanche beating them 4-2. The momentum clearly swung as the Flames injured both TJ Galiardi and David Van Der Gulik during the contest, keeping the Avs to 10 forwards and three rookies and a journeyman on the blue line. Curtis Glencross scored his fourth and fifth goals of the season while David Moss and Mikael Backlund added markers of their own.
With this win the Flames snapped a four game winning streak.
Somehow Jonas Hiller kept an impressive 39 shots out of his net to beat the San Jose Sharks 3-2. Without Joe Thornton the team still found a way to dig deep and create scoring chances, receiving goals from Torrey Mitchell and Devin Setoguchi of the second line. By contrast, Jason Blake and Corey Perry both scored for the Ducks before Lubomir Visnovsky put the puck past Antero Niittymaki in overtime.
Surprisingly the Ducks have now won four straight games, clearly under the radar.
That wraps up a pretty interesting night of hockey. Be sure to check us all day as we bring you the most relevant fantasy hockey news possible. You can follow us on twitter @dailyfaceoff as we continue to bring you information on starting goalies, team lineups and major injury updates as well as provide in-depth injury updates and player rankings in the future.