Five Point Night: In the first game of the season the Detroit Red Wings visited the St. Louis Blues to eventually lose a 6 – 0 contest. Red Wings’ fans knew the loss of Niklas Lidstrom would weaken the castle doors, but not quite in such fashion. In the two teams second meeting of the season, this time in Detroit at Joe Louis Arena, the Wings avenged themselves. They each lit the lamp many times, with the Wings winning 5 – 3 in the end. New team Captain Henrik Zetterberg lead the way with a 5 point night. Zetterberg had the first two goals and the final empty netter showed here. He assisted on the two goals in between.
Best in Show: Something is in the water in Buffalo as the Buffalo Sabres continue to lose despite strong performances from Thomas Vanek. In the past week, Vanek has netted 5 goals and assisted on an additional 5 goals. Three of his tallies produced were in the form of a hat-trick against the Boston Bruins on January 31. Vanek not only leads the team with points, he currently leads the league with most points at 19. Now only if netminder Ryan Miller can turn his game around; Miller currently has a 3-4-1 record with an uncharacteristic 3.11 goals against average.
You Have Heart Kid: Boston Bruins Shawn Thronton is has been known to drop the gloves in his hockey career. Having over 120 penalty minutes in his last 4 seasons, Thornton looked to add an additional 5 minutes against the Buffalo Sabres January 31. Thornton, a 6′ 2″, 217 pounder found himself outsized against the Sabres John Scott who stands 6′ 8″ and weighs 270 pounds. Scott pounded Thronton which took the beaten out of the game which was later diagnosed as a concussion. Thronton is expected to miss 7 – 10 days of action.
Should I Stay or Should I Go? There was kind of a big story in the off-season with a little team called the Vancouver Canucks. They had this goalie named Roberto Luongo who just couldn’t get the job done in net. While the team “tried” to trade him, they ended up not being successful. So, he takes the role of backup to their new “number one” goalie Cory Schenider. That was the plan at least, until Schneider’s 3.13 goals against average in his 4 games played allowed Luongo an opportunity to outdo him. Luongo started the last three games for the Canucks this past week while winning two of the games and losing the other in an overtime loss. He has let only three goals in his three contests, one of which was a shutout. The question now is, if a serious trade comes along for Luongo, do the Canucks shop him or hold onto him in case their “number one” goalie doesn’t play-out as they had hoped.
