Stop what you’re doing. Stop the presses, because for the first time in over a calendar year, Montreal’s Scott Gomez scored. Thursday night against the New York Islanders, Gomez was able to slap home a deflected puck on the power play past sieve goalkeeper Evgeni Nabokov. It was his first goal since February 5, 2011. He’s played 53 regular season games during the scoring drought. With Gomez earning stealing $7 million from the Canadiens this season, that was a very expensive goal.

The Habs were able to beat the Islanders 4-2. His goal with 10:10 remaining in the game put his team ahead 3-0, and was assisted by Rafel Diaz and Chris Campoli. Besides Gomez, Max Pacioretty accounted for the rest of the scoring when he recorded a hat trick. His third goal came via empty net with one second left. His goal did affect one person not at the game, the person who runs this website can now rest easy- or pick another player to track a scoreless drought.

The standings in the packed Eastern Conference is getting tighter. Montreal stands in 11th place with 53 points. They are only three points clear of last place in the East (Carolina with 50), and are nine points back of Toronto for the final playoff spot.

Check out the Islanders/MSG call of the goal below:

Because it is Montreal, I don’t want any Francophone’s coming after me for not providing them with a french video:

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman was on hand this morning to announce that the Red Wings will host the Maple Leafs at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., on New Year’s Day for the 2013 NHL Winter Classic. The news was announced at Comerica Park, home of the Detroit Tigers in downtown Detroit, where a series of events will also be held on conjunction with the Winter Classic game at The Big House.

“The Red Wings’ tradition of excellence, Detroit’ passion for hockey and the glorious history of the Maple Leafs create a Winter Classic scenario for the ages,” Gary Bettman said. “The meeting of these two Original Six rivals, at this iconic venue, will lift this Winter Classic to incomparable heights. The demand to be there will be so great this event could only be held at the Big House.”

Detroit Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch was on hand for the announcement, as were several current and former members of the Red Wings organization.

“We are honored to host the 2013 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic® and bring the Hockeytown Winter Festival to our fans,” said Ilitch. “This is one of the greatest sports towns ever and to be able to host this celebration of the sport of hockey will provide a tremendous positive economic impact to our community. We are proud to show the world why we love Hockeytown!”

Detroit will be just the second Western Conference team to host the Winter Classic. The Chicago Blackhawks previously hosted the Red Wings in 2009. This will be the first appearance for a Canadian team in the Winter Classic, and the first time a Western Conference team will play an Eastern Conference team in the event. However, Original Six teams have been widely represented with all but the Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens having previously played.

Brian Burke, President and General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, also expressed his excitement for the Leafs to be included in the event.

“The Toronto Maple Leafs and our fans are extremely thrilled to be a part of the 2013 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic,” Burke said. “The rich hockey heritage of these two Original Six hockey clubs will make for an extremely memorable event played in front of the NHL’s largest crowd ever. The atmosphere and pageantry will be an outstanding spectacle for our sport.”

The actual Winter Classic matchup between the Red Wings and Maple Leafs will serve as a capstone to a week of hockey events that will take place at Comerica Park in Detroit. A rink will be built inside the stadium, stretching from shallow left field to shallow right field, and will host several other events during the course of the week leading up to the Winter Classic on New Year’s Day.

Other events at Comerica Park include:

• All four of the NCAA college hockey games that comprise the Great Lakes Invitational tournament, typically hosted at Joe Louis Arena
• An AHL regular season game featuring the Toronto Marlies vs the Grand Rapids Griffins
• Two regular season OHL games on the same day, a junior doubleheader, with tentative plans calling for the Plymouth Whalers to play the London Knights and the Saginaw Spirit to play the Windsor Spitfires.
• There will also be high school games, youth hockey games, with the showpiece game at Comerica being the Alumni or Legends game featuring Red Wing and Leaf oldtimers/alumni.

The only event to be held at The Big House in Ann Arbor will be the Winter Classic itself. Previously, the University of Michigan and Michigan State University attracted a record-setting crowd of 104,173 when they played outdoors at The Big House in 2010.

Kovalchuk had a big three point effort with a goal and two assists en route to a 6-4 victory over the Flyers. Perhaps the biggest highlight of the night came midway through the third period, however, when Kovalchuk capped off the Howe Hat Trick and dropped the gloves with Flyers forward Brayden Schenn. This was Schenn’s second fight of the season and Kovalchuk’s first. However, for being one of the best snipers in the game, Kovalchuk is no stranger to dropping the gloves as he averages at least one fight per season according to HockeyFights.com.

The two pull away from a scrum at 11:38 of the third period and immediately drop the gloves. It doesn’t take long for the two players to engage each other to establish a dominant position. Kovalchuk appears to be the much stronger player as he throws Schenn around a bit and then lands several solid blows to Schenn’s head before finally landing a solid right hook to Schenn’s jaw that drops him for the count. Check out the full video below that highlights not only the fight, but Kovalchuk’s power play assist and dirty two-on-one snipe for his lone goal of the night. Stick around to the end of the video for a slow-motion replay of Kovi’s right hook on Schenn.

Several exciting games will be on tap during the free preview week, and we’ve got a list of some of the most intriguing games each night below.

Monday, February 13th: San Jose @ Washington – Big Joe Thornton and the Sharks battle against a struggling Capitals team loaded with talent, but unable maintain consistency this season.

Tuesday, February 14th: New York @ Boston – Original six matchup, and the top two teams in the Eastern Conference. Sounds like a good matchup.

Wednesday, February 15th: Ottawa @ Florida – Two teams fighting to stay in the playoff race in the East. If Florida loses their division lead, they could find themselves outside of the playoff picture at the end of the season.

Thursday, February 16th: New York @ St. Louis – The Islanders have on of the hottest players in the league in John Tavares, but the St. Louis Blues have been on a tear since hiring Ken Hitchcock. St. Louis looks to keep their hot pace, while the Islanders want to make their way into the playoff hunt.

Friday, February 17th: Nashville @ Detroit – The Central Division is the best and most competitive in the NHL. The Red Wings and Predators will prove why in this matchup,  but give Detroit the early advantage due to their incredible home record.

Saturday, February 18th: Pittsburgh @ Philadelphia – These division rivals feature some of the top talent in the league. Evgeni Malkin and a healthy Kris Letang helped the Penguins to an eight game winning streak in January, but Claude Giroux and the Flyers hope to earn a win and eventually a division title.

Sunday, February 19th: St. Louis @ Chicago – Another Central Division matchup which promises great hockey. The Blackhawks have been struggling recently, piling up a five game losing streak, but they’ll be on their A game against the division rival Blues.

There’s still time to sign up for the NHL Center Ice package for the remainder of the season. Two different options are available to those who are interested: the half season and the race to the Stanley Cup. In the half season offer, available through February 12th, you’ll pay $123.80 for tons of hockey action. The race to the Stanley Cup offer, available from February 13th – May 15th, will only cost $79.90, but will give you the best hockey of the season as teams battle for crucial playoff spots. Visit Brighthouse.com for more information.

The move was announced around noon by the Rangers via their official Facebook page.

Christensen, a depth forward, will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season barring a contract extension with the Minnesota Wild. He had five points in only 20 games with the Rangers this season.

This will be Christensen’s fifth team in his short NHL career, with previous stops in Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Anaheim and most recently with the Rangers. His most productive season came in 2006-07 when he split time between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins of the AHL. Christensen posted 18 goals and added 15 assists for 33 points in 61 games with the Penguins that season. He contributed 11 goals and 16 assists for the Rangers last season in 63 games.

The move could be the first of many for both teams, as the Rangers are rumored to be looking to add offensive depth to their roster before the trade deadline. This could be tricky as the Rangers only have a little bit of wiggle room with roughly $1 million in available cap space. Christensen’s contract frees up another $925,000, and more moves could be on the way to help free up space.

While not a huge move, Chistensen gives Minnesota some depth and could be a signal that the Wild, who are currently clinging to the 8^th and final playoff seed in the Western Conference, could be buyers at the trade deadline as they look to secure a playoff berth. There have been suggestions that the Wild could look to deal defenseman Marek Zidlicky before the trade deadline as well.

If it weren't for the Ontario Reign of the ECHL, the Seattle Reign would be a nice play on words should an NHL Franchise play in Seattle.

With one NHL relocation out of the way, the next target that for potential movement is the Phoenix Coyotes. We already know this, considering the NHL owns the team. With no ownership group lining up to buy the team with plans to keep them in Phoenix, something has to be done to get them either a new city or a new ownership group.

There has been old news and rumors of them being moved to Quebec City (which won’t happen unless a new arena is 100% privately funded) or Kansas City (Why?)… the new hot rumor, at least according to a post on Pro Hockey Talk, is Seattle, Washington.

While Seattle has never had a NHL franchise, they could be appealing to an NHL franchise to take advantage of the northwestern United States and media markets of Seattle (13th largest in the country) and Portland, Oregon (22nd largest) in a similar fashion that Major League Soccer did with recent expansion teams Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers.

The NHL had the opportunity to play in Seattle, as they were awarded a franchise to begin in 1976-77. The deal was pulled as the potential owners were unable to secure a $180,000 deposit and a $6 million franchise fee by the deadline.

However, there are a couple of problems that could stand in their way before a puck drops in Seattle:

The Vancouver Canucks: While separated by three hours driving time and 141 miles, there could be some sort of interference between the Canucks with an attempt to move a team into their television and media market.

The Western Hockey League: This isn’t the only instance of major junior hockey in the same local area as an NHL franchise. The Seattle Thunderbirds and Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League could be affected by this move. Other teams in the umbrella of the CHL that share the same hockey market with an NHL franchise in the OHL are the Plymouth Whalers and Windsor Spitfires (Red Wings), Ottawa 67′s (Senators), and Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors (Maple Leafs).

Teams in the WHL that are in the same situation are the Calgary Hitmen, Edmonton Oil Kings, and the Vancouver Giants. Coincidentally, the Hitmen and Oil Kings share the same arena as their NHL counterparts while the Giants skate out of the Canucks former home the Pacific Coliseum.

No Modern Arena: It’s going to be hard to convince the casual or diehard hockey fan that hockey will work in a city that couldn’t support a somewhat successful NBA franchise in the Seattle Supersonics. In 2006, the ownership group wanted the Washington state government to kick in money to improve and modernize Key Arena. The government balked at the move and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz sold the team to Oklahoma City businessman Clayton Bennett. Bennett tried to have a new arena built in the city in an attempt to keep the team in the city but after those attempts were unsuccessful, he moved the franchise to Oklahoma where they are now known as the Oklahoma City Thunder. After one playoff appearance in their last six seasons in Seattle, the Thunder played in the conference finals in their third season in Oklahoma last year. However, the city did hire a sports-facilities consultant at $19,500 per month in an attempt to determine the feasibility of having an NBA (or NHL) franchise in Seattle.

It will be interesting to see what happens this summer when the league will start shopping around a home for the Coyotes.

Andre Ringuette/NHLI via Getty Images

Captain Zdeno Chara and Tyler Seguin of the Boston Bruins show a little love after Chara left Seguin among the final four to be chosen in the 2012  NHL All-Star Draft. Seguin, once picked, was greeted with a smiling Chara asking, “Want to hug it out?”. One of the funnier moments of the night.

It looks to be a good lineup for both teams. Anyone else hoping for a Pavel Datsyuk / Evgeni Malkin line?

AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Paul Chiasson

Montreal Canadiens’ Rene Bourque celebrates with Tomas Plekanec after netting a goal in the first period. Bourque was recently acquired in a highly publicized trade that saw Mike Cammalleri being traded after making negative comments about the club.

The Canadiens won by a landslide, a 7 – 2 final score that ran Red Wings’ netminder Jimmy Howard from the net. The win ended the Red Wings 7 game winning streak and has given the Canadiens a little lift as the NHL breaks for the All-Star weekend. Currently sitting in 11th spot in the Eastern Conference, 8 points out of 8th seed, more wins like this one are needed if they hope to make the playoffs.

Neal will join teammates Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang as representatives for the Pittsburgh Penguins at the festivities this weekend in Ottawa, which kick off this Thursday at 8 p.m. with the NHL All-Star Fantasy Draft and continues Saturday night with the Skills Competitionand the All-Star Game on Sunday afternoon.

This will be the first All-Star appearance for the 24-year-old Neal, who was traded from Dallas to Pittsburgh last season. However, this will be Neal’s second appearance at the NHL All-Star Weekend as he played in the YoungStars Game in 2009 in Montreal.  

Neal should have been on the roster from the get-go thanks to a season that will certainly end with personal bests in nearly every stat category. With 27 goals on the season, Neal has already tied his personal best in goals and will likely surpass his personal best in assists and total points within the next month. He currently ranks second on the Penguins in points, behind only Evgeni Malkin, and ranks 13^th in the league in points with 47 and third in the league in goals.   

It will be interesting to see if All-Star captains Daniel Alfredsson or Zdeno Chara attempt to draft both Malkin and Neal in order to give their team a competitive advantage by having two players on a line together who already have chemistry.

Christopher Pasatieri/Getty Images

Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers picked up his 5th shutout of the season with a 3 – 0 win over the Winnipeg Jets. The Rangers are on top of the Eastern Conference with 66 points and 3 points up in the Atlantic Conference. Playoff bound indeed, but can Head Coach John Tortorella get pass the first round? In his years with the Rangers, Tortorella has missed the playoffs once with the other two years being knocked out by the Washington Capitals.