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Players don't usually get traded in the middle of NHL games, but when it happens, it can be distracting. As was the case when Mike Cammalleri left the ice in the third period in Boston Thursday night.
P.K. Subban let his elbow get away from him a bit on Thursday night in Boston. In the third period of a 2-0 game, the Canadiens defenseman lined up Bruins forward David Krejci for a big hit. Elbow tucked, it looked like it'd be fantastic. Then, out came the elbow, and boom, Krejci's face took the brunt of the damage.
Yes, the video after the jump features Jack Edwards.
Goaltender Tim Thomas made 33 saves, while Jordan Caron and Milan Lucic scored goals to lead the reigning Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins over the floundering Montreal Canadiens, 2-1, at TD Garden Thursday night.
The Bruins were the recipient of an unfortunate bounce off the boards for Carey Price. The Habs' netminder went behind the cage to stop a wraparound by defenseman Johnny Boychuk, but the puck kicked out in front to Caron, who had a wide open net staring at him. The winger gladly deposited his second goal of the year just 1:23 into the game.
Lucic provided what proved to be a much-needed insurance marker early in the third period, sending a backhander from the slot past Price 3:43 into the stanza for his 15th of the season and a 2-0 Boston lead.
After a skirmish created by a high hit by defenseman P.K. Subban on David Krejci and a resultant Montreal power play, Yannick Weber was able to ruin Thomas' shutout bid for the Canadiens' only goal with 7:14 remaining in regulation.
Thomas improved his record to 18-7-0, while Price dropped to 15-16-7.
These are two teams heading in very different directions.
Boston continues their ascent to the top of the NHL standings, posting a stellar 11-2 record over the last 13 contests. Following a 3-7-0 October start in which many would call a 'Stanley Cup hangover', the Bruins are a sizzling 25-4-1 in their last 30 outings.
Montreal, conversely, is in a complete free fall in the Eastern Conference, having lost nine of their last 12 games. The Habs currently sit in the 12th spot, seven points out of the eighth and final playoff spot, but just three points ahead of the East's cellar-dwelling New York Islanders.
The result on the ice wasn't the biggest story of the night coming out of Boston Thursday, and you never know just what will happen when these two original six teams with such a storied history of a bitter rivalry get together.
Following the first period of this clash, Montreal traded Mike Cammalleri, along with the rights to goalie Karri Ramo, and a fifth round draft pick in 2012 to the Calgary Flames for Rene Bourque, Patrick Holland, and a second round draft pick in 2013, just a day after the winger made what many felt were disparaging remarks about the club.
"We prepare for our games like losers," Cammalleri said Wednesday. "We play like losers. So it's no wonder why we lose."
GM Pierre Gauthier insisted the trade had nothing to do with Cammalleri's comments that the Habs have a "loser mentality".
"Usually you see (guys traded) before games, after a pre-game skate, after games you kind of see guys pulled off a plane or bus, but that's the first time I've seen it during a game," Cammalleri said. "So it was a unique circumstance for sure."
The 29-year-old returns to the scene of his best NHL season, where he scored 39 goals and 82 points during the 2008-09 campaign as a member of the Flames. He signed with the Canadiens as an UFA the following summer.
Though he had scored goals in three of his last seven games, Cammalleri didn't score a goal in 10 prior contests. His offensive production has decreased each year in Montreal, and this season's nine goals and 22 points in 37 games was a huge disappointment.
In early October, most would have guessed that a mid-January matchup between the Vancouver Canucks and St. Louis Blues would be a lopsided one in both records and results. That was far from the case Thursday.
The Canucks and Blues, two of the Western Conference's top four teams, battled through a 65-minute war that ended with the former earning a hard-fought 3-2 overtime victory.
Between the two teams, there were four All-Stars and all four came to play. Daniel Sedin scored the game-winning goal and added an assist, while brother Henrik had two assists. Alex Edler chipped in an assist as well. Brian Elliot made 18 saves for the Blues and kept them competitive as Jason Arnott (not an All-Star) scored twice.
In a four-point game, the Canucks built a three-point lead over the Canucks in the Western Conference. The second half of the season surely will be a competitive one at the top of the standings.
Add a couple of sick goalies and another loss to the list of troubles for the struggling Wild, as Minnesota went into Chicago Thursday night and lost, 5-2, to the Blackhawks. The Wild and Blackhawks haven't had the best of times lately, despite their strong starts, however, each team hoped to change that luck after both were largely successful in their last victories.
Facing Ray Emery, who beat the Wild in the last meeting, Devin Setoguchi got the scoring started in his first game back from being a healthy scratch for missing a team meeting. But once Andrew Shaw tied the game for the Blackhawks, Chicago took over the rest of the game, scoring three more unanswered goals.
Jimmy Hayes, Viktor Stalberg and Dave Bolland all got in on the action, with Hayes and Bolland's goals on the power play. The Blackhawks are probably pleased to see a good mix of scoring contributions there from two youngsters and two stars.
Kyle Brodziak ended a 10-game scoreless drought after Josh Harding, who already started for the ill Niklas Backstrom and was a little sick himself, had to be replaced by Matt Hackett. Hackett was pulled with two minutes left in the game, but that seemed to be a little too much time, as Bolland scored his second of the game on the empty-netter to seal the 5-2 Blackhawks victory.
The Wild have not won on the road now in their last eight games, and that doesn't help them much, considering they will go on to play three more games on the road to complete their four-game road stretch. In total, seven of their next nine games will be played on the road before they have a four-game homestand.
Chicago can at least briefly enjoy being on top of the Central Division after the Blues lost in overtime to the Canucks. They play the Red Wings for their next game Saturday afternoon.
It was an interesting evening at Staples Center, as two Pacific Division rivals proved how much they dislike each other. Dallas came out with the victory on the evening thanks to a Loui Eriksson shootout winner, but not before the Stars tied it up late on the latter end of a double minor penalty to Mike Richards, who dropped the gloves with Brendan Morrow after a clean-but-scary hit on Anze Kopitar.
Richards picked up the instigator on the fight, and was unavailable for the remainder of the game as a result. In overtime, Sheldon Souray got mixed up with Drew Doughty and Justin Williams around the Dallas net, and Jonathan Quick failed to pick up a penalty despite coming out to the opposing blue line as things tensed up.
Defending Big D was happy with the overall effort the Stars put forth, especially following the team's last game against Anaheim.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 33 saves and Philadelphia stole two points away from the Islanders, who thoroughly outplayed the visitors for the majority of the hockey game, yet came out with nothing to show for it. Lighthouse Hockey applauded the young Flyers netminder for his performance:
You can blame Evgeni Nabokov for setting up the second goal through poor puckhandling (and ceding a bad-angle shot), but he was quite good otherwise. Perhaps gripe with the officials for enabling the first goal, but in truth the difference was "Bob," the little goalie that could, standing on his head as his defense helped prevent second opportunities by boxing out and protecting well as the Islanders swarmed the net.
Yes, the Flames played a game on Thursday night, despite the news focusing on the Mike Cammalleri trade. Miikka Kiprusoff pitched a shutout and Calgary won their eighth-straight game on home ice thanks to a Blair Jones goal 1:51 into the extra session.
Despite the loss, Anaheim Calling thought Jonas Hiller was a star for Anaheim:
It's such a shame the Ducks lost this game in overtime. For 60 minutes Jonas Hiller was...wait for it...incredible. Yeah! That came from me. From the very beginning of the game he was tested. While he wasn't overly pummeled with shots, he definitely saw quality scoring opportunities.
Fear The Fin thinks San Jose played their most complete effort of the year in their victory over the Winnipeg Jets, who failed to capitalize on a chance to jump over Washington and Pittsburgh into playoff position in the Eastern Conference.
Although the game remained scoreless until the second period, battles were fought, positions were won and the anger of coaches and fans was quelled, at least for an evening. The Sharks played what I consider one of their best games all season, and while it came against one of the league's weaker teams, the effort level was undeniable.
The Ottawa Senators aren't supposed to be this good, but they're red hot, and they were somehow able to shutout another red hot team, the East-leading New York Rangers, on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden. Silver Seven knew it was over as soon as the second period came to an end.
The Senators entered the third period with a 1-0 lead, meaning it was all but over for the Rangers. How could they compete with the NHL's best third period scoring team? They couldn't. The Senators scored two more goals before the end of the game, the first coming from Milan Michalek while the second was another Jason Spezza goal, this time on the powerplay.
Meanwhile, the Rangers' win streak ended at five, and Blueshirt Banter sees a struggling power play as part of the reason why.
The Rangers had a couple power play opportunities through two periods, but were unsuccessful. This has been a glaring issue for a while, and it is finally starting to hurt the Rangers. They need to get their power play going, otherwise it could cost them games just like this one.
It was a critical game for Tampa Bay, writes Raw Charge, and they completely failed to show up. The scoreboard is a pretty solid indicator there.
Style points may be pretty to look at, but you run the risk of getting distracted admiring them. Following a valiant comeback effort against the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday (earning a point after overcoming a two goal deficit before losing in a shootout), the Lightning followed up with one of their worst efforts of the season.
This was a somewhat pivotal game in that a win could have brought the Lightning to within six points of the conference's final playoff spot while the loss narrows the gap between Tampa Bay and the last place Hurricanes to a single point.
Mike Smith made 40 saves, but despite the magnificent effort, Detroit pulled away the extra point with a shootout victory. Nevertheless, Five For Howling was proud of the game played by the Coyotes.
For the second consecutive game, the Phoenix Coyotes went into a hostile environment against one of the top teams in the NHL and played a fairly spectacular game, only to fall short in the shoot out. Full credit to the Coyotes, playing their 22nd road game in the past 32 games and starting the first of a back-to-back at Joe Louis Arena tonight, because they played one hell of a game.
Colorado fell to the Preds thanks to a David Legwand overtime winner, but that had nothing to do with the efforts of goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who was phenomenal according to Mile High Hockey:
The Avs continued to tempt fate as the period was winding down and required several huge saves from Giguere to keep the game tied. Probably the most spectacular was as Giguere was forced to dive back to his right and get his paddle on a shot as it was fired from just outside the crease. Thankfully it was enough to get the game to overtime and get the Avs at least one point in the standings.
VIDEO: Steve Staios Flattens Max Talbot With Elbow To Head
by Travis Hughes
There was no penalty called for this elbow to the head of Max Talbot on Thursday night, but Steve Staios of the New York Islanders should probably expect a phone call from Brendan Shanahan on the matter.
Late in the third period, Staios lined Talbot up for a hit, but instead of taking the body, he picked the head clean off the Flyers forward. (Okay, not actually off, but you get the idea.)
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Jan 13 9:30a