Ovechkin scored a goal in his return against the Rangers and the Caps haven’t won since, losing to the Habs on Thursday and handing the Leafs victory on Saturday. The Bruins will finally get Marc Savard back tonight as they visit the Blues in St.Louis.

The battle of the cellar dweller’s  played out pretty much how I expected it. Bad goal-tending  and a high scoring affair. The Bruins had some interest in this game and it wasn’t to see old friend Phil Kessel who by the way did not have one point in the 5 goals Toronto scored…still miss him? Anyways, the reason the Bruins have interest in the progress of Toronto is the repercussions of the Kessel trade. The Bruins own the Leafs first round draft pick and the way it is going right now, the B’s are looking at the number one pick overall.

On that note, the leafs go out on Saturday night against one of the best teams in the East and beats them in a shootout after a 1-1 tie. Some things don’t make any sense and that is one of them. Now we saw hockey’s version of a rally cap going on as the Leaf players wore their helmets  backwards on the bench during the shootout. And there was several thousand Leaf fans that attended their morning skate for support.

Streaks

One of the hottest teams in the NHL right now has been the Chicago Blackhawks who are riding a 7 game win streak and are 8-1-1 in their last 10. Rookie goaltender Antti Niemi stopped all 30 shots he faced Sunday night against the Vancouver Canucks to get his first career shutout.

After a shaky start, the Nashville Predators have something working for them of  late as they are 8-2-0 in their last 10, winning the last 5.

Both the Sharks and Blue Jackets are 6-1-3 in their last 10 games. San Jose has found themselves first in the West thanks to their recent hot streak. Another team to watch for is the Detroit Red Wings who have picked up the pace lately going 7-2-1 in the last 10.

After stopping  New Jersey’s run for the road record at 9 games, Philly beat the Kings but has now lost the last 2 games. The Flyers’ are 7-3 in their last 10.

The Canes finally snapped their 14 game skid and have now won 3 of their last 4. Manny Legace has been holding the fort down for the injured Cam Ward. The Hurricanes and Maple Leafs have been playing a game of leap frog all season for the worst record in the East.

Home Sweet Home

There are 2 teams in the NHL that have not suffered a loss at home yet. The San Jose Sharks are 7-0-2 and the Lightning who are 5-0-4. Both teams are home on Wednesday night with the Sharks hosting the Blackhawks for a battle of the titans. Tampa Bay should have no problem keeping their record in tact as they host the Leafs. Carolina is the only team without a win on the road so far at 0-7-3.

Key Match-ups coming up this week

The game of the week is clearly on Wednesday night as the 2nd place Blackhawks visit the first place Sharks at the tank in a Western conference battle. As I mentioned before, San Jose has not lost a game at home yet. The Eastern Conference has a similar match up on Wednesday night when the 3rd place Sabres visit the 1st place Capitals in DC. Both teams have struggled a bit lately but any time you put a top scorer like Ovechkin facing  a top goaltender like Miller, you will be entertained.

Tonight you have the 3rd place Avalanche who have struggled of late hosting the Philadelphia Flyers who are 5th in the East. Friday, the Bruins have their annual noon time start and this year they face the 4th place leafs. With Savard and Lucic back, this will be a great battle.

Retired and Un-Retired

Brendan Shanahan Retired after 21 seasons in the NHL, you can read my article on Shanahan here. Peter Forsberg decided to stay in Sweden and influences Markus Naslund to come out of retirement  to team up together to play with Modo.

Streaks

The New Jersey Devils extended their road win record to 9-0 on Thursday night by beating the slumping Penguins 4-1. The Penguins had a streak of their own, losing 5 straight before Christmas coming early on Saturday night as Tim Thomas and the Bruins hand them a gift in OT.

Thrasher fans are loving the current 4 game win streak their team is on an they got a bonus with their star Ilya Kavalchuk that returned on Thursday.

Carolina fans may just boo their team right back to Hartford as they have a road record of their own…win-less so far. The Canes had dropped  7 in a row and were win-less in their last 14 at 0-10-4 before the Wild came to town on Sunday. It wasn’t pretty and the Canes tried to lose as they gave up leads of 3-0 and 4-1 eventually won in a shoot out. The Canes are just one point out of the cellar dweller title.

The leafs had a temporary boost with the return of Phil Kessel winning 2 out of the first 3 but since then, the Leafs are once again on another losing streak this time at 3 games. Kessel scored both goals Friday night as the Leafs lost to the Blackhawks 3-2 .

The Chicago Blackhawks are riding a 4 game winning streak and a 7 game win streak at home thanks to a comeback Sunday night against the San Jose Sharks. The Hawks were down 3-1 early in the second period before scoring two goals in the 2nd and the game winner a minute into OT. Although the Sharks lost, they haven’t lost in regulation in 13 games going 9-0-3 in their last 12.

Injury Bug

Cam Ward has been placed on IR which is just another blow to the Canes.

Doug Weight will miss 4 weeks for an upper body injury.

Capital’s Mike Knuble broke his finger when he crashed into Minnesota Wild goaltender Josh Harding in the first period of he Cap’s 3-1 win on Friday night. Knuble will be out 3-4 weeks.

Back in action

Atlanta Thrashers captain, Ilya Kovalchuk returned on Thursday and impacted his team immediately by scoring a goal and having 2 helpers to lift the Thrashers over the Rangers 5-3. On Friday night, Ilya Kovalchuk’s had a two-goal, two-assist performance against the Los Angeles Kings  in a 7-0 win. Kovalchuk will still wear a walking cast for precautions after breaking a bone in his foot.

Roberto Luongo returned from his broken rib injury putting Andrew Raycroft back on the bench in Vancouver. Raycroft went 4-2 with a 2.00 GAA in the 6 games he filled in for Luongo.

Jean-Sebastien Giguere has returned from his groin strain and has fallen into a goalie controversy as Jonas Hiller has taken the #1 spot.

Milan Lucic started practicing with the Bruins on Thursday and is aiming a return against the Thrashers on Thursday night.

The Boston Globe is reporting that Marc Savard who will be a free agent at the end of the season will be signing an extension. Savard has been sidelined with a broken foot is looking to get back on skates next week, he is still about 2 weeks away from returning to the B’s line up.

Jean-Sebastien Giguere lost his first game back from a strained groin injury on Friday losing to Columbus 3-2 in a shoot out. Jonas Hiller also lost this weekend for the Ducks on Saturday night to the Red Wings 7-4. That should help that little goaltender controversy at the Pond.

Alex Ovechkin’s return over the weekend was postponed, look for him early this week, most likely against conference rival New York Rangers on Tuesday night.

On the Move

Michael Nylander decided to head to Moscow and play with the Red Army team after being placed on waivers at the begging of the week.

Peter Forsberg is still weighing out his option to stay in the Sweeden or entertain a pro contract from one of about 6 teams that are interested including the Bruins.

Milestone

Bruins Mark Recchi got his 900th career assist Tuesday night against the Penguins

Key Match-ups for the upcoming week

Obviously the game of the week is tonight as the New Jersey Devils go into Philly to face the Flyers. The Devils have a chance to tie the best road start of 10-0 that Buffalo currently owns if they can beat the Flyers and if they do, Thursday night in Nashville can be the record breaker when they face the Predators.

As if facing the Devils on Monday isn’t a tough enough task, The Flyers hit the road for three more games this week facing the Kings, Sharks and Coyotes.

The Capitals recent success has put them in a tie with New Jersey for the conference lead and they will be at MSG to face the Rangers who started out the season on fire before going -5-1 in their last 10.

Although this is not a marquee game it is worth mentioning. The Leafs visit Carolina in a battle of the cellar dwellers, attendance should be somewhere around a dozen people to watch this sleeper.

The 36 year old net minder was brought up to the Canes for the injured Cam Ward who will miss the next 2-3 weeks with a leg laceration suffered over the weekend. Ward is expected to be released from the hospital today. Legace  has an NHL career record of 177-92-36 and last saw action in a St.Louis Blues Jersey in the 2008-2009 season.

Vancouver Canucks goalie, Roberto Luongo was expected to return on Tuesday when the team faces the Blues but has been hit with the flu and may miss practice today. The team feels it is just the seasonal flu and not the H1N1 at this time. Luongo has been out of action with a rib injury.

Warm weather not good for the Penguins

The Pittsburgh Penguins went into the week with a 7-0 record on the road and the LA Kings took care of that Thursday night by scoring 4 unanswered goals in the third period as they went on to a 5-2 Victory. The Stanley Cup champs then went into San Jose Saturday night to a place they haven’t won at since October 22,1997.  Evgeni Nabokov made sure that San Jose kept that choke hold on the Pens by stopping all 27 shots and shutting them out 5-0. Sidney Crosby has been held point-less in the last 4 games.

To add insult to injury well in this case vise versa, the Pens lost Defensman Kris Letang in the first period as he was favoring his right arm area. that add to the list of key players the Pens are already missing…Evgini Malkin, Sergi Gonchar, Tyler Kennedy and Max Talbot.

Washington is feeling the Pens pain as Ovechkin is listed week to week instead of the day to day that was originally expected.

Devils are heating up

Saturday night the New Jersey Devils beat Ottawa 3-2 to boost their road record to 8-0. Martin Brodeur celebrated his 1000th victory as the Devils are now chasing the NHL record 10-0  on the road that Buffalo set in the 2006-2007 season.

New Cellar Dwellars

The Toronto Maple Leafs have been mopping up the cellar most of the season and with the help of Phil Kessel, they have climbed out of the cellar by winning the last 2 games including knocking off the Carolina Hurricanes. The Canes continue to have the worst start since their move some years ago with a 2-11-3 record including a current 6 game losing streak. Goaltender Cam Ward who has been mentioned in trade rumors, suffered a leg laceration Saturday night when Columbus Blue Jacket forward Rick Nash caught him with a skate. Ward spent Saturday night in the hospital as he needed stitches. He is expected to be released Monday and will miss 3-4 weeks.

Looking for a new home

Capitals, Michael Nylander was placed on waivers late last week and will clear waivers Monday at noon meaning if he is not picked up by another team, the Caps can send him, lend him or move him. Nylander has agreed to waive his no movement clause and is currently making 4.875 million.

Key match-ups in the up coming week

The New Jersey Devils are hosting the Ducks Wednesday night to try to extend the 5 game winning streak they are on and then visit Pittsburgh on Thursday night and try to extend their road record to 9-0. The Devils will  also host the Caps on Saturday night.

Toronto will go for their 3rd straight win on Tuesday night against the last place Minnesota Wild

San Jose had their 6 game winning streak come to an end in the motor city against the Red Wings which extended the Wings winning streak to 3 games. Chris Osgood who’s name was being tossed around just last week in trade rumors made 33 saves against the Sharks. Osgood in the last 3 games had given up just 2 goals with a shut out against the Bruins, he is now 6-2-2 this season.

The Florida Panthers have climbed out of the cellar and are riding a 3 game win streak. They host the Washington Capitals with out superstar Alex Ovechkin for the weekend with a left shoulder injury.

Down in Carolina, we have a battle of the cellar dwellers. The Hurricanes out to a horrendous start at 2-9-3 have been mentioned numerous times on the internet about players on the trading block, most mentioned is Ray Whitney but again these are rumors.The Canes on a 4 game skid need a confidence builder, tonight would be the night when the Maple Leafs come to town. Toronto riding yet another losing streak currently at 4 got back their superstar Phil Kessel the other night but still lost to Tampa Bay. One has to think why did Kessel want to leave Boston?

Boo-Hoo, the ref’s hate me

One of my favorite stories of the week has to be from the City of Anaheim where according to Duck fans, the officials gave Toronto their first win with phantom calls. I wrote a whole piece on that earlier this week and you can read the article here. The irony is the day after I posted that article, I had one less follower on Twitter…coincidence? Nah….poor sport. Just for the record, I think the site is cute, the Rally was stupid.

Win one, Lose a bunch more

Toronto finally got their first win and like I said earlier in the week, Toronto’s wins will be far and few this year. Although goaltender Vesa Toskala looked solid in his first start since being sidelined, the Leafs still managed to lose Saturday night to the Habs in a shootout. And yes Toronto is once again on another losing streak at 3 games. The good news is that Phil Kessel is rumored to be returning Tuesday night when they host the Lightning. The Leafs best chance of winning a game this week will be on Friday when they visit the lowly Hurricanes (2-8-3) who have their worse start since the franchised moved from Hartford.

Bay-”B” I got your number

Henrik Lundqvist certainly has the Bruins number which is zero. Lundqvist earned his 150th NHL win Sunday by shutting out the Bruins for the 4th time and his 21st  career shut out. The Bruins are still on the lose one, win one pattern since the opening face off on October 1st.

The Goalie Shuffle

Being a back up goalie in the NHL is a tough on a young player who is just itching to get into the action and be your teams #1. What better way to prove your point than to make 50 saves against the Ottawa Senators. That’s what Atlanta Thrashers goalie, Ondrej Pavelec did on Saturday night. With starter Kari Lehtonen recovering from back surgery, Pavelec has filled in and done the job for the Thrashers.

Speaking of goalies,  once Avalanche backup, Andrew Raycroft shut out his old team last night 3-0 . Raycroft has been the Canucks net minder since Roberto Luongo has been injured. Don’t read into that one too much, Raycroft wasn’t challenged only facing 18 shots.

Key Match-ups this week ahead

The defending champs and best in the East, Pittsburgh Penguins hit the road this week as the start of a 4 game road trip. Saturday night you will see the Crosby vs Thorton showdown as the Pens visit the 2nd in the west San Jose Sharks. Pittsburgh is still undefeated on the road this season with a 6-0-0 record.

The other top 3 teams in the west will be playing what looks to be round robin tourney as #4 Phoenix draws #1 Avalanche on Wednesday night and then has the #3 Blackhawks on Thursday night. Friday night the Blackhawks visit Colorado to face the Avalanche.