The Two-Line Pass

The Lead

The Detroit Red Wings might’ve beaten the St. Louis Blues 5-0 tonight, but they also might have lost a whole lot more.

Early in the first period, Marian Hossa fired a shot at the Blues’ net at the tail end of a rush and was hit, completely legally mind you, by Roman Polak. This caused him to fall onto his stomach and slide face-first into the boards, where he lay on the ice for 10 minutes while medical personnel fitted him with a neck brace, loaded him onto a stretcher and took him to the hospital as a precautionary measure. Hossa waved to the crowd on his way off the ice, could move all his extremities and never lost conciousness.

This after he just missed two games with a stiff neck.

It’s excellent that Hossa is fine because that’s a scary situation. But what does this do for Detroit? What kind of time is he going to miss, if any? If he does, what kind of moves does Detroit make to make up for his absence ahead of the deadline? Lots to ponder.

Just be glad Hossa’s okay.

Elsewhere…

Philadelphia 4, Boston 2

Boston has only lost two games to four teams this year: Minnesota, Buffalo, Washington and now Philly. But this Flyers win was very convincing and sparked by a third period in which they scored three goals on nine shots. Odd stat, by the way: thanks to each scoring a goal tonight, Patrice Bergeron still has as many goals as STEPHANE YELLE.

Carolina 5, Washington 2

Rough game for Alex Ovechkin. He was a minus-2 and also caused a too many men on the ice call. No goals either. Washington ended up putting 41 shots on Cam Ward, who was outstanding and made several highlight reel saves. Mike Green also did nothing to assuage those whispers of his weak defensive game, going minus-3.

Florida 4, Atlanta 3

The Panthers have now won four of their last six games, and the two losses were to Boston and New Jersey. So that’s not bad at all then. Michael Frolik led the way for the Cats with a pair of goals and Tomas Vokoun had 27 saves. On the other hand, how many people cared about this game even a little? Judging by the 10,329 that paid to see it, not too god damn many.

Columbus 5, Los Angeles 4

Season: Steve Mason: 2.16 goals-against average, .920 save percentage. Jon Quick: 2.55 goals-against average, .913 save percentage. In this game: Steve Mason: 4.00 GAA, .846 sv%. Jon Quick: 5.21 GAA, .800 sv%. Soooooo yeah. Good work, rookies.

New Jersey 3, Toronto 2 (OT)

Vesa Toskala saw a lot of rubber. A lot. How much, you ask? Oh, y’know, only 52 shots. FIFTY-TWO! The only reason the Leafs got this point was Toskala. This late in the season, it’s tough to find big fluctuations in save percentage, but Toskala’s jumped .002 just tonight, which is not insignificant considering he still gave up three goals. Martin Broduer, meanwhile, won his fifth straight since returning from injury.

Calgary 6, Ottawa 3

Same result, different city. Earlier this season the Flames pounded the Sens by the same score, but the personnel that did the damage was slightly different. Back in December it was Rene Bourque x3, Todd Bertuzzi, Andre Roy and Adrian Aucoin. Now the first two of those guys are hurt (Bert didn’t even make the road trip), Roy still sucks and Aucoin is, y’know, he’s Adrian Aucoin. Tonight it was David Moss x3, Jarome Iginla x2 and Warren Peters. Also Dion Phaneuf rang Dany Heatley’s bell with a nice, clean, vintage Phaneuf hit. So that’s good.

Pittsburgh 3, Tampa Bay 1

Maybe the key was putting Satan on waivers. Maybe it was just playing Tampa the day after the Bolts flew cross-continent from Calgary. The world may never know. Chris Kunitz had two goals in the win. Ray Shero is a genius.

Nashville 6, Edmonton 5 (OT)

Nashville outshot the Oil 43-28 and still needed overtime to beat them. Ouch. Pekka Rinne: not so hot tonight. Jason Arnott and Steve Sullivan, who had three points each: very hot tonight. The two outweighed the one, but just barely.

Chicago 3, Anaheim 2 (OT)

Marty Havlat’s overtime gamewinner was very nice and he had an assist earlier in the night. He also led all players with seven shots. So a strong game out of him, no? Also, a memo to Anaheim: Neeeeeever let Mike Brown lead you in shots again. Nothing good can come of it. Well, except a loser point I guess.

Vancouver 4, Minnesota 2

Alex Burrows just signed a new four-year deal to stay with the Canucks and celebrated with a pair of goals. The Wild had 19 shots tonight, which makes four of the last five in which they’ve had less than 25 SOG. An insanely low total, no? But the one game in which they got more than 25 was Saturday at Edmonton… when they had 45. How horribly frustrating it must be to be a Wild fan. Just wait until they don’t trade Gaborik tomorrow. Oh golly.

Dallas 4, San Jose 1

Brian Boucher didn’t have such a good third period. The Sharks trailed 2-1 coming out of the second intermission and uhhh, Boosh gave up two goals on six shots. This, by the way, is the first time this season the Sharks have lost two straight games in regulation. Marty Turco made 24 saves in the win, which despite his run of very strong play, is something to which I am still unaccustomed to saying.

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