If you want summaries of Friday’s first five games, click here.
Craig Anderson played about as well as one could expect in his debut from injury, although I guess he would have preferred it if he earned a shutout (the Rangers finally scored about six minutes into the third period). Matt Duchene might have been the true star of this game, though, scoring a goal and adding two assists.
Did something wake Ray Whitney up, or are the bounces finally going his way? Sandwiched in between a goose egg against Calgary, Whitney scored three goals and two assists against the St. Louis Blues and tonight’s three assist performance against the Oilers. (That’s two games in which Whitney was involved in every goal the Coyotes scored. The oddest part is that the other Whitney - Edmonton’s Ryan Whitney - factored into two of the Oilers’ goals.)
Devan Dubnyk played well in Nikolai Khabibulin’s wake, stopping 39 out of 42 shots before succumbing to Phoenix in a shootout. Want to see the clinching shootout goal? Yes you do. Here it is, via Eric Belanger (it figures that he has a great day on one of Washington’s worst, right?).
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The Calgary Flames crushed the Chicago Blackhawks on the strength of Jarome Iginla’s hat trick. The question is: does this mean that the Flames are showing signs of life or that the Blackhawks are in for a long season? Sadly for Chitown fans, I have a bad feeling that I might lean toward the latter. They’re obviously still a talented team, but they need to get used to ups and downs after dominating much of last season.
Since sinking to 3-3 after a 6-2 loss to Calgary, the Columbus Blue Jackets have been on a hot streak, going 8-3 in their last 11 games. Doing his Carey Price impression lately, Steve Mason is turning his career around, as evidenced by stopping 47 out of a whopping 50 shots to help the team cling to a one goal win. He stood out the most in a considerably one-sided third period, allowing only one goal by Corey Perry despite the fact that the Ducks out-shot the Blue Jackets 25-3.