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Around the rink - Friday, January 21st

Steven Stamkos

Tampa Bay Lightning center Steven Stamkos (91) looks up toward the scoreboard after scoring a goal during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Atlanta Thrashers Thursday, Jan. 20, 2011 in Atlanta. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

AP

It’s a quiet Friday night in the league with just four games to fill your hockey needs. Perhaps some inter-Canadian brawling will be your thing today. Either that or you can get psyched up to see if Steve Stamkos has another monster game, this time against their cross-state rivals from South Beach. Failing all that, there’s always the Stars to see if they can keep their eight-game road win streak alive. All times are Eastern.

7:30 p.m.

Tampa Bay @ Florida

You could say that Steve Stamkos is on a bit of a roll lately. In his last four games he’s got six goals and two assists and has back-to-back two-goal games. After cooling off for a bit from his blazing hot start to the year, Stamkos is heating up once again and is back in front of the goal scoring race. While 50 goals in 50 games won’t happen this year (unless something truly obscene happens the next two games) seeing Stamkos go cruising into the All-Star break with 40 or more goals would be remarkable. The Lightning are keeping everything close of late with two straight shootout wins. The Panthers will be looking to snap a two-game skid of their own with those losses coming in overtime and in the shootout.


NY Islanders @ Buffalo

The Sabres are hot and they’re just six points out of the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference now after ten-game stretch that saw them earn points in eight of those games, winning seven. Not bad at all and they’ve got Ryan Miller and Thomas Vanek to thank for it. In that stretch, Vanek has five goals and nine assists to pace the Sabres offense. The Islanders are losers of five of their last six games and in danger of falling behind the Devils again in the East. On the upside, they got Kyle Okposo and Frans Neilsen back in the lineup last night helping turn a thin lineup into something a bit more robust.

Montreal @ Ottawa

How do the Habs get to warm up for Saku Koivu’s return to Quebec tomorrow night? By playing a Senators team that got thumped and beat up by the Flyers last night. Ottawa is mired in a miserable struggle and floundering in frustrating fashion for their fans. Montreal will be looking to make due without Mike Cammalleri and Max Pacioretty in the lineup. How the Habs offense does without them will prove interesting because Montreal isn’t exactly a consistent offensive juggernaut. That said, Montreal has won five of their last seven games while Ottawa stumbles in losers of 10 of their last 11 and on a current four-game losing streak. Yikes.

9:30 p.m.

Dallas @ Calgary

From the “you may not know” department: The Stars are on an eight-game road win streak. For how good the Stars have been this year, their tenacity on foreign ice is impressive and for the Flames that doesn’t bode well. Calgary has lost six of their last eight games and is on a two-game skid going into this one including their last game which was a 6-0 thumping at the hands of the Wild. Confidence isn’t exactly running high there.