The Night that Was:
The Columbus Blue Jackets are still winless on the road, but they were able to add their second home win to their record last night, 3-1 over the Anaheim Ducks. Rick Nash’s fourth of the season opened the scoring just two minutes in before Bobby Ryan tied it up. Ryan Johansen’s second NHL goal and Fedor Tyutin’s second of the season put the Jackets up 3-1 in the second period, a lead they would never surrender. Steve Mason had to make 19 saves for the win as James Wisniewski finished with a pair of points for Columbus. Since returning from his suspension, Wisniewski has four assists in four games for Columbus.
Colorado couldn’t seem to shake Los Angeles last night. Chuck Kobasew’s second of the season, scored shorthanded partway through the first, only gave Colorado a lead for 27 seconds before Scott Parse tied it up. Then, Milan Hejduk’s fourth put Colorado up 2-1, before Anze Kopitar’s sixth knotted things at two. Matt Duchene scored just 1:52 into the third and Semyon Varlamov would hold on with six saves that period (30 in total) for a 3-2 Colorado win. Kyle Quincey and David Jones had a pair of assists each for Colorado.
Who would have thought that the Edmonton Oilers would be atop the Western Conference by the end of October, but after last night’s 4-2 win over St. Louis, they’re in first place with a 7-2-2 record. Shawn Horcoff’s second opened the scoring in the first period, and after David Backes tied it to open the second, Ryan Smyth scored twice and Jordan Eberle added his third of the year to put Edmonton up 4-1. Alex Pietrangelo would score his second for St. Louis, but these days it takes more than that to hand Nikolai Khabibulin a loss. Khabibulin made 28 saves for the victory to move to 4-0-2 on the season, while Ryan Nugent-Hopkins added two assists.
It was another installment of the Battle of Ontario last night, with the Ottawa Senators coming out on top. The Maple Leafs started out with the lead when halfway through the first Clarke MacArthur scored his third of the season on the power play. Colin Greening would tie it up late in the frame before Chris Neil gave the Sens the lead a period later. Then in the third, Kaspars Daugavins scored his first NHL goal to give the Sens a 3-1 lead and, despite another goal from MacArthur, the Sens would go on to win the game 3-2 as Robin Lehner made 23 saves. Nikolai Kulemin and Mikhail Grabovski both assisted on MacArthur’s goals, meaning only three Leafs recorded points all night.
What’s on Tonight?
Don’t worry, there’s plenty of time to go door-to-door tonight in search of candy as only three games are on. San Jose heads to New York to take on the Rangers, Winnipeg visits Florida, and Nashville takes on Chicago.
The Injury Bug:
-Cam Barker was a late scratch yesterday for the Edmonton Oilers. Barker is suffering from a sore shoulder. Speaking of shoulders, it’s expected Ales Hemsky will return to the Oilers lineup from his shoulder injury sometime this week.
-St. Louis’ Kent Huskin broke a bone in his ankle against the Calgary Flames on Friday. It’s unknown how long he’ll be out.
-Peter Mueller didn’t play last night for Colorado and is still out indefinitely with concussion-like symptoms.
News and Rumours Around the League:
-Guess who’s back!? The New York Rangers are expected to place Sean Avery on re-entry waivers today (Monday), making him eligible to play for the team on Thursday. It’s not expected that Avery will be claimed, although the claiming team would be getting Avery at a drastically reduced price.
-The Detroit Red Wings and Nik Kronwall have reached an agreement on a seven-year contract worth $33.25 million. The average of the contract is $4.75-million a year.
-In disciplinary action, Chicago’s Daniel Carcillo was suspended two games for a hit from behind on Carolina’s Joni Pitkanen. Andy Sutton of Edmonton meanwhile, was suspended indefinitely over the weekend for a hit on Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog until a length of his suspension can be determined today in a hearing.
The Overlooked Fantasy Line of the Night:
Ryan Smyth scored his fourth and fifth goals of the season last night, tossing in a plus-one rating and five shots for good measure. One of Smyth’s goals came on the power play.
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