The St. Louis Blues had some of the best goaltending in the NHL last season, as Jaroslav Halak and Brian Elliott combined to allow just 165 goals against, the fewest since the 04-05 NHL lockout. This season, however, things have been different. The Blues have had some of the worst netminding in the league, and they've struggled as a result.

On Friday night, however, they finally got some spectacular goaltending again -- not from Elliott or Halak, mind you, but from rookie backstop Jake Allen, who contributed this save of the year candidate in just his second NHL start:

Lovely passing play from the Flames after the lucky break at the Blues' blueline. This one was going to be highlight reel either way.

Unfortunately, Allan steals the spotlight with that ridiculous stick save. Maybe that's lucky too -- in which case, this whole sequence sort of cancels itself out -- but the casual, smooth way that he snags the puck out of mid-air after the save is textbook selling it.

Veteran play there. Act like you've been there before.

You've got to feel for T.J. Brodie, who had the entire net to shoot at, and somehow managed to miss out on his third career NHL goal nonetheless. I guess he can take solace in the fact that, at the end of the year, when he sees this save in the top plays of the season, he can say he saw it live.

Follow Harrison Mooney on Twitter at @HarrisonMooney

Here are your Puck Previews: Spotlighting the key games in NHL action, news and views as well as general frivolity. Make sure to stop back here for the nightly Three Stars when the games are finished.

Preview: Boston Bruins at Buffalo Sabres, 7 p.m. ET

Another visit to Buffalo for the Boston Bruins. Will John Scott singlehandedly win the game by beating someone up again? (Follow-up question: Did he even do that last time?) The Bruins are rolling right now at 8-1-2, and they're rolling even harder on the road, with four straight wins. Buffalo will cross their fingers that Tuukka Rask will completely to be a dud against them. He's been pulled twice in his last four starts in Buffalo, with a 3.62 goals-against average.

Preview: Philadelphia Flyers at New Jersey Devils, 7 p.m. ET

Here we have a match of two teams that have made me feel dumb this year. I thought the Flyers would be better. I thought the Devils would be worse. I know nothing. Danius Zubrus is out and Alexei Ponikarovsky makes his debut for the Devils, who have won five straight over the Flyers, dating back to last postseason. Something tells me Flyers remember that series. (Also, Wysh is at this game. If you see him, tell him to come home.)

Preview: San Jose Sharks at Chicago Blackhawks, 8:30 p.m. ET

The last time these two teams met, both were streaking into the season. Chicago won, putting the second loss in San Jose's win column, and San Jose immediately fell off a cliff. They've lost every game since, and six straight. The Blackhawks, meanwhile, are still unbeaten in regulation at 10-0-3, so the Sharks have an excellent opportunity to end two streaks with one win. They'll be buoyed by the fact that Chicago is without Corey Crawford, who's day-to-day with an injury that looks and quacks like a concussion.

Manny Malhotra was shut down yesterday for the remainder of the Vancouver Canucks' season. Unable to fully recover from an eye injury sustained in the spring of 2011, his career is potentially over.

Malhotra came to the Canucks signing a three-year deal for $2.5-million per season. At the time, it was a hefty price for a player slated to be a third- or a fourth-line centreman, but the Canucks had some salary cap space to work with and shored up the depth positions on their roster.

Instantly, Malhotra started doing something that no player in the NHL was doing: taking a lot of face-offs in the defensive zone. More than that, taking face-offs almost exclusively in the defensive zone.

That's it. That's how the Canucks deployed their third line, defensive centreman. They set their matchups to reflect the location of the puck on the ice for a face-off and not who the other team had sent out or was going to sent out. By keeping Malhotra at one end, the Canucks were able to prolong the scoring peak of Daniel and Henrik Sedin, who had just turned 30. Daniel Sedin won the scoring title that season and Henrik led the league in assists for the third straight year.

The acceptance of that role from Malhotra showcases a calibre of intangible not often discussed among hockey commentators: the willingness to accept a role designed to suppress individual scoring statistics. Malhotra's raison d'être was simple: play defensive minutes on the ice so the Sedin twins don't have to. The tangible benefit of your play will be noticeable in their point production, not yours. Their plus/minus, not yours.

Everything did work out quite nicely for Malhtora. At 30, he scored 11 goals and took 111 shots and managed to be a plus-9 despite starting 466 even-strength shifts in the defensive zone and just 155 in the offensive zone. While some teams had dallied in the concept of "zone matching" before the start of that season, the disparity of starts between offensive and defensive centremen was never that noticeable until Alain Vigneault, likely under directive from noted progressive thinker and Canucks' general manager Mike Gillis, began using Malhotra in a role that's now being emulated by teams across the National Hockey League.

Trending Topics is a column that looks at the week in hockey, occasionally according to Twitter. If you're only going to comment to say how stupid Twitter is, why not just go have a good cry for the slow, sad death of your dear internet instead?

One of the major problems with the NHL is how often you can predict things that will happen long before they do.

The Red Wings being great was something to which you could set your watch every August, and you could always bank on phenomenal performances from Sidney Crosby. There's very little fun in it, so when something unexpected happens, like the Coyotes quickly becoming a top-notch team when they hired Dave Tippett, or the Blues coming out of nowhere last season, or the Blackhawks returning to power a few years back before winning a Stanley Cup, it's always genuinely great to see.

And that's how I feel about the Blue Jackets hiring Jarmo Kekalainen as their general manager.

Scott Howson, for all the talk about how hard he tried and how his firing was more about going in a "different direction" than his personal job performance, was simply not a good NHL general manager. That much was obvious to anyone who saw how pathetically bungled the Rick Nash saga was, or his draft record, or most of his other trades, and the vast majority of his free agent signings.

But you have to give Howson this: He just set his successor up for an hilariously successful future.

Howson's drafting and trading over the last few years has accumulated a decent number of prospects that range from "good" to "very good," though to be fair maybe only one can be considered "great." They're mainly defensemen, like Ryan Murray (the benefit of picking second, one supposes), David Savard and Tim Erixon, as well as goaltender Oskar Dansk. No overwhelming prospects, but a good group nonetheless. Grabbing guys like Cam Atkinson hasn't hurt either. But overall there's a reason Hockey Prospectus and Hockey's Future have the Blue Jackets in the bottom half of the league when it comes to prospects.

Which is where Kekalainen comes in.

Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.

• Via reader Jeremy Wright, the Idaho Steelheads have rolled out a customized, life-sized Operation board to be played by fans at their games. Frankly, this guy still doesn't have as many injuries as most hockey players.

• Ian Laperriere clarifies his comments regarding the allegations of sexual assault against Flyers' prospect Nick Cousins: "That is absolutely not what I meant to say. I would never, ever say rape is OK. I struggle sometimes with English, and I was trying to say that these situations have happened before, and hopefully all the players will learn from this, to not put themselves in bad situations.” [Backhand Shelf]

• 40-year-old Michael Nylander is closing out his career in Sweden, playing for Sodertalje SK of the HockeyAllsvenskan. On Tuesday, he played on the same line as his 16-year-old son, William. [RMNB]

• Does Corey Crawford have a concussion? The Blackhawks' goaltender is day-to-day after being run over by Bobby Ryan on Tuesday. [Chicago Sun Times]

• Eric Staal on Alexander Semin, enigmatic room ruiner: ""He has been nothing but great. He's been a great teammate for everyone in this room and the type of guy who competes in practice and in games and that's all you can ask for." Oh. [TSN]

• If the Carolina Hurricanes make the playoffs, their recent 4-1-1 road trip will be considered a big reason why. [The Hockey Writers]

• The hockey dad that acted like a complete asshat at a Winnipeg minor-league hockey game has been banned from his son's games for the remainder of the season. [CBC]

• Child molester Graham James has seen his sentence extended from 2 years to 5, which still isn't long enough, but at least it's longer. [Global Toronto]

• Pierre Lebrun endorses five men he believes are ready to become NHL GMs. [ESPN]

Jersey Fouls is our ongoing exploration of the rules and etiquette for proper hockey jersey creation and exhibition. If you spot what you think may be a foul in your arena, email a photo to us at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com for inclusion in future installment.

As you know, No. 69 jerseys are the scourge of NHL fandom, a bat-signal of douche-o-city akin to wrapping your Tucker Max book in an Ed Hardy T-shirt. That established … well, this is sorta clever.

From reader John, a couple of Minnesota Wild Fouls:

Seen leaving Xcel - I get the sophomoric humor of the "Dyslexic" jersey, but the "bassackwards" confuses me since 66 backwards is... 66

This is an excellent point. Unless they’re going for a ‘99’ jersey, which is just as stupid. But we’re not even sure if ’99’ is ‘66’ “bassackwards” because we’re not entirely what qualifies as “bassackwards” in this day and age.

(Coming Up: Devils fan swallows; epic Dave Steckel foul; Preds fans get Horny; a Van Halen foul; a weird Sidney Crosby DIY jersey; and a sneaky Red Wings ‘69’ sweater.)

You'd think that Jack Johnson might be looking especially forward to Friday night's game in Los Angeles, his first return to the Staples Centre since he was traded from the Kings to the Columbus Blue Jackets last February.

It's always a gut punch to be traded, after all, and in Johnson's case, watching the Kings turn their season around and march all the way to their first ever Stanley Cup the moment he left had to be difficult. For many players, this is a game that would draw a bright red circle on the calendar.

But not for Johnson. "It’s just another game now," he told Jon Rosen of LA Kings Insider.

If there were any strange emotions, they've worn off with time. The trade, which sent Jeff Carter to LA (a place where his frosted tips would be appreciated) in exchange for Johnson and a first-round pick, happened almost a year ago. Since then, Johnson has faced the Kings twice, both times in Columbus. "It’s not a surreal thing anymore or a weird thing," Carter said.

"I’ve already

(Ed Note: Robert Ullman blog over at Atom Bomb Bikini. He can be followed on twitter at @robullman. Anyone interested in contributing an article, column or post to the blog can pitch yo stuff here. Now, here's Robert.)

by Robert Ullman