Intense.

No. 1 Star: John Tavares, New York Islanders

Tavares was the difference in a 5-1 defeat over the New Jersey Devils. Seriously. he had 4 points, and 4 which is the difference between 5 and 1. It's basic math. Tavares took over this game in the second period, scoring 2 of his 3 goals and adding an assist on a Matt Moulson goal. Moulson also had a 4-point night, finding himself in on every Tavares scoring play, as you might expect.

No. 2 Star: Ben Scrivens, Toronto Maple Leafs

Missing Jason Spezza, Milan Michalek, and Erik Karlsson, the Ottawa Senators still put in a valiant effort versus the Leafs, firing 34 shots on Scrivens. But Scrivens wouldn't be beat. He stopped them all for the first NHL shutout of his career in a 3-0 triumph.

There are really only two ways for a goaltender to score in a hockey game. The first way is to get ahold of the puck in the game's dying seconds when the opposition's net is empty, fire it the length of the ice, and pray your aim is true as a young Elvis Costello. The second way is to be the last guy to touch the puck when your opponent scores on themselves.

On Friday night, late in the first period of a game between the ECHL's Cincinnati Cyclones and Trenton Titans, Cylones' backstop Brian Foster became just the 11th ECHL goalie to score. He did it the second way:

Foster's touch comes right at the beginning of this clip, as he makes a save on a Titans' point shot. Little did he know it would be the save of the night.

The Titans immediately get the puck back. Meanwhile, the official signals a delayed penalty on Cincinnati, so Trenton swaps out goaltender Scott Wedgewood for a sixth skater. Man on. Net empty.

Instantly, the Titans forget how to control the puck. They bobble it at the blueline and it squirts out to the neutral zone, forcing them to regroup and re-enter. Titans forward Jacob Drewiske does so, walking the puck down the far wall. Then, he turns and fires it back up the boards to his point man. Another miscue follows, and this time the puck travels the length of the ice and slides into the empty net.

Worst feeling in the world: the moment the guy chasing the puck realizes it's going to beat him to the goal line.

The Cylones would pad the lead with a real goal, and it would be all they needed in a 2-1 win over Trenton. The game's first star: Brian Foster, who made 28 saves on 29 shots, and scored as many goals as he allowed.

s/t to Eye on Hockey.

Follow Harrison Mooney on Twitter at @HarrisonMooney

I like third jerseys. I like the idea of them.

On one hand, of course, they're little more than a cash grab, an opportunity for a team to hang another merchandise option in their store, something that might catch the eye of the casual shopper, or suck in the collectors who can't help themselves from buying every jersey a team makes available.

But on the other hand, they're an opportunity for teams to experiment with their look, to see if they can't find something else to either add to or improve upon the look of their franchise.

Occasionally, this goes horribly wrong. There are some truly terrible third jerseys in the NHL. The New York Islanders' third come to mind, which is unfortunate, because now I'm picturing it.

But when it works, it really works. There are some great third jerseys in the NHL. In fact, there are a few nice enough that, if I had my way, the teams would simply promote them into regular use.

Five, to be exact. And they are as follows:

Caption this photo.

No. 1 Star: Alex Steen, St. Louis Blues

Steen helped the Blues to put the Calgary Flames away early, scoring a goal and adding a helper as part of St. Louis's four-goal first period. Steen would pick up his third point of the night, a second assist, on the game's final goal in a 5-2 Blues win.

No. 2 Star: Ilya Kovalchuk, New Jersey Devils

Kovalchuk gave the Devils a strong start versus the Philadelphia Flyers, setting up Travis Zajac for the game's first goal 40 seconds in. The Devils squandered the early lead, however, falling behind 3-1 by the end of the first, so Kovy did it again, setting up the newly-acquired Alexei Ponikarovsky 26 seconds into the second. Granted, it's Martin Brodeur's insane second assist that really makes this play:

Wow. Anyway, this time around, the rest of the team would follow suit, scoring four unanswered for the 5-3 win. Kovalchuk finished with 3 assists.

No. 3 Star: Henrik Sedin, Vancouver Canucks

Two assists for the Canuck captain,

Henrik Sedin came into Friday night's contest with the Dallas Stars needing just one point to reach 756, which would tie him with Markus Naslund as the Vancouver Canucks' franchise scoring leader. At 3:21 of the second period, he got it, picking up a greasy helper when Daniel Sedin banked a puck off Richard Bachman for the Canucks' first goal of the game.

Just over five minutes later, Henrik took sole possession of the record and he did it with a great deal more style, setting up Alex Burrows for a one-timer with the sort of slick, pin-point, cross-zone feed he's been making his entire career. Here's the play that solidified Henrik's position as the most prolific scorer the Canucks have ever had:

Daryl Reaugh called Henrik's pass a "tantalizing dish". I cannot disagree. Four Stars between him and his target and Henrik still manages to put it right on Burrows' tape. He's good at this.

Immediately after the goal, the Rogers Arena crowd saluted Henrik with a standing ovation while the two teams lined up at centre ice. The ovation continued as play got underway, and they didn't stop for a full three minutes, as both teams cycled through their lines and the Sedins eventually found their way back onto the ice. When play finally halted, Henrik saluted the crowd.

Then, as the Sportsnet broadcast went to an ill-advised TV timeout, the Canucks aired a surprise tribute video to Henrik on the Jumbotron, featuring congratulations from Markus Naslund and Trevor Linden, now second and third in Canucks' franchise scoring.

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.