Thursday’s Three Stars: Blowout in Boston; another shutout for Quick
No. 1 Star: Patrice Bergeron, Boston Bruins
Patrice Bergeron had two goals and an assist versus the Calgary Flames, and he certainly wasn't the only one with a multi-point night. En route to a freaking 9-0 victory, Zdeno Chara, David Krejci, Milan Lucic, Rich Peverley, Benoit Pouliot and Tyler Seguin picked up two points a piece as well. Amazingly, not a single Bruin picked up more than 3. They scored at least twice in every period, five times in the first five minutes of the opening two frames, they outshot Calgary 42 to 25, and won 70% of the faceoffs. Sure, a 9-0 loss is an anomaly and the Flames aided and abetted with a terrible performance here, but seriously, the Bruins average 2.09 even-strength goals more than their opponents this season. It's not much of an anomaly.
No. 2 Star: James Van Riemsdyk, Philadelphia Flyers
Van Riemsdyk scored twice in the Flyers 5-4 win over the Blackhawks, once midway through the second to put Philly up 4-2, and then again with thirty seconds to go in a game that Chicago had come back to tie 4-4:
The Flyers were clearly motivated to win their first home date with the Hawks since the last game of the 2010 Stanley Cup Final: they put 45 shots on Ray Emery. Matt Read and Jakub Voracek had 6 apiece, and Scott Hartnell had a game-high 7. He also added a goal and an assist.
No. 3 Star: Jonathan Quick, Los Angeles Kings
Heading into Thursday, Quick was the only NHL goaltender with 5 shutouts. After backstopping the Kings to a 1-0 overtime win versus the Phoenix Coyotes, he's got 6. Quick stopped 22 shots, allowing Drew Doughty to win the game on this drive to the net:
Honourable mention: Mike Smith didn't get the win, but he was as close to flawless as you can be for the Coyotes... Joe Thornton scored the tiebreaking goal in the San Jose Sharks 2-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets... Mike Ribeiro scored twice in the first period, which would turn out to be all the Dallas Stars needed to knock off the Nashville Predators, 4-1. His first goal is sick:
Gabriel Bourque's first NHL goal was the lone Nashville tally... Alex Pietrangelo's two-point night spurred a comeback in a three-goal third-period versus the Edmonton Oilers. The New York Rangers' registered a season-high 41 shots in their 3-2 victory over the Florida Panthers. Marion Gaborik had three, the last of which was this rocked to win the game in overtime:
He started the festivities by scoring, then assisted on a David Backes goal before Matt D'agostini scored the game-winner as the St. Louis Blues won 4-3. Carlo Colaiacovo had three assists. The Blues now lead the NHL in wins at home with 16... Craig Anderson stopped 35 shots, Kyle Turris had a goal (his first as a Senator) and an assist, and Daniel Alfredsson had two helpers and an empty-netter in the Ottawa Senators 4-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lighting. Guess who scored the lone Lightning goal? Here's a hint: his name rhymes with Shmamkos... The Toronto Maple Leafs got a shutout from Jonas Gustavsson and two-point nights from Tim Connolly and Mikhail Grabovski in their 4-0 win over the Winnipeg Jets...
Did you know? The last time Chicago won a regular-season game on the road versus the Flyers was November 9, 2006. They've lost 9 straight in Philadelphia.
Dishonourable mention: The Calgary Flames. For reasons you might understand, this is Flames.com right now:
Sure, the end of the World Juniors, which your city co-hosted, is something, but I have a hunch that, if the Calgary Flames win (or even lose in less embarrassing fashion), the team website doesn't bury their most recent game behind three WJC stories.
