Thursday’s Three Stars: Gagner’s great 8; Subban destroys Larsson; Dan Boyle’s embarrassing gaffe
"Wait, no, I said *drop* the gloves …"
No. 1 Star: Sam Gagner, Edmonton Oilers
As you may have heard, he had somewhere between nine and seven points for the Oilers in their 8-4 win over the Chicago Blackhawks. His eight-point night tied a team record set by Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey. Our coverage of Gagner is here.
No. 2 Star: Cam Ward, Carolina Hurricanes
Ward made 47 saves in the Hurricanes' 3-0 win over the Boston Bruins, giving Carolina a season sweep of the champs, their first against the Bruins in franchise history. Eric Staal, Tuomo Ruutu and Brandon Sutter had the goals.
No. 3 Star: Niklas Backstrom, Minnesota Wild
The Wild keeper earned his 25th career shutout with a 1-0 blanking of the Colorado Avalanche, making 37 saves while making a Greg Zanon goal in the first period stand. Backstrom made 17 saves alone in the final period to end what was a brutal affair between the teams.
Honorable mention: Zach Parise and David Clarkson had two goals each while Ilya Kovalchuk had three assists in the New Jersey Devils' 5-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens. Martin Brodeur made 27 saves. … The Philadelphia Flyers got goals from Wayne Simmonds (two for the game) and Matt Read in the first and second periods, and then Claude Giroux closed out the game with his first goal since the Winter Classic in the Flyers' 4-1 win over the Nashville Predators. Ilya Bryzgalov made 27 saves. … Blake Wheeler collected a rebound in the second period for his 10th of the season and set up Kyle Wellwood's 10th on this sweet pass in overtime to give the Winnipeg Jets a big 2-1 victory on the road at the Tampa Bay Lightning:
This J.S. Giguere save was pretty OK. … After a back-and-forth game, the Detroit Red Wings finally defeated the Vancouver Canucks in the shootout, 4-3, thanks to goals by Pavel Datsyuk and Jiri Hudler. Roberto Luongo made 40 saves; Mason Raymond tied the game for Vancouver in the third. … Joe Pavelski, Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau had a goal and an assist while Brent Burns had three helpers in the San Jose Sharks' 5-2 beating of the Dallas Stars. Steve Ott had a goal and an assist for the Stars. … This PK Subban hit on Adam Larsson knocked the Devils rookie out of their game with a knee injury and was just devastating (and legal!):
Did you know? Gordie Howe received a standing ovation when he was introduced during the second period of the Wings/Canucks game.
Fight of the Night: How can you not give it to Todd Bertuzzi, on his birthday, fighting Keith Ballard? Terrible fight, but happy Bert Day:
Dishonorable mention: Erik Cole was a minus-3 with four penalty minutes. … Nicklas Grossman and Trevor Daley where both minus-3 for the Stars. … Corey Crawford was chased by the Oilers after five goals on 28 shots. … Dave Bolland and Andrew Shaw were minus-3 … Does Patrik Elias deserve a Shanaban for his hit on Mike Blunden? … Finally, Dan Boyle did it again: Yet another own goal for the San Jose Sharks defenseman:
