Posted by John Pereira, special to ESPN.com
It was a good night for the Pittsburgh Penguins as they took a 5-0 victory the New Jersey Devils. Petr Sykora scored a goal and an assist, Sidney Crosby scored twice and Dany Sabourin stopped all 20 shots he faced for the shutout. Just as we thought Martin Brodeur was beginning to turn things around, he was pulled after 43 minutes and five goals allowed. I'll consider this more of a minor blip than an actual slide in performance.
Cory Stillman lead the way for the Carolina Hurricanes on the night as they dropped the Washington Capitals 5-0, Eric Staal also added two and assisted on another. Cam Ward was considerably busier than Sabourin was in his shutout. Ward stopped 35 on the night to drop his goals-against average to a respectable 2.30 on the year. The Washington Capitals offense continues to sputter, having scored only three goals in their last four games. Things will get better for the Caps who were without Alexander Semin (ankle), Chris Clark (ear) and Tom Poti (groin).
At this point, I'm officially ready to declare that Monday was the night of the shutout. Henrik Lundqvist has surpassed even my expectations this year and I took him as the fourth goaltender off the board in my draft. He stopped 30 shots and dropped his goals-against average below 1.49. The Rangers haven't been able to score much this season, but with a goaltender like this, they don't need to. Jaromir Jagr picked up a couple of points and Brendan Shanahan scored another to account for the Rangers offense.
Another game and another shutout, this time in Buffalo. Cristobal Huet was busy in the first period, then cruised from there to stop all 29 shots he faced on the night. Tomas Plekanec scored his fourth goal of the season on a two-on-one midway through the second period, he's worth a look in most formats. Andrei Markov, one of my favorite players despite my distain for the Canadiens, had another good night; he assisted on both Montreal goals.
In Florida, the big guns came out to play but it was one of the lesser-known men on the ice that scored the winner to push the Panthers to a 4-3 win over the Lightning in the battle of the Sunshine State. Olli Jokinen was productive picking up three points, pushing his total to 18 points through 15 games. At the other end of the ice, Vincent Lecavalier had a two-assist night. David Booth, who only now has five career goals, scored the winner with just over a minute left in the third period.
They were missing their top two forwards, but the Minnesota Wild were still able to take down the Edmonton Oilers 5-2. Pavol Demitra and Marian Gaborik both missed the game due to strained groins, but the Wild were able to find their scoring elsewhere. They got goals from Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Mark Parrish, Kurtis Foster and Stephane Veilleux. I'd recommend Bouchard for anyone in need of a forward in a shallow league and Kurtis Foster if in need of a defenseman. The depleted Oilers defense let down Dwayne Roloson again. He was pulled after just eight shots.
Once Joe Sakic retires, the Colorado Avalanche need not worry. Wojtek Wolski and Paul Stastny have become quite the pair. They combined for five points and Milan Hejduk chipped in another three for the Avalanche as they beat Calgary 4-1. I'd be more than willing to invest in either player at this point in the season through trade. It was an intriguing night in net for the Avs as well. After a poor start on Saturday by Peter Budaj, Jose Theodore was in net on Monday and stopped 23 of 24 shots. This could be the beginning of a time share that should be monitored. Despite Budaj getting the lion's share of starts Theodore has posted much better numbers.
Finally, we end the trip through the box scores in Anaheim. Marty Turco stopped all 19 shots in the 5-0 win. At the other end of the ice Jean-Sebastien Giguere was pulled in favour of Ilya Bryzgalov part way through the game. Mike Ribeiro, Jere Lehtinen and Jussi Jokinen all had multipoint nights. Ribeiro continues his hot play pushing his point total to 16. I'm more excited about his prospects for the rest of the season compared to the other two. Remember, Ribeiro came into the league as a highly-touted prospect for the Montreal Canadiens and had a couple of nice seasons in Montreal, pre-lockout.
John Pereira is a fantasy hockey analyst for ESPN.com.
