
What a fantastic night of action. Between the wild games in Philadelphia and Montreal, and Sean Avery's most recent shenanigans, there's plenty to talk about, so let's get right to it.
In Philadelphia, Steve Downie made his nearly-triumphant return to the city of brotherly love as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning, and he put on a display of the best he has to offer, as well as the worst he has to offer. The Flyers ended up pulling out a chaotic 4-3 overtime win.
Early in the opening period, Downie gave Flyers fans a nice reminder as to why they shouldn't be missing his antics, as he picked up a pair of penalties at the 2-minute mark, giving the Flyers an early power play. Jeff Carter took advantage of the opportunity by firing a shot behind Tampa Bay goalie Mike Smith for the game's first goal.
From that point on, Smith and Philadelphia goalie Martin Biron were walls in net, holding down a 1-1 tie until the third period. And that's where things started to pick up.
Mike Richards scored a shorthanded goal just 56-seconds into the period, giving the Flyers a 2-1 lead. Just four minutes later, Carter picked up his second goal of the game -- and 18th of the season, tying him with Buffalo's Thomas Vanek for the league-lead -- as Philadelphia appeared to build itself a nice cushion.
Unfortunately for the Flyers, Tampa Bay was able to get a lucky bounce to pull within one, which set the stage for Downie to burn his former team at the 15-minute mark, tying the game at three.
With less than 30-seconds to play in regulation, Philadelphia's Scott Hartnell lost his mind for a moment and threw his glove at Ryan Malone as he was on a breakaway. By rule, this is a penalty shot. I'm not really sure what Hartnell was thinking, but it could have been costly. Fortunately for him, it wasn't, as Malone was stopped by Biron, sending the game to overtime.
Malone ended up taking a goaltender interference penalty early in the extra period, which led to Richards winning the game with his second goal of the night.
Tampa Bay has won only twice in the Rick Tocchet era. So, things aren't exactly going as planned down in Florida.
So Much For Sean Avery vs. Dion Phanuef and Jarome IginlaYesterday, our good friend Eric McErlain passed along the bizarre story of Dallas Stars agitator, Sean Avery, calling out Calgary defenseman Dion Phaneuf and his current squeeze -- and Avery's former squeeze -- Elisha Cuthbert. It certainly set the stage for some fireworks in Alberta, especially since Avery, prior to the season, called out Flames captain Jarome Iginla for being "boring."
So, here I am with my popcorn, ready to watch the fireworks, and Gary Bettman has to go and suspend Avery for the foreseeable future. What a letdown. Not that there would have been any fireworks, anyway. Avery would have probably said a few things about Phaneuf, who would have in turn tried to drop the gloves, only to have Avery skate away to the bench and, well, do nothing. But, still, there's always the chance of a good, hard, clean hit. Or something. But, no. Nothing.
Anyway, with Avery sitting in Bettman's mandated detention, the Stars picked up their second consecutive win in a 3-1 decision over the Flames.
For the first time in, well, all season, Marty Turco looked like Marty Turco, turning aside 36 shots in the win. Toby Petersen, Fabian Brunnstrom and Loui Eriksson scored for Dallas, while David Moss scored the Flames only goal of the night.
Brunnstrom's goal was his first in nine games, and only his fourth since his opening night hat trick.
Just a quick sidenote: I'm not in any way condoning Avery's latest "somebody please pay attention to me comments," mainly because, well, they were a desperate cry for attention and nothing more. But don't you think it's a little ridiculous that there's a good chance he gets suspended for more games than somebody who, say, does this (click here)?
Sure it is.
Montreal Nearly Blows It, Comes Back to WinMontreal went into the third period of Tuesday night's game with a rather comfortable 3-0 lead, and perhaps that was the problem. Too comfortable. Atlanta managed to erase that deficit in the first seven minutes of the third, only to watch the Canadiens remember they had a game to finish, as Andrei Kostitsyn and Robert Lang picked up goals, helping lead Montreal to a 5-4 win.
Odds and Ends... Craig Anderson picked up another win in net for the Panthers, turning aside 23 shots in a 5-3 win over a still-depleted Capitals team.
... Phoenix used three third period goals, including two from Enver Lisin, as it overcame a 2-1 deficit to cruise to a 4-2 win over Los Angeles.
... The San Jose Sharks are really, really good.
Yesterday's Newsmakers in the NHL: Steve Downie Returns to Philadelphia originally appeared on NHL FanHouse on Wed, 03 Dec 2008 01:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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