Henrik Lundqvist and the NY Rangers continued to make life miserable for the Buffalo Sabres. Lundqvist recorded a 29-save shutout as the Rangers blanked Buffalo 2-0. Chris Kreider and Derick Brassard scored the goals. Ryan Miller made 44 saves in the loss.
Miller continues to shine despite being on a 2-12-1 team. All Buffalo is doing by trotting him out there is trying to boost his trade value and keep backup Jhonas Enroth rested as long as possible. Where Miller is going to be traded is still very much up in the air but wherever he lands, his value increases. The potential Miller trade is one of the biggest stories of the first month of the season.
Boston knocked off Anaheim 3-2 in the shootout. Devante Smith-Pelly led the Ducks with a goal and an assist. It’s his first goal of the season and 10th of his career. Zdeno Chara scored the game-tying goal for Boston with less than three minutes left in regulation.
Here’s what’s puzzling about the Ducks. They’re 10-3-1 this season and yet they have nothing on the power play. They went 0-for-4 in this game and are a meager 4-of-55 this season. If their power play got going they would be scary. The Ducks are without Teemu Selanne for a couple weeks after he took a high stick in the mouth against the Flyers earlier this week.
Phoenix rallied back from a 3-0 deficit for a 5-4 shootout win. Shane Doan and Antoine Vermette scored two minutes apart in the third period to complete the rally. Tomas Greiss got the win and Carter Hutton coughed the lead up.
Greiss isn’t going to get much playing time so he’s not worth a roster spot. Hutton has seized the reins while Pekka Rinne is out battling an infection in his hip and seems like he had an off game in this one. Hutton is worth a roster spot if you need the depth between the pipes. Phoenix leads the league with 40 points from defensemen so guys like Derek Morris would be worth a pickup to bolster the blue line.
Friday’s Games (all times ET)
Washington at Philadelphia 7pm Alex Ovechkin will miss this game with an upper-body injury. Otherwise, start all of your Capitals against this lousy Flyer team.
Columbus at Pittsburgh 7pm This is the start of a home-and-home between the teams.
Tampa Bay at Carolina 7pm Jiri Tlusty and Jordan Staal are off to slow starts with three points each in their first dozen games. Bench them until they produce points.
NY Islanders at Ottawa 730pm Neither team can stop much of anything lately; this looks to be a shootout.
St. Louis at Florida 730pm Jaroslav Halak has owned Florida going 8-1-0 with a 0.75 GAA in his last nine starts against them.
Montreal at Minnesota 8pm Can the Habs post a third straight road shutout? Carey Price gets the call.
Colorado at Dallas 9pm Look for JS Giguere to get the start after Semyon Varlamov’s arrest in a domestic dispute.
Detroit at Calgary 9pm
