Anze Kopitar had three assists and the Los Angeles Kings used a three-goal third period to break open a 2-2 tie and down the Anaheim Ducks 5-2. Slava Voynov, Jake Muzzin and Jeff Carter all scored in third to send the Ducks to just their third regulation loss this season (13-3-1).
Anaheim goaltender Victor Fasth lost his first start in regulation this season and the Ducks blew a pair of one-goal leads in the second period. Anaheim’s goals came from Saku Koivu and Andrew Cogliano.
SPIN: Watch out West, here come the Kings. It looks like the champs are putting it together and could be taking advantage of this big run of home games. I’m warming up more and more to getting them in my lineup and might be considering some trade offers to take advantage of this. The Ducks lost on some bad bounces like a shot hitting the crossbar and dropping down before bouncing into the goal. I’m not worried about the Ducks at all would continue to deploy them at will.
Toronto doubled up Philadelphia 4-2 as four different Leafs scored including Phil Kessel. Scott Hartnell came back on the ice after missing time with a broken foot and bagged his first goal of the season. Jakub Voracek got his eighth tally of the season in the loss.
SPIN: The Flyers blew another chance to get to .500 (as was predicted in the Sunday column). Hartnell’s return helps the Flyers and he’s worth getting in your lineups but as a team, the Flyers are toast in my mind. Ilya Bryzgalov is looking like a middle-to-low end option in net. Voracek continues to impress and his value keeps rising with each game. If he can keep this up for a few more games, he could be a sell-high target. Toronto isn’t doing anything particularly pretty to get its wins but they’re keeping up with the rest of the Northeast Division at 12-8-0 this season. I think the Leafs are going to be one of those teams that is going to be in a dogfight for the rest of the season. This is going to make their value as a team go up so start looking now to get a hold of some Leafs. Did the Joffrey Lupul owner in your league forget about him?
The other two teams in the Northeast that were in action last night were Ottawa and Montreal and the Senators downed the Habs 2-1 in a shootout. Ben Bishop made 44 saves in regulation and overtime to steal the two points for Ottawa.
SPIN: Andrei Markov got the goal for Montreal while David Dziurzynski had the lone Ottawa goal. Bishop looks solid while Craig Anderson is out with a sprained ankle. Carey Price takes a tough-luck loss with a 23 save effort. Both teams are rock-solid and should continue to be rolled with as usual.
Marian Hossa’s overtime winner lifted the Hawks to a 3-2 victory over Edmonton and makes it 19 in a row to open the season with out regulation loss. Patrick Kane got his 10th goal of the season in the win while Nail Yakupov picked up his sixth of the season.
SPIN: Chicago continues to be a monster. The Oilers look like they’ve made the switch to Nikolai Khabibulin in goal so that whooshing sound you hear is the fantasy value of Devan Dubnyk dropping. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins continues to be puzzling to own with one goal and six assists in 17 games. Much more was expected of him and he hasn’t delivered this season.
Nashville showed some offense and defeated Dallas 5-4 in overtime behind Roman Josi’s four-point night. Michael Ryder paced Dallas with three assists. All of the goal scorers in this game have five or fewer goals a third of the way through the season.
SPIN: Anyone else notice Nashville is second in its division, albeit a mile behind Chicago? The Preds showed a lot of fight coming back from a 4-2 second-period deficit. I’m more surprised at how they were able to get a five-spot on the board after getting shutout in back-to-back games.
Multiple Goal Scorers
Josi-NSH was the only one
Stat of the Night
The Flyers are 0-5 this season in games that could bring them to the .500 mark.
Stat of the Night II
Dziurzynski is worth 37 points in Scrabble which is the same as of the number of goals the Senators have allowed this season.
Three Stars of the Night
1. Josi OT-GWG for Nashville, Four-point night
2. Bishop 44 saves in shootout win for the Sens
3. Kopitar Three assists for Kings.
Tuesday’s Games (all times ET)
Jets at Rangers 7pm
Hurricanes at Capitals 7pm
Stars at Blue Jackets 7pm
Bruins at Islanders 730pm
Sabres at Lightning 730pm
Penguins at Panthers 730pm
Calgary at Minnesota 8pm
Coyotes at Canucks 1opm
Avalanche at Sharks 1030pm
