Sunday, January 31, 2010

NHL Recap 1-30-10: Oilers pull off the 0-fer

Short version. People in the city need to learn how to efficiently exit parking lots in high-traffic areas. Grr. Jeff Dunham show kicked ass though.

One slump ends, one continues
I'd have to research this further (I won't, but I should) to find the last NHL team to not win any games in a month. Regardless, Edmonton is part of that presumably exclusive club.

Jarome Iginla had a Gordie Howe hat trick, totaling four points overall on a pair of goals, and Calgary snapped its nine-game losing streak by dismantling Edmonton, 6-1, and handing the Oilers their 13th straight loss and 20th in the last 21. Edmonton is one loss shy of tying the franchise record for a winless streak.

Iginla fought Sheldon Souray, who reportedly broke his hand in the fight and consequently lowering his trade value. Dustin Boyd scored twice and had an assist, and Rene Bourque and Dion Phaneuf also had goals for the Flames. Jay Bouwmeester had two assists and Miikka Kiprusoff made 27 saves.

Sam Gagner scored for the Oilers.

In other action
--Ray Emery made 31 saves and Philadelphia edged the Islanders, 2-1.
--Cam Ward made 39 saves and Carolina knocked off Chicago, 4-2.
--Alex Burrows had two goals and two assists, Danrik Sedin had five points (2+1 for Daniel, 1+1 for Henrik) and Vancouver scored four times in the third period to beat Toronto, 5-3.
--Ilya Bryzgalov stopped 24 shots and Phoenix hung on to defeat the Rangers, 3-2.
--Martin Erat's goal and assist helped Nashville end a five-game losing streak, 4-3 over Atlanta.
--Jason Demers and Patrick Marleau had two goals each and San Jose downed Minnesota, 5-2.

Working late
--Threes wild: Mike Fisher scored at 3:33 of overtime during 3-on-3 play for Ottawa's third goal of the game - and Fisher's third OT goal of the season - and the Senators beat Montreal, 3-2 for a franchise record ninth straight win.
--Anze Kopitar had a goal and an assist and Los Angeles defeated Boston, 3-2 in a six-round shootout.
--Kris Russell's sixth goal of the season in overtime gave Columbus a 3-2 win over St. Louis.

Pat Quinn-ism of the night
"We made enough mistakes to be a team that didn't give itself a chance to win."

Stat of the night
6,896 - Announced attendance in Carolina, 36.8 percent capacity. Holy crap.

Notable games
Sunday, Jan. 31 (6 games)
-Detroit (26-19-9) at Pittsburgh (33-21-1), 12:30 p.m. ET, NBC.

2 comments:

WRT - Wild Road Tripper said...

Kevin: They shouldn't even have played that game in Raleigh yesterday, as the area (not known for having great snowplowing equipment) received about 8 inches of snow, No travel was advised anywhere in North Carolina on Saturday.

Same thing in Nashville, where thousands of seats were empty for the Thrashers-Predators game. The Preds were lucky to make it back from Detroit after their loss Friday night at the Joe.

But, with the schedule compressed for the Olympics, there probably were no other suitable dates for either game to be re-scheduled to.

KiPA - Kevin in PA said...

Yeah, I didn't mention it or investigate it, but I was wondering if there was bad weather in the area. I don't often look at attendance figures but that one jumped out at me and being abnormally low for Carolina. Plus I figured teams usually go with the "tickets sold" for attendance so I thought the number would be higher.