Quick to the rescue; Turco not so much

Kings show up, mostly, to knock off Wings
On the one hand, Los Angeles gave up as many shots in one period (26) as it got for the entire game. All told, Detroit out-shot the Kings, 51-26.

Naturally, LA won.

Jonathan Quick made an astounding 51 saves, including 26 in the second period, and counterpart Jimmy Howard kept giving up goals as the Kings routed Detroit, 5-0. Drew Doughty tallied three assists and Anze Kopitar netted two quick goals early in the third period to turn a close game into a blowout.

Wayne Simmonds, Oscar Moller and Jack Johnson also scored. Dustin Brown had two assists.

Turco yanked in Chicago loss
Remember when we all said, "Marty Turco in Chicago? Yeah, good luck with that"? Well, we were right!

Turco has all but lost his spot as Chicago's netminder and he didn't provide Joel Quenneville any reason to reconsider after allowing four goals in under 21 minutes, when he was removed in what became a 7-5 Colorado win over Chicago.

Turco sucking was one story. Tomas Fleischmann being awesome is the other.

After the teams exchanged goals up to 4-3 Colorado - yeah, Turco was pulled in a one-goal game - Chicago scored twice to take 5-4 lead. As the minutes ticked down, Fleischmann provided his finest moments as a member of the Avalanche. First, he took a pass from David Jones and skated into the Chicago end, where his wrist shot slipped through Corey Crawford to tie the score.

Just one minute later, Fleischmann made a great play to steal the puck from a Chicago defender behind the Blackhawks net and centered to Matt Duchene, who one-timed a shot past Crawford to put Colorado ahead 6-5 with 1:24 remaining in the game. Ryan O'Reilly's empty net goal sealed an improbable Avs win.

Fleischmann had a goal and two assists, as did Paul Stastny. Duchene scored twice with one assist. Craig Anderson made 29 saves.

Troy Brouwer had three points, including two goals, for Chicago.

Who is this guy?
Nashville's ability to churn out awesome goalies continues.

Anders Lindback recorded his second straight shutout to lead Nashville over the Islanders, 5-0. New York has lost 20 of its last 21 games. Meanwhile, Lindback has a 7-1-2 record with a 2.18 GAA and .931 save percentage. Yowza.

Patric Hornqvist scored twice, Sergei Kostitsyn had a goal and assist and Jered Smithson and Nick Spaling also scored for the Predators.

Working late
--Atlanta blew a 3-0 lead but recovered enough to get a 4-3 overtime win over Ottawa on Bryan Little's second goal of the game. Dustin Byfuglien had a goal and assist and Ondrej Pavelec made 27 saves for the Thrashers.
--Calgary did much the same, allowing a 2-0 lead slip away when Rick Nash scored a late power play goal, but Jarome Iginla scored for the second time in the game in overtime and the Flames knocked off Columbus, 3-2. Miikka Kiprusoff made 22 saves. Antoine Vermette had a shorthanded goal and assist for the Blue Jackets.
--Andrew Raycroft's 31 saves helped Dallas earn a 3-2 shootout win over San Jose. Mike Ribeiro had a goal and assist for the Stars.

Thoughts
--Not sure how to feel about that LA-Detroit game from the Red Wings' standpoint. Obviously they had the run of play, enjoyed a tremendous shot advantage; it's not like they didn't show up to play. But they didn't score and their goalie gave up five. That's gotta sting.

--I wonder if Capitals fans are feeling a bit ill right now. The current six-game losing streak would be only part of that. The Fleischmann-Scott Hannan trade was supposed to bolster Washington's questionable defense. Well, the Caps haven't won a game with Hannan in the lineup and now they can't score, so they could probably use Fleischmann.

--I was moderately terrified of that trade. I thought it was a great one for Washington to make. It might still turn out that way, but not at the moment.

--A thrasher is a bird, but the Jaws music might as well be playing. Atlanta is two points behind Washington in the division, with a game in hand and I do believe Atlanta has the better head-to-head record.

--Who would've guessed Colorado, without Chris Stewart for over two weeks now, would have the best offense in the NHL? Thank goodness they didn't spend on Ilya Kovalchuk, eh Avs fans?

--Didn't see the beginning of Columbus-Calgary, but Steve Mason was pulled after giving up two goals on four shots. Don't know if either of the goals should've been stopped or if coach Scott Arniel just wanted to change the momentum, but I'd be more than a little nervous about my goalie if I was a Blue Jackets fan.