Hype for December 08, 2009

Roger Maris chased a younger record than the one Martin Brodeur matched last night. This is history.

The Devils' shutout puck collector added his first lifetime Sabre biscuit to his cache of 102½, and he made it matter. Brodeur tied Terry Sawchuk's record of 103 career shutouts, which has stood since 1970, in the Devils' 3-0 triumph over the Sabres here.

Last season, he passed Patrick Roy for the NHL record for career victories, now 575, and he played his 1000th game on Opening Night this year. He passed Roy for the most career minutes played last month, and needs five more games to break Roy's record of 1,029 games.

But this one has stood since before he was born in 1972.

"It is different," Brodeur said. "It's a long time. It's kind of surreal, because the guys like Sawchuk are not there to see it.

"Thirty-nine years says a lot. That's a really long time. That's what catches my eye, more than anything."

Mark Messier will take on the general manager's duties for Canada's entry at next spring's world hockey championship.

According to sources, Messier will be handed the reins to the team this week. Hockey Canada has scheduled a news conference for Wednesday to announce the team's general manager.

Messier, who played 25 seasons in the National Hockey League with the Edmonton Oilers, Vancouver Canucks and New York Rangers, was hired this past summer as the Rangers' special assistant to general manager Glen Sather.

Daigle, taken first overall by the Senators in the 1993 draft, will be joined by six other players who have an Ottawa-area connection.

Joining the 34-year-old Daigle, who has spent the past three-plus seasons in the Swiss League after leaving the NHL in 2006, are Ottawa natives Jamie Rivers, Randy Robitaille and Brendan Bell, all three of whom played for the Senators, former 67’s winger Mark Bell and Eganville’s Shawn Heins and Dale McTavish.

Other notable former NHL players on the roster include goaltender David LeNeveu, defenceman Yannick Tremblay and forwards Brett McLean and Josh Holden.

The roster consists mostly of ex-NHLers who now play in Europe, along with minor-leaguers loaned to the team by NHL clubs.

While applauding his patchwork defence — which was without elder statesmen Robyn Regehr and Cory Sarich — Calgary Flames coach Brent Sutter was irked by the less-than-polished performance of his power-players.

With eight minutes’ worth of man-advantage — half of that in the third period — the Flames produced squat.

The opponents?

Well, they scored once on the power play. The winning goal yet.

That was the difference as the Los Angeles Kings squeaked out a 2-1 triumph in National Hockey League action Monday at the Staples Center.

The 29th-place Maple Leafs still have to pay for past sins, but they're slowly getting some redemption in the standings.

After last night's 5-2 win, the promised land of playoffs is five points away, albeit with six teams still to get past.

"If I were to turn the newspaper upside down where the standings are, I might see we're at the top," joked coach Ron Wilson. "But I'm not counting 'now we're five, now we're four, now we're three', I'm not going through that. That's for the last month of the schedule."

The Leafs are seeing some balance in their fortunes.

The Montreal Canadiens didn't need the legends of yesteryear to spur them on Monday night, overcoming a slow start en route to a 3-1 home victory over the Philadelphia Flyers.

Mike Cammalleri's late second-period goal held up as the winner for Montreal (14-14-2), with Andrei Kostitsyn and Marc-Andre Bergeron also scoring.

Canadiens defenceman Paul Mara, one of just three constants on an injury-riddled blue-line squad this year, left the game after the first period after getting hit by Riley Cote of the Flyers. Cote and Georges Laraque would drop the gloves during the game.

It was a game that featured just 28 shots between the teams, with Carey Price finishing with 14 saves.

On the road, the St. Louis Blues look like a Stanley Cup contender.

At home, as they showed again Monday in a 4-0 loss to Colorado, they look like a team with an identity crisis.

Playing in relief of injured starting goalie Craig Anderson, Avalanche backup Peter Budaj collected his first shutout of the season by turning away 35 shots.

Despite being 6-2-1 in their last nine games and coming off a pair of inspirational shootout victories on the road over San Jose and Los Angeles, the Blues (12-11-5) returned home and failed to show much life.

Coach Andy Murray's squad fell to 5-9-2 at home this season against a highly respectable 7-2-3 on enemy ice.

Back in Texas, where the Oilers got into a shootout with the Dallas Stars, Shawn Horcoff had lobbied for his chance, which he then turned into the winning goal.

This time, he didn't have to ask.

Edmonton head coach Pat Quinn sent the veteran out for the third round and Horcoff responded by putting the winner past Florida Panthers netminder Tomas Vokoun.

It was the difference in a 3-2 victory that gave the Oilers their third consecutive road win. Not since 2006 had they won three straight away from Rexall Place.

There were no controversial hits and no controversial celebrations for Alex Ovechkin, but there were two goals and a triumphant return.

Semyon Varlamov made 26 saves for his second career shutout for the Washington Capitals, and Ovechkin had a pair of tallies in a 3-0 victory Monday night at St. Pete Times Forum against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Washington's sixth straight victory keeps it atop the Eastern Conference standings and pushed it in front of idle San Jose for the most points in the NHL. It was also the 12th straight victory against Tampa Bay for the Caps, which is a club record against an opponent.

The Flyers equaled a franchise record last night for allowing the fewest shots - 13 - in a road game.

Amazingly, it didn't translate into a victory.

Montreal took advantage of two second-period defensive lapses, added a late power-play goal, and defeated the Flyers, 3-1, before a roaring sellout crowd at the Bell Centre.

Peter Laviolette, in his second game as the team's coach, had his 45th birthday ruined as the punchless Flyers lost for the eighth time in their last nine contests.

It was the fifth straight defeat for the Legion of Gloom. In that span, they have scored a total of five goals.

The Flyers (13-13-1) managed just two third-period shots against a Montreal team that took a losing record into the game.