Wednesday in Review

Tonight's three stars:
1. Tomas Vokoun - stopped all 38 shots for SO
2. John-Michael Liles - 2 G, +3 in 4-1 win
3. Evgeni Malkin - First NHL goal, +1 in 18:15 TOI

Game Thoughts

* With the whole hockey world watching, Brodeur reminded everyone who the biggest star on the ice was
* Malkin's first goal wasn't a thing of beauty but it still counts. Should it have though? It looked like the ref was trying to blow the whistle and typically I would think Brodeur gets the benefit of the doubt on that call
* The Pittsburgh broadcasters could not stop talking about Malkin but when he finally had his first NHL goal it took them a while to realize that it was him who got the goal
* Washington had 5 goals tonight and Ovechkin only had an assist. For the season they have 17 goals and Ovechkin has just 2 (11.7%). Last year he scored 22.6% of the team's goals and was in on 46% of them.
* Raycroft had his second straight below average start after four very good ones to begin the season
* Vokoun has given up just 2 in his last three games after giving up 13 in his first two games
* Martin Havlat + Bryan Smolinski = 10 goals
* Ottawa Senators entire roster = 10 goals
* Khabibulin has won 4 of 5 starts. Last year he didn't get win #4 until Novemeber 6th
* Malkin will get all the headlines but it's worth mentioning that Patrick O'Sullivan also had goal #1 tonight. Here's a kid who had a very tough upbringing and has a ton of talent - a lot of people are rooting for him to succeed, including The Great One himself. For a great story on O'Sullivan's past from CBC's Fifth Estate, click HERE.
* Another two guys had their first NHL goals tonight - Tomas Kopecky for Detroit and Chris O'Brien for Anaheim (the game winner)
* The Ducks got goals from Kunitz, Getzlaf, Perry and O'Brien - average age = 23
* Kings and Wild going down to the wire - Cloutier just made a big save on Demitra on a shorthanded breakaway. I'm sure Kings fans were waiting for that one to slide in through the five-hole..
* Edit: There's the OT winner - suprisingly it was not Demitra - he just set up Gaborik. The Wild stay undefeated and the Kings lose their fourth in a row.