Thursday in Review

Tonight's Three Stars:
1. Olli Jokinen
2. Ryan Smyth
3. Mikko Koivu

Game Thoughts:
* Minnesota wins a wild one over Nashville, 7-6. Each team had 45 shots and the shooters were 5 of 8 in the shootout
* Chris Mason went the whole way for the Preds as Vokoun had the night off. Vokoun was actually interviewed on the bench during the game which was pretty interesting (until the Wild scored and the announcers didn't acknowledge it because they were chatting away)
* The Leafs were outplayed by the Bruins and could only score once on Tim Thomas, losing 2-1
* Bergeron and Boyes were all over the ice and combined for 12 shots. Aubin played extremely well or the score could have been much worse
* Boston has now won three in a row and may be turning the corner after a tough start. Sometimes it takes some time to incorporate new players into the lineup when you make significant offseason changes
* Montreal struggled in their second of back-to-back games
* Jokinen played a fantastic game, scoring three times at even-strength - all setup by Nate Horton
* Montreal seemed to run out of steam - they were outshot 32-15 over the final two periods
* Belfour has been very solid - he's only given up more than three goals in one of his last nine starts
* Nieuwendyk returned after missing two games with a bad back. If he is healthy he will be a hot commodity near the deadline - there aren't many guys who have won three Cups on three teams that will be available
* Smyth played and played very well, leading the way with two goals - he now has 14 goals and just 5 assists
* Doug Weight played game #1000 against his former team
* Bergeron scored twice and that may be the first step towards getting out of MacTavish's doghouse
* The Coyotes won a hard-fought game over the Hawks in a shootout. Nagy narrowly escaped a knee injury and then came back to score the winning goal in the shootout
* I actually agree with Tie Domi that Yanic Perreault is extremely underrated. Even if you ignore his offensive ability, he's one of the best faceoff men in the game and that is a huge asset in the playoffs
* The Kings were in control of the game until just under 7 minutes to go - then the Flyers scored three straight to steal the two points. The Kings frantically tried to tie it up, but to no avail
* Mike Richards still hasn't scored but he had three assists tonight, two on goals by Umberger
* Frolov is really starting to become the go-to guy when the Kings need a goal - he has 7 goals and 12 points in his last 8 games.
* If there was a Mario Lemieux comeback player of the night award it would go to Derian Hatcher who played 24+ minutes and was a +3!!