Inside the NHL boxscore – 10.26.07
by oiler on Friday, October 26th, 2007 at 10:51am
- There’s no stopping Brad Richards this season. Working hard to bounce back after a decent but not point productive 2006-07 effort, Richards is proving again he deserves that pricey contract he got a couple years ago. The Lightning played back to back nights over the last two days. In the first game, at Washington Brad skated just over 27 minutes and had two assists. Then last night, at home against the Flyers, he skated another 23 minutes and logged two goals and an assist in the Lightning’s 5-2 win. For the season, Richards currently leads all forwards in ice time per game, averaging almost 24 and a half minutes a night. He’s got 11 points in 8 games so far, and has not scored in only two of those games.
- Chris Osgood was off to a good start this season with the Red Wings, and now that Dominik Hasek will be out indefinitely ( which for Hasek usually means until a week before the playoffs start ), Osgood will get a chance to be the #1 in Detroit again. Are Wings fans ready to forgive? Detroit called up youngster Jimmy Howard in case not.
- The Wild are struggling right now. After going 7-0-1 in their first 8 games, Minnesota has now lost two in a row. Even though last night’s was a shootout loss, they gave up 5 goals in both those games. In their first 8 games of the year, they had given up a total of 10 goals combined.
- Not much insight here, but the Thrashers are so bad right now, they were shut out by Nashville last night.
- It’s hard for me to believe the Bruins are giving Andrew Ference so much ice time. He led the Bruins last night in their 3-1 win over Chicago with 26.5 minutes. The last time I remember seeing Ference, he was the weak link in Calgary’s defense season after season. I haven’t seen him play yet this season, but I’ll have to now that he’s getting top minutes.
- Rick Nash continues his strong start. He registered 9 more shots on goal in the Jackets’ 3-0 win last night. Nash has scored a goal in each of his last 5 games and has thrown 23 shots on goal in those 5. In addition to those 23 shots, he’s also had 6 more blocked in those games and missed the net 2 more times.
- While the Leafs have again started the season in turmoil, they’re off to a bit of a strange fantasy hockey start. They are scoring a lot of goals, but mostly in 5 on 5 situations. And they are giving up a lot of goals, but mostly in shorthanded situations. That has resulted in a team stats lineup that looks like they are the Detroit Red Wings. Nik Antropov is a +11. Hal Gill a +7?!