Quick Thoughts

Sid Crosby now is no on a personal best 20 game winning streak. In those 20 games he has recorded an incredible 20 goals and 19 assists for 39 points and he is not appearing to slow down. Even though his Penguins have lost 2 straight games, Sid has still recorded 3 assists and has worked hard to help his team every game. Is Crosby the best player today? People should be hard pressed to say no.

The Western Conference standings have been one of the most interesting stories this season. Going into this weekends games every team between 2nd place to 12th place are within 4 points of each other. Detroit is comfortably on top with 43 points, followed by Dallas with 39, but then there are 4 teams with 38, San Jose with 37 and then 5 teams with 35. Chicago is the unfortunate team that falls all the way to 12th due to the tiebreaker rules. However 1 win by the Blackhawks could vault them all the way back up to 6th, showing how tough the Western Conference is.

It was a special night for Tom Fenton the former goaltender of American International College. Fenton, who hadn't played hockey since the 2008-09 season received a call from the Phoenix Coyotes 3 hours before their game against the New York Rangers practically demanding him to get to Madison Square Garden to back up Jason LaBarbera. Ilya Bryzgalov was diagnosed with the flu after their team dinner and was unfit to play so Fenton signed a 1 game contract with the Coyotes and got to watch an NHL game dressed in goalie equipment from the bench. He got paid $82 and received an experience he will never forget.

Wedensday night was a night full of hat tricks with 4 players recording their first career hat tricks. Tomas Fleishman of Colorado, Ryan Kessler of Vancouver and Drew Stafford all recorded hat tricks but the most historic of all was the one scored by legendary defensman Nick Lidstrom of Detroit. Lidstrom was playing his 1,442th game and is in his 19th season in his legendary career. He has 4 Stanly Cups, an Olympic Gold Medal, 6 Norris Trophies as the leagues top defenseman along with many other achievements. But he had never recorded a hat trick until this Wednesday. He became the 3rd oldest player to score a hat trick, the oldest defensman to do so and the oldest person to record their first hat trick. Just another day at the office for this legendary player.

Injury Round Up
Chris Pronger will miss 4-6 weeks after breaking his foot and having surgery on it.
Paul Stastny left Wedensday's game with an injury and will be out of action this weekend.
Ryan Callahan of the New York Rangers broke his hand after blocking a shot from Alex Ovechkin and will miss 4-6 weeks.
Christian Erhoff has an undisclosed lower body injury.

Random Trade Proposal of the Day
Detroit sends
Chris Osgood and a third round pick

to Columbus for
Steve Mason and a 2nd round pick
Mason han't been playing to good as of late.