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NHL Week in Review

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NHL Week in Review
by Chris Kober
Hockeytalk.biz

January 12, 2010

DP Returns

The Islanders fell to the Dallas Stars Friday 4-3, but more important than the score was the man in goal, as Rick DiPietro played his first NHL game in over a year. 

During his extended absence DiPietro had been rehabilitating an injured knee that had been surgically repaired in November of 2008. The injury was the latest in a long string for the Wintrhop, Mass. native, including two concussions, two hip injuries and another knee ailment, since he signed a 15 year contract in the summer of 2006.

DiPietro did a short conditioning stint in Bridgeport of the American league prior to his return to Long Island. In four games with the Sound Tigers he recorded one win and two losses with a save percentage of .883 and a 3.31 goals against average, and in his first game back he allowed four goals on 28 shots.

"I'm not going to lie: I was nervous, but I got a chance to handle the puck a couple of times, made a few saves and ease my way into it," DiPietro told NHL.com.

His presence back in the lineup raises some questions for GM Garth Snow, who signed both Dwayne Roloson and Martin Biron to tend goal over the summer. A persistent rumor has it that Snow and Biron had a working agreement that he would be traded if DiPietro was able to return this year.

Biron has the smallest contract in terms of length and salary (one year, $1.4 million) of the three and therefore, presumably the easiest goalie to move. The quiet NHL trade market this season may put a damper on Snow's ability to move Biron until closer to the trade deadline however.

Capital Captain

One of the few moves made in the aforementioned stagnant trade market precipitated the other big news item of the week, as Alexander Ovechkin was named the captain of the Washington Capitals Tuesday. 

The change was made necessary by last week's trade of former captain Chris Clark and Milan Jurcina to Columbus for Jason Chimera.

General Manager George McPhee and Head Coach Bruce Boudreau made the decision after taking the opinions of their players into consideration at Ovechkin's insistence.

Teammate, Tom Poti told the Canadian Press that, "[Ovechkin has] been the face of the franchise for a long time and it's well-deserved and well-earned."

Ovechkin is the fourteenth captain in Capitals history.

More Injuries

Two of the teams that have been most heavily stricken by the injury bug this season got good news and bad news this week.

Thursday marked the return of Milan Lucic to the Boston Bruins' lineup, but unfortunately for the B's not only did they lose the game 5-2 to Chicago, they also lost their first line center, play maker extraordinaire, Marc Savard.

Savard partially tore a ligament in his right knee and will miss three to four weeks. The bright side of the injury for Savard and the Bruins is that he will not require surgery.

Detroit also took two steps forward and one step back on the injury front this week as Henrik Zetterberg and Dan Cleary both played Thursday after missing nearly three and four weeks respectively with shoulder injuries, however Tomas Holmstrom was sidelined with a broken foot.

Holmstrom's foot was broken during Wednesday's practice in Anaheim and, like Savard, he will miss three to four weeks.

Not only does the injury take Detroit's number one goal scorer for the season, but it adds to the list of Swedish Olympians who should return from injury just in time for Vancouver.

Loose Pucks

Add Friday's Tampa Bay Lightning game in New Jersey to the list of obscure events in the NHL this year along with the Minnesota Wild equipment truck fire and Brendan Witt's run in with an SUV.

The Lightning lead 3-0 midway through the second period, when the lights at the Prudential Center dimmed and two hours later the game was postponed. The game resumed Sunday evening and Tampa went on to a 4-2 victory.

Monday Brian Burke announced that New Jersey captain Jamie Langenbrunner will also wear the C for Team USA in Vancouver. Langenbrunner's teammate Zach Parise, LA's Dustin Brown, Ryan Suter of the Nashville Predators and Detroit veteran defenseman Brian Rafalski will rotate alternate captain duties at the tournament.

Finally, the NHL's three stars of the week were announced Monday and it was an all Western Conference affair.

Columbus' Mathieu Garon took the third spot with a 3-0-0 record on the week, a 1.46 GAA and .940 save percentage; Jonas Hiller of Anaheim went 4-0-0 on the week, winning him the week's second star honors while posting a goals against average of 1.50 and a save percentage of .954, and the first star, Alex Burrows had consecutive hat tricks for the Canucks and lead all scorers for the week with seven points.

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