Article:In the Crease: A weekly look at the NHL 2/11-2/16

Richard Zednik Released from Hospital The Florida Panthers forward who suffered a devastating neck injury on February 10th was released from the hospital this week. Richard Zednik was released on Friday and went to his home in Florida. He said that he barley felt the skate slice his neck but saw the blood and hurried to the bench. Zednik who also said he remembered the entire ordeal underwent two hours of surgery to repair the carotid artery in his neck. There is currently no timetable for Zednik’s return to the Panthers. The star is at home recovering and spending time with his wife and children. The Panthers are sitting in 13th place in the Eastern Conference and in 4th in the Southeast division, just four points behind leader Carolina.

Shooting Stars The Dallas Stars are streaking! The Stars are on a 2 game win streak following a 1-0 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday. The Stars have now won 9 of their last 10 games. The streak began on January 29th and they did not lose again until earlier in the week when the Coyotes beat them 5-2 on Valentines Day. Dallas finds themselves sitting comfortably in 2nd place in the Western conference with 79 points, only 8 points behind the Detroit Red Wings. Marty Turco got a milestone out of this week as well. He put his 200th career win in the books when the team beat the Anaheim Ducks 4-2 on Friday. Turco stopped 20 in the milestone win and then turned 28 aside in a shut out victory against the Red Wings two days later. He has the most wins in franchise history.

Struggles in Hockey Town The mighty Detroit Red Wings have dropped six straight games. However it has not hurt them that bad as they still hold first place with 87 points and according to some calculation made at the All-Star break (as soon as I find the link again I will post it) they only need two win 3 games for the rest of the season to make the playoffs. During the streak the Wings have lost to the last place Kings, the second to last place (in the East) Toronto Maple Leafs in overtime, and also have dropped games to the Ducks, Predators, Blue Jackets, and Stars. The Wings will face off against rival Colorado Avalanche on Monday to try and break the streak.

Broad Street Bully’s not so tuff The Philadelphia Flyers who have had a ridiculous amount of suspensions this season have hit a bit of a rough spot after the All-Star break. They have dropped seven straight after winning four of five. This streak has seen losses to the Capitals, Rangers, Penguins, Islanders, Lightning, and two to the Canadians. The losing streak has seen them drop from first in the Atlantic Division all the way down to fourth, just four points in front of the New York Islanders. They are now two points back of the Rangers and six back of the Devils and the Penguins. They have also dropped in the conference standings. Going from second to now seventh, just one point ahead of the Boston Bruins and Buffalo Sabres. This week the Flyers will try to end the losing against the Ottawa Senators, San Jose Sharks, and Florida Panthers.

Sabres High and Low The Buffalo Sabres had nice three game winning streak at the beginning of the week. Out scoring the three victim’s 11-4. Then in the next two games they were out scored 9-2. And are now on a two game losing streak. This has been a pattern for the Sabres lately, since they snapped the 10 game losing streak on January 18th they have lost two, then won three, lost one, won two, lost one, won three and now have lost two. Currently they sit tied for third in the Northeast division with the Boston Bruins. And also tied for eighth in the conference with the same Bruins team. Both teams have 64 points, and if the season were to end today the Bruins would win the tiebreaker do to the head to head record. This week the Sabres host Tampa Bay, before visiting Toronto and then hosting the Rangers.

Oilers add to injury list The Edmonton Oilers added defenseman Sheldon Souray to the out for the season list. He is out with a shoulder injury. He is added to the list of Shawn Horcoff, who also has a shoulder injury, and Raffi Torres who has a torn ACL. The Oilers have currently won four of six games and sit in last place in the Northwest division with 59 points, five behind Colorado. They are in 14th place in the Western conference just seven points out of the eight slot. This week they face a tough schedule, with games at Nashville, then in Dallas. They then Host the Avalanche to close out the week and play host to the Red Wings and Kings to start next week.

Henrik Lundqvist signs extension The New York Rangers locked up their star goaltender for six years, as Lundqvist signed a contract extension Tuesday. He has played in 52 games this season, recording 26 wins and 21 losses. He has a 2.32 goals against average and a .909 save percentage. The Rangers have won three of four this week; the one loss was in overtime so they picked up one point. They have moved into third place in the Atlantic division with 67 points, just four points behind Pittsburgh and New Jersey. In the conference the rangers have rocketed up to sixth place just five points behind the same Pittsburgh team and just two and three points ahead of the Flyers and then the Bruins.

Ave’s getting healthy The Colorado Avalanche had a welcomed sight on the ice this week as injured forwards Joe Sakic, Paul Stastny and Ryan Smyth all started to practice this week. Sakic has been out since the end of November and is expected to return soon, he has seven goals and 15 assists in just 24 games this season. Paul Stastny is expected to return shortly and has been out since mid January, he has 17 goals, 32 assits and leads the team in points, playing in 46 games. Ryan Smyth who has been out since the end of December returned for a game on Valentines Day. He has 11 goals and 17 assists on the season. The Avalanche have dropped their last three and have games against the Red Wings, Ducks and Coyotes this week. They sit in ninth place in the conference one point behind Calgary.

Deadline Approaches With the trade Deadline less than two weeks away look for the GM’s to be wheeling and dealing. I will write a quick update if or when I hear of any trades.