The Toronto Maple Leafs had high hopes for Matthew Lombardi when they traded for him before this season started. Before Jan. 17, Lombardi had just two goals and five assists in 26 games. Four games later, Lombardi has tallied four more goals and things are looking up.
1) Matthew Lombardi, Toronto Maple Leafs – The last couple years have been a bumpy road for Lombardi, but things are looking up for the 29 year old center once again. With four goals in his last four games, two of which came during Toronto’s 3-0 win over the New York Islanders on Monday night, Lombardi is starting to look like he’s finding his comfort zone. Phil Kessel scored the other goal for Toronto and Jonas Gustavsson stopped all 25 shots he faced for his third shutout of the year.
2) Devan Dubnyk, Edmonton Oilers – Dubnyk stopped 44 of 45 shots on Monday, plus three more in the shootout, to lead the Oilers past the San Jose Sharks by a count of 2-1 in the skills competition. Jordan Eberle scored in regulation for the Oilers and Taylor Hall scored the shootout-winning goal in the fourth round.
3) Jimmy Howard, Detroit Red Wings – Howard made 21 of 22 saves to lead the Red Wings past the St. Louis Blues 3-1 (with goals from Pavel Datsyuk, Johan Franzen and Niklas Kronwall), but this is the real reason he’s one of our three stars:
Play of the Night
The best part of this Rick Nash goal is the fact that, after hitting the boards, he looked back at the goal with a “Holy crap, I scored?” look on his face.
Save of the Night
It’s never a good thing when your goalie reaches behind himself to try to make a save but it’s always a good thing when your goalie finds the puck while doing so, like Jaroslav Halak did here.
.png)
.jpg)
.jpg)
