With Brent Burns on their blueline, everyone expected the Sharks to be the runaway favorites in the Western Conference. So far, though, they’ve struggled on their chemistry exam, but Joe Pavelski is one that seems to have benefitted from the change.
1) Joe Pavelski, San Jose Sharks – The Sharks might not be putting up the offensive numbers that we’re accustomed to seeing from them, but Pavelski has been one of their more consistent players. With two goals and two assists on Monday, Pavelski is 22 points off of his career high with 28 games to play. Patrick Marleau scored twice for the Sharks, and Brent Burns once, while Thomas Greiss stopped 39 of 42 shots to lead San Jose to a 5-3 win over the Washington Capitals.
2) Eric Staal, Carolina Hurricanes – It’s safe to say that Staal has found his game again. With two goals and an assist on Monday night, Staal now has six points in his last three games and 44 on the year. Jiri Tlusty, Jaroslav Spacek and Jamie McBain were the other goal scorers for the ‘Canes and Cam Ward stopped 30 of 33 shots for the 5-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens.
3) Roberto Luongo, Vancouver Canucks – Luongo continued his strong play Monday night, stopping 23 of 24 shots for a 2-1 shootout win over the Phoenix Coyotes. David Booth was the goal scorer in regulation for the Canucks and Booth, Cody Hodgson, Alexander Edler and Ryan Kesler all scored in the shootout.
Play of the Night
Eric Staal puts a nice move on Tomas Kaberle before putting the puck past Carey Price for a beautiful shorthanded goal.
Hit of the Night
Alexei Emelin takes Anthony Stewart for a ride with this pretty hip check.
Bad Luck of the Night
Talk about bad luck. Dan Boyle just wanted an offensive zone face off. Instead, the puck gets tipped by Joe Pavelski and Braden Holtby just couldn’t get a handle on it.
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