Your morning shot of hockey to go with your coffee.

LAST NIGHT’S SCORES:

Quick Hits Today. Here are my picks in case you missed them. Asterisk indicates who I picked:

Rangers edge Blackhawks* 3-2 – Huge props need to go to King Henrik. The Blackhawks put 37 shots on Lundqvist and he stopped 35 of them. That’s extremely tough to pull off in Chicago. Not to mention the Blackhawks rallied from two down to tie this game in the second period, they had momentum. But the Rangers shut that down in the third.

Avalanche* down Senators in overtime: 4-3 – This is a classic credit or blame scenario. The Avs started off great, going up 2-0. But the Sens scored three goals and outplayed Colorado for most of the game. Paul Stastny scored late in the third period to tie up and then Stastny assisted the game winner 36 seconds into overtime. I’ll let you decide, blame Ottawa or credit Colorado.

1-1 last night. 45-39 on the season now.

The Flyers returned home last night for the first time since December 23rd to face the Montreal Canadiens. I’ve been saying for awhile that the key for the Flyers was to keep men in front of the net, and that’s what they did. Sean Couturier buried a rebound off of an Andrej Meszaros slapshot from the blue line. To take a 1-0 lead. Later in the first Zac Rinaldo took a rebound from his own shot and snuck it by Peter Budaj. Rinny would later partake in a fight and only need the assist for the Gordie Howe Hat Trick. He wouldn’t get the assist but the Flyers would score again. Once again, it was a rebound off of an Andrej Meszaros shot, this time it was Michael Raffl finishing it. The Habs would score on the shorthand to end the shutout opportunity but the Flyers would go on to win 3-1. That was the tenth straight home win for the Flyers. The most amazing thing is that the Flyers were 2-7 at home before this streak began. Their last home loss was on November 7th agains the Devils, a loss that put the Flyers at 4-10-1 on the season. The Flyers are now 23-17-4, this streak has sparked the Flyers back into the playoff conversation. It also propelled the Flyers on their recent 6-1 road trip.

Highlight of the Night:

GAMES  TONIGHT:

Nine games in the ‘Chel tonight. Three games to keep an eye out for are: Capitals @ Lightning at 7:30, Wild @ Coyotes at 9, and Bruins @ Kings at 10:30. Capitals over Lightning: The Caps are on a losing streak and aren’t so great on the road so why would I pick them? Well, the last time the Caps and Lightning met up, a certain Russian scored FOUR GOALS. That Russian: Alex Ovechkin. Ovi has only fives goals in the eleven games since then. He lost his chance at the 50 in 50, but he can put the team on his back. Coyotes over Wild: Shane Doan has re-sparked the Coyotes since returning and the Wild aren’t very good at home. Minnesota will want to change that so they’ll make this one interesting but Phoenix wants to climb up the Pacific rankings. Kings over Bruins: Similar story as when the Bruins played in Anaheim the other night. The Bruins have a great defense but the Kings’ offense is pretty powerful. And furthermore: Jonathan Quick is more talented goaltender than Jonas Hiller (let the debate begin below) and the Bruins will have a tough time trying to solve Quick.