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:

Panthers edge Sabres 2-1 (SO) – Buffalo just got unlucky in this game. Their Goalie Jhonas Enroth stopped 34 of 35 shots and the Sabres won the turnover battle. When comes down to it, these two teams both have weak offenses. It’s just unfortunate that this game had to go to a shootout.

Devils blank Stars 1-0 – Well this is why the Devils got Cory Schneider. Marty Brodeur may be the master of the shootout but Schneider’s 26 saves for 26 shots shows that he is good replacement once Marty rides off into the sunset.

Hurricanes blast Maple Leafs 5-1 – Everybody gets a multipoint game! Jordan Staal had four points, Elias Lindholm had three, and Jeff Skinner and Zach Boychuk each had two. All of them had just one goal as well. The Hurricanes are still hanging around the Metropolitan’s automatic births and if they want to qualify for the postseason, they’ll need to continue to spread the scoring.

Capitals* drop Lightning 4-3 – The Lightning took three penalties, big mistake against the Caps; they converted two of three. Mike Green has started showing his offensive presence again which is great for Washington. I was wrong about Ovi scored but Ovechkin did tally an assist.

Ducks down Predators 4-3 – Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry. They took over this game in the second period. The two of them now have a combined 47 goals on the season, the Ducks have only played 46 games. Teemu Selanne scored on the power play, tying him for 5th all time in NHL history. The Ducks stay hot with the win now extending their NHL-best points lead to four over the Blues. Speaking of…

Blues dominate Flames 5-0 – A great win all around. Jaroslav Halak saved all 33 shots Calgary put on him, the Flames gave away the 19 times, and the Blues scored five times. Great win for St. Louis, they now taken over the lead of the Central Division. Crazy stat of this game: both teams went on the power play six times.

Wild down Coyotes* 4-1 – Justin Fontaine scored a hat trick for his ninth, tenth, and eleventh goals of the year. It wasn’t even the difference maker as Niklas Backstrom stopped 39 of 40 shots from Phoenix. I said Minnesota would make this interesting, but I was wrong about the result.

Kings* drop Bruins 4-2 – LA outshot Boston 34-20. If you want to come to LA and beat the Kings, you’ll need to outshot them; Jonathan Quick is too good of a goalie to let in five goals on 20 shots. The one aspect LA will need to improve on is the 1 for 6 on the power play.

Sharks chomp Red Wings 4-1 – I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you gotta play a hell of a game to win in the Shark Tank. Otherwise, you’re going to get CHOMPED! Joe Pavelski scored twice to eclipse 20 goals on the year, America!

2-1 last night. 47-40 on the season now.

Highlight of the Night:

What. A. Stop.

GAMES  TONIGHT:

Six games around the league tonight. Three games to keep an eye for are: Maple Leafs @ Capitals at 7, Penguins @ Oilers at 10, and Blues @ Canucks at 10. Capitals over Maple Leafs: The Caps are out of their funk and are back at home. Leafs are not so good on the road. Look out for Ovi (I’m going to keep saying it until he snipes). Penguins over Oilers: Easy pick so why is it here you may ask? Well the Pens’ Captain recognizes what I said back on December 30th: the Oilers are going to be really good very soon. It’s not really that big of a deal, but it’s nice to see him talking about the other teams around the league. I still don’t like him though. Blues over Canucks: St. Louis’ offense stays hot against Torts and the Sedins.