The sample size is small, but Mike Condon was again solid in his second showing with the Ottawa Senators.
With Condon turning aside 31 shots, including a handful of quality chances in extra time, the Senators topped the Buffalo Sabres 2-1 on Wednesday.
It's his second win in as many games with the Senators since coming over in a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins earlier in November.
Condon shut out the Vancouver Canucks in his Ottawa debut Thursday. Through two games, he's now faced 59 shots, stopping all but one.
It's been a whirlwind season for the goaltender, who started the year with the Montreal Canadiens only to be claimed on waivers by the Penguins. He was later dealt to the Senators for a fifth-round draft pick.
Next up for Condon and the Senators: hosting the Los Angeles Kings on Friday night.
With Wednesday's 3-2 overtime win over the Anaheim Ducks, the Blue Jackets are 6-2-1 in their last nine games, and have earned at least a point in five straight.
Alexander Wennberg and Zach Werenski - two players quietly enjoying tremendous seasons - combined for the brilliant overtime winner, with Wennberg notching his 11th assist on the season.
Werenski, on the other hand, is putting together a possible Calder-worthy rookie season. The 19-year-old has 11 points in 11 games, and is proving his worth after being selected eighth overall by the club in 2015.
The Ottawa Senators winger mulched the Buffalo Sabres' top blue-line pairing Tuesday night, en route to his fifth goal of the season on a gorgeous end-to-end effort.
The Vancouver Canucks sent youngster Jake Virtanen to the minors Wednesday, a move designed to give the 20-year-old winger some ice time after he was a scratch for the club's past two games.
The move is only temporary, however, reports Ben Kuzma of The Province, as Virtanen will play two games in Utica before returning.
"This is about development," Canucks general manager Jim Benning told Kuzma. "It’s about giving Jake ice time and getting his confidence up like we did with (Troy) Stecher. Sometimes, our marketplace looks down on us when we send a player down because we’re not happy with him. That’s not the case. He’ll get games and hopefully take off from there."
Virtanen has struggled this season, notching only one point in 10 contests, but in fairness, Vancouver as a whole has struggled just as much. The Canucks snapped a nine-game losing streak Tuesday, and rank 27th in the league in goals for with 27.
Vancouver drafted Virtanen sixth overall in 2014, in hopes his size and scoring touch will translate into the pro game.
While the Canucks remain patient, head coach Willie Desjardins needs maximum effort from Virtanen, night in and night out, to award him a permanent roster spot.
"It’s not that I don’t think Jake is a good player and a spot you look for him is top nine or top six, but he’s not consistent enough and until he gives you that, he can’t play," Desjardins said. "We have to get to that spot because he does stuff that’s unique.
"For us, it’s how can we get him to go where we need him to go to? Because we need him to get there."
Nail Yakupov isn't griping about his seat on the sidelines.
The St. Louis Blues forward will be a spectator for the third straight game Wednesday when his team takes on the Chicago Blackhawks.
After recording four points in his first six games with his new club, Yakupov was held pointless in his next five, while his ice time has dipped to 10:27.
"Obviously I couldn't be happy about it," Yakupov told Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "So, it's a coach's decision and nothing I can do about it. It's always hard watching a game from upstairs. But the team played good, guys are working hard ... but I couldn't be comfortable with that."
The Blues acquired Yakupov from the Edmonton Oilers in an October trade. As part of a condition of the deal, the Blues will owe the Oilers their second-round pick in the 2018 draft should Yakupov scored 15 goals this season. As it stands, he's found the back of the net twice.
Since making his NHL debut in 2012, Yakupov has scored 15 or more goals on just one occasion - his rookie campaign, in which he recorded 17 tallies in 48 games.
"I'm not going to complain, I'm not going to (gripe) about my teammates or my coach," Yakupov added. "I'm not that kind of person who is going to fight and be (griping) about minutes."
Blues coach Ken Hitchcock doesn't see fault in Yakupov's game, noting that, as it stands, the Russian forward is simply caught in a game of numbers.
"He does not have to change anything," Hitchcock said. "Just get ready, and when it's his turn, take advantage of it. That's just competition within the group."
It's always news when a Toronto Maple Leafs team is put through its paces after an embarrassing outing. But for circumstances out of his control, the punishing workout Mike Babcock conducted Wednesday afternoon took on added surveillance.
When the power went out at the arena during the sweat, the Maple Leafs coach continued sprinting his skaters up and down the ice to atone for the 7-0 beatdown they were handed from the Los Angeles Kings the previous night.
As they've been designed, it was the worst possible scenario.
Yes, Norris and Selke winners Drew Doughty and Anze Kopitar are superior talents relative to their positional reference points, but the allocation of resources within the Los Angeles Kings meant those players had support, while workhorse goaltender Jonathan Quick did not.
So when Quick tore some tissue on a push less than 20 minutes into the season - leaving Los Angeles with a player that negotiated a contract worth 1.2 percent of the team's total pie at its most important position - it caused paralysis.
The Kings were summarily outscored 11-5 with Jeff Zatkoff in goal across three games - each a loss - as the franchise flirted with its worst start in history.
It became clear that this team, one not ready to retool, needed a goalie that could not only stop pucks, but instill confidence into a dispirited group. The expectation was this player would arrive via trade. Instead, he hopped over the bench in relief, after Zatkoff allowed six goals on 17 shots in a third straight loss to begin the season.
Three weeks later, in his 10th consecutive start Tuesday night, Peter Budaj made 19 saves versus the Maple Leafs, recording his second shutout in as many games, and earning his seventh victory of the year.
Budaj hasn't been spectacular for the Corsi Kings, who've allowed only 22 shots per game with him in goal, and remain the NHL's premier possession team. But with a .920 save percentage, he's essentially served the same function as Quick, earning the confidence of his teammates.
"You're not going to replace a Jonathan Quick," Jake Muzzin told theScore before the game, "but (his injury's) given an opportunity for another goaltender to step in - and Budaj's been awesome for us.
"And we need him to continue it, because Quickie's not coming back any time soon. We need him to continue playing well."
Tyler Toffoli added: "It's not something that we want, or thought we would be doing, but Budaj's been great. And we've shut it down a bit, just playing our game."
The Kings' reliance on Quick - and that their primary focus is placing a seal-tight lock on the defensive zone without their No. 1 stopper - suggests the trust between Budaj and Los Angeles' two-time championship core could remain an ongoing process.
But there's a faction within the Kings' dressing room and front office that was sold long before Quick went down.
Given perhaps a final chance to prove himself after failing to win even a single game in 19 appearances with the Montreal Canadiens' minor-league affiliate in 2014-15, Budaj accepted a pro tryout last season with the Kings, and did enough in camp to carve out a role with their feeder team, the Ontario Reign.
There, he injected life into a flat-lining North American career, fashioning an astounding 1.75 goals-against average and .932 save percentage in 60 starts, winning 42 times. He was named the AHL's top goalie, for one of the best campaigns on record in a league filled with highly skilled forwards and incomplete defensemen.
While proving his worth to the Kings' brass, Budaj convinced the prospects that would end up making the NHL jump with him this season that he was capable of dominance.
"He was our backbone for the entire season - definitely our MVP," defenseman Kevin Gravel said of his time with Budaj and the Reign. "He just needed a chance. Now he's running with it."
Resolute shot suppression has meant the Kings haven't needed a supreme talent in goal to win. But the formula does require a goalie that routinely makes the saves it should, because Los Angeles' preferred style lends itself to tight, low-scoring finishes, and little room for error.
For this reason, Budaj has found a setting that's favorable to his continued reclamation.
"He's proven himself before and he's hungry to do it again," Muzzin said. "He's in a good position to do that."
Lindholm missed the first month of the campaign due to a contract holdout, and the process of obtaining a U.S. work permit.
His stalemate ended when he signed a six-year, $31.5-million extension Oct. 27.
Lindholm, who scored 10 goals and collected 28 points in 80 games last season, is Anaheim's premier puck-mover and an elite possession defender in the NHL.
"It's good for me now (but) it was a tough day," he added, according to Lu, saying he waited until Wednesday to talk about the game because "it was a lot to process."
Adding insult to injury was the fact Columbus' home rink features a cannon that fires every time the home team scores - a noise that stuck with Montoya well after the final buzzer.
#Habs Montoya on the frequency of Columbus' goal cannon going off: "I think I stopped hearing it."
Montoya has yet to get back between the pipes since, but will surely want to make good on his next opportunity, ideally with far more support from his teammates.
As for the Blackhawks, their look is inspired by the era of legends Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull, standing as "an homage to the legends of the past while preserving the classic aesthetic of the franchise."
