TAMPA, Fla. (AP) Steven Stamkos scored his first goal since having right knee surgery last November and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-4 on Thursday night.
Stamkos made it 3-1 with a power-play goal at 3:49 of the second period from the low left circle. The Lightning star previously scored Nov. 15th at Detroit, the same game that he had a season-ending lateral meniscus tear in the knee.
Stamkos entered with five assists in three games this season.
Slater Koekkoek got his first two NHL goals, and Victor Hedman and Nikita Kucherov also scored for the Lightning. Alex Killorn had four assists, while Andrei Vasilevskiy made 36 saves.
Pittsburgh got goals from Jake Guentzel, Conor Sheary, Bryan Rust and Matt Hunwick. Antti Niemi, who allowed four goals on 13 shots over 9:16 against Chicago on Oct. 5 in his Penguins debut, stopped 29 shots.
After Stamkos tied Vincent Lecavalier for the Lightning team record with 112 power-play goals, Sheary and Kucherov traded goals later in the second. Rust scored on the power play to cut the deficit to 4-3 with 5:36 to go in the period.
Koekkoek got his first goal, coming in his 43rd game, 6:07 into the first. His second extended the lead to 5-3 late in the second.
Hunwick got Pittsburgh within 5-4 at 10:01 of the third.
Hedman put Tampa Bay up 2-1 on a power-play goal from just inside the blue line with one-tenth of a second left in the first period.
Guentzel tied it at 1 four seconds after a Pittsburgh power play ended midway through the first. The Penguins had three man-advantage goals in a 3-2 win Wednesday night at Washington.
Kris Letang assisted on Guentzel's goal and joined Paul Coffey (332) as the only Pittsburgh defenseman to reach 300 assists.
NOTES: Pittsburgh will play its second and final game at Tampa Bay on Oct. 21. ... Lightning C Cedric Paquette didn't play due to an undisclosed injury.
UP NEXT
Penguins: Return home to play Florida on Saturday night.
With a 37-save effort Thursday versus the St. Louis Blues, Florida Panthers goaltender Roberto Luongo climbed into a tie with Curtis Joseph for fourth place on the all-time wins list at 454.
In his 18th season, Luongo, 38, accomplished the feat in his 967th game. The only goalies ahead of him on the all-time list are Hall of Famers Ed Belfour (484), Patrick Roy (551), while Martin Brodeur (691) will be a shoo-in for the Hall once he's eligible.
Luongo can gain sole possession of fourth place Saturday night versus Pittsburgh.
However, Waddell disputes the numbers, insisting it all comes down to money in the end.
"We're not last in the league in attendance," Waddell said, according to Chip Alexander of the News Observer. "You guys can publish (attendance) reports, but I go by dollars. So we're not last.
"Nobody is happy where we are, no doubt. We also have to continue to keep moving all the elements forward. If we can do that, I think attendance is going to pick up with that."
Waddell has focused his efforts on season tickets and after distributing a survey to season-ticket holders, decided to limit the number of discounted tickets to increase the value of season seats. The move has struck a blow to attendance figures.
If there is a bright side to the Hurricanes' attendance conundrum it's that the season opener against the Minnesota Wild last week did sell out, so fans aren't completely ignoring the club.
The Calgary Flames were one of the most active clubs this offseason and after jumping out to a 3-1-0 record in the first week of the new season, their biggest risk - acquiring goaltender Mike Smith - looks to be paying off.
After a disappointing exit from the playoffs last season - a four-game sweep at the hands of the Anaheim Ducks - the Flames understood that once again they would need to address their biggest crutch, goaltending.
Elliott and Johnson ultimately failed to give the Flames the confidence they'd been searching for between the pipes since the departure of Miikka Kiprusoff. Despite each going through periods of consistent play, both would always regress back to their normal selves.
In the end, Elliott put up a 26-18-3 record with a 2.55 GAA (23rd among goalies) and a .910 save percentage (tied for 32nd). Meanwhile, Johnson went 18-15-1 with a 2.59 (24th) GAA and a .910 save percentage.
Elliott manned the net in the playoffs where he was even worse, posting a 3.89 GAA and a .880 save percentage.
So this offseason Brad Treliving and Co. made the decision to "upgrade" by acquiring Smith from the Arizona Coyotes for Johnson, prospect Brandon Hickey, and a conditional draft pick.
It seemed like an odd move given that Smith had posted a 2.92 GAA (43rd among goalies) and a save percentage of .914 - only slightly better than both Elliott and Johnson.
However, if you look at last season's stats you'll see Smith faced 1,819 shots, the sixth most in the league, and subsequently turned away the sixth-most shots, averaging 34 saves per 60 minutes. Furthermore, the Coyotes allowed the second-most shots against per game (34.1) and had the worst Corsi-against per 60 minutes with a 61.72 mark.
Fast forward to this season and through four games it would look as if the Flames' front office knew exactly what it was doing all along.
Smith has been the Flames' best player putting up a 2.00 GAA, a .950 save percentage, while adding a shutout. In those games, he has made over 40 saves three times and has already faced 160 shots - a league high.
Following Wednesday night's game against the Kings, head coach Glen Gulutzan noted that the Flames are relying too heavily on the play of Smith.
It means the team has more in the tank up front, but it's also an insinuation that the team has a newfound trust in a position that's long been an area of concern.
To the Flames' brass, this reward was certainly worth the risk
Philadelphia Flyers founder Ed Snider will be immortalized in the form of a nine-foot bronze statue outside of the Wells Fargo Center, the team announced Thursday.
Snider founded the Flyers in 1967 and owned the franchise until his death in 2016. He witnessed Stanley Cup victories in 1974 and 1975.
The statue will be revealed Oct. 19 prior to a game against the Nashville Predators - on the 50th anniversary of the Flyers' first-ever game.
When the team faces off against the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday, it will mark the second straight game in which the Wild have played shorthanded.
Salary cap constraints have forced Wild coach Bruce Boudreau to carry one less forward on his bench, opting to use a spare defenseman to fill the roster hole. The Wild elected for the same arrangement in their last game, a 5-4 shootout loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.
According to CapFriendly, Minnesota has just over $200,000 in salary cap space, leaving little flexibility for general manager Chuck Fletcher to make a move. Key injuries to forwards Zach Parise and Mikael Granlund also haven't helped the cause.
The Wild also do not have the necessary salary cap space to recall a forward from their AHL affiliate. Even if that could work, the team would need to make a corresponding roster move. This could mean demoting spare defenseman Mike Reilly, who would need to clear waivers in order to report to the AHL - a risk the Wild are not willing to take.
"In a perfect world, would we like 12 (forwards) and six (defensemen)? Yeah," Boudreau said. "I don't think it will happen all season long. Usually things work their way out."
Thursday's contest against the Blackhawks marks Minnesota's third game of the season. The Wild are still in search of their first victory after posting a 0-1-1 showing through two games.
The move comes one day after a report indicated the Canadiens were looking to trade the veteran defenseman.
Streit has appeared in two games this season, posting a minus-2 rating and averaging just over 14 minutes of ice time.
The 39-year-old signed with the Canadiens in the summer after splitting last season between the Philadelphia Flyers and Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins. He carries a $1-million salary-cap charge includes $700,000 in base pay, plus $300,000 in performance bonuses, according to CapFriendly.
Streit was drafted by the Canadiens in 2004. He made his NHL debut the following season and spent the first three years of his career in Montreal.
A fresh season, a new head coach, and perhaps the disappointment of a poor 2016-17 campaign appear to have lit a fire under Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown.
The Kings are 2-0-1 to start to the season and can thank the blistering starts by their current and former captain. Through Los Angeles' first three games, each has tallied three goals and two assists, accounting for six of the team's nine markers thus far.
It's a pleasant sight for new head coach John Stevens, but following the club's 4-3 overtime defeat to the Calgary Flames, Stevens admitted - of Brown in particular - that he isn't too surprised by the early production.
"I think he's excited getting his game back on track, I think he's earned the right to play a lot of key situations," Stevens said, according to Jon Rosen of LAKingsInsider.com "He and Kopi have had a long history of being good together and they've been great together all training camp. But he's a net-front guy that we want on the power play who’s created a lot for us, he's playing a power game, and I think with that comes confidence.
"Obviously he scored a little bit, so that’s going to fuel his confidence, but I think the bottom line is Brownie has been a real good player in the league. He's excited about trying to prove that he can still be a good player in the league, and he's playing like it."
(Photo courtesy: Action Images)
Kopitar tallied just 12 goals and 52 points last year - the lowest career marks in a full 82-game season. Brown, despite an improvement from the three previous campaigns, recorded just 14 goals and 36 points.
Scoring goals didn't come easy for the pair last season. Brown didn't score his third goal until Nov. 15 - 17 games in, while Kopitar needed 23 contests to notch No. 3 on Dec. 13.
Brown's early rebound could be attributed in part to an uptick in confidence from the coaching staff. He's averaging 19:32 of ice time per game - second among the team's forwards only to Kopitar and up from last year's average of 16 minutes. Over the previous three years, Brown averaged just 16:08 of ice time per night, 18th most on the Kings during that span.
Kopitar, on the other hand, is benefiting from shooting the puck on a more consistent basis. With 10 shots through three games, he's on pace to throw 273 shots at the opposition, which would shatter his career high of 259 in 2010.
He's converting 30 percent of his chances, but even if his shooting percentage returns to his career average of 12.2 percent, he would still finish with 32 goals - his highest mark since that 2010 season when he tallied 34.
The Kings have missed the playoffs in two of the past three years, but if Kopitar and Brown can continue to produce, a return to the postseason should be in the cards.
Tilman Fertitta - the new owner of the NBA's Houston Rockets following a record $2.2-billion sale - is interested in adding another sports franchise to his portfolio.
"I would put an NHL team here tomorrow," Fertitta told Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. "This one has got to work. But I'd love to have the other dates in the building.
"Do I want to see Toyota Center filled up 300 nights a year? Definitely. We'll do whatever we can do, but whatever we do has to make sense ... Will we be aggressive? Yes. That's my nature."
The NHL recently completed an expansion phase, adding its 31st franchise in Las Vegas, while deferring a bid from Quebec City. No other expansion applications, including Houston, were submitted to the league.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman spoke on expansion as recently as Wednesday on Fox Sports, stating, "Could it happen some point? Yes, but it's nothing we are focused on right now," per Sportnset's John Shannon.
Adding a team in Houston - the fourth-most populous city in the United States - would be a first for the NHL, however hockey itself is not unfamiliar with the area. The city was previously home to the WHA's Houston Aeros from 1972-78 and a minor-pro team of the same name from 1994-2013.
Houston would also provide some intriguing benefits to the NHL. Not only would the city offer a major television market, but Houston is also a natural Texas rival to the Dallas Stars, and the team could also bring some balance to the Central Division - currently home to seven teams, while the other three divisions carry eight clubs.
The NHL was previously linked to Houston in 2015, when Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, who chairs the NHL board of governors, told Nicholas Goss of NESN, "I'd love to see (a team) in Houston, but we can't get into that building."
With Rockets' ownership now changing hands, it could open the door for the NHL's entry into Houston and the Toyota Center. The 2003-built arena seats 17,800 for hockey and is home to only one major-league tenant.
"We have to make sure hockey fans in Houston, Texas and Houstonians will come out and support an NHL team," Fertitta added. "When the Aeros left they were drawing 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 a game. If we have an NHL team, we have to put 16,000 in that stadium every night, 17,000, 18,000.
"If I go out and get an NHL team, I'm going to ask the citizens of Houston to make sure they commit to help me do it. None of this is successful without the fans out there."
Over the course of the 2017-18 NHL season, theScore will run a series of interviews with former players in which they recall some of the greatest moments of their careers. This edition focuses on Hall of Famer Denis Savard, who compiled more than 1,300 points over 1,196 career games with three teams.
On what he remembers from his first NHL game:
It was against the Sabres at home; we won 4-3, I remember that. Game 2 was on the road in Montreal, where I grew up, so that's the one I remember most.
On his first career goal:
We picked up the puck inside of our blue line, and I came into the neutral zone; I remember that Larry Robinson was kind of chasing me from behind. I just came over the blue line and made a move inside, went to my right, came to the top of the circle and took a shot and scored short side on (Canadiens netminder) Dennis Herron.
On who hit him the hardest:
There were quite a few of them. Mark Messier is probably the one ... he played a physical game, as you know. And there was a guy in Edmonton who also played in Montreal, (Andrei) Kovalenko.
We were playing Edmonton one night, and I'm not a hitter, not somebody who tries to hit guys out there, but at that time I'm trying to kick him off the puck. So I went and tried to hit him, and it was like trying to hit a brick wall. I didn't know how strong he was, or how painful it was going to be. That's the one I remember the most.
The other time, I got hit by my own teammate. Paul Coffey was playing in Detroit, and he liked to come down the right side of the ice offensively. As he's coming up from his own end, I challenged him to pass the puck. I didn't have a really good angle, so he deked me out. And as he disappeared, Eric Daze was chasing him from behind and knocked me right out.
He's about 6-foot-5, 240 pounds. So the lights went out. (laughs) Eric still lives in Chicago, and we catch up sometimes, and talk about hockey or life or whatever. And that (hit) still comes up.
On trash talking during his era:
To be honest, I didn't trash talk, because I never had a good comeback. (laughs) So I tried to avoid them as much as I could. Guys would call you all kinds of names at times, but nothing that you hadn't heard before, especially in contact sports. I think that's going to go on forever. But I don't recall anything that was particularly bad, no.
(Video courtesy: YouTube)
On his favorite referee story:
I remember me and Gary Leeman, when we had our fight during that brawl in Toronto ... It was 5-on-5, and Gary hit me in the corner (at) the buzzer, and it was kind of a dirty hit. I felt I needed to respond to that, so I gave him some stickwork, and all of a sudden, my teammates came to try and save me. Two seconds later, everybody has their gloves off.
And there's Gary and I, going around in circles. And I'm thinking, "If this guy gets ahold of me, he could probably kick my ass pretty good." He was bigger than me, and I know Gary wasn't a fighter, but I think I got him pretty good with my stick and he was pretty upset.
As we kind of twirled around for about 20 seconds, (referee) Andy Van Hellemond came over and he goes, "Aren't you guys going to fight?" And I looked at Andy and I said, "Well, I really don't want to." (laughs) That was one of those stories that I remember well. Andy was funny, too.
On who he considered most underrated from his era:
Steve Larmer. No question. The reason I say that is, he did everything well, without the flash in his game. He was a great goal-scorer, he was a great guy on the wall, he was great defensively, he was a great teammate. He had a Hall of Fame career as far as I'm concerned. Larms was a smart player.
At the end of the day, if you saw the scoresheet or the puck control he had during the course of the game, he was really, really good. When I got traded to Montreal, one primary reason why my numbers went down was because I wasn't playing with him anymore.
The puck would be on his side of the ice, whether it was coming around the wall or through a direct pass, and he'd find me in the neutral zone. I would come really deep and try to create some speed coming down below him, and if he didn't find me then, he would kind of swing up ice again and find me skating through the neutral zone.
I know for sure, having been a coach, you pay attention to details, the wall work, faceoffs ... they've become so important. In our days it wasn't mentioned; people didn't really talk about it. But it's mentioned now. And Steve Larmer was probably one of the best in those departments.
On Larmer playing 884 consecutive games from 1982-93:
He played hurt a lot. His pain tolerance was incredible. Knee injuries, shoulder injuries ... I know for a fact that 99 percent of us wouldn't have played. That was his character. Larms loved to play the game, loved to be on the ice.
As an athlete, you always felt like if you missed two or three days, even during the Christmas break, you come back, and that first game is like, "Where have I been? It's like I've never worked out in my life before." So when you miss part of the season and have to come back, it's so difficult. That's probably what he had in his mind. I didn't want to miss any time, either.
On what he remembers from his last NHL game:
I don't really remember ... I think it was against Colorado in the playoffs.
I don't think I had planned on retiring that year. But after looking back, I put all the positives and negatives together and decided it was time to retire. I probably decided that in July; it was time to really get at it to get ready for the season, and in my mind I just didn't want to do that.
I felt like, if I don't do it, I have to retire. If I'm not willing to pay the price to get ready for the season, then it's not fair to my teammates or the organization not to come ready.
On his favorite hockey story from the 1992-93 Montreal Canadiens, with whom he won his only Stanley Cup ring:
I drove with Patrick Roy the three years we were together in Montreal. Going into the finals, I played in Game 1, but had hairline fractures in my foot and I didn't play the last four games of the series.
Going into Game 1, I told Patrick, "Wow, I can't believe we're here." And he looked at me and said, "And you're gonna win. We're gonna win the Cup. I know we will. They ain't gonna beat me." That's pretty much what he said. And you know Patrick, and how competitive he was and how confident he was. So I said, "All right, I'll buy that." (laughs)
On his first visit to Chicago Stadium as a member of the Canadiens:
It was a tough building to play in as a visitor. When I came with Montreal, it was difficult to play in that environment, even though I knew that people still liked me there ... I hoped they did. (laughs) It was still intimidating.
So I got a penalty in my first game back there, and I was so accustomed to go to the penalty box to the left, the Blackhawks' penalty box, so I went there. And I'm telling the guy, "Open the door!" and I'm kicking the door with my skate. I said, "Open the door!" And the (penalty box attendant) says, "No, no, no! You gotta go to the next penalty box!"
That was pretty embarrassing. Fortunately, I'm not sure too many people saw it, except for the guys in the penalty box.
Rapid Fire
The greatest player he ever played with: Steve Larmer
The greatest player he ever played against: Wayne Gretzky
