Nathan Horton

Horton got caught up in a heated scrum with some Lightning players just seconds after Tampa had sealed the 5-4 victory, but when the referees finally intervened and sent the players on their way, he turned his attention to the Lightning fans.

While making their way to the dressing room, Horton witnessed fellow teammate David Krejci get hit in the head with a noisemaker, before taking matters into his own hands and hosing down a few of the rowdy Lightning fans with a water bottle.  Horton could receive a fine for the incident, which wasn’t caught on television, but was recorded on a fan’s cell phone.

As for the Lightning fans, if they thought this was bad, they will be happy to hear that Rick Rypien will not be in the Vancouver Canucks lineup during the Stanley Cup Finals, should they make it there in the first place.

Here is a look a Horton’s water bottle incident at the conclusion of Game 6.

And here is a closer look at David Krejci getting hit in the hear with a noisemaker.

You can catch the highlights from ten of those fighting majors (Carey Price vs. Tim Thomas, Travis Moen vs. Andrew Ference, Roman Hamrlik vs. Shawn Thornton, Jaroslav Spacek vs. Johnny Boychuk, and Tom Pyatt vs. Gregory Campbell) here.  As for numbers 11 and 12, which involved the Canadiens’ Benoit Pouliot and the Bruins’ David Krejci, you can check that one out below.

NHL Power Rankings Movers And Shakers

The biggest Shakers in our NHL Power Rankings this week were the New Jersey Devils and Edmonton Oilers both dropping 4 spots to end up at #8 and #20.

The second biggest shaker was the Dallas Stars failing 3 spots to land at #23.

The biggest Movers in our NHL Power Rankings this week were the red hot St.Louis Blues moving up 4 spots to end up at #18.

Lets take a look at the rest of the league: NHL POWER RANKINGS for Week 25.

Rank	Team	Record	Change	Comment
1		48-17-10	2	After going through a bit of a funk David Krejci has returned to form posting 7 points and a plus/minus rating of plus-4 in his last 5 games.
2		49-15-11	-	Set a new franchise record for points in a season with 109 after their 3-2 win over the Coyotes Saturday night.
3		49-18-10	2	Bad week for the Wings going 1-3-0 losing to the Flames, Islanders and Predators.
4		41-24-10	1	Have 5 players who have scored 25+ goals this season and Joffrey Lupul is poised to join that club as well as he currently sits at 23 goals for the season.
5		46-23-7	1	Alexander Ovechkin padded his lead for the Rocket Richard Trophy scoring 3 more goals last week to put his total to 53 goals on the year.
6		41-27-8	2	Good week for Marc-Andre Fleury who picked up both wins for the Pens including a 2-0 shutout over the Flames.
7		43-26-6	-	Recorded a big 3-2 win over the Wild Sunday night after being shutout in their previous two games.
8		47-24-4	4	Currently on a 4 game winless streak after losing all 3 of their games last week.
9		42-28-7	2	Extended their home game winning streak to 9 games and are also on a 6 game winning streak.
10		41-25-9	1	Great week for the Sedin Twins as they combined for 17 points in 4 games.
11		40-23-11	1	Reverted back to some “old time hockey” in their 4-0 loss to the Canucks Sunday night when a total of 105 penalty minutes were handed out in the 3rd period.
12		39-28-9	2	Chris Drury had a good week collecting 4 points in 3 games.
13		38-27-10	1	Great week for the trio of Alex Tanguay, Alex Kovalev and Saku Koivu as the three forwards combined for 19 points in 3 games.
14		39-29-8	1	Rick Nash enjoyed a great week posting 7 points in 4 games.
15		38-30-8	2	Picked a perfect time to go on a 3 game winning streak as they’re battling for a playoff spot in the ultra competitive Western Conference.
16		37-30-8	3	Just like the Preds, the Sabres picked a great time to go on a 3 game winning streak as well as they’re in a battle with the Canadiens and Panthers for the 8th and final playoff spot in the East.
17		37-28-11	2	Despite Cory Stillman‘s 6 point effort the Panthers were only able to collect 5 out of a possible 8 points last week.
18		37-30-9	4	Have been as hot as a blue flame the last two weeks and currently hold the 8th and final playoff spot in the West thanks to a 5 game winning streak.
19		38-32-6	1	Are trying their hardest to capture the 8th and final spot in the West going 7-3-0 in their last 10 games.
20		36-31-9	4	Have put a damper on their playoff hopes after going 1-4-0 in their last 5 games.
21		33-32-10	-	Congratulations to Brian Elliott who recorded his first career shutout in the Sens 3-0 win over the Lightning.
22		36-32-8	1	Marian Gaborik has looked great since coming back from injury and has 7 points in his last 5 games.
23		33-33-9	3	Currently on a 6 game winless streak after losing to the Canucks, Kings and Panthers last week.
24		32-38-6	1	Ilya Kovalchuk had yet another solid week this time collecting 6 points in 3 games.
25		31-32-13	1	The duo of Mikhail Grabovski and Alexei Ponikarovsky enjoyed another successful week this time combining for 10 points in 3 games.
26		31-33-11	-	Have gone 3-1-1 in their last 5 games.
27		31-37-7	-	Only 2 games last week in which they recorded a 3-2 win over the Oilers then suffered a loss to the Sharks by the same score.
28		24-35-17	1	Currently find themselves on a 3 game winless streak.
29		31-43-2	1	Currently on a 5 game losing streak after losing to the Canucks and Ducks twice last week.
30		25-41-9	-	The Islanders advertising their AHL affiliate’s playoff games on their website pretty much sums up the Islanders season this year.

Be sure to check back next week with our NHL Power Rankings for Week 26.

This entry will take a look at some of the players, 10 to be exact, who either increased their value or surprised many of us. So, if you’re looking for Alexander Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin you wont find them on this list.

Lets take a look at the 2008-09 NHL First Half Fantasy Studs.

C – Ryan Getzlaf – Anaheim Ducks: It’s no surprise he’s one of the bright young players in the league, but no one expected him to do this well. He currently sits tied for 4th overall in the league for points with 56 (17 goals & 39 assists). He’s also managed to rack up 85 penalty minutes and 26 power play points.

C – Jeff Carter – Philadelphia Flyers: Carter had a promising rookie campaign back in 2005-06 but had troubles improving on it the last two seasons. That all changed this year as he’s currently 2nd overall in the league for goals scored with 30.  He’s also managed 21 assists for 51 points on the season so far.

LW – Zach Parise – New Jersey Devils: For being on a team not known for scoring, Parise is having himself one helluva season. Zach is tied for 5th overall in the league for points with 55 (28 goals & 27 assists). He also has a +/- rating of plus-20, 193 shots on goal and averaging 1.17 points per game.

C – David Krejci – Boston Bruins: Look up the word “surprising” in the dictionary and you’ll see a picture of this man right beside it, although most people probably don’t even know what he looks like. Krejci has played a big part in the Bruins success thus far and if you don’t believe me just look at his stats. He’s in the top 10 in the league for points with 52 (17 goals & 35 assists), has a +/- rating of plus-25 and has put up 15 power play points.

RW – Devin Setoguchi – San Jose Sharks: A team like the Sharks already stacked with players like Thornton, Marleau, Michalek and Boyle no one really expected anything out of sophmore Setoguchi. However, he’s already more than doubled his points from last season in the same amount of games, 44 points in 44 games, and has a +/- rating of plus-16.

D – Dennis Wideman – Boston Bruins: Just like Krejci, Wideman has played a big part in the turn around of the Boston Bruins this season. He’s tied for 6th amoung defencemen in the NHL for points with 31 (9 goals & 22 assists) and has a +/- rating of plus-26.

D – Shea Weber – Nashville Predators: On what has been an up and down season for the Predators they’ve been able to rely on one constant the whole season, Shea Weber. Weber is tied for 5th amoung defencemen in the NHL for points with 32 (14 goals & 18 assists). He’s also managed 11 points on the power play and has a +/- rating of plus-6, which is pretty good for being on a not so good team.

D – Rob Blake – San Jose Sharks: Just when it seemed like Blake was on the decline of his career he goes and proves everyone wrong. Blake currently has 29 points (7 goals & 22 assists) and a +/- rating of plus-13.

G – Steve Mason – Columbus Blue Jackets: Not even the Blue Jackets expected this one. He started out the season in the AHL but due to an injury to Pascal Leclaire he was called up and never looked back. Mason has collected 17 wins, and posted a league leading 2.05 GAA, .926 SAV% and also leads the league with 6 shutouts. Oh, and I forgot to mention he’s done all of that in just 30 games so far on a weak Columbus team who are fighting for 8th in the West because of his great play.

G – Scott Clemmensen – New Jersey Devils: When Martin Brodeur went down due to injury everyone thought the Devils season went down with it. However, a man by the last name of Clemmensen had something to say about that. In 30 games so far he’s collected 19 wins while posting a 2.29 GAA and a .922 SAV%.

Remember to check back tomorrow to take a look at our 2008-09 NHL First Half Fantasy Duds.