He certainly was unbeatable on this occasion, as the Sabres fired 34 shots in his direction during 65 minutes of play, but couldn’t beat the All-Star netminder.  Unfortunately, the Rangers were unable to muster up any offensive production themselves.  As a result, this game went into a shootout, where Lundqvist would remain stellar and stop four of the five shooters he faced to earn the Rangers the 1-0 victory.

The win moved the Rangers into a tie with the Detroit Red Wings for first overall in the NHL.   As for Lundqvist, his perfect outing helped him move into top spot among all goalies in save percentage and shutouts, and it also earned him “The Stat Line of the Night” for Wednesday, February 1, 2012.

The Rangers’ goaltender faced 27 shots on the night, and he would stop each and every one of them during his team’s 3-0 victory.  The shutout was his fourth of the season, bumping him into the top five in that category.  He now finds himself ranked within the league’s top five in goals against average, save percentage, wins and shutouts following last night’s impressive performance, and he also earns the “Stat Line of the Night” for Tuesday, January 17, 2012.

The Rangers’ goaltender stopped all 40 shots he faced, en route to the 4-0 shutout victory.  Lundqvist made 28 in the first 40 minutes, as his Rangers were being outshot 28-9 after two periods, but he kept the game scoreless and allowed his offense to take over with a four-goal flurry in the third period.

After recording an impressive 11 shutouts last season, Lundqvist now has his first of the 2011-12 campaign, and with it he earns our “Stat Line of the Night” for Tuesday, October 18, 2011.

Henrik Lundqvist was unbeatable Thursday night, stopping all 31 shots he faced as he carried the Rangers to a 1-0 victory.  Wojtek Wolski’s first goal with the Blueshirts since being acquired in a trade with the Phoenix Coyotes was the difference in this game as his second period tally was the only shot to beat Canucks goaltender Cory Schneider who was good, but not good enough to beat Lundqvist on this night.

The shutout was King Henry’s sixth of the season, tying him for the league lead with the Bruins Tim Thomas.   It was just the type of performance that we have come to expect from Lundqvist, who will be playing in his second career All-Star Game later this month.  For now he earns “The Stat Line of the Night” for Thursday, January 13, 2011.

This weeks honorable mention goes to (G)-Ilya Bryzgalov of the Phoenix Coyotes. Last week Bryzgalov collected two wins while posting a 1.44 GAA, .956 SAV%, making 65 saves and one shutout. Ilya has been one of, if not the, top fantasy sleeper this year. He’s always had the talent but was stuck behind Giguere, and then Hiller, in Anaheim and was forced to play behind some weak teams in Phoenix the last two seasons. However, the young Coyotes look like they’re heading in the right direction and this could just be the beginning of something big for the man known as Bryz.

Lets take a look at the NHL Fantasy 3 Stars for Week 21.

3rd Star – Henrik Sedin (C), Vancouver Canucks

Just like Ilya Bryzgalov, Henrik Sedin has been a pleasant surprise this year as he currently sits 2nd overall for points with 93, just 3 points behind Alexander Ovechkin, heading into Monday night’s games. Last week Henrik scored two goals and had 6 assists for 8 points with two of those points coming on the power play. He also had 4 penalty minutes, a plus/minus rating of plus-5, 10 shots on goal and won 35 faceoffs. Right now they call New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist “King Henrik” but if Sedin keeps this up they’ll have to crown him as the new “King Henrik”.

2nd Star – Daniel Sedin (LW), Vancouver Canucks

Despite missing 18 games with a broken foot/ankle Daniel Sedin is still filling the net as he’s on pace to tie his career high in points with 84 and has 8 points in his last 4 games. Last week Daniel potted 3 goals and added 5 assists for 8 points with two of those points coming while on the power play. He also had 4 minutes in penalties, a plus/minus rating of plus-5 and 18 shots on goal. Ignoring the fact that they’re the creepiest brother combination in NHL history, the Sedin Bros. compliment each other very well and at the prime of their careers should be putting up 80+ a piece for the next 2-3 years.

1st Star – Mikael Samuelsson (RW), Vancouver Canucks

Ever since he was left off Team Sweden’s roster for the 2010 Olympics inVancouver Mikael Samuelsson has been on a tear and last week was no exception. Last week Samuelsson scored 6 goals and had 4 assists for 10 points with two of those points coming on the power play. He also had 4 penalty minutes, a plus/minus rating of plus-6 and 19 shots on goal. Although Mikael is on pace for 35 goals and 60+ points this season, don’t expect the same out of the 33-year old Swede next season as he’s been a fairly consistent 10-20 goal and 40-45 point forward in his NHL career.

Remember to check back in next week to see who the NHL Fantasy 3 Stars will be for Week 22.

Henrik Lundqvist put on a great show of goalkeeping throughout the night, but he did have one ugly mistake that was thankfully covered up by an even uglier one by Nate Thompson.  As Thompson streaks up the ice on a fast break, Lundqvist comes out of the net to stop him, but trips on his own skates and goes skidding towards the boards, leaving Thompson with a wide open shot on an empty net.  Thompson, however, panics and flips the puck wide of the goal missing entirely.

Although the goal may not have made all that much difference in the shellacking taken by the Islanders, it was in the 2nd period and could have possibly swung the momentum in the game.  We’ll never know what could have been though, and Thompson will probably be seeing that miss in his nightmares (and all over the internet soon enough).

The biggest loser in our NHL Power Rankings this week were the Edmonton Oilers and Anaheim Ducks, both falling 4 spots to end up at #14 and #20. As expected the Oilers are having an up and down season because of the core of their young players, but one veteran, Nikolai Khabibulin, has been consistently solid all season. Meanwhile the Ducks are still trying to look for some consistency of their own after a disappointing October.

The biggest gainer in our NHL Power Rankings this week were the San Jose Sharks and New York Islanders, both climbing up 3 spots to land at #6 and #26 respectively. Finally everything seems to be coming together for the Sharks, keep an eye on rookie defenceman Jason Dembers as he already has 10 points to start the season. The Islanders on the other hand have caught fire, mostly due to some solid goaltending by both Dwayne Roloson and Martin Biron.

Lets take a look at the rest of the league: NHL POWER RANKINGS for week 5.

Rank	Team	Record	PRV	Comment
1		11-3-0	-	Start off what will be a tough West Coast trip on Tuesday with games against Anaheim, Los Angeles and San Jose.
2		10-3-2	-	Had a great month of October as they currently sit tied for 1st overall with Pittsburgh heading into the month of November.
3		9-5-1	2	Henrik Lundqvist continues to play solid in net collecting his first shutout of the season in the Rangers 1-0 win over the Bruins.
4		7-5-1	-	Put an end to their 3 game losing streak with a 5-4 OT win over the Capitals.
5		7-4-1	2	Saw their 3 game winning streak snapped with back-to-back losses to the Avalanche and Red Wings.
6		10-4-1	3	After a so-so start the Sharks have finally started to play like everyone expected and are on a 4 game winning streak.
7		8-4-1	1	Have won 3 of their last 4 games and Cristobal Huet seems to have settled in nicely as the team’s #1 giving the Blackhawks some solid goaltending recently.
8		6-4-1	1	Rookie forward David Laliberte made people stand up and take notice scoring a goal and adding an assist in his first NHL game against the Hurricanes.
9		8-4-2	3	Anze Kopitar continues to rip it up as he now has 21 points in the first 14 games of the season.
10		8-2-1	1	Had a 4 game winning streak going until they got blown out 5-0 by the New York Islanders.
11		8-2-4	2	Things could get interesting in Washington with Alexander Ovechkin being out week-to-week with an upper-body injury.
12		9-4-0	2	The ‘Yotes are continuing to surprise, mostly because of the play by goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov, as they’re on a 3 game winning streak.
13		8-4-0	1	Rebounded after a 4-1 loss to the Sabres with back-to-back 2-1 victories over the Bruins and Lightning.
14		7-6-1	4	Were barely able to avoid a disastrous collapse beating the Red Wings 6-5 via the shootout after blowing a 5-1 lead.
15		5-4-3	2	Had a successful Western Canadian road trip collecting 5 out of a possible 6 points.
16		6-4-2	1	Have lost 4 out of their last 5 games including a 5-2 loss to Tampa Bay.
17		4-3-4	1	Collected 3 out of a possible 4 points last week.
18		5-4-1	1	Were able to put an end to their 4 game losing streak with a 3-1 win over the Senators.
19		8-7-0	1	Have done a decent job adapting to life without Roberto Luongo so far with a 2-1 shootut win over the Kings and a 3-0 win over the Avalanche.
20		4-6-2	4	Were the first team to loose to the Leafs and lost 3-2 to the Coyotes in the shootout.
21		6-6-1	-	The Bruins will be glad that October is over and done with. They didn’t have a terrible start but bigger things were, and still are, expected.
22		6-3-5	-	The emergence of James Neal continues as he now has 16 points in his first 14 games of the season.
23		6-6-1	2	Pekka Rinne is starting to play like he did last year allowing just 2 goals in his last 2 games including a 2-0 shutout win over the Blackhawks.
24		7-7-0	-	Have won 3 of their last 5 games including a shootout win over the rival Maple Leafs.
25		5-6-1	2	Have only been able to win 1 of their last 4 games and have been shutout in back-to-back losses to the Coyotes and Panthers.
26		4-4-5	3	Mid as well call them the New York Butters ’cause they’re on a roll winning 3 games in a row including a surprising 5-0 win over the Sabres.
27		4-7-1	-	Starting to show some signs of turning things around with back-to-back wins over the Stars and Blues.
28		5-9-0	2	Two tough losses to the Blackhawks and Predators but are showing signs of turning it around.
29		1-7-4	1	Were finally able to win their first game against the Ducks but followed it up with back-to-back OT losses and a shootout loss to the Habs.
30		2-8-3	2	Have now lost a staggering 9 games in a row. Aside from Babchuk, the ‘Canes are pretty much the same team that made it to the Eastern Conference Finals last year so it’s just a matter of time before they break out of this slump.

Be sure to check back next week with our NHL Power Rankings for Week 6.

Total Pro Sports – In week 3 we’ve seen the top 2 teams in the league remain atop the NHL, some of the surprising teams start to slide a bit and teams who got off to a bad start show signs of turning things around. Oh, and the Leafs and Islanders still suck.

The biggest loser in our NHL Power Rankings this week were the Los Angeles Kings. After an impressive first two weeks the Kings appear to be coming back down to earth. Los Angeles is a young team with some talented players though so expect them to be up and down all season.

The biggest gainer in our NHL Power Rankings this week were the Colorado Avalanche. Most people expected the Avs to take a bit of a hit this week like the Kings but they just keep on rolling. A big reason for that is due to the play of goaltender Craig Anderson who’s collected 6 wins with a 2.09 GAA, .935 SAV% and one shutout.

Lets take a look at the rest of the league: NHL POWER RANKINGS for week 3.

Rank	Team	Record	PRV	Comment
1		7-1-0	-	Nothing new here as the Rangers keep on rolling thanks to the play of rookie defenceman Michael Del Zotto and goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.
2		7-1-0	-	Just like the Rangers the Penguins continued their solid play thanks to Marc-Andre Fleury who has a 2.09 GAA and .922 SAV% in his first 7 games.
3		5-1-0	2	Off to a great start but are facing a tough 4-game road trip this week that will give us a glimpse of how good this team really is.
4		6-1-1	4	3rd overall pick Matt Duchene scored his first career NHL goal in the Avs surprising shootout victory over the Wings Saturday evening.
5		5-2-1	1	Lost a close one to Columbus and then almost blew a 5-0 lead in the 3rd period beating Vancouver 5-3.
6		5-2-1	1	Saw their 4-game winning streak come to an end with their 4-3 loss to the Stars on Saturday night.
7		3-2-1	1	Lost their only game of the week 4-2 to the Panthers.
8		4-4-0	5	Have comeback down to earth and find themselves on a 3-game losing streak.
9		4-2-1	-	Nikolai Khabibulin has played well so far giving the Oilers a chance to win every time he’s been in net and Dustin Penner is off to a great start with 9 points in his first 7 games.
10		4-3-1	-	Are 1-1 so far after two games on their current 6-game eastern road trip.
11		5-2-0	2	Ilya Bryzgalov won the NHL 1st Star of the Week honours after winning all 3 of the Coyotes games last week including a 1-0 shutout win over the Sharks.
12		5-2-0	2	Alex Kovalev shined against his former team with a goal and an assist in the Sens 3-1 win over the Habs Saturday night.
13		4-1-1	2	The Sabres broke out with back-to-back 6 goal games but weren’t as successful putting the puck in the net in their 4-2 loss to the Thrashers.
14		4-3-0	2	Saw their 3-game winning streak come to an end with their 4-2 loss to the Thrashers.
15		4-1-0	2	Atlanta’s strong start continues winning both of their games against the Devils and Sabres.
16		4-2-2	-	Nice win over the Sharks but had a tough time with the struggling Predators.
17		3-3-1	1	Will have to get their power play going if they want to start climbing up the standings.
18		3-3-1	1	The Wings have to tighten up their D and get some better goaltending from Chris Osgood if they want to get, and stay above, .500.
19		2-3-2	4	Lost 2 out of their 3 games while only scoring a combined 4 goals.
20		3-2-1	-	Managed to pick up 3 out of a possible 4 points losing to Phoenix in overtime 3-2 and beating Anaheim 5-0.
21		3-4-0	1	Henrik Sedin is playing well in his brother’s absence picking up 3 assists in the Canucks two games last week.
22		3-4-0	1	Will be interesting to see how the team plays with Milan Lucic out 4-6 weeks after breaking his finger against Dallas.
23		3-1-3	3	Solid week for the Stars shutting out the Predators 6-0 and beating the Blackhawks 4-3.
24		2-4-1	3	Rough start for Nashville as they find themselves on a 5-game winless streak.
25		2-4-0	3	Nice 4-2 win over the Flyers with Stephen Weiss scoring a goal and adding an assist for 2 points.
26		2-4-1	2	Not the best of weeks losing both of their games to the Penguins and Devils.
27		2-5-0	2	Lost both of their games to the Avalanche and Senators while only scoring a combined 3 goals in those losses.
28		1-6-0	1	The Wild are glad their 5-game road trip is over as they lost all 5 games. Big reason for the bad trip, only 10 combined goals in their 5 games.
29		0-3-3	-	Still looking for their first win after losing to the Kings, Sabres and Sharks.
30		0-6-1	-	They can’t score, can’t keep the puck out of their net, are using their 3rd and 4th string goaltenders and have yet to win a game, things can’t get any worse for the Leafs right now.

Be sure to check back next week with our NHL Power Rankings for Week 4

Total Pro Sports – With the start of the 2009-10 NHL Season upon us it’s time to take a look and see how each team stacks up. As per the norm, each preview will be broken down by division in order of how we think the team will finish.

Lets take a look at the Atlantic Division for the 2009-10 NHL Preview.

1. Pittsburgh Penguins

Obviously not a big surprise here. As seems to be the trend, the Penguins did loose some players to free agency during the summer but they’ve managed to keep their core together which is huge.

Sidney Crosby and Bill Guerin showed some nice chemistry playing together in last year’s playoffs and will look to continue that success for the 2009-10 season. Evgeni Malkin unfortunately lost his linemate in Petr Sykora to Minnesota, but Malkin is too good of a player to let that stop him from collecting 100+ points. Jordan Staal leads a group of players looking to provide some secondary scoring with Matt Cooke, Maxime Talbot and Michael Rupp adding some sandpaper.

Defence is probably the one weak spot for the Penguins but when looking at their blueline it’s anything but. Sergei Gonchar, Kris Letang and Alex Goligoski supply the offence from the back end while Mark Eaton, Jay McKee and Brooks Orpik hold things down in the defensive end.

Marc-Andre Fleury showed in the playoffs that even though he may not be one of the top goaltenders in the league, he is capable of making the key save at the right time which is all Pittsburgh needs with their fire power. Despite some injury issues, Brent Johnson had a solid season with Washington last year and is a solid back-up.

2. Philadelphia Flyers

Bit of a disappointing season for the Flyers last year after making it to the Eastern Conference Finals in the 2007-08 season. However, like the Pens, Philly has managed to keep their core players and with the addition of Chris Pronger will be one of the harder teams to play against.

The great young duo of Mike Richards and Jeff Carter will look to lead the Flyers offence yet again this season. If Daniel Briere and Simon Gagne can stay healthy for longer than 40 games and Scott Hartnell can duplicate his 2008-09 campaign Philly could challenge the likes of Pittsburgh, Washington and Detroit as the league’s highest scoring team. Claude Giroux will look to build off a successful rookie season and highly touted prospect James Van Riemsdyk looks poised to make the opening day roster and possibly compete for the Calder Trophy.

The Flyers defence looks solid with Chris Pronger, Kimmo Timonen and Matt Carle playing the point on the power play and also very capable in their own end. Ryan Parent, Braydon Coburn and Ole-Kristian Tollefsen are three big young defencemen that’ll bring a solid defensive presence.

As per the norm since Ron Hextall left, the Flyers goaltending is a big question mark. Ray Emery has looked good so far during preseason but it’s only preseason and a lot can happen between now and early/mid April. Brian Boucher played great for the Sharks last year but at 32-years old will probably start running into some injury problems.

3. New Jersey Devils

After a disappointing end to their 2008-09 season in the game 7 loss to Carolina, New Jersey will look to rebound with a solid 2009-10 campaign.

Zach Parise leads the Devils offence with another young player in Travis Zajac looking to improve off of a  great 2008-09 season. Brendan Shanahan, Patrik Elias Jamie Langenbrunner and Brian Rolston will look to help put the puck in the net as well but with Jacques Lemiare behind the bench, don’t look for it to happen as often as it did last year.

The Devils defence doesn’t stand out as great, but they do have some solid players and should end up working well together as a unit. Paul Martin, Johnny Oduya and Cory Murphy will be looked upon to supply a majority of the scoring from the point. Players such as Colin White, Mike Mottau and Bryce Salvador will be looked upon to keep things simple and play solid in their own end.

Martin Brodeur will look to build on what will be a Hall of Fame career and Yann Danis will have a great time watching from the bench. If Marty misses a handful of games due to injury like last year things could get interesting as they don’t have a guy like Scott Clemmensen currently in their system that’d be able to help bail them out.

4. New York Rangers

Unlike some people I actually like the look of the Rangers this year and think they have enough to finish ahead of the Devils and possibly compete with the Flyers for second in the division. However, the Atlantic is a very tough division so I have them in the four spot, but I expect them to make the playoffs.

Just like the past few years, the Rangers have a solid forward group heading into the season. However, there is one big question…can Marian Gaborik stay healthy? If he can, adding him to the likes of Chris Drury, Chris Higgins, Brandon Dubinsky, Ryan Callahan and Vincent Prospal New York could surprise.

The biggest question mark has to be on defence. Wade Redden needs to step it up big time and Matt Gilroy will have to show why he won the 2009 Hobey Baker Award. Daniel Girardi, Michal Rozsival and Marc Staal are all good bets to have a solid 2009-10 season.

Henrik Lundqvist is one of the top goalies in the league and should have himself another 30+ win season. Steve Valiquette played well when relied upon last season and is one of the more underrated backups in the league.

5. New York Islanders

I don’t think I’m blowing anyone’s mind here with this pick. The Islanders have some decent young players coming up, but it’ll still be another 2-3 years before you can even think about the playoffs with this team.

As it looks right now the Islanders offence will live and die by John Tavares. Josh Bailey, Jesse Joensuu, Blake Comeau, Jeff Tambellini and Kyle Okposo make up a solid but inexperienced core of young players. Doug Weight, Richard Park and Trent Hunter will try to help the young players adjust to life in the NHL with their experience and leadership while also chipping in a few goals in the process.

With Brendan Witt, Mark Streit and Bruno Gervais the Islanders defence doesn’t look terrible. It doesn’t look great, but it isn’t horrible.

Goaltending is definitely New York’s strength for the 2009-10 season. With Garth Snow unconvinced about Rick DiPietro’s health he went out and signed both Dwayne Roloson and Martin Biron. Both upgrades over Yann Danis and Joey MacDonald from last year.

In a pivotal game 4 on home ice in the Rangers’ series with the Washington Capitals, “King Henry”, as they call him, made 38 of 39 saves (and got some help from the posts at times), to help lead New York to the 3-1 series lead.  After winning the first two of the series, New York lost game 3 at home and needed to bounce back in game 4, and Lundqvist helped his team do just that ultimately making him  “The Stat Line Of The Night” for Wednesday April 22nd, 2009.

Now with the series heading back to Washington, the Rangers only need to win one of the next three games to head on to round 2.  This series had turned outt o be a shocking one, and once again Avery brought his bag of tricks.  He’s just lucky his goalie bailed him out this time.