Posts tagged AlexanderSemin at FanHouse

On Sunday we told you about Ducks forward Corey Perry receiving a four-game suspension for introducing his elbow to Claude Giroux's face. Today, let's take a look at Blues forward David Backes and his cross-check on Columbus forward Kristian Huselius.

During Saturday's game in St. Louis, with the score tied 2-2 late in the first period, Backes delivered a crushing cross-check to the head of Huselius.



Backes received a game-misconduct for the hit, his third of the season, which will result in a mandatory one-game suspension to be served during the Blues game in Vancouver on Friday. Is that enough? Huselius suffered a concussion on the hit, and the NHL is, apparently, trying to cut down on hits to the head. Seems like a mandatory one-game suspension is getting off kind of easy, assuming that's all he receives. Earlier this season, in a game in Washington, Backes give this healthy shot to the back of Capitals forward Alexander Semin. Though, I suspect if Backes knew what type of fighter Semin is he probably would have thought better of it. Sorry. Couldn't resist.

Thanks to a pair of goals from Matt Ellis, the Buffalo Sabres ended Boston's 10-game winning streak with a 4-2 victory at TD Banknorth Garden on Saturday afternoon. The loss not only snaps Boston's 10-game winning streak, it also ended a 14-game home winning streak, while also giving the Bruins their sixth regulation loss of the season.

Ellis opened the scoring for the Sabres just three minutes into regulation, while Thomas Vanek added his 26th goal of the season just two minutes later.

After Phil Kessel cut the deficit in half with his 24th goal of the season, Ellis added his second goal of the game early in the second period to score what proved to be the game-winner. Paul Gaustad added his fourth goal of the year for the Sabres, while Ryan Miller turned aside 29 shots in net.

The win for Buffalo, combined with Pittsburgh's loss to Florida, moved the Sabres into the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Lost in all of the madness that was Sidney Crosby's latest efforts to a become a fighter, was an epic battle between Washington's Alexander Semin and New York's Marc Staal. Observe the glorious video:



Words fail me.

Honestly, I was waiting for him to start pulling out Staal's hair, who apparently wanted nothing to do with Semin's open-handed slaps to the back of the head. I can't decide if this is the best fight video ever, or the worst fight video ever.

Still, this leaves open the debate as to who the worst fighter in the NHL currently is. On one hand, we've seen Crosby punch a guy in the groin, and then do whatever it was he did to Brett McLean.

On the other hand, we have Semin who seems to have developed a strategy similar to the ones we all used to see in high school. You know, when Jessica tried to fight Nicole for kissing Josh behind the pop machine.

I don't know what's been happening across the NHL the past two nights, but it's almost as if everyone jumped into a time machine (perhaps a DeLorean) and traveled back to 1985. Have you seen some of these scores? I'm talking 9-2, 8-5, 6-5, 7-3. It's crazy, like somebody went into the locker rooms across the league and shrunk down the goalie pads, or something.

One night after the Penguins steamrolled the Islanders to the tune of 9-2, and four different players across the league registered hat tricks, the goal-scoring barrage continued on Friday. Let's start in Newark, where the Devils outscored the Rangers, 8-5, in a game that had to be played with empty nets.

Midway through the second period, New Jersey was sitting with a seemingly comfortable 5-1 lead, before the Rangers roared back to tie the game at the 11:18 mark of the third period, thanks to Ryan Callahan's eighth goal of the season. The Rangers actually outshot the Devils by a 16-4 margin in the third period, though, New Jersey made the best of its few opportunities, scoring on three of them. Just 11 seconds after Callahan's equalizer, Patrick Elias scored the game-winner, before Brian Gionta and Jamie Langenbrunner sealed the win.

With the team reeling after a 1-3 road trip and with seven regulars out with injuries, the Washington Capitals put a call into their AHL affiliate in Hershey and called up four players to join the big club in time for tonight's game against the Atlanta Thrashers.

Arriving in Washington today are defensemen Karl Alzner and Sami Lepisto, as well as forwards Chris Bourque and Graham Mink. In order to clear the cap space the team needs for the call ups, the team also moved team captain and right wing Chris Clark and defenseman Jeff Schultz to the long-term IR.

The list of the walking wounded doesn't end with Clark and Schultz. Alexander Semin, Sergei Fedorov, Boyd Gordon, John Erskine and Mike Green are also injured, leaving some tremendous holes in the lineup that were all too apparent as the road trip wore on and the losses mounted. What should be interesting about this move is the perception that Alzner and Bourque could have very well made the team out of training camp if it hadn't been for the team's cap situation.

(HT: Japers' Rink)

Montreal Canadiens defenseman Ryan O'Byrne has yet to score a goal this season, and thus far, only has one in his brief NHL career. Unfortunately for Montreal, the 24-year old rearguard scored on his own net with just under five-minutes to play in regulation on Monday night, sending the game to overtime. The own-goal proved to be costly for Montreal, as the Islanders took the game in a shootout, 4-3, picking up the extra point and winning for the fifth time in their past six games.

The O'Byrne gaffe happened on a delayed penalty call, which led to Canadiens goalie Carey Price heading to the bench for the extra-attacker. O'Byrne, unfortunately, sent the puck backwards toward the yawning net -- as seen in the above video -- tying the game at three, much to the chagrin of the Bell Centre crowd.

Seriously, that's just painful to watch. O'Byrne instantly covered his face and looked like he wanted to dig a hole in the ice and crawl out of the arena. What do you even say after that?

Islanders forward Bill Guerin was credited for what will surely be the easiest goal of his career.

Richard Park and Trent Hunter scored the other goals for the Islanders, while Steve Begin, John Gorges and Maxim Lapierre scored for Montreal.

While Vancouver suffered what could be a devastating injury to starting goalie Roberto Luongo, the Canucks did manage to walk out of Pittsburgh with a 3-1 win, so, they at least have that going for them. Still, the sight of Luongo being helped off the ice probably steals some of the thunder from what was a solid defensive performance and road victory.

Things were quite heated just 25 second into the game (see the video shown above) when Penguins forward -- and former Canuck -- Matt Cooke sent Alexander Edler flying through the air, igniting a line-brawl at center ice. When the chaos was finally sorted out, there were 50 minutes in penalties handed out, including two game misconducts -- one to Cooke, and another to Vancouver's Jannik Hansen.

Pavol Demitra scored a pair of goals for the Canucks, including the game's first goal at the 18-minute mark of the first period. He sealed the game with an empty-netter late in the third period. The line of Demitra and the Sedin's (Henrik and Daniel) accounted for all of Vancouver's scoring on the day, as Daniel registered a goal and two assists, while Henrik assisted on all three Canucks goals.

Mike Zigomanis scored the only goal for the Penguins, who were held to just 19 shots on goal for the game.

Still no official word on the severity of Luongo's injury.

Before we dig into last night's action, this was passed on to us here at FanHouse in the spirit of the holiday season. The National Hockey League and the Salvation Army have partnered up this year to help raise money during the holidays, and you can help the cause by creating your own online NHL team kettle (you provide the bell) to help raise money. The fan that raises the most money will win an All-Star prize package, including two tickets to the game in Montreal. You can find all the details right here.

As for the Wednesday night schedule, Henrik Lundqvist had a relatively short night in net for the Rangers, as he surrendered five goals on 17 shots in just over a period of action. He was ultimately lifted in favor of backup Steve Valiquette, as New York fell to Vancouver, 6-3, at the Garden.

Just five minutes into the second period, the Canucks had a 5-1 lead thanks to goals from Alexandre Burrows (two),Kyle Wellwood, Ryan Johnson and Pavol Demitra. Demitra's power play goal at the 5:33 mark of the second period was the final straw for Lundqvist, as coach Tom Renney sent in Valiquette, who turned aside all 15 shots he faced. Daniel Sedin added an empty net goal for Vancouver with three seconds to play in the third period.

Yesterday we talked about how the Devils haven't been able to find the back of the net in recent games, making their backup goalies hard-luck losers since the injury to Martin Brodeur. Well, last night against the Capitals, New Jersey had an offensive explosion of sorts as it snapped a four-game losing streak, winning in a shootout, 6-5.

It certainly wasn't easy as Alex Ovechkin tied the game with 0.8 seconds to play in regulation, continuing what had been an insane night in Newark. Ovechkin finished with two goals -- his fourth straight game with a goal -- and an assist, while Nicklas Backstrom had a five-point night for the Capitals in the losing effort.

For the Devils, Patrick Elias scored twice while they also received goals from Jamie Langenbrunner, Brian Gionta and David Clarkson. Zach Parise scored the only goal in the shootout for New Jersey.

Alexander Semin, who entered play on Saturday night as the league's leading scorer, did not play for the Capitals as he sat out with a shoulder injury suffered on Friday night.

Things have been bleak in New Jersey ever since Martin Brodeur went down with his elbow injury, and they didn't exactly get any better on Friday night when the Devils fell, 3-1, to Washington. The Devils are now 1-5 since Brodeur's injury, and have scored just five goals in the five losses. Perhaps instead of acquiring a new goalie to replace his injured star, Lou Lamoriello should consider picking up somebody that can actually fill the net. Just a thought.

Scott Clemmensen was the hard-luck loser for the Devils on this night, giving up only two goals on 26 shots (the third goal for Washington was of the empty-net variety).

Battle of New York with the all too familiar recap for Devils fans:

It's already becoming a familiar script. A good effort by an undermanned Devils team, but the offense can't put the puck past a goaltender you wouldn't expect to play well and despite acceptable goaltending on their own end, it's all just good enough to lose. That's what's facing the Devils right now after their 3-1 loss in Washington, dropping them to .500 (7-7-2) just two weeks after being four games over.

Alex Ovechkin continued his recent hot-streak by scoring his fifth goal (empty net) of the year and also picking up an assist. He's now scored in three straight games, after going ten in a row without a goal. It was only a matter of time before he started to catch fire.

Brooks Laich and Tomas Fleischman also scored for the Capitals, while Patrick Elias scored the lone Devils goal.

Unfortunately for the Capitals, the win came with a price as they lost the league's leading scorer, Alexander Semin, to an "undisclosed injury" in the second period. He did not return to the game.