FanHouse ChrisStewart

Red Wings 8, Oilers 3: Here's a fun fact: at the end of the first period of Saturday's Detroit-Edmonton game, the Red Wings had as many goals (five), as the Oilers had shots. One word can sum this up: domination. The Wings continued to pour it on, completing an 8-3 thrashing of Edmonton at Joe Louis Arena.

It's the second time in just over a week that the Oilers have been on the wrong end of a blowout, getting steamrolled by Buffalo, 10-2, back on January 27. The Oilers have now lost four of six, while the Red Wings extended their modest winning streak to three as they head into their NBC tilt with the Penguins on Sunday.

Okay, so maybe the title is a bit of an overreaction. Still, that doesn't change the fact the New York Islanders are a terrible, terrible third period hockey team, and they proved it once again on Tuesday, giving up four goals in the final 20 minutes on their way to a 5-4 loss to the Rangers.

The Islanders actually entered the third with a 2-1 lead, only to watch the Rangers beat Joey MacDonald -- starting in place of Rick Dipietro -- four times on their final 12 shots. Petr Prucha, playing for the first time in eight games, tied the game just 49 seconds into the third period, while Michal Rozsival gave the Rangers their first lead of the night two minutes later. Markus Naslund and Nigel Dawes also tallied late goals for the Rangers, while Scott Gomez tapped in a tic-tac-toe pass from Nikolai Zherdev and Brandon Dubinsky in the second period, opening the scoring for the Rangers.

Mike Sillinger, Kyle Okposo, Blake Comeau and Mike Comrie scored for the Islanders.

Physical game between the crosstown rivals, resulting in a pair of fights in the first 10 minutes, and capped off with a crushing hit by Ryan Callahan on Trent Hunter early in the third. Callahan smashed the Islanders forward into the penalty box door, forcing it open, resulting in Hunter's midsection smashing off the boards. He was down for quite a while, and appeared to be in severe pain, resulting in a stretcher being brought on the ice. Hunter, however, managed to bring himself to his feet and skate off because, you know, he's a hockey player.

The Islanders jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on Tuesday night, thanks to a pair of goals from Doug Weight and Andy Hilbert less than a minute apart. Unfortunately for them, as has been the case all season, they couldn't hold it, as the Flyers roared back to take a 3-2 lead in the second period, and eventually win, 4-3, handing the Islanders their fourth straight loss.

After Aaron Asham put the Flyers on the board late in the first period, Darroll Plowe, a former undrafted free agent -- a fact Versus mentioned no fewer than 30 times -- tied the game midway through the second with his first NHL goal. Eight minutes later, Jeff Carter scored his 20th goal of the season -- tied for the top spot in the league with Buffalo's Thomas Vanek -- to give Philadelphia its first lead of the night.

The Islanders fought back at the 2:07 mark of the final period, when Blake Comeau scored a relatively weak goal on Martin Biron, after it essentially rolled into the net behind him.

Simon Gagne scored the game-winner late in the third, moving the Flyers into a tie for second place in the Atlantic Division with cross-state rival, Pittsburgh.

This is a picture of Notre Dame offensive lineman/nose tackle/gravitational hole in the space time continuum Chris Stewart with a harp:



Stewart knows comedy: the look on his face is perfect. Other thoughts race through your mind, no doubt:

• Wait... what? Apparently he's overseas for some sort of educational, school-type thing called a "class" this summer. A famous English harpist made some sort of presentation to the class and encouraged the kids to try it out.
  
• Did Chris Stewart seek out the only instrument actually larger than himself? I am pretty sure he's still smaller than a piano. But don't hold me to that.
  
• Did he play "Stairway to Heaven"? Hells yea.

(Via Rakes of Mallow.)