FanHouse KariLehtonen

The Boston Bruins reached an agreement with starting netminder Tim Thomas on Friday, signing the 34-year-old to a three-year extension that is believed to be worth "around $5 million per year," according to Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe.

Thomas currently leads the league in goals against average and save percentage after being tied for the fifth best save percentage in the NHL a season ago, so it's certainly a great deal for the Bruins. That said, it's bad news for the number of teams around the league in need of a starting goalie heading into the offseason.

Thrashers 5, Capitals 1: Break up the Thrashers. Thanks to its 5-1 drubbing of Washington on Monday, Atlanta has now won six in a row and seven of its past eight, as Kari Lehtonen turned aside an incredible 49 shots to lead the Thrashers. He was 1:15 away from registering his fourth shutout of the season, as Washington's Keith Aucoin finally broke through with his first goal of the season.

On the opposite end of the rink, Washington's Jose Theodore was mercifully yanked after giving up four goals on 19 shots, while the Thrashers converted on three of their four power play attempts -- without the services of Ilya Kovalchuk. Colby Armstrong, Slava Kozlov, Anssi Salmela, Tobias Enstrom and Eric Perrin all scored for Atlanta, while Salmela's goal was the first of his career.

The Atlanta Thrashers, currently occupying their familiar spot at the bottom of the NHL's standings, are headed for their ninth non-playoff season in their 10-year existence. The team's best player -- and captain -- Ilya Kovalchuk is an unrestricted free agent following next season, while starting netminder Kari Lehtonen is eligible for restricted free agency. Pretty bleak picture.

That said, Thrashers co-owner Bruce Levenson took part in a Q & A session with beat writer Mike Knobler of the Atlanta Journal Constitution this week, and acknowledges the team has made some big mistakes in the past, but is committed to turning this thing around.

This will certainly help the goaltending situation in Philadelphia. With the Penguins and Flyers tied, 4-4, late in the third period, Martin Biron came charging out of his net in an effort to steal a loose puck away from Pascal Dupuis.

With the puck in his glove a good 30 feet from his crease, Biron attempted to throw the puck out of his glove, presumably to avoid a delay of game penalty. He probably would have been better taking the penalty.

Capitals 5, Devils 2: The Washington Capitals took advantage of their three power play chances on Tuesday night, converting on all of them on their way to a 5-2 win over the New Jersey Devils. Mike Green and Brooks Laich scored a pair of goals with the man advantage just three minutes apart in the first period, while Michael Nylander picked up his second goal of the game at the 10:59 mark of the third period.

Jose Theodore stopped 32-of-34 shots in net for Washington, including 16-of-17 in the third period. The loss for New Jersey snaps its eight game winning streak, despite receiving another goal another Jamie Langenbrunner, who has now picked up seven goals in his past four games.

Devils 4, Bruins 3: The premier matchup on Thursday's schedule had to be the New Jersey-Boston tilt, and it didn't disappoint as the Devils took a 4-3 decision in overtime. Jamie Langenbrunner scored a pair of goals for the Devils, including the game-winner 1:11 into overtime.

After jumping out to a 2-0 lead through the first two periods, New Jersey watched the Bruins roar back with three goals in the third period before Patrick Elias tied the game with just under two minutes to play in regulation. Zach Parise picked up his 29th goal of the season in the win, while Scott Clemmensen made 24 saves. New Jersey has now won seven consecutive games while allowing only 12 goals during the streak. Who needs Martin Brodeur, eh?

Columbus goalie Steve Mason was perfect for 59 minutes on Friday night in his quest for his seventh shutout of the season. It was that one minute that proved to be the difference, as Travis Zajac and John Madden scored two quick goals to help lead the Devils to a 2-1 win.

Madden's goal, which proved to be the game-winner, came with some controversy as it needed a review from the infamous war room in Toronto. Mason appeared to have the puck covered long enough for a whistle, only to have Madden continue to dig and push the puck in as the net was dislodged. The call on the ice from referee Don Koharski was that it was a goal, and officials in Toronto apparently agreed, much to the chagrin of the fans in Columbus. Naturally, both teams had their own perspective on the events.

Columbus goalie Steve Mason entered Friday's game in Colorado having registered three consecutive shutouts. He managed to keep the Avalanche off the board for 17 minutes, until Darcy Tucker snapped Mason's streak with his fifth goal of the season at the 17:20 mark of the opening frame. The 20-year old rookie posted 199 consecutive minutes of shutout hockey for Columbus, and Tucker's tally in the first period was the only goal he surrendered on the night, as he turned aside 23-of-24 shots in a 6-1 Blue Jackets win.

Mason has been a great story for the Blue Jackets, as he's pretty much carried them this season when you consider they've scored only nine goals in the eight games he's lost, including being shutout three times. He's allowed more than three goals only two times this season, and has yet to surrender more than four in a single game. Should be interesting to see how long he can continue to ride this hot streak.

As for the rest of the Blue Jackets, following Tucker's goal they pretty much took this game over and erupted for six goals over the final two periods. Rick Nash finished with a four-point night (penalty shot goal, three assists) while Kristian Huselius (two goals), Mike Commodore, Jakub Voracek and R.J. Umberger also scored for Columbus.

The win actually puts Columbus one-point ahead of Colorado for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference, while the Blue Jackets are 3-0 to open their current six-game road trip, extending their winning streak to four games overall.

Every week there are minor moves and stories around the National Hockey League that tend to fall through the cracks. Consider this our weekly roundup of those stories from the previous week, all wrapped up in one neat little package.

A little over a week ago the NHL released its All-Star ballots for this year's exhibition, which takes place in Montreal on January 25. After a quick look at the names on this year's ticket, fans were, predictably, a little cheesed with some of the omissions from the list. And for good reason.

Take for example Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas, who actually played in the All-Star game a year ago. Currently, he's pacing all NHL Goalies with a .944 save percentage, and, naturally, he's not on the ballot. Yet, Penguins defenseman Sergei Gonchar, who hasn't played a game all season, and likely won't play one until March, is on the ballot. That probably makes up for him not being on the ballot a year ago, when, you know, he was playing.

Having said that, the folks over at Battle of California have taken it upon themselves to start their own campaign for San Jose winger Devin Setoguchi. The 21-year old forward currently has nine goals and 17 points for the Sharks (second on the team) who are off to a dominating 13-3-1 start.

Did you have an Obama 08 or McCain Country First sticker on your car? It's time to throw those out because here's the official start of Vote Setoguchi 09. It's going to have to be a write-in vote, but thanks to the magic of the inter-tubes and text messaging, we can manipulate, erm, boost the results to give us all the Chomp We Need.

So, get out there and vote ... or something.

As I was watching the Caps and the Predators in Washington last night, I couldn't help but keep an eye on the Flyers and Thrashers as they played in Atlanta. Of all the teams in the NHL, it seems as if the Thrashers have had nothing but hard luck in recent memory. It's hard to believe it's only been about 18 months since they qualified for their first playoff appearance -- one that ended in a four-game sweep to the New York Rangers.

The parade kept going downhill last season as the team dropped six straight out of the gate and head coach Bob Hartley was shown the door. GM Don Waddell stepped behind the bench, but he couldn't stop the bleeding as the misery culminated in the trade of Marian Hossa to the Penguins and the Thrashers limped to the finish.

Following up the franchise's first ever playoff appearance with such a disastrous performance couldn't help but have an impact at the box office, but even I was shocked when I started to see how much bleeding there was in Atlanta. Like a lot of other folks, I first noticed something was amiss when the Devils came to visit on October 16 (pictured above).