FanHouse MAtt Greene

Another night, another win for the San Jose Sharks. What else is new? The Kings jumped out to an early 2-0 lead thanks to goals by Matt Greene and Ted Purcell, but because they refuse to lose in regulation (or at any point, really) the Sharks managed to tie the game with tallies from Ryane Clowe and Patrick Marleau.

The game remained tied throughout the third period and overtime, leading to a shootout where the Sharks picked up goals from Clowe and Dan Boyle, while Brian Boucher turned aside two of the three Los Angeles shots, giving San Jose a 3-2 win.

The Sharks win, combined with Detroit's loss (more on this in a bit) gives San Jose an eight point lead for the top spot in the Western Conference. The victory also gives San Jose the best record in NHL history through the first 30 games of the season, as the Sharks currently boast a 25-3-2 mark. They haven't lost a game in regulation since November 9, which is a 15-game streak where San Jose has picked up at least a point.

Boucher made 26 saves in the win, while Los Angeles snapped its modest two-game winning streak.

As of right now, the NHL is the San Jose Sharks -- and everybody else. It remains to be seen how long they can keep playing at such a pace, and who knows, it may hurt them in the long-run that they're playing their best hockey in November and December as opposed to, say, May and June. But none of that changes the fact this is quite an incredible stretch of hockey. Kudos, San Jose.

Over at Inside the Kings, Rich Hammond pulled the following Lubomir Visnovsky quote out of his archives, one that the defenseman uttered about a year ago when he signed a 5-year, $28 million contract extension with the team:

``I'm very happy that I'll be staying with this organization for a long time,'' said Visnovsky from his offseason home in Slovakia. ``I love Los Angeles and I want to play in the playoffs with the Kings.''

As it would turn out, Lubo's stay was only for one more year, as Kings GM Dean Lombardi shipped the puck-moving defenseman to Edmonton in return for center Jarret Stoll and defenseman Matt Greene. One fact that Hammond uncovered last night: Visnovsky has a no movement clause in his contract that kicks in on July 1 and runs to 2012, after which it turns into a limited no-trade clause. Looks like Visnovsky is going to be in Edmonton for a long time.

To take a look at how the trade shakes out for the Oilers, stop over at Lowetide, where the reaction seems uniformly positive, while Covered in Oil seems more than a bit hesitant. In any case, with Visnovsky in the fold, it looks like Joni Pitkanen's days in an Oilers uniform may be coming to an end.

Then again, I'm sure there's at least one party who is probably happy with the deal: That would be Los Angeles-based supermodel Rachel Hunter, who will probably be happy to have her boyfriend, Stoll, back in town a little more often.

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