FanHouse MilanLucic

The NHL's new hard-line stance on message-sending and late-game fisticuffs seems to have lasted, oh, about two weeks. Late in the third period of Pittsburgh's 7-4 win on Thursday, Carolina's Ryan Bayda was involved in a line brawl of sorts that featured Bayda delivering what appeared to be a cross-check to the face of Kris Letang.

In the end, Miroslav Satan fought Patrick Eaves, Tim Gleason fought Letang, and Bayda was issued a match penalty for intent to injure. By rule, Bayda was immediately suspended from further competition pending a league review. That review has taken place, and Bayda walks away with a $2,500 fine and no suspension.

Tonight the Bruins and Hurricanes played a hockey game that went about as close as any game could. The two teams went toe-to-toe for nearly four periods, matching each other in every facet of the game. Goaltenders Cam Ward and Tim Thomas showed why they were big reasons as to how their teams made it to this point, making 35 and 34 saves respectively. Fittingly, the game headed to overtime and the Bruins would fall thanks to a familiar foe.

During Game 5 Scott Walker received a game misconduct for a punch -- or sucker punch depending on your view -- to the face of Aaron Ward. The NHL decided to rescind the automatic one game suspension that comes with an ejection and let him play, drawing the ire of Boston and many in the media. Tonight, Walker made a few more enemies in Boston by netting the game winning goal with 1:14 to go in overtime.

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After losing three straight games for just the third time this season, the Boston Bruins were facing elimination on Sunday night against the Carolina Hurricanes. The Bruins, behind a 19-save shutout by Tim Thomas, managed to keep their season rolling with a commanding 4-0 win at TD Banknorth Garden.

Following Boston's 4-1 loss in Carolina on Friday, head coach Claude Julien made mention that his team picked a bad time to be playing its worst hockey of the season, getting outscored by a 10-3 margin during its three-game skid. For one night, all of that was forgotten as the Bruins played a relatively perfect game in every phase.

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During tonight's game between the Bruins and Canadiens, Mike Komisarek and Milan Lucic had a couple interesting encounters. The video above is of the fight between the pair towards the end of the second period. At that point, the Habs were trailing 4-1 and maybe Komisarek was just looking to get his team jump started. Lucic dropped him with one punch this time around. Later in the game, Komisarek decided to cross check Lucic in the face (video after the jump). These two guys are really very cordial.

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In Saturday's recap of Boston's 5-1 dismantling of Montreal, we made mention of the fact Milan Lucic was given a game misconduct as a result of his cross-check to the head of Montreal's Maxim Lapierre. As it turns out, he was actually issued a match penalty which means he is suspended until a disciplinary hearing is held.

Here's the video, with the cross-check coming about 50 seconds in:

Let's just come right out and say it: the Canadiens are in trouble. The Boston Bruins systematically dismantled Montreal on Saturday night, putting on a clinic in their 5-1 win at TD Banknorth Garden to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the series.

Marc Savard led the way with two goals and two assists, helping the Bruins chase Carey Price after two periods as the 21-year-old netminder surrendered five goals, including one to Michael Ryder with just under three seconds to play in the second period.

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Newsmakers in the NHL is a weekday morning attempt to clear yesterday's rebounds and look to the day ahead.

Blues 5, Blue Jackets 2: After knocking off Columbus in a shootout on Saturday, the St. Louis Blues completed their weekend home-and-home sweep of the Blue Jackets with a 5-2 win at Nationwide Arena. Patrik Berglund picked up a goal and two assists for the surging Blues, while Brad Boyes scored his 30th goal of the season, giving him two straight 30-goal campaigns.

T.J. Oshie made some highlights on Saturday for his crushing hit on Rick Nash, and followed it up on Sunday with his 14th goal of the season.

With the NHL All-Star break officially over, 22 teams will be back in action on Tuesday night. Safe to say that the most anticipated match of the evening will take place in Boston where the Eastern Conference-leading Bruins will host the Washington Capitals. The Southeast Division-leading Caps are in second place in the conference, 10 points in back of the Bruins.

Pavel Datsyuk's goal (shown above) was perhaps the highlight of a great day of hockey in Chicago, and we have to give a well-deserved tip of the cap to Eric McErlain for giving us all a front row seat for the festivities and excitement around Wrigley Field.

Chicago jumped out to an early 3-1 lead after the first period, looking like it was out to send a message after Tuesday night's loss in Detroit, only to have the Red Wings roar back with five consecutive goals -- including a pair from Jiri Hudler -- to take the Winter Classic, 6-4. The Wings are now 4-0 against their original six rivals this season, while improving their record to 25-7-5.

This year's version of the classic, I thought, was far better than last season's game in Buffalo, mainly because this game wasn't played in blizzard conditions. Sure, that was exciting and awesome to look at, but it definitely hurt the on-ice play, while the ice itself was in horrible condition, resulting in multiple stoppages in play to fix massive holes. No such problems this year, just exciting hockey in a historic stadium between two classic teams wearing some awesome, awesome uniforms. Not a huge fan of the rendition of take me out to the ballgame, however. The hockey song would have been a nice touch, but, really, if that's the only negative throughout the event, well, that's a great, great thing for the sport.

Ty Conklin, playing in his third outdoor game in the NHL, stopped 33 shots in the win, while Chicago's Cristobal Huet had to be lifted early in the third period after giving up six goals on 30 shots.

The Boston Bruins won their ninth straight game on Tuesday night, picking up a 5-2 victory in Pittsburgh. Aside from winning nine in a row, the Bruins finish the month of December with a 12-1 record, while extending their lead in the Eastern Conference to nine points over the No. 2 team, the New York Rangers Washington Capitals.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ice, the month of December can't end soon enough for the Penguins, as they went 5-9 for the month, including four consecutive losses on home ice. Even worse, Pittsburgh has posted a 2-7 record in its past nine games at Mellon Arena. That's not good. Look, I realize the Penguins have been slow starters the past two seasons before kicking it in gear in February and March, but can you keep relying on that? Might make it a little easier on yourself to actually win some games in October, November and December because, you know, those games count too.

As for this game, Boston received a stellar effort in net from Tim Thomas as he turned aside 32-of-34 shots, while Phil Kessel, Dennis Wideman, Marc Savard, Zdeno Chara and Martin St. Pierre provided the offense. The Bruins went 2-for-8 on the power play, and scored a shorthanded goal on a 3-on-1 break in the third period, pretty much taking Pittsburgh out of the game. I think that speaks volumes about the Penguins power play when they allowed a 3-on-1 rush with the man advantage.

Highlight of the night for Pittsburgh was Tim Wallace, a recent callup from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, who squared off against Milan Lucic and actually held his own for a while, before getting dropped by Lucic. The two teams meet again on Thursday, in Boston.