FanHouse RyanMalone

Around 10 AM ET Friday morning, the Florida Panthers announced on their twitter feed that some breaking news was set to be announced within the hour. The first thought, of course, was centered around the possibility of the team trading defenseman Jay Bouwmeester's rights to a club that intended to sign him. Or, perhaps, that a general manager had been named.

Two hours later, TSN's Darren Dreger announced, via his own twitter feed (naturally), that Florida and Phoenix had made a trade. The deal? Steven Reinprecht to Florida in return for Stefan Meyer. Considering the initial build up, it was kind of a letdown.

Late last night after news of Michel Therrien's firing as head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins was announced, NHL Network ran an extended excerpt of a conference call with Pittsburgh general manager Ray Shero. For the most part, his comments were pretty much the same thing you hear from GMs after they kick a head coach to the curb.

There was one exception, and that was when Shero mentioned that it seemed as if the Penguins had fallen prey to a common phenomenon that we've seen in the NHL over the years -- that the team that loses the Stanley Cup Finals disintegrates on the ice during the following season.

Panthers 5, Hurricanes 0: With the No. 8 spot in the Eastern Conference on the line the Florida Panthers went into Carolina and pulled out a 5-0 win. The Hurricanes actually held a commanding edge in the shots department, firing 42 shots at Tomas Vokoun, who stopped them all to pick up his fourth shutout of the season.

Florida managed only 23 shots on goal, but was able to get four behind Cam Ward and another past Michael Leighton. The Panthers now hold a three-point edge over Carolina for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

I think it would be fair to say that Steven Stamkos, the No. 1 overall pick in this year's NHL Entry Draft, has been somewhat of a disappointment for the Tampa Bay Lightning during his rookie season.

After Lightning management hyped the stuffing out of him before he was even a member of the organization, the 18-year-old has registered just four goals and 10 assists through his first 40 games. Probably not what Oren Koules and Len Barrie had in mind when they plastered his name all over billboards this summer.

The Florida Panthers scored three third period goals, including a game-tying score from Radek Dvorak with 1:38 to play, to force overtime at the Bell Centre in Montreal on Sunday afternoon. Defenseman Andrei Markov, one of four Montreal players voted to start in the All-Star game, scored the lone goal in a shootout helping lead the Canadiens to a 6-5 win.

The Panthers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period thanks to goals from Brett McLean and David Booth, only to have Montreal come out in the second period and take over the game, scoring four goals -- including a pair in the first two minutes of the period -- while outshooting the Panthers by a 19-5 margin.

Florida rebounded in the final frame with goals from Dvorak (two) and Jassen Cullimore, sending the game to overtime. .

As long as we're on the subject of the Panthers, Greg Wyshnyski over at Puck Daddy passes along the report (from George Richards of the Miami Herald) that Brett McLean thinks Sidney Crosby is a liar, and that no challenge was ever issued prior to the drop of the puck in Saturday's game. So, basically, it's all coming down to a bunch of he said, she said. Moving on ...

There were plenty of wonderful sound bites during Barry Melrose's marvelous appearance on Toronto's Fan590 this week, chief among them was Melrose, essentially, saying that he hated co-owner Len Barrie's guts, without actually saying it. If you'll recall, when the former Tampa Bay coach was asked how he felt about Barrie, he rambled on about how Oren Koules (Tampa Bay's other co-owner) was a great guy, great for the NHL, and that he hoped he did well, never mentioning Barrie, the guy he was asked about. It's not hard to figure out what Melrose was doing there.

Well, prior to Wednesday's game in Buffalo -- which the Lightning lost, of course -- Barrie decided to fire back in what is a strong contender for hockey cat fight of the year. Damian Cristodero of the St. Petersburg Times has all of Barrie's verbal punches, including an allegation that Melrose was "negligent" in his preparation for the season.

"I knew we were in trouble when we went to Prague," Barrie said Wednesday of the season-opening trip with the Rangers, "and Barry wanted to play the (defensive) left wing lock.

What a fantastic night of action. Between the wild games in Philadelphia and Montreal, and Sean Avery's most recent shenanigans, there's plenty to talk about, so let's get right to it.

In Philadelphia, Steve Downie made his nearly-triumphant return to the city of brotherly love as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning, and he put on a display of the best he has to offer, as well as the worst he has to offer. The Flyers ended up pulling out a chaotic 4-3 overtime win.

Early in the opening period, Downie gave Flyers fans a nice reminder as to why they shouldn't be missing his antics, as he picked up a pair of penalties at the 2-minute mark, giving the Flyers an early power play. Jeff Carter took advantage of the opportunity by firing a shot behind Tampa Bay goalie Mike Smith for the game's first goal.

From that point on, Smith and Philadelphia goalie Martin Biron were walls in net, holding down a 1-1 tie until the third period. And that's where things started to pick up.

New Jersey's Dainius Zubrus entered play on Sunday with just two goals in his first 19 games this season. He had no trouble blowing that total out of the water during the Devils' 7-3 win over Tampa Bay, as he scored four goals on eight shots, while New Jersey won its fourth straight game.

During the current winning streak, the Devils have scored 21 goals after scoring just 22 in their previous nine games. As for the four-goal effort, it was the first such performance by a Devil since October 29, 2000, when John Madden and Randy McKay each scored four goals in a 9-0 win over the Penguins.

Zubrus scored a pair of goals in the second and third periods, while New Jersey also received tallies from Zach Parise, Brian Gionta and Mike Rupp. Scott Clemmensen earned the start in goal, turning aside 26 shots to pick up the win.

Olaf Kolzig started for Tampa Bay, in place of the injured Mike Smith, and surrendered five goals on 28 shots before being yanked in the second period in favor of Karri Ramo. I'm guessing it wasn't the result Rick Tocchet was looking for following his first NHL win behind the bench, as Tampa Bay has now won just three times its past eight games.

Martin St. Louis and Radim Vrbata picked up goals for the Lightning, while Ryan Malone scored on a penalty shot, his fourth goal of the season.

After coming up short in his first two games as an NHL head coach, Rick Tocchet earned his first win on Friday night when his Tampa Bay Lightning defeated Nashville, 4-1. The Lightning entered the game having lost five in a row, and seven of their past eight.

Vincent Lecavalier picked up a pair of goals in the first period, while Ryan Malone recorded three assists. Malone, who had missed the previous four games for Tampa Bay, entered play on Friday with just three goals (and no assists) on the season. He eventually left the game in the second period for what the Lightning called "precautionary reasons."

Mark Recchi and Vaclav Prospal also tallied goals in the win.

Nashville held a commanding 35-24 edge in the shots department, but could never solve Lightning goalie Mike Smith, who continued his rock-solid play in net turning aside 34 shots. Dan Ellis, suffering through a sophomore slump of sorts for Nashville, struggled once again, giving up four goals in the games first 26 minutes.

Facing 35 shots isn't anything new for Smith, seeing as how Tampa Bay is allowing a league-high 35 shots on goal per game. Thus far, the 26-year old Smith, acquired as part of the Brad Richards trade at last year's trade deadline, has been up to the challenge registering a .929 save percentage.