Last Night's Preseason Performers (Oct 5)

This was the Hockeyville, USA game, played in Marquette, MI on Tuesday night, played between the Carolina Hurricanes and Buffalo Sabres. It was the home side, from upstate New York, who came out on top, winning 2-0 on Jack Eichel's preseason debut. Unfortunately, being as though it was a neutral site game, there wasn't much for details, but we do know that Robin Lehner did play the whole game and earn the shutout honours, but that's about it.

The Rangers and Islanders renewed hostilities in Brooklyn on Tuesday night and it was the team from Long Island that came out on top, 3-2 in overtime.  Cal Clutterbuck returned from a lower-body injury to score a couple of goals, while Josh Bailey had a goal and an assist.  J-F Berube was the keeper in this one, making 23 saves for the win.

On the Rangers side, Chris Kreider was the best of the blueshirts, picking up a goal and an assist of his own in the loss.

The Columbus Blue Jackets brought defenseman David Savard back off the IR, as they went into Nashville to face the Predators and he came in handy, assisting on the overtime winner in their 3-2 win on Tuesday.  Oliver Bjorkstrand and Sonny Milano were the actual notable scorers on the team, each coming away with a couple of points each, as the goaltending was split on the evening.

Do you think the Chicago Blackhawks were excited to have Duncan Keith back patrolling the blueline? The veteran defender came back from his knee problem to help his team to a 6-1 win over the Red Wings, collecting a pair of assists in his return.  Rookie forward Alexandre Fortin is sure making an impression with the team, notching a goal and an assist in the win, possibly one to look out for at the draft, while Brian Campbell added a pair of assists as well.

Tuesday night was a good night for key NHL returns, as the Dallas Stars had the return of Jamie Benn, as he was coming off off-season abdominal surgery, which kept him out of the World Cup for Canada and it looks like he made good use of his healing time, assisting on the only regulation goal for the Stars.  The Panthers and Stars then went to a shootout, tied 1-1, where Antti Niemi got the best of the keepers with the win and prospect Denis Gurianov got the shootout winner.

Semyon Varlamov wasn't able to push his wares at the World Cup for Russia, sitting behind Columbus' Sergei Bobrovsky for the whole tournament, but the warm-up probably still did him a lot of good, as he was sharp in a 2-0 shutout win over the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night.  The Avalanche number one should still be a very viable early round pick-up, especially if the Avs get their game together finally and start looking like the 2014 edition of the club.

The Edmonton Oilers are likely getting used to their new digs, as a 2-1 regulation win against the Ducks showed their comfort level was at a reasonable level.  It was the combination of Patrick Maroon, who scored a goal and an assist, and Cam Talbot, who made 25 saves, to combine for the win at home.  Both players are going to be key players at the hockey pool draft on Saturday, but they certainly won't be the first Oilers taken.