In the three-game sweep of the NHL we start in New Jersey where the Devils made the Toronto Maple Leafs look silly in a 4-1 win. Patrik Elias scored his 400th career goal in the win.
“I’m proud of it, no question,” Elias said. “I’m proud of doing it for one organization, this team, and I was fortunate to have a lot of guys contributing to it.”
Elias’ goal gave the Devils a 2-0 lead and from there the Leafs folded their tents once again.
“I think his trademark is that he’s an all-purpose player, an all-situation player,” Devils interim co-coach Lou Lamoriello said of Elias. “He has the highest hockey sense you can have, but he’s a finisher too. You don’t score 400 goals and not be considered a goal-scorer.”
Tyler Bozak picked up the lone goal for the Leafs.
“This is tough; you always want to stay positive, but when things are going like this it’s hard to stay positive,” Bozak said. “We need everyone to be leaders and try to be as positive as we can to get out of this. Again, we got a lot of shots and lots of opportunities but their goalie played well.
“I think whenever we make a mistake it ends up in the back of our net, but there are no excuses,” Bozak said. “You can’t lose 11 games in a row or whatever it is. We have to get out of it as a team.”
James Reimer faced only 17 shots on the night and stopped 13; that’s a save percentage of 0.765%. At this point, no one on the Toronto roster is playing.
In Columbus, the Blue Jackets took their frustrations out on the St Louis Blues in a 7-1 whipping.
Nick Foligno scored twice and had an assist and Ryan Johansen kicked in a goal and two assists in the win.
“It’s a nice marker,” Foligno said of reaching 20 goals. “It’s a point where you feel like you’re really helping out and contributing. I want more and expect more of myself.”
Cam Atkinson, Matt Calvert and Scott Hartnell added goals to the sheet in the win for the Jackets who ended a three-game skid. Brandon Dubinsky added two assists.
“We certainly didn’t like the last game, especially how we started,” Dubinsky said. “The guys were really focused. We knew we had a tough task at hand against a really good team that hadn’t lost in 13 games.”
Curtis McElhinney made 32 saves for Columbus to provide some confidence to a squad looking to find some traction.
“They were a rested team. They outplayed us,” Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. “We were unfocused at times. We trended this way the last three games. It caught up to us. We’ll regroup and get ready for Sunday (a nationally televised home game vs. the Chicago Blackhawks).”
Rested or tired the Blues were routed by a team with some level of desperation.
“We just didn’t play our game,” St. Louis defenseman Alex Pietrangelo said. “We let them dictate play. They buried their chances. We didn’t. We got behind the 8-ball and played come- from-behind hockey pretty much the whole game.
“The success we’ve had lately, we’re going to get the best of every team and tonight was no different.”
In Calgary, Marc-Andre Fleury posted his second straight shutout and eight of the season and Sidney Crosby scored twice in a 4-0 Pittsburgh Penguins win over the Flames.
The shutout pushed Fleury past Tom Barrasso‘s seven shutout franchise mark.
“It’s good,” Fleury said. “He [Barrasso] was a guy that I looked up to growing up so it’s fun to be able to get those.
“There are personal goals you want to achieve. I’m glad I got it, but at the same time, I want to do well as a team. I want to win and that’s what is most important.”
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