An opening night to remember...and forget

 It was an opening night to remember.  And one that some will want to quickly forget.

Jonathan Quick got the Los Angeles Kings to overtime in Game One against the stingy St. Louis Blues, but then gave it away – literally – to Alex Steen (undrafted).  Staring at a four minute penalty kill in OT after dominating much of the game, the Blues must’ve been riding the emotional rollercoaster to the bottom of the loop when Steen pressured Quick behind the net and forced him to cough up the puck.  All Steen had to do from there was deposit said puck in the net and jump face first into the glass in celebration.  Quick, on the other hand, was face down on the ice, but only for a few seconds.  One can only assume that as he skated off the bench and walked to the visitor’s dressing room that he was already working hard on forgetting Game One.

It was also a night to remember for Josh Harding who found himself standing at the top of the Minnesota crease for the Star Spangled Banner, looking across the ice at the vaunted Chicago Blackhawks.  Harding was supposed to be working the door, but was forced into service when Niklas Backstrom mysteriously hurt himself in warm-up.  But Harding stood tall and gave the Wild a fighting chance and took the Hawks to overtime.  Alas, the President’s Trophy winners scored the winner when Viktor Stalberg (Graham) fed Bryan Bickell (Lowe) who made a nifty move on the back-up netminder.

Only one of the three games was confined to 60 minutes last night, and that was the 3-1 Ducks victory over the Red Wings.  Teemu Selanne (Peters), the ageless Finnish Flash, potted the game winner, while giving Anaheim Captain Ryan Getzlaf (Peters) and Corey Perry (Peters) led a strong offensive effort by the Pacific Division champions, who finished the regular season with the best winning percentage in franchise history.   For their efforts, the Red Wings confirmed they won’t go quietly and they now look ahead to Game Two on Thursday when they’ll try to even up the series and steal home-ice advantage.

- SCN Staff