Devan Dubnyk stopped 37 shots for his first shutout of his career. The Oilers stand a better chance of winning with him in net. Period. That said – I traded him a few days ago for a low draft pick. I needed the roster space and decided to keep Kevin Poulin over him.

Phil Kessel, the subject of my THN article out later today, was pointless again despite Toronto scoring five times. It’s funny that the line of Grabovski, Kulemin and MacArthur were split up – yet they each still managed to get two points.

Dustin Byfuglien’s point was his first in 14 games.

I didn’t pick up on this yesterday, but Erik Christensen is back for the Rangers. He’s stuck on the fourth line with minimal ice time though. His injury probably removed his shot at a big line, as the kids have come up and won spots on him.

Pavel Datsyuk – two points in his return to action. Jiri Hudler also had two points.

Line combos last night: Datsyuk with Hudler and Cleary; Zetts with Franzen and Bert; Filpps with Eaves and Abdelkader.

Filppula left last night’s game with a leg injury in the third period and did not return. He took a knee to his thigh.

Jordan Eberle now has four points in three games since returning to action.

As expected, the Bruins have shut down Marc Savard for the rest of the season. All eyes will be on Tyler Seguin in terms of picking up the slack. But still, the guy is going to be the third-line center. Can we really expect a lot? Also – this is Patrice Bergeron’s team, not Savard’s.

Corey Crawford stopped 25 of 27 shots, but took the loss. The ball, I’m sure, is back in Turco’s court.

Rene Bourque scored his first goal in three weeks and his fifth goal since November. Granted, he needed an empty netter to do it, but still…maybe this will wake him up.

Keith Ballard left last night’s contest with a knee injury.

Keith Yandle was held off the scoresheet for the third straight game. With this guy – that’s news. He was stopped in three straight back in early January, but prior to that you have to go back to October.

Craig Anderson has lost five games in a row and is 2-8-1 in his last 11.

In the DobberHockey Experts League, Ryan Ma is running away with it – still. He has 104 points, good for 13.5 over Ian Fergusson. I’ve been pulling all the stops trying to crawl out of last place, where I sat in mid-November, and have finally clawed my way up to seventh. Getting any higher than that will be touch, but it was a lot of fun seeing how high I could go after being dead last – by a WIDE margin, I had something like 34 points – in Week 7.

Peter Forsberg is looking to play Saturday against Nashville. Prediction: he pulls himself out of the lineup after the pre-game skate, screwing everyone one of you who refused to listen to my sage advice.

One exception to my advice – if you have daily transactions and max games in place. Because this way, if Forsberg screws you (and he will), you can still use the game later. That’s the ONLY exception.

Jaroslav Halak, who has missed two weeks with an UBI, is now ready to return for the Blues. Bishop has been sent back down.

Ryan Malone will return to the Lightning lineup after missing five games. How this impacts the lines will be interesting to see.

Buffalo and St. Louis are the only teams to have played just 51 games. The Rangers and Thrashers are the only teams to have played 56 games. If you can deal a player from one team for a similar player on the other, you’re laughing.

Calgary is actually in the playoffs. On paper, is there a worse team in or close to the playoffs right now? Seriously, I don’t like this team at all. You have to give credit to coach, when that’s the case. Chicago, LA and Colorado are actually out of the playoffs right now, 53-odd games in.

Boston has recalled Jordan Caron, who will fill in for the suspended Dan Paille. Caron has seven points in 20 NHL games, and 17 in 27 AHL games.

Ryan Getzlaf is slated to return Wednesday.

Jason Spezza – two points in his second game back, so he just needed a game to get his feet under him

Neil vs. Rome:

Gretzky’s comeback?