The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Washington Capitals 3-2 on Friday and David Desharnais picked up his first goal of the season. Yes, you read that right. Desharnais actually had two assists against Minnesota earlier in the week, which makes three points for him in his last two games. Maybe this will jumpstart him offensively because he can’t really do any worse than his one point in 19 games to start the season.

Daniel Briere also scored and he has picked it up somewhat as well. He’s now up to three goals and four points in his last five games.

P.K. Subban on the other hand is sliding the other way and was held off the scoresheet again on Friday. Other than a two-assist performance on Tuesday against the Wild, Subban has been held pointless in four of his last five games. Then again he did grab five PIM, two shots, and three hits against the Caps, so the night wasn’t a lost cause.

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Surprise, surprise, Alexander Ovechkin scored both goals for Washington and now has six in five games. If that wasn’t enough he also added five shots and three hits.

John Carlson assisted on both of the goals and is quietly putting together a solid season thus far. He’s notched six points in his last five games.

Martin Erat continues to receive mediocre minutes. He played just 13:18 against Montreal with virtually no power play time. Head coach Adam Oates increased his minutes for a stretch about a month ago, but Erat has responded with just a single point in his last 10 games.

Nicklas Backstrom has now gone two straight without a point. Let’s hope that’s as far as this mini-slump goes.

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The Penguins squeaked out a 4-3 win over the Islanders thanks to a late goal by Sidney Crosby. Crosby’s tally was overshadowed by the night of a couple of other Penguin forwards.

Chris Kunitz picked up a two goals and an assist, while Evgeni Malkin scored a goal after going 15 games without one. Malkin still picked up 16 assists in that span and had some strong games recently, so it was only a matter of time before he got the monkey off his back.

Kris Letang has now been held scoreless for four straight games and had gone minus-2 over that stretch. He’s got nine shots in his last two contests, so the points should come sooner rather than later.

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Thomas Vanek made his return to the Islanders lineup on Friday and scored two goals.
Nobody was likely happier than Kyle Okposo who assisted on both, after going without a point in three games coming in.

Michael Grabner has been in a major funk since his hot first week of the season. He hasn’t picked up a point in 13 straight games and didn’t even get 12 minutes of ice-time against the Pens.

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The Flames needed a shootout to beat the Panthers, and Joe Colborne led the way with a goal and a helper. Colborne has three points in his last two, but his ice-time has dropped considerably from where it was earlier in the month, so proceed with caution.

Sven Baertschi scored and although it was only his second of the season, he does have four points in five games.

T.J. Galiardi was a healthy scratch against Florida.

The shootout went six rounds and was fairly entertaining.

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Jimmy Hayes scored for the Panthers and it was his first point in four games since coming over from the Blackhawks. He is still in tough to even get 10 minutes a night in Florida, so he’s not a reliable option at the moment.

Nick Bjugstad, however, has seven points in nine games after picking up a point against Calgary and could be a shrewd add.

Tomas Fleischmann has now been held pointless in six straight contests and played just 16:10, his second lowest total of the season. Something to monitor.

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The Canucks crushed the Blue Jackets 6-2 and Sergei Bobrovsky was victimized for six goals on 35 shots.

Jack Johnson continues to struggle and was held without a point for the eighth straight game. He also went minus-3 against Vancouver.

To make matters worse for Columbus, Brandon Dubinsky was sent home with a bruised foot and will miss the next two games.

On the plus side, Artem Anisimov scored for the first time in three games.

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Despite the win, Roberto Luongo gave up two goals on 14 shots.

The Sedins were clicking big time on Friday as Henrik scored two goals and Daniel added three points. They combined for a plus-5 mark on the night.

Ryan Stanton had a shocking three assists from the blueline. Don’t expect to see that too often.

Alex Edler put an end to a seven game pointless drought with a goal and an assist. He’s great for shots on goal and usually plays around 22-plus minutes, so maybe this will spark him into a run.

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Anaheim topped Tampa Bay 1-0 late in overtime on a Ryan Getzlaf goal. Getzlaf and Corey Perry combined for 12 shots.

Viktor Fasth was injured in warmups, so Jonas Hiller got a surprise start and picked up a shutout for his troubles.

Hampus Lindholm had five shots and he has 17 now in his last six games.

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Ben Bishop had a nice bounce back start after a couple of rough outings. He stopped 41-of-42 shots.

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The Toronto Maple Leafs got a scare on Friday when center Tyler Bozak reportedly left practicing limping. Bozak has missed the last 11 games with a hamstring injury, but said he was fine afterwards. Keep an eye on his status throughout the day, as he has a chance to return against the Capitals on Saturday. The Leafs could certainly use him.

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The Flames are reportedly open to moving forward Mikael Backlund. The former first round pick has yet to pan out and minutes are tough to come by with the emergence of Sean Monahan. 

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The Jets placed defenseman Zach Bogosian on injured reserve because of a groin strain. He is likely week-to-week, according to coach Claude Noel. 

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Gustav Nyquist owners rejoice. General manager Ken Holland said the forward will remain with the team for the rest of the season.

Michael Amato is an Associate Editor at DobberHockey and a News Editor at theScore. You can follow him on Twitter at @amato_mike