Kris Russell eclipses the Bruins, Ovechkin sits out, Soderberg rumours and more…

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Ovechkin missed last night's contest against the Wild with lower-body soreness. I'm not too concerned. Frankly, the dude should probably take a few games off each season because of the visceral nature of his game.

I was kind of hoping that Nicklas Backstrom would go off with Ovechkin out and take sole possession of top spot in the scoring race but he was blanked. Didn't even get a second of power play time either but he can thank the discipline of the Wild and the efficiency of the Capitals' second unit for that. The Caps scored on their lone power play chance just 16 seconds into it.

That power-play goal was Curtis Glencross' first as a Cap. That's a big one because Washington could really use his secondary scoring come playoff time, especially since he wasn't providing much of it in Calgary.

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I heard some whispers that Darcy Kuemper might go for the Wild last night but it was indeed Devan Dubnyk in net. No one else has started for the Wild since Dubnyk was acquired and for good reason, he's been lights out.

The Wild play again tonight so with the back-to-back scenario there are once again whispers that Kuemper may see action. I know that Minnesota needs to give Dubnyk a break but I don't know about playing Kuemper. He hasn't seen NHL action since January 20^th and the last time he suited up for a game of any kind was February 7^th. He's had a month off to what, practice? You can practically taste the rust on him in the air.

Not only has he had a month off but Kuemper was pretty crappy when he skated in the AHL too. Check out his game log from that five-game stint. Outside of the one shutout, where's the glimmer of hope? His aggregate numbers were worse than at the NHL level.

I like Kuemper. I still think he's got a chance of being an average goalie. Look at what we are seeing from Dubnyk. Revivals are possible. He needs to find himself in the hands of a guru who can fix his confidence. Maybe that's what the month off was all about.

A couple of goals for Jason Pominville were the difference for Minnesota last night. Give Zach Parise assists on each goal.

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Nursing a one-goal lead heading into the third the Blues gave up three unanswered to the Flyers to fall 3-1. David Backes, Alexander Steen, TJ Oshie and Alex Pietrangelo were on the ice for all three against and not for the one for making it a very tough night for fantasy owners of those four.

Brian Elliott was in goal for St. Louis stopping 28 of 30 that he faced. I haven't heard a peep about last weekend's blow-up against Vancouver

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David Schlemko paying dividends for the Flames already scoring with this nice move to win it for the Flames in the shootout:

By the way, Schlemko skated just 7:00 in this one despite it going to overtime, so he's basically a shootout specialist, which seems like extremely inefficient use of a roster spot.

But why bother rostering useful defensemen when you can just skate Dennis Wideman and Kris Russell together for 33 minutes apiece and they can block 23 shots combined. 23 shots, that's more than the Stars' tandem stopped against the Panthers last night.

Kris Russell was more like Bill Russell out there with 15 shot blocks on his own, which is more than the entire Bruins team had (10). That might be the most shots blocked in a single game by anyone this season. It's certainly more than anyone blocked in a single game last season, which is the only season that Sporting Charts will give me data on. In any case, an impressive feat for a player who was already leading the league in shot blocks.

Russell also added a pair of assists and five SOG. I suppose I was wrong when I said that no one would benefit from Mark Giordano's absence but this is just one game. It should be mentioned that Russell went minus-two in this one but I think it's hard to block that many shots without cost.

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Balanced scoring for the Bruins last night as they got a goal from each of their three lines. That means Ryan Spooner and David Pastrnak scored again for the Bruins, which is good news for them. Carl Soderberg also scored a point, just his fourth in 15 post-All-Star matches.

Some interesting rumours out there regarding Soderberg. That link discusses both the potential of a nagging injury causing his struggles and also discusses the possibility that the Bruins may not re-sign him this summer. Soderberg wouldn't be the first to make a quick exit back to Europe if he couldn't secure the money he wants.

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