NHL Scores & More: Panthers, Capitals Pull Off Rallies; Oh, Sidney Crosby Returned?

“We’ve talked about it. I guess the talk has gone away from it because we were starting to lose,” Boudreau said of scratching Semin. “We’ve scratched guys. He was taking penalties seven games in a row. At some point you have to be accountable for your errors.”

“I don’t like doing those things to people that are that talented, but everybody’s got to know that everybody’s accountable,” Boudreau said. “It was a tough decision, but it was a decision, I thought, that had to be made for the group.”

After Monday’s practice, the media hoarded Crosby, asking him questions about how he felt and what he was expecting going into the night’s game.

“You don’t always get this anxious for games,” said Crosby. “This is one I can definitely say I’m pretty anxious and excited for, but I don’t think anything matches the first [game].”

“Coming through the neutral zone, I didn’t think I had any speed,” Skinner said after the game. “So I tried to generate a little bit by turning around and just putting it up in the air. I just put it in the net. He (Bryzgalov) did a good job saving the first one, I just tried to tap it in on the second.”

“He’s played great,” head coach Paul Maurice said of Ponikarovsky’s play. “In a really lousy stretch last week, he was one of the lone forward voices always barking on the bench, always up, always going. So I’m happy he got rewarded for it. He was a very consistent leader for us throughout that (tough time).”

The Bruins are officially on a roll, extending their winning streak to nine games -- even if they’re winning ugly, as Stanley Cup of Chowder admits. This one has to sting for Canadiens fans, because it easily could have gone the other way, as Kevin van Steendelaar describes at Eyes on the Prize:

Despite jumping ahead with a three-goal lead, the Devils found themselves on the wrong end of a 4-3 final score. This one hurts, but Devils fans ought not overreact, writes John Fischer of In Lou We Trust: