NHL Wednesday: Flyers host Caps, Wings challenge Kings

During that contest, Colorado defenseman Ryan O’Byrne blocked a shot. While blocking that shot, this happened to his knee, via his twitter feed:

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It was a short night in the NHL with two nationally televised games on NBC Sports Network. National viewers got their money’s worth. We’ve got you covered if you happened to be doing something uninteresting last night instead of watching hockey. Which would be anything other than watching hockey.

Bruins 2, Senators 1 (OT)

In another life, Jonathan Bernier was one helluva soccer striker.

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The rest of the Capitals didn’t fare as well.

The team looked sluggish from opening puck drop and were non-existent in the offensive zone. Despite moments when the Philadelphia defense faltered, the Capitals failed to take advantage of the opportunities. While Philadelphia played a solid game, the effort was far from perfect. Those imperfections could have resulted in Washington pulling themselves back into contention.

Rule number one for handling pucks if you’re a goaltender: Don’t hesitate.

The Ducks dumped the puck in, Rinne went to retrieve it and then this happened:

Feeling like it’s been far too long since we’ve had a good Mike Milbury rant? Well you can be at ease tonight. Milbury has delivered.

The sometimes controversial yet always opinionated NBC commentator ripped into Alex Ovechkin during the second intermission of the Capitals game in Philadelphia tonight. The Capitals’ star winger has had some well-publicized struggles finding the back of the net this season and his team has sat near the bottom of the league most of the year. So naturally he was right in Milbury’s crosshairs.

And then Phaneuf changed his mind.

You can almost see the thought running through his mind. “Eh, you’re not worth my time.” Prust looks like he doesn’t really know how to respond. He can either pick up his stick and skate away, shove Phaneuf until he accepts the challenge or drop his other glove.

Here’s the gif of the play:

Brown was given a five-minute major for boarding and a game misconduct. Predictably, Leafs fans are upset about what appeared to be an iffy misconduct call. Gorges wasn’t hurt, but it seems the officials decided the play was dangerous enough to kick Brown out of the game. Expect the physicality to ramp up as this game continues, even though the Leafs are now without one of their pests.

According to Pacioretty, Grabovski bit him during a scrum in the most recent meeting between the Canadiens and Maple Leafs. The league determined that their was a lack of conclusive evidence to determine whether Granovski did. Regardless, the Canadiens gave Pacioretty a tetanus shot. Will there be any carryover from the alleged incident?

4. Will the Kings extend their winning streak to five-games?

It will mark the third of five meetings between the two Northeast Division rivals this season.

Despite Montreal owning the top-spot in the increasingly competitive Northeast, Toronto has claimed ownership to the season series against their division foe. Registering regulation victories in both contests this season, the Maple Leafs managed a 2-1 victory on the opening night of the season and followed it up with a dominating 6-0 win on Feb. 9.

It will mark the second of three meetings between the two teams this season.

The Capitals will be entering Wednesday night as the last place team in the Southeast Division. However, the club has managed to record consecutive victories and has outscored its opponents by a margin of 8-1 over that span. The game will mark the beginning of a two-game road trip, which will also see the team travel to Winnipeg on Saturday night.

Detroit must face a Kings team that has now won four straight games to climb right back into the Western Conference hunt. Los Angeles had struggled mightily to start the season and fought to live up to lofty expectations after a Cup win last summer, falling to 3-5-2 on the season before finally turning things around.

Puck is set to drop at 10 p.m. ET, with national coverage on NBC Sports Network.