NHL Saturday: Penguins survive bizarre shootout win against Rangers

If you happened to tune in to an NHL game on Saturday you were treated with two outcomes no matter which game you chose: blowout win or thrilling finish. There wasn’t really any in-betweens.

But let’s be honest: would we have it any other way?

Three Things We Learned

1. Montreal’s power play is finally rounding into form. The Canadiens endured a rough start on the man advantage with just three goals in their first 16 tries, but their effort on Saturday proved they might finally be figuring things out in that area. The Flyers’ penalty kill had no answer for Montreal, giving up three goals on all three opportunities.

Dan Girardi was trying to play the puck behind his own net in the third period when Malkin came out of nowhere and rocked him with a hit. Girardi remained on the ice for a few minutes before walking to the locker room under his own power. Malkin received a roughing minor for participating in a scrum after the hit.

Here’s another look at the hit in question. It doesn’t look like Malkin aimed for the head with his shoulder, and the league will probably agree with the referees that the hit was clean.

But everyone else saw it, Geno. And we are all judging you.

(H/T @MyRegularFace)

The Dallas Stars would officially like a mulligan on their miserable start to the season.

Just hours after his team suffered their eighth loss in ten games, Stars GM Jim Nill announced winger Valeri Nichushkin requires hip surgery that will keep him out for the next four months.

If you’re a goalie planning on leaving your net to stop a breakaway, you had better make sure you actually remove the puck from the puck carrier.

(H/T @MyRegularFace)

(H/T @MyRegularFace)

Saturday night is usually alright for fighting, but when it’s NHL season, that means you can spend the whole day on the couch and just watch hockey. With 12 games on tap starting as early as 1:00 p.m. ET with Carolina-Boston, you can get more than your fill and there’s a few to keep your eye on.

Here is a complete look a the NHL schedule on Saturday and the coverage for each game. In addition to the television coverage, viewers can watch and follow the games online with coverage from NHL GameCenter Live and NHL Center Ice.