NHL Nhl Press Box

Since Gretz was at Wednesday's Penguins vs. Canadiens game for FanHouse, consider this your abbreviated version of Newsmakers in the NHL, our weekday recap of the previous night's action across the league.

PITTSBURGH -- I'm not quite sure how it happened, but I'm probably the only hockey fan in the world that had never seen a player record a hat trick in person, whether it be as a fan in the stands, or sitting in the press box. Thanks to Sidney Crosby's three goal effort on Wednesday, I can now cross that off the list.

UNIONDALE, NY -- What does a Stanley Cup contender do when nothing is working, their feisty underdog of an opponent is giving them fits and they're down 2-0 with 15 minutes left in the game? To hear the Washington Capitals tell it after coming back to beat the New York Islanders 3-2 on Saturday night, a few things.

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Newsmakers in the NHL: During the regular season it's our weekday look at the previous night's action and some of the story lines taking place around the league. Have a tip or something you want linked? Send it in to nhlfanhouse@gmail.com.

PITTSBURGH -- St. Louis Blues head coach Andy Murray lifted his starting goaltender, Chris Mason, following the second period of his team's 5-1 loss in Pittsburgh on Tuesday night. And it wasn't due to poor performance by the veteran netminder.

Sure, he gave up four goals through two periods, but the Penguins were coming at him in waves over the opening 40 minutes. Had it not been for the play of Mason, the Penguins could have -- and would have -- blown the doors off this game much earlier than they did.

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PITTSBURGH -- The Phoenix Coyotes opened their season on Saturday with an impressive 6-3 win over a Los Angeles Kings team that many are predicting as a playoff team in the Western Conference this season.

On Wednesday, the Coyotes were perhaps even better in what was a rather surprising 3-0 win over the defending Stanley Cup Champion Penguins, in Pittsburgh -- a fact that was mentioned multiple times in an excited Coyotes locker room following the game.

UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- When the NHL schedule was released in July, John Tavares could not help but notice the opponent for his National Hockey League debut. Not looking to break in the 2009 first overall pick easily, the hockey gods matched up his Islanders with the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

"Sure, I noticed it," Tavares said with a smile Saturday after the Islanders' morning skate at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. "It doesn't make it any easier, that's for sure. This is going to be quite a challenge, but I'm excited for it."

BOSTON -- On the first day in October, more than eight months before the Stanley Cup is rolled out to center ice, the Washington Capitals demonstrated in NHL Game No. 1 in Boston on Thursday night why they may be the Eastern standard.

These Capitals are not just Alexander Ovechkin, but a team constructed with precision from top to bottom.

WASHINGTON -- After watching the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals play six of the most tightly-contested playoff games in recent memory, just about every last one of the 18,277 fans who showed up at Verizon Center on Wednesday night were probably expecting yet another nail-biter between two teams that couldn't be more evenly matched.

What they got instead was a 6-2 blowout win by Pittsburgh.

How did it happen? Simply put, the Penguins put their foot on the gas early and didn't let up.

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Just a few minutes ago as he sat at a podium following his team's 4-3 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, it was obvious that Washington Capitals head coach Bruce Boudreau was more angry than heartbroken.

Who could blame him? Washington, a team that got two goals from the best player in the world, Alex Ovechkin, had played its most complete game of the series, yet still couldn't find a way to win.

In the end, this game turned on two sequences on either end of the ice in the overtime period. The first came early in the period when Washington center Dave Steckel, one of his team's more consistent performers, couldn't put the puck into an open net early. The second came just a few minutes later, as an Evgeni Malkin pass intended for Sidney Crosby deflected off the stick of sprawling Capitals defenseman Tom Poti and through the legs of a stunned Simeon Varlamov.

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It's probably a matter of perspective when discussing Alex Ovechkin's hit on Sergei Gonchar during Pittsburgh's 5-3 win on Friday night. The hit, which resulted in Gonchar leaving the game with an undisclosed injury, appeared as if it were a knee-on-knee hit, while the Capitals' superstar was issued a two-minute minor for tripping.

Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma would not offer any information regarding the severity of Gonchar's injury, but the tone of his voice and his facial expressions weren't exactly promising if you're the Penguins.

PITTSBURGH -- Thanks to their 5-3 win on Friday night, the Pittsburgh Penguins evened their Eastern Conference semifinal series with Washington at two games apiece, setting the stage for what is, essentially, a brand new, best-of-three series starting Saturday night in Washington.

The Penguins overcame another shaky performance by their power play, as well as the loss of defenseman Sergei Gonchar following a hit from Alex Ovechkin midway through the first period to pick up their second consecutive win in the series.

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