Florida Panthers goaltender Tomas Vokoun was taken off the ice on a stretcher after getting unintentionally slammed in the head by the stick of teammate Keith Ballard in the opening period of Monday night’s game against the Atlanta Thrashers.

Vokoun had a cut on his ear, with blood visibly streaming from it, but was alert when he was placed in an ambulance and taken to a local hospital, a Panthers spokesman said.

“Vokoun is going to be fine,” Florida coach Peter DeBoer said after a 4-3 loss to the Thrashers.

“There was no internal ear damage, just a laceration,” Panthers general manager Randy Sexton said. Vokoun, who needed stitches, was expected to meet the team at the airport and fly home with them, he said.

It will be determined Tuesday whether Vokoun will be available for Florida’s next game, at home against Colorado on Wednesday, Sexton said.

The injury occurred after Atlanta’s Ilya Kovalchuk scored a goal at 8:54 of the first period, knocking in his own rebound after a breakaway.

Ballard, chasing Kovalchuk and unable to thwart him, carelessly swung his stick in apparent frustration at the net, inadvertently striking Vokoun in the head.

Vokoun was wheeled off the ice after about a 10-minute delay as paramedics and team medical staff attended to him.

Ballard did not speak to the media after the game.

“There’s not a guy who feels worse than he does,” defenseman Bryan Allen told the Miami Herald. “He means well, he was doing the right thing. He was showing he cares. It was an unfortunate accident, and I feel bad for him. I know he feels 100 times worse than anyone else.”

Allen said he and team captain Bryan McCabe, along with Sexton and DeBoer, spoke with the upset Ballard.

“It’s a scary thing,” Panthers center Stephen Weiss said, according to the Herald. “It’s obviously an accident and it’s tough to come back and focus. . . . It was similar to [when Olli Jokinen's skate cut Richard Zednik]. I’ve never been in that position, but I would think [Ballard's] mind was elsewhere the rest of that game.”

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Yes, the headline says Rupp. Not Crosby. Not Malkin. Not Staal. Mike Rupp, who has never scored more than 6 goals in a season in his career, notched 3 tonight in MSG as the Penguins won 5-2. Sidney Crosby also scored twice, once on a deflection on a slap shot by Mark Eaton and another on a blistering backhander 9 seconds after hte Rangers scored the first goal of the game.

Mike Rupp gave the Penguins a 2-1 lead in the 2nd period scoring on his own rebound. After Marian Gaborik of the Rangers tied it up at 2, Rupp struck again from the left slot in the 3rd period whistling a twisted wrister past Henrik Lundqvist.

Finally, after Crosby gave the Pens a 4-2 lead, Rupp added an empty-net goal to complete the hat trick. Marc-Andre Fleury of the Penguins made plenty of great saves to help give the Penguins their league leading 19th win of the season. This is the second straight game agaisnt the Rangers in which a Penguins player has recorded a hat trick.

Crosby got a hat trick Saturday night at Pittsburgh in the Penguins 8-3 rout over the Rangers. The Pens return home to host 3 games against Colorado, Chicago, and Carolina.

To celebrate the Rangers-Penguins rivalry, lets enjoy this brawl from 1990

Monday night vs Carolina was supposed to be an easy game for the Washington Capitals. Despite winning the game 3-2, they suffered a major loss as Alex Ovechkin went down with a right knee injury. This is the second time the star forward has been injured for the Capitals. He left the game in the 1st Period with 7:55 to go after a knee-on-knee collision with Carolina defenseman Tim Gleason.

“Anytime Alex is hurt I’m concerned,” Washington coach Bruce Boudreau said. “He’s stiff right now, but I don’t know how long he’s going to be out if he’s going to be out at all. Tomorrow, you know, these things, the next morning you find out a bit more than you do now.”

Along with getting the injury, Ovechkin also received a 5-minute penalty for kneeing and a game misconduct. Ovechkin also kneed Penguins defenseman Sergei Gonchar in the 2009 Eastern Conference Semi-finals. Gonchar was sidelined for a couple games but came back in Game 7 to lead the Pens past the Caps and eventually win the Cup.

It’s been 18 years since a goalie had a night like Islanders netminder Dwayne Roloson.

Roloson turned aside 58 shots to help the New York Islanders beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 in overtime on Monday night. It was the most saves since Ron Tugnutt stopped 70 shots for Quebec on March 21, 1991 according to STATS.

“To me, it’s just another night, another game,” said the 40-year-old Roloson. “It doesn’t matter to me whether it’s one shot or 100 shots, I’ve got to do the same things, try to give my team a chance to win.”

The victory improved Roloson’s record to 2-0-2 on the lengthy trip, and 7-2-5 overall this season. The Islanders went 3-2-2 on the seven-game trip to improve to 9-8-7 in 2009-10, but they know they wouldn’t have been so successful if not for the tireless Roloson in net.

“I don’t ever remember a game like that,” said Maple Leafs forward Phil Kessel, who had 12 shots himself. “I don’t even know what to say after something like that.”

Roloson, who signed as an unrestricted free agent last summer, made several great saves — the most painful of which was No. 52, a hard shot from Mikhail Grabovski that hit him directly in the mask. It’s the kind of performance his new team has come to expect.

“Roloson was outstanding,” Islanders coach Scott Gordon said. “We didn’t tell Dwayne, but we figured as long as they didn’t hit 70 shots, we’d be all right.”

Josh Bailey scored 4:18 into overtime, taking a pass from Sean Bergenheim and slamming the puck into an open net to make a winner of Roloson. It was the Islanders only shot of the extra period. Jeff Tambellini, Matt Moulson and Bergenheim also scored for New York (9-8-7).

Kessel, Wayne Primeau and Niklas Hagman replied for the Maple Leafs (4-11-7).

It was a relatively quiet night for Islanders rookie John Tavares, who admitted to feeling some nerves before a game that was attended by roughly 100 friends and family. The 19-year-old from nearby Oakville was limited to one quality scoring chance — he roared in off the wing in third period and had a shot stopped by Jonas Gustavsson.

Like his teammates, Tavares left with a big smile on his face.

“I felt pretty good out there,” he said. “I just wanted to play well. It’s the city I grew up in. It was a lot of fun tonight, and a great ending for us.”

The Islanders surged to a 3-0 lead over a span of 3:13. Tambellini took a nice breakaway pass from Mark Streit and beat Vesa Toskala high, Moulson pumped his fists after tipping home his team-leading 11th of the season and Bergenheim came in alone on a short-handed rush and roofed a shot over Toskala.

Suddenly, the boos poured down from an Air Canada Centre crowd that has witnessed just two wins in 11 games this season.

“I think we’re moving in the right direction here,” said defenseman Ian White.

A glimpse of hope arrived soon after off the stick of Kessel, who scored for the sixth time in 10 games with the Maple Leafs. He charged hard to the goal and had a tap-in after taking a nice pass from Matt Stajan at 15:32.

Shortly after, Toskala pulled himself from the game because he aggravated a groin injury.

“Just a little tweak,” he said. “Hopefully, it doesn’t take too long (to feel better).”

Primeau scored at 2:10 of the third period from his knees before Hagman roared around Freddy Meyer and made it 3-3 at 9:18.

At that point, all signs pointed to a comeback Leafs victory. Instead, the NHL’s last-place team found itself with an improbable loss.

“It was unbelievable,” said Kessel. “You know again, we didn’t win. We’ve got to bury one more puck. It’s unfortunate. We’re going to keep battling and keep working. We’ve got a good hockey club here — we’re better than our record shows.”

NHL surging past the NBA:

June 2004. Vincent LeCavalier and the Tampa Bay Lightning win the Stanley Cup over the Calgary Flames in 7 games. However, there is uncertainty in the NHL’s future. The collective bargaining agreement was expiring, more than half of the teams in the NHL were losing money, and interest in the sport was falling after the faces of the game, such as Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky had retired or aged. The NHL was dormant in 2004-05. Arenas were dark and the NHL’s future seemed darker. Finally, the NHL signed a new CBA in 2005 and it was back in the fall with a new TV agreement with Outdoor Life Network, now Versus, new marketable stars in Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, and Evgeni Malkin, and new rules to make the game faster and more appealing to the fans.

Four years have passed. Crosby has won a cup. The Penguins and Capitals have established one of the greatest rivalries in recent memory. Even newer stars keep popping up like Anze Kopitar for the Kings, Steven Stamkos of the Lightning, Steve Mason of the Blue Jackets, and John Tavares of the Islanders. The NHL keeps setting attendance records. Last season, the NHL had 18 teams who had 95% attendance and up. The NBA on the other hand had 16 teams. Media outlets like ESPN continued to bury the NHL and they still do. Some “analysts” said the NHL would never come back. Now they are eating their own words.

It is true that NBA TV ratings continue to dominate the NHL’s. But that is because of the exposure it gets. The NBA is on ESPN which is available EVERYWHERE, but Versus is only available to a fraction of the amount of people that have ESPN. The casual fan sees the NBA because its on the ESPN. They may not even care about the game but they see it because its on ESPN. ESPN also shows more NBA highlights because they televise the NBA and need people to watch it. This also explains why they have started showing soccer highlights. They have the rights to Premier League matches so they show more soccer games and highlights. Years ago, ESPN didn’t even give a damn about soccer, because they didn’t show games.

Versus is doing a great job with the NHL. It’s getting a lot better. But, especially with the DirecTV-Versus dispute, the NHL needs to get back on ESPN in the next decade. Crosby and Ovechkin have not even hit their primes yet. Once they do, and the world sees the great sport we all love, the NHL will hit the roof. The NBA is also coming off a dirty officiating scandal with Tim Donaghy. A lot of questionable calls. People are sick of it. The NHL has players with the best personalities. Most fan-friendly. Watch out NBA!

Last night during the Kings’ 6-2 victory over the Blue Jackets, defenseman Rob Scuderi delivered a controversial hip check on Jason Chimera of the Jackets. Here is the hit:

After the game, Jason Chimera was quoted:

“It was low. It was a dirty hit. I don’t care what you call it. I’ve been hip-checked before, but it’s a dirty hit. There’s no room in the game for that kind of (stuff). When the guy takes your knees out, what are you supposed to do? It wasn’t a hip check at all. It was a direct hit on the knees. They had no explanation, so I don’t know what they (the referees) were thinking. I mean, I landed on my face on the ice and my neck was squished against the ice. I’m lucky I didn’t come out with a concussion or something. It’s a dirty play. There’s no room in the game for that. There are too many guys that are carried out on stretchers because of dirty stuff. There’s no room in the game for it. There’s got to be a level of respect out there.”

Yeah, Scuderi was low. But, how low is too low. We understand that Chimera stated that Scuderi was at his knees. So wouldn’t that be a tripping call? But according the Greg Wyshinsky of Yahoo! Sports, tripping penalties are defined as “A player or goalkeeper shall not place the stick, knee, foot, arm, hand or elbow in such a manner that causes his opponent to trip or fall.” It doesn’t mention tripping with your back. However, it was a dangerous hit. Chimera fell on his face. But still, you can’t call it a dirty hit. The NHL needs to take a look at these vicious hip checks that send the victim head over heels. They should make it a tripping call. I agree that it was a vicious and dangerous hit. But it was clean because the rules don’t say that tripping with your back is a penalty. Scuderi is known for his hip checks. Here is another one from last season against Dainius Zubrus of the Devils when he played for the Penguins. No penalty was called on this one either. So Chimera is just overreacting.

Nothing can bring down the Pittsburgh Penguins these days. After suffering a loss to their star defenseman Sergei Gonchar and falling down 2-0 to the Florida Panthers at home Friday night, the Penguins still found a way to rally back and win in a shootout, 3-2.

The Panthers were coming off a huge, deflating loss to the Buffalo Sabres and were looking to bounce back and quickly jumped on the Penguins early recording 7 of the first 9 shots. Steven Reinprecht scored twice to give Florida a 2-0 lead.

Throughout the 2nd period, Penguins back-up goalie Brent Johnson played stellar in goal keeping the Penguins in the game. In the 3rd, on a 5-on-3 powerplay, Sidney Crosby found the back of the net after Evgeni Malkin made a great effort to keep the puck in the attacking zone.

After a series of saves by Johnson and a plethora of opportunities by the Penguins to even up the score, Crosby found the back of the net again on a shorthanded opportunity. Malkin drove the puck behind the net and left a beautiful pass to Crosby in the slot who sniped it home.

The game stayed tied until the shootout, where Crosby struck again giving the Penguins the 1-0 shootout win and giving them their 18th point in the young season.

Flyers defeat Bruins in Winter Classic Preview

Ray Emery got his first shootout victory in a Flyer uniform today as Claude Giroux scored the winner for the Flyers. The Flyers peppered 39 shots on Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask, including a breakaway opportunity for Jeff Carter in the overtime period. Despite his effort, the Bruins failed to get the extra point against the Flyers, who will now play host to the Florida Panthers Saturday night at Wachovia Center.

In other action, the New Jersey Devils improved to 4-0-0 on the road against their rival New York Rangers at the Garden. After the Rangers tied the game at 2 with an Ales Kotalik goal, Dainius Zubrus of the Devils gave his team the 3-2 lead 7:51 into the 3rd period.

Finally, in the most exciting game of the day, the Ottawa Senators came back 3 times against the Nashville Predators only to lose the game in overtime, but they at least picked up a point. The Senators were down 3-0 heading into the 3rd but they tied the game with 3 goals in a 7 minute span. After tying the game again at 4, the Senators fell behind again with exactly 1 minute left in regulation. However, with only 2 seconds left, the Senators tied the game with a Chris Phillips shorthanded goal sending the game to an overtime, which was won by the Predators’ Shea Weber on the powerplay.

Pittsburgh Penguins star Russian defenseman Sergei Gonchar was injured during Pittsburgh’s 5-1 over St. Louis Tuesday night at the Mellon Arena. Gonchar fell awkwardly on his hand after a collision with a Blues player. After evaluation on Wednesday, it was ruled that Gonchar would miss more than a month with a wrist injury.

The Penguins struggled mightily last season without Gonchar, going 27-24-5 and sitting in 10th place in the Eastern Conference. After Gonchar’s return, the Penguins won 18 of their last 26 games and eventually won the Stanley Cup.

This year the Penguins are 8-1-0 sitting atop the NHL in 1st place. Losing Gonchar will be the Penguins’ first test of adversity this year. He will definitely be missed on the powerplay, where he is so good carrying the puck into the opponent’s zone. Martin Skoula, the veteran defenseman who has been a healthy scratch all season for Pittsburgh, will take Gonchar’s place on the blue line. Kris Letang and Alex Goligoski will be called upon to shine on the powerplay. Both players have a wealth of experience now. Also, while Gonchar was out last year, Pittsburgh had a different coach in Michel Therrien. So their struggles last year cannot be all blamed on Gonchar’s absence.

The Penguins continue their 5-game home stand against the lowly Florida Panthers Friday night at 4:30 pacific at the Igloo. Catch the action with Paul Steigerwald and Bob Errey on FSN Pittsburgh in beautiful high-definition.

-Joftak Jones
Senior NHL Writer.