The Daily Sniper: Paul Stastny is My New Favorite Player

News and notes from last night’s action…

Colorado 4, Dallas 3 — They just had to non conform and not go to overtime, didn’t they? In the only game of the night that kept the fans from seeing extra hockey, the Avs won their home opener no thanks to douchebag newcomer Ryan Smyth, who had zero points and -1 rating on the night. The story was Paul Stastny, who had a hat trick by the 11:15 mark of the second period. Wojtek Wolski knocked in the eventual game winner minutes later and Andrew Brunette also picked up three helpers. As I mentioned before, I have Stastny on all three of my fantasy teams. Suck it, everyone.

Ottawa 4, Toronto 3 OT — Roses are red, violets are blue, I hate Jason “fetus” Blake, how about you? Blake was +2 with an assist in his ACC debut, but the Leafs blew a 3-2 third period lead en rout to the loss. Paul Maurice surprise pretty much everyone by starting Andrew Raycroft in net, who looked decent until the team in front of him collapsed, getting out shot 12-4 in the third period… Nik Antropov had two goals for Toronto and Dany Heatley had three points for the Sens including the overtime winner… The new Sens jerseys were looking sharp tonight, but from far away and behind looked an awful lot like the new Caps jerseys.

Detroit 3, Anaheim 2 SO — Henrik Zetterberg has two points for the Wings, and Todd Bertuzzi had two for the Ducks against his former team as the Wings won in shootout. If anyone had any doubts about the talent that Ilya Bryzgalov has, consider those doubts erased. Bryzgalov made 40 saves, as the Ducks suffered from some SERIOUS jet lag, getting out shot 42-15.

Montreal 3, Carolina 2 OT — Saku Koivu netted his second of the game on the power play in overtime to give the Habs a road win to start the year… Roman Hamrlik played in his 1,000th NHL game for his 5th different NHL team. _uacct = “UA-1868762-1”; urchinTracker();