Pavel Datsyuk wins one of the 900 faceoffs he took versus Tampa Bay.
No. 1 Star: Corey Perry, Anaheim Ducks
After seven consecutive losses, Corey Perry finally put his foot down, scoring a goal and adding two assists to lead the Ducks to a win, a glorious win, topping the Montreal Canadiens, 4-1. Ryan Getzlaf's foot was also put down rather assertively -- he registered the exact same totals.
No. 2 Star: Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit Red Wings
Datsyuk opened the scoring, went 22-for-31 in the faceoff circle, and added a beautiful assist on one of the prettiest powerplay goals of the year to lead the Red Wings to a 4-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. Seriously, look at that puck movement on this goal. All five Red Wings touch the puck.
No. 3 Star: David Krejci, Boston Bruins
Krejci had a three-point night in the Bruins' convincing 6-3 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs, scoring a goal and setting up teammates Milan Lucic and Zdeno Chara for two others. With the win, the Bruins closed out an obscene November in which they went 12-0-1, which is sort of impressive. 13-0-0 would have been better. Guess they're just not clutch enough.
Honourable mention: Lucic scored twice for the Bruins... Ryan O'Reilly put up a goal and two assists and Milan Hejduk added one and one as the Colorado Avalanche knocked off the New Jersey Devils 6-1... Kyle Brodziak scored the game-tying goal midway through the second period, then scored the shootout winner in the Minnesota Wild's 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers...
Did you know? Wednesday marked night Steve Yzerman's first return to Detroit since leaving to take over in Tampa Bay.
Dishonourable mention: Kessel and Lupul may have combined for a pretty 2-on-1 goal, but they were on the ice for four against.... But that's still not as bad as Ilya Kovalchuk, was on the ice for five Colorado goals. He was spared a minus-5 rating by scoring the Devils' lone goal... David Steckel went 3-for-11 in the faceoff circle.