With December only a few days away, we’re just about a month off from one of the newest yearly NHL traditions: the Winter Classic. Last year, during its inaugural year, the NHL Winter Classic featured a classic bout between the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins. Now, in the second year of the tradition, the ante has been raised and anticipation is high for the matchup between one of the more storied rivalries in NHL: The Chicago BlackHawks and Detroit Red Wings. To make it even more delightful for Chicago fans, the game will be played in the home of the lovable losers at Wrigley Field. If you’re in the Chicago land area on New Year’s Day, I suggest you find some Winter Classic Hockey tickets and enjoy a great game of outdoor NHL hockey.

Statistically speaking, right winger for the New Jersey Devils Dainius Zubrus could have beaten the Tampa Bay Lightning team by himself. Of the 7 team goals scored in the 7-3 Devils victory over the Lightning, Zubrus tallied four. For him, this avalanche of goal scoring comes at the perfect time. After beginning the season very slowly, perhaps some of Zubrus’ confidence was being shaken. However, after his intensive output yesterday, you can expect a lot more from Zubrus.

Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury is out for a game or two, after having been injured in a game against the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday. He was apparently hurt in the 3rd period of that game, which they won 5-2. Fleury has been a big name in the NHL for several years now, and it’s not hard to see why.  He is good this year, being 8-3 with a 2.86 goals-allowed average. Perhaps that’s not best in the league, but it’s decent, and if the team has a good offensive attack, it works out.  On Saturday, he made 21 saves on 23 shots. He will be replaced by Dany Sabourin, who has also played a few games this season, as he is 3-1 so far.

After going through his longest streak of games without a goal, Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals finally tickled the twine once more. It was nine games since his last goal, which isn’t to say he hadn’t been extremely active during his minutes on the ice. He averaged about 4 shots on net each game and played plenty of ice time, dispaying his ability to play a supporting role in the deadly Capitals cast. Find out more about the Capitals at nhl.com.

Tom Kostopoulos of the Montreal Canadians has been suspended for the next 3 games for delivering a very hard check to Mike Van Ryn of the Toronto Maple Leaves a few days ago.  The check happened as the two chased the puck into the corner of the ice and apparently Kostopoulos wanted Van Ryn out of the way! Boom! Cross checked him and drove him into the head boards. As you can see in the picture above, the puck had very little to do with the play in the end.  Van Ryn suffered a concussion, a broken nose, and a broken hand.  He is expected to miss at least a month of the season. Kostopoulos has been cited for a roughing minor, a boarding major and a game misconduct. Read more here.

Powered by powerfully powerful power-plays late in the 3rd period, the New York Rangers were once more able to fend off the Tampa Bay Lightning and come away with the win. Chris Drury, the indisputable star of the game, scored his first goal in the second period, then added two more in the third when the Rangers were on powerplay advantage. With 27.5 seconds left in the game, hats rained down on the ice to celebrated Drury’s difference-making hat trick. The Rangers won the match 5-2. Check out more NFL action right here.

Last night, the San Jose Sharks kept up a 10-2 season, beating the Colorado Avalanche 5-3.  The Sharks have a perfect home record this year and a good an impressive visiting record as well.  Last night, they beat the Avalanche in most of the important aspects of the game, outshot them.  Their goaltender had 33 saves, leading to his 8th win in 10 starts.  Both teams scored 2 points in the final period, so it stayed even.  Had Colorado held them scoreless in the 3rd, they could’ve taken the game.  Colorado is 5-6 so far this season.  It’s not the stellar season that one might have expected, but it’s still early.

Teams in the NHL have played about 10 games so far, so it seems fitting that we take a look at where things stand now.  As could be expected, the Detroit Red Wings and the San Jose Sharks are at the top of their divisions. The New York Rangers are kings of their division at the moment, with 10 wins and 2 losses (they’ve played a total of 13 games so far). The 2nd place team in their division has a mere 5 wins and 2 losses.  The Northeast Division looks exciting this year: all the teams, except for one, are above .500 right now and all within a couple games of each other.  Likewise in the Northwest Division, where the leading team, Minnesota, is ahead of their 2nd place team by a mere half-game.  There will certainly be more interesting things to come, and it’s still very early in the season, but sometimes the trends that begin early keep going throughout the entire year.

Thanks to Ryan Miller’s 4 saves in the shootout against the Boston Bruins Tuesday night, the Buffalo Sabres have improved to 5-0-1.  The team trailed  2-1 going into the 3rd period and came back to tie it with 14 minutes remaining in regulation.  After a scoreless Overtime period, Thomas Vanek scored the decisive goal during the shootout with a nice shot against Manny Fernandez.

The news isn’t all good for Buffalo, however.  The Sabres learned that one of their best players, Craig Rivet, will be off the ice for at least two week while he recovers from arthroscopic surgery on his knee.  Rivet has made 3 assists in 6 games, including one in the game against the Bruins on Tuesday.  His replacement, Nathan Paetsch, has played occasionally this season, but will have to step up his game to make up for Rivet’s absence.

The Blackhawks may have finally got the missing piece of the puzzle when new head coach Joel Quenneville took over a few days ago. Quenneville, a seasoned and disciplined hockey coach, instantly garnered the respect of the Blackhawks players. Though his first win should have come against the St. Louis Blues Saturday, match they lost eventually in a penalty shootout, Quenneville and the Hawks pushed past the Vancouver Canucks last night 4-2. See the players’ and coach’s reactions to this win at nhl.com.