Some strong goaltending performances, Stamkos takes down the Flyers, a milestone for Hossa, lineup news, fantasy tips and more in Scott Cullen’s Statistically Speaking. HEROES Semyon Varlamov – The Avalanche leaned heavily on their star goaltender last season and it’s not much different now. Varlamov delivered a 40-save shutout against the Islanders Thursday, raising his save percentage to .934. While Varlamov has been fine at even strength, posting a .923 save percentage (ranking 16th among goalies with at least 200 5on-5 minutes), he’s been exceptional when the Avs are shorthanded, stopping all 56 shots that he has faced when the Avs are 4-on-5. Varlamov is also facing a heavy workload this season. Among goaltenders with at least 200 5-on-5 minutes this year, he’s faced the third-most shots per 60 minutes. 5-on-5 Shots Against per 60 Minutes GOALIE TEAM SA/60 Jhonas Enroth Buffalo 39.2 Craig Anderson Ottawa 38.5 Semyon Varlamov Colorado 37.2 Jonathan Quick Los Angeles 34.8 Ray Emery Philadelphia 34.3 Marc-Andre Fleury – The Penguins goaltender stopped 36 Los Angeles shots in a 3-0 win for Pittsburgh. It was his first shutout with more than 35 saves since December 26, 2008 and lifts Fleury’s save percentage to .926, which is better than his final save percentage in any other season of his career. Steven Stamkos – Lightning sniper buried a couple of goals and an assist, while generating nine shot attempts (7 SOG) in a 4-3 win over Philadelphia. He now has eight goals on the season, one behind league leaders Corey Perry and Rick Nash. ZEROES Chad Johnson – The Islanders went with their backup goalie in Colorado and paid the price, as Johnson surrendered five goals on 23 shots, the second straight game in which Johnson has allowed five goals. Prior to those starts, Johnson had allowed more than four goals once in his previous 40 NHL appearances. Firing Blanks – Coyotes C Antoine Vermette (18:24 vs. Florida), Sharks LW Tomas Hertl (17:29 vs. Minnesota) and Avalanche RW Ryan O’Reilly (15:29 vs. the Islanders) all failed to generate even a single shot attempt. SHORT SHIFTS Blackhawks RW Marian Hossa picked up his 1000th career point, with a goal and an assist in a 5-4 shootout win at Ottawa…Bruins LW Brad Marchand had two goals and an assist in a 3-2 overtime win at Buffalo…C Tyler Ennis and RW Drew Stafford each had a goal and an assist for the Sabres…Penguins LW Chris Kunitz recorded two goals and an assist in a 3-0 win over Los Angeles… Blackhawks C Jonathan Toews chipped in a pair of goals and RW Kris Versteeg had a goal and an assist…Flyers C Claude Giroux had two assists while RW Jakub Voracek had a goal and an assist in a 4-3 loss to Tampa Bay…Lightning C Valtteri Filppula registered three assists in the win over Philadelphia…Lightning D Jason Garrison had a goal and an assist, with seven shots on goal…Panthers G Roberto Luongo stopped 32 of 33 Arizona shots for a 2-1 win. Blues C Jori Lehtera was 11-for-14 (78.6%) on faceoffs. He ranks third in the league at 62.2%, behind Patrice Bergeron and Martin Hanzal… Blues G Jake Allen stopped all 24 Anaheim shots in a 2-0 win…Avalanche C Nathan MacKinnon scored his first two goals of the season in a 5-0 win over the Islanders…Sharks RW Joe Pavelski picked up a pair of assists…Wild C Kyle Brodziak scored his first two goals of the season…Wild LW Thomas Vanek added a couple assists…Wild C Mikko Koivu scored a goal and had 10 shot attempts (9 SOG)…Avalanche C Matt Duchene, D Erik Johnson, LW Cody McLeod and RW Max Talbot each had two points…Bruins C Patrice Bergeron (21 shot attempts for, 4 against, 84.0%) and D Dougie Hamilton (32 for, 8 against, 80.0%) controlled play against Buffalo. Devils RW Jaromir Jagr (17 for, 2 against, 89.5%) and LW Dainius Zubrus (19 for, 4 against, 82.6%) had dominant possession games against Winnipeg…It was in a losing effort, but Kings D Matt Greene spent most of his evening in the Pittsburgh zone (14 for, 2 against, 87.5%)…Blackhawks D Brent Seabrook had an assist and 10 shot attempts (6 SOG) at Ottawa…Blues RW Dmitrij Jaskin had a strong possession showing (17 for, 5 against, 77.3%) against Anaheim, having head-to-head success against the Getzlaf and Perry line for more shifts than any other…The Wild line of LW Jason Zucker, C Mikko Koivu and RW Charlie Coyle controlled play against San Jose, getting better than 74% of the shot attempts at even strength…He was held without a point, but Islanders C John Tavares had 10 shot attempts (5 SOG) at Colorado…There are score effects at play, in a 5-0 win, but Avalanche LW Gabriel Landeskog was in his own end for much of the night (4 shot attempts for, 22 against, 15.4%)…Panthers C Brandon Pirri scored his third goal in three games, playing a season-high 15:41 against Arizona. LINEUP NEED TO KNOW Boston’s depleted defence included call-ups Joe Morrow (17:51), David Warsofsky (18:09) and Zach Trotman (15:13), yet Matt Bartkowski was a healthy scratch. Concussions kept T.J. Oshie and David Backes out of the Blues’ lineup, allowing Chris Porter and Magnus Paajarvi in, but the biggest beneficiary was Maxim Lapierre, who had an assist and four shots on goal while playing 19:40 against Anaheim. It was Lapierre’s highest ice time in a regular-season game since March, 2009. Jets LW Evander Kane and D Zach Bogosian both returned to the lineup. Kane played with C Mark Scheifele and RW Blake Wheeler and while they were held off the scoresheet, they had the Jets’ best possession stats against the Devils, despite starting more than three-quarters of their shifts in the defensive zone. Sabres C/RW Cody Hodgson, who has two points and 12 shots on goal in 11 games, has been demoted to the fourth line. He played 8:46 against Boston, primarily with rookies Sam Reinhart and Nicolas Deslauriers. Avalanche D Tyson Barrie played a season-low 15:13 vs. the Islanders. FIRSTS Sharks LW Barclay Goodrow played in his first NHL game, an impressive jump from an undrafted free agent who played for North Bay of the OHL last season. He played 8:39 against Minnesota, mostly with C Andrew Desjardins and RW Adam Burish on the fourth line. Flyers D Brandon Manning played 14:09 against Tampa Bay, his first NHL game since April, 2013. The Flyers have been trying to shore up their injury-depleted blueline, so that they can send prospect Shayne Gostisbehere back to the AHL, and Manning bought them some time. Philadelphia also signed D Carlo Colaiacovo Thursday. FANTASY FOCUS Four games on the NHL schedule tonight and here’s a player from each that should be getting a decent opportunity: David Savard – One of the few remaining healthy players in Columbus, Savard has already seen an increased role with the Blue Jackets this year, but with James Wisniewski out, there should be more time available on the first power play unit. Justin Abdelkader – Spending most of his time on the wing with Henrik Zetterberg and either Gustav Nyquist or Pavel Datsyuk on the other wing, Abdelkader is off to a great start, with five goals and eight points in nine games. He’s never scored more than 10 goals in a season, but he’s a hard-driving winger who can serve as a complement to more skilled linemates. Sami Vatanen – Getting regular top-four work on the Anaheim blueline, Vatanen has scored all seven of his points on the power play. Sean Monahan – If only because the Flames don’t have much else at centre with Mikael Backlund and Matt Stajan going on the injured list and Joe Colborne left Tuesday’s game against Montreal early, leaving Monahan to play a career-high 22:16. Much of the data included comes from www.war-on-ice.com, www.puckalytics.com, www.hockeystats.ca and www.naturalstattrick.com Scott Cullen can be reached at scott.cullen@bellmedia.ca Chris Sabo Jersey . - Benched Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Josh Freeman said he has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and voluntarily entered the NFL substance abuse program more than a year ago after mistakenly taking a medication to treat the condition. 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