Quick stopped allowed 25 shots that he faced in a 2-0 win over the Flames on Thursday. It was a great return to the NHL after a disappointing fourth place finish with Team USA in Sochi. This afternoon he has a strong matchup against the Hurricanes. who he was victorious against in October.

ALL GOALIES ARE CONFIRMED UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED AT THE TIME OF PRINT Some good, early matchups this afternoon. First we have the NY Rangers heading to Philadelphia to take on Steve Mason and the Flyers. Mason needs to rebound after a poor outing versus the San Jose Sharks while Henrik Lundvist gets his first start since coming back from the Olympics. Lundqvist has been the sharper of the two.  King rules in this one...In the other early start, the Washington Capitals head up to Boston to take on Tuukka Rask in his first game since returning from Sochi. Braden Holtby has been somewhat better of late but Rask and the Bruins may be too much for the Caps. T-Rask conquers the Great 8...Martin Brodeur gets a start for the New Jersey Devils as he takes on the NY Islanders in what just may be his last start for the only team he has played for in his entire NHL career. Evgeni Nabokov leads the depleted Isles against the Devils who are climbing in the standings. Marty like old times... The Florida Panthers go up against another team fighting for the playoffs in the Columbus Blue Jackets.  Scott Clemmensen gets the call over Tim Thomas who has been struggling of late. Clemmensen will fare no better against a Blue Jackets team that is getting tough to play against now that Sergei Bobrovsky has rounded himself into top form. Bobber over Clemmer...Ben Bishop of the Tampa Bay Lightning has gone 2-3 in last five. Could he be experiencing tiredness?  Perhaps the Olympic break will re-energize him.  The Bolts take on Kari Lehtonen and the Dallas Stars, who have won three of their last four. The Bolts are facing a little bit of controversy lately with GM Yzerman and Superstar Martin St. Louis but will be getting Steven Stamkos back shortly. Big D over big confusion. LOL...The Winnipeg Jets know the importance of wins at this point of the season and need to get on a little streak to edge closer to a playoff position.  Ondrej Pavelec will go up against Carter Hutton and the Nashville Predators who are also fighting for their playoff lives. Hutton has filled in quite admirably for injured Pekka RInne.  The Preds received some good news that Rinne is close to returning, which should bolster their playoff run.  Pavelec will prevail.....In a late afternoon game, The Carolina Hurricanes continue their road trip, this one against Jonathan Quick (LIKELY) and the Los Angeles Kings. Cam Ward (LIKELY) will be in net for the Canes who look to stop the bleeding of a 3-game losing ...

Quick allowed one goal on 25 shots in a win over the Blue Jackets in his final game before the Olympics. He started five of six games en route to a fourth place finish with Team USA. Tonight Quick is a must-start as he gets set to face the Flames in Calgary.

Well the NHL started back up in earnest last night with 4 games after the two week break for the Olympics. Some interesting news as gold medal winning goaltender for Canada, Carey Price, has a LBI and will miss at least 2 games. Maybe he is just tired and jet-lagged from his efforts in Sochi....Center Marian Gaborik has been activated by Columbus after missing 22 games with a broken collarbone. Grab him immediately if you can.  He appears to not be going to the AHL for conditioning like Pekka Rinne. Rinne should be back soon as the Predators starting goalie....Pittsburgh goaltender Tomas Vokoun has been medically cleared to play again, as he has recovered from his blood clot problem. This puts a big logjam in goal for the Penguins with Marc-Andre Fleury, Jeff Zatkoff and now Vokoun. This can't help any of their fantasy values.  Expect Zatkoff to be sent down....It appears that Vancouver center Ryan Kesler hurt his hand at the Olympics playing for the US. Also, there are reports that he has asked for a trade from the Canucks, so we will keep an eye on that.  Kesler has 38 points on the season, which makes him a marginal 6th forward. The Sabres beat the Bruins 5-4 in OT as right wing Matt D' Agostini scored the game winner. With only 8 points on the season, he is not fantasy worthy.  Buffalo center Zemgus Girgensons had 2 goals. Now that is a tough name to spell correctly.  Girgensons has great speed and, at 20 years of age, he has a lot of upside but he figures to be more of a second line defensive forward than a scorer....A lot of starting goaltenders were on the bench last night because of their efforts in Sochi.  One such instance had Chad Johnson in goal in place of Tuukka Rask for Boston. After last night, expect Rask to be quickly back in goal....In a tight match in Montreal, the Red Wings won 2-1 in OT, with Gustav Nyquist scoring the game winner. Nyquist has 25 points on the season, but it is in only 34 games.  If he is available in your pool and you need some forward help, pick him up.  He has a lot of skill. LA center Anze Kopitar had a big night with 2 goals and an assist against Colorado in a 6-4 win. Kopitar has 50 points on the season and he is a top fantasy forward.  Right wing Justin Williams had a goal and an assist for the Kings, but with only 31 points on the season we can't recommend him. He once scored 76 points for Carolina in the 2005-2006 season, but he has aged into a 50-55 point player....Young center Ryan O'Reilly had a goal ...

Well the NHL started back up in earnest last night with 4 games after the two week break for the Olympics. Some interesting news as gold medal winning goaltender for Canada, Carey Price, has a LBI and will miss at least 2 games. Maybe he is just tired and jet-lagged from his efforts in Sochi....Center Marian Gaborik has been activated by Columbus after missing 22 games with a broken collarbone. Grab him immediately if you can.  He appears to not be going to the AHL for conditioning like Pekka Rinne. Rinne should be back soon as the Predators starting goalie....Pittsburgh goaltender Tomas Vokoun has been medically cleared to play again, as he has recovered from his blood clot problem. This puts a big logjam in goal for the Penguins with Marc-Andre Fleury, Jeff Zatkoff and now Vokoun. This can't help any of their fantasy values.  Expect Zatkoff to be sent down....It appears that Vancouver center Ryan Kesler hurt his hand at the Olympics playing for the US. Also, there are reports that he has asked for a trade from the Canucks, so we will keep an eye on that.  Kesler has 38 points on the season, which makes him a marginal 6th forward. The Sabres beat the Bruins 5-4 in OT as right wing Matt D' Agostini scored the game winner. With only 8 points on the season, he is not fantasy worthy.  Buffalo center Zemgus Girgensons had 2 goals. Now that is a tough name to spell correctly.  Girgensons has great speed and, at 20 years of age, he has a lot of upside but he figures to be more of a second line defensive forward than a scorer....A lot of starting goaltenders were on the bench last night because of their efforts in Sochi.  One such instance had Chad Johnson in goal in place of Tuukka Rask for Boston. After last night, expect Rask to be quickly back in goal....In a tight match in Montreal, the Red Wings won 2-1 in OT, with Gustav Nyquist scoring the game winner. Nyquist has 25 points on the season, but it is in only 34 games.  If he is available in your pool and you need some forward help, pick him up.  He has a lot of skill. LA center Anze Kopitar had a big night with 2 goals and an assist against Colorado in a 6-4 win. Kopitar has 50 points on the season and he is a top fantasy forward.  Right wing Justin Williams had a goal and an assist for the Kings, but with only 31 points on the season we can't recommend him. He once scored 76 points for Carolina in the 2005-2006 season, but he has aged into a 50-55 point player....Young center Ryan O'Reilly had a goal ...

Quick turned aside 21 of 23 shots in Wednesday's 5-2 quarterfinal win over the Czech Republic. He has won all three starts while posting a 1.67 GAA and .935 SV% in Sochi. He will look to backstop Team USA into the Gold Medal game by defeating Carey Price and Team Canada on Friday.

Quick stopped 22 of 23 shots in a 7-1 walloping of Slovakia on Thursday. Quick gave up a goal :24 seconds into the second, but his team answered back with six unanswered goals in the next 15 minutes, making things rather easy on the Kings' tendy. On Saturday he will face a much stiffer test when the Americans take on the Russians.

A few days ago I wrote about the USA chances to win the gold medal in the Olympics. I said it was a bit of a long shot, but not totally out of the question.  Obviously, the big favorite is Canada with their loaded team, on defense and offense.  But I decided to go through the metrics of each team because in our business the numbers always matter.  I am not ignoring Sweden, Finland or Russia, all good teams, but they will come a little bit latter.  In my initial analysis of US versus Canada, I did not think there was that much difference between the US goaltenders and defensemen versus the Canadiens, and that the forwards would make up the big difference. The US Coach Dan Blysma announced Jonathan Quick as the goaltending starter in the first game against Slovakia and he performed well with 22 saves in the 7-1 win.  Despite his 14-22-3 record, one would have thought that Ryan Miller would be the starter, as Miller has a .923 save percentage which is better than either Quick or Jimmy Howard, but US Coach Dan Blysma decided to go with Quick in the first game. Canada's Coach, Mike Babcock, will start with Carey Price, which makes sense as his .925 save percentage is better than Vancouver's Roberto Luongo or Phoenix's Mike Smith. Goaltending looks sort of even between the US and Canada. On defense each team is allowed 8 players, and it is here from a number point of view, that the Canadiens seem to have a big advantage. Their 8 defensemen have scored 261 points in the NHL this season, as compared to the Americans 199.  Both teams have two shut down defensemen who do not score much, for the US its Brooks Orpik and Paul Martin, and for Canada Dan Hamhuis and Marc-Eduard Vlasic. But the Canadiens have two big time defenseman scorers in Duncan Keith and Alex Pietrangelo, who each have more than 40 points scored this year. The top US scoring defenseman is Kevin Shattenkirk with 36 points. Advantage Canada. I previously thought that the Canadiens had a big advantage in forwards, but like I said it helps to go through the numbers. Each team is allowed 14 forwards.  And the 14 forwards for Canada have scored 639 points this season.  Very impressive, I must admit.  But 3 players, Sidney Crosby, Anaheim's Ryan Getzlaf and John Tavares have 211 of those points. That's a little bit top heavy for a team with 25 players.  The US has two 60+ points scorers in Kane and Kessel, so they have a little bit of the same problem. The reality is that the Canadien forwards have ...

Quick will start the tournament opener when the Americans take on Slovakia on Thursday. Quick missed nearly two-months with a grade-2 groin strain, but has been back since January 4 and started 16 games since then. In those 16 starts he is 6-8-2 with a 2.01 GAA and .918 SV%. The losing record is more a reflection of the Kings inability to score than poor goaltending on Quick's behalf. Team USA should not have the same problem as L.A with all the talent they have up front.