Best of the NHL for Monday, Jan. 21: Damien Brunner shines in shootout

This is best of the NHL, a look at the best plays, performances, and players around the league on a nightly basis.

Monday had everything ... puck drops from outer space and double vision in Ottawa. Oh yeah, and there was hockey. Good hockey even.

On Day 3 of the NHL’s brief season, six of the seven games played were decided by one goal. Show-stealing rookies and game-saving goalies made a big impact during Monday’s action. Meanwhile, the home teams were playing to packed houses for the third straight day since the NHL’s return.

Boston, Buffalo, St. Louis and Ottawa each improved to 2-0-0, while Detroit bounced back from its opening-night drubbing. Calgary made a valiant come back against Anaheim, but couldn’t close the deal.

The Columbus Blue Jackets had a record standing-room only crowd of 19,206 at Nationwide Arena for its home opener and even led the Detroit Red Wings late. It looked as though it would be a storybook start to the season for the much-maligned Blue Jackets.

If only.

Pavel Datsyuk tied the game late and after a scoreless OT, the game went to a shootout.

It appeared Cam Atkinson put the Blue Jackets on the board with Columbus’ first shot, but his goal was waved off after it was determined he put the puck in on a sort-of rebound.

Enter Damien Brunner, the highly anticipated Swiss goal-scoring sensation. Red Wings fans (and unfortunately Blue Jackets fans, too) got to see what all the fuss is about with this spectacular shootout goal (as seen above). Also, now in GIF form!

With two multi-point games to start his NHL career, Tarasenko is endearing himself to his teammates immediately. Tarasenko scored St. Louis’ first goal of the night and had the primary assist on goals by Andy MacDonald and Alex Pietrangelo as the Blues went on to beat Nashville 4-3 in a shootout.

If Tarasenko looks like he’s in midseason form, it’s because he is. He played 31 games with SKA St. Petersburgh in the KHL and posted 31 points including 14 goals. Even though he’s good and warmed up, coming into a new team and new league is far from easy, but he’s making it look like a cinch.

Tarasenko now has five points including three goals through his first two games. The Blues were already good, but the 21-year-old rookie could be one of the key additions to put them over the top this year.

Coming off of back-to-back average (for him) seasons, there’s been some chatter about Miller starting to regress. However, in his first two starts of this season, he’s looked as sharp as ever. Facing an onslaught of 35 shots against Toronto on the road Monday night, Miller was rock solid as the Sabres were able to hold on for a 2-1 win to start the season 2-0-0.

Miller made 14 stops in the third period including one just before the buzzer on Tyler Bozak.

Craig Anderson had a 31-save shutout for Ottawa, but Miller gets the nod for coming through in his second start in as many days.

There were plenty of scraps across the league on the third day of action, but the main event was Scott vs. Orr. Two of the true heavyweights in the league didn’t wait long to set the tone for what was a pretty tight matchup between the Leafs and Sabres.

Both took their licks, but Orr looked to get the better of the 6-foot-8 behemoth. Early voting on hockeyfights.com gives Orr a convincing decision.

Though his Predators ended up on the wrong end of a shootout loss, Pekka Rinne made sure it got to the shootout with a sprawling save to rob T.J. Oshie of an overtime game-winner.

After Rinne let up a rebound, the puck bounced to Oshie who attempted to put it in on the backhand. Rinne just threw his body, dropping his stick in the process, to get a piece of the puck with his torso.

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