Hockey Night in suburban Chicago

And a caption for this photo may be, "And I never liked you much during practice!"

Zdeno Chara, who left the Ottawa Senators to sign a lucrative deal with the Boston Bruins, got to face his old team for the first time on Saturday ... and got the best revenge possible. When he wasn't tangling with noted pugilist and former teammate Brian (five points, 141 PIM last season) McGrattan, Chara scored the game-winning goal in Boston's 2-1 victory over Ottawa.

The 6-foot-9 Chara, forever known by Kensohan blogstigator Chris Altruda as "Alice the Goon", downplayed facing the team with whom he spent the last four seasons.

"Yes, I was playing my former team but my main focus was on those two points," he said. "It did not matter who we played. We really needed this win and we got it and it's a nice feeling."

And I've got some land on the Back Bay I'm looking to unload ...

The Chicago Blackhawks, meanwhile, have reverted from promising to abysmal.

With a 3-0 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday night, the Hawks haven't scored a goal in 145 minutes, 10 seconds. Michal Handzus -- gone for the season with a blown-out knee -- scored in the second period of a 4-3 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Oct. 21.

That's three straight losses following a 4-4-0 start ...

The Carolina Hurricanes broke a franchise record by scoring three goals in 43 seconds during a 6-4 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Eric Staal scored the first of his two goals on the night at 8:23 of the first period, tying the score at 1-all. Nine seconds later, Kevyn scored off a rebound of Craig Adams' shot. Erik Cole broke the mark when he scored off a feed from Ray Whitney at 9:06.

The previous franchise record was 63 seconds by the Hartford Whalers in a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs in January 1987. The NHL record is 20 seconds by the Bruins versus the Vancouver Canucks in 1971 ...


THE GOOD...

Sidney Crosby records his first NHL hat trick in the Pittsburgh Penguins' 8-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers ...

Vyacheslav Kozlov scores the lone shootout goal to lift the Atlanta Thrashers to a 5-4 win over Buffalo, ending the Sabres' season-opening and NHL record-tying 10-game winning streak ...

Martin Brodeur made 22 saves for his second straight shutout, a 1-0 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. Brodeur also moved past Jacques Plante into sole possession of fourth-place on the all-time shutout list with his 83rd career whitewash. Next up is Glenn Hall with 84.

THE BAD...

The Washington Capitals manage just 19 shots on goal in 4-0 loss to the Edmonton Oilers. The Caps haven't won in Northern Alberta since Bill Clinton's second term in office ...

Goaltender David LeNeveu, a recent call-up by the Phoenix Coyotes, allowed six straight tallies in a 7-3 loss to the New York Rangers ...

Los Angeles fell to 0-4-1 in its last five games after a 3-2 loss to the Dallas Stars. The Kings have scored just 14 goals in their last 10 games ...


THE QUOTABLE...

"The bottom line is we feel we have two quality goaltenders. We describe them as 1A and 1B." -- Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle talking about netminders Jean-Sebastien Giguere and Ilja Bryzgalov, after the latter made 14 saves to shut out Chicago 3-0 on Saturday.