Two minutes

THE GOOD...

Mathieu Garon, Columbus Blue Jackets

Steve who? Former Calder Trophy what?

Garon recorded his second straight shutout - and matched his total from last season - by turning aside 25 shots in a 3-0 win over the Atlanta Thrashers.

The longtime journeyman has four career wins at Philips Arena, three by shutout.

"I don't know what it is about this building," Garon said. "There's always teams that for some reason - I'm not saying it's easier - you have more wins against."

If one-time rookie of the year Steve Mason isn't hearing footsteps, he should. Garon is 4-0-0 with a 0.89 goals-against average.

The win improved the Blue Jackets to 8-4-0, making the Central Division perhaps the best in the NHL this season. All five teams are separated by three points.

Speaking of the Central Division ...

Jaroslav Halak, St. Louis Blues

Three shutouts and a 0.73 GAA in his last four games. Not bad.

With a 2-0 win over the San Jose Sharks, Halak moved into a tie with Tim Thomas of the Boston Bruins for the league lead in whitewashes.

"(Halak) plays into a lot of the things we talked about right from Day 1 in training camp - how we're going to show up and work every day, how we're going to prepare, how we're going to play and how we're not going to allow one day to affect the next," Blues coach Davis Payne told the NHL's official website. "We're just going to get back at it and he plays goal with that mindset.

"It's one play to the next and away we go. Very few highs and lows, just steady performances, and that's what we want out of our hockey team. We tailor things to opponents, but when we talk about our game we want it to be steady, consistent and at a high level and he plays right into that."

Now the test begins. Starting Friday night in Boston, the Blues will play seven games in 11 days with six away from St. Louis, where they're 6-0-0 in 2010-11.

Jason Spezza, Ottawa Senators

If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. Spezza proved that with a goal and three assists in Ottawa's 4-1 win over the New York Islanders.

The four points was one shy of his season total he had coming into the contest. Groin injuries have kept the high-scoring whipping boy out of the lineup.

"We don't watch the standings at this point in the season, but we do judge (ourselves) by how we're playing and you want to be playing good hockey. We're heading in the right direction and to get a few wins in a row here would be nice," Spezza told the team's official website earlier on Thursday.

THE BAD...

Joe Thornton, San Jose Sharks

Jumbo Joe is probably looking at a suspension after laying out David Perron with an elbow to the head in a shutout loss to St. Louis.

Early in the second period, Thornton got a boarding minor for flattening T.J. Oshie. Seven seconds after coming out of the box, he ran Perron, but didn't think much of it.

"I felt like I established myself on the ice," Thornton said. "I just braced myself for the hit. He just ran into me, to be honest with you."

Perron would later score on a pretty backhand.

Three games sounds about right for Thornton to sit and feel shame - the same number of games given to Phoenix's Shane Doan and Philadelphia's Danny Briere for their respective head shots in recent weeks.

The New York Islanders

Has the Scott Gordon death watch begun yet?

If not, why?

With a loss to Ottawa, Team Fishsticks has been outscored 29-11 while losing six in a row.

"We didn't score," Gordon said. "I mean, we had two breakaways, we had a couple of point-blank chances in the slot that we didn't bury on and right now we're just going through a situation where it seems like every time we do make a mistake it's in the back of our net and we don't get the same kind of return on our chances."

It also doesn't get any easier immediately with a home game against Philadelphia before a three-game swing through California. Makes me wonder if Gordon will be returning from the West Coast with the rest of the team.

The Sharks ... provided they're not in San Jose.

It's been a while since the Sharks scored on the road. Like, a looooooong while.

To be precise, 185 minutes and 15 seconds since John McCarthy scored in the third period of a 6-1 rout of Edmonton on Oct. 23.

That was San Jose's third straight road win in which the Sharks found the back of the net 13 times. After that, there was a 4-0 loss in Calgary on Oct. 24 followed by a 1-0 defeat in Minnesota on Tuesday.

No team has been blanked in four straight road games since the Montreal Canadiens from Feb. 3-15, 1938.

"It's been kind of all or nothing," San Jose forward Joe Pavelski said. "We have to figure it out. We're offensively challenged right now."

AND THE QUOTABLE...

"That was a real playoff game. It was a real hard-fought battle. Nobody was going to give each other an inch, and there wasn't much out there for either team to get some offense. We're similar teams, in that we don't give much to the opponent. It was going to come down to who was going to make the mistake, and we made that little mistake and they capitalized on it. - Tampa Bay coach Guy Boucher after the Lightning's 1-0 loss to the Los Angeles Kings in a matchup involving surprise division leaders

Game of the night - Nov. 3 - Lightning look to continue dominance of Kings in LA

Tampa Bay Lightning (7-2-2) at Los Angeles Kings (8-3-0), STAPLES Center, Los Angeles, Calif.

Yes, I am serious. Have you not looked at the standings recently?

Just about a month into the season, the Lightning and Kings are at the top of their respective conferences.

Hey, if the Saints and Giants can come out of nowhere to win the Super Bowl and World Series, who's to say one of these teams can't take the Stanley Cup?

For Tampa Bay – which is tied with high-scoring Washington first in the Southeast Division and has a game in hand - its hot start is the continuation of a quick turnaround from last-place finishes in 2008 and 2009.

Last season, the Bolts didn’t make the playoffs, but totaled 80 points to place third in the Southeast. Despite coming off a loss Wednesday, they're playing right now as if they could win it all.

The key to Tampa Bay’s success? Steven Stamkos - and it pains me to no end to have to admit that.

Picked first overall in 2008, I called Stamkos a bust after the then-18-year-old failed to make much of an initial impression with no points in his first seven games and struggled for much of the first half of his rookie season.

With a return to Sarnia long out of the question, things changed on Feb. 17, 2009, when Stamkos recorded all of Tampa Bay’s goals in a 5-3 home loss to the Chicago Blackhawks.

Since then, guess who leads the league with 77 goals scored including 34 on the power play? Hint: It's not Ovechkin. Or Crosby. Or Malkin, Semin, Toews, Kane or Gaborik.

So. consider this my mea culpa: Stamkos is the superstar few know about, and needs to be talked about in the same breath as Ovechkin and Crosby.

Now, fellow STATS puckhead Jon Palmieri can STFU.

For years, the face of the Lightning franchise was Vincent Lecavalier and, to a lesser extent, Martin St. Louis and Brad Richards, now with the Dallas Stars. The three of them were keys in leading the Lightning to their only Stanley Cup in 2004 before the lockout.

While Lecavalier is still the captain, and the diminutive St. Louis can still score in bunches, it's clear the Lightning's success rests with Stamkos.

After going from 23 goals as a rookie to tying for the NHL lead with 51 last season, first-year coach Guy Boucher told USA Today last month not to put so much stock into numbers because he wants Stamkos to be more of a two-way player.

"We have to watch out when we look at numbers," Boucher said. "Improving doesn't necessarily mean he has to get more than 50 goals. He might get 42 goals and be a better player."

Stamkos getting better than last season when he tied Crosby for the league lead with 51 goals? Doing more and scoring less? Scary, scary thought.

No. 91 scored - what else? - a power-play goal 21 seconds into the third period Wednesday to lift Tampa Bay in a 2-1 lead over the Anaheim Ducks, a game the Lightning went on to lose 3-2 in overtime.

Still, Stamkos' 10th goal of the season moved him into a tie with the Blackhawks' Patrick Sharp for the NHL lead.

"We expected a tough game," Stamkos said. "They've been struggling as of late and they were coming back home, so they wanted to come out strong - and I think they did that. It just took us too long to wake up."

Los Angeles will get a key player back in Norris Trophy finalist Drew Doughty after missing six games with a concussion.

"No question you miss your top defenseman, but the good thing is that we came through it in pretty good shape," coach Terry Murray told the Kings' official website. "It shows a lot of character on the team. Guys stepped up and played very well in the games that he was out.

Los Angeles allowed 16 goals while going 4-2-0 without Doughty. Still, there is no question the Kings missed what Doughty can bring.

Selected second in 2008 after Stamkos, Doughty emerged last season by finishing third among defensemen with 59 points. That put him ahead of more established names like Pronger, Gonchar, Lidstrom and Niedermayer.

Los Angeles has allowed six goals while winning its first four at home. Jonathan Quick stopped 39 shots, and improved to 7-1-0 with a 3-1 win over the New Jersey Devils on Saturday.

The pick? Since joining the NHL in 1992, the Lightning have simply owned the Kings in LA, going 10-1-0 with two ties. I don't see much changing this year.

LIGHTNING 5, KINGS 1