"Every now and then, a day's worth of news and results can be wrapped up pretty nicely with one word. If I had to choose a single one for Jan. 16, it would be "blanked."

GOALIES BLANKING TEAMS

In the most obvious sense, that word describes the three shutouts that happened (which, by the way, is a pretty surprising development since there were only six games on a holiday Monday). In case you missed it:

Jimmy Howard improved his league-leading wins total to 27 games with a 27-save shutout of the Buffalo Sabres (more on that later). Howard had a nice 5-0 margin of error, but the other goose eggs were tougher to come by. Chris Mason celebrated a rare start with a 25-save shutout as the Winnipeg Jets topped the Ottawa Senators 2-0. Finally, Jaroslav Halak had the minimum room for error but still won as the St. Louis Blues blanked the Dallas Stars 1-0 to match the Chicago Blackhawks and New York Rangers as the NHL's top teams with 60 points. (The Rangers are technically in first place because of games in hand, though.)

Even the near-blanks were pretty good on Jan. 16 as Mike Smith went 38 for 39, Pekka Rinne stopped 36 out of 37 and Tuukka Rask turned aside 38 out of 40 shots for their wins."