Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Smoke & Esoteric

Smolinski to play 1,000th NHL games; Kovalev next to reach plateau
Canadian Press

Smolinski

Bryan Smolinski celebrated his 1,000th NHL game Monday night, taking the
opening faceoff in the Montreal Canadiens' game against the Boston Bruins at the
Bell Centre.

"My first game was my biggest highlight," said Smolinski, whose career began
March 27, 1993 for the Bruins against the Pittsburgh Penguins. "The coolest
thing was walking through the crowd in the old Boston Garden.

"You had to be humbled by it." Smolinski, a native of Toledo, Ohio, went on
to play for Pittsburgh, the New York Islanders, Los Angeles, Ottawa, Chicago
and Vancouver before signing as a free agent with Montreal in the summer.

He became the 220th player to reach 1,000 games, and is the second Canadien
to reach the plateau this season. Defenceman Roman Hamrlik reached the
milestone in the team's season opener.

Smolinski played 227 games for the Isles after being acquired with Andreas
Johansson for Darius Kasparaitis , going 57-82-139. Smoke is currently ranked
at #78th all time in games played with the Isles, 15 GP ahead of Ricky. In
Goals he is tied with Kenny Jonsson at #47, he is 1 Goal behind Bates. Those
82 assists ranks him at #58, a mere 3 assists behind Berard. The Points
lands him at #51 a total of 31 points behind Bates. He has 108 Penalty minutes
for the #106th spot. Satan is closing in fast and will tie Smoke if he gets
6 more PIMs. Bryan scored 19 Power Play Goals 4 ahead of Hunter and Berard
at #33. He never scored a Short Handed Goal. He is currentlytied with
Berard at the #44th spot with 8 Game Winning Goals

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