Photograph of the Rangers celebrating as Buffalo Sabres player Ales Kotalik skates away by Frank Franklin II/AP

• Rangers 5, Sabres 1: Five days off, but only 10 seconds to score. Sean Avery got the Blueshirts off to a great start and they finally got the taste of Sunday's overtime loss to Washington out of their mouths. "I don't think we expected that great of a start," said Brendan Shanahan. He has to be telling the truth. Who sits at his locker lacing up his skates and says, "I think we'll score within nine seconds"? No one, that's who.
• Islanders 4, Thrashers 1: The Rangers took 10 seconds to score, but the Islanders denied the Thrashers a goal until 77 seconds remained in this one. Miroslav Satan, Ruslan Fedotenko, Marc-Andre Bergeron and Sean Bergenheim all scored for the Islanders. Don't look now -- actually, it's safe to look -- they've won three straight. Up next: San Jose on Monday. It's at home, so the team won't get lost.
• Devils 3, Senators 2: Jason Kidd was in the NBA's skills challenge, but, even if his trade has fallen through, he still doesn't feel like a true local player. With him as the only such representative in Saturday's NBA festivities -- if not playing defense were a skill, Eddy Curry would have been so there -- the Devils had to show off their talent. Arron Asham had as many goals as he has R's in his first name, and Martin Brodeur had 37 times as many saves as he has B's in his last. The Devils won despite finishing a 10-round shootout the night before.