"It's fair to say there's heightened awareness. There's no change coming," Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli said. "Brendan wants to make it clear, and he did make it clear, goalies aren't fair game."
Pittsburgh Penguins GM Ray Shero said there's some push for goaltenders to be granted a special status similar to quarterbacks in football.
"Several of the general managers just brought up the fact there's only 60 goaltenders in the league," Shero said. "We have to be pretty careful in terms of they're going to play the puck outside the crease and what should be fair and what we really have to look at to protect them long term."
In last night's games *
At Toronto, shootout goals by Patrick O'Sullivan and Radim Vrbata gave the Phoenix Coyotes a 3-2 win over the Maple Leafs. Coyotes goalie Mike Smith had 35 saves, and he also stopped Toronto league scoring-leader Phil Kessel on a shootout attempt.
* At Pittsburgh, James Neal had a goal and two assists as the Penguins rallied past the Colorado Avalanche, 6-3. Neal's power-play goal, his 12th tally of the season, in the third gave him at least one goal in each of Pittsburgh's eight home games this season. The Penguins are tied with Chicago for the most points this season, 25.
* At Uniondale, N.Y., Brad Richards' go-ahead goal with 4:55 remaining snapped a tie and sent the New York Rangers to their seventh straight victory, 4-2 over the New York Islanders. Richards broke a 2-2 tie, and Ryan Callahan added an empty-net goal in the final second for the Rangers, who are on their longest winning streak since October 2009 when they also won seven in a row. The Islanders returned home from a three-game road trip and lost for the fifth time in six outings.
* At Boston, Benoit Pouliot scored the tiebreaking goal with 3:01 left in the third period to give the Bruins a 4-3 victory over the New Jersey Devils, sending the Stanley Cup champions to their sixth consecutive win. Brad Marchand scored for the third straight game, and Tim Thomas stopped 27 shots for Boston, which has climbed out of last place in the Eastern Conference.
* At Nashville, all the scoring came in the game's last 5 minutes in the Predators' 3-1 victory over the Washington Capitals. After Troy Brouwer gave the Caps a 1-0 lead at 15:14, Martin Erat tied the score 28 seconds later, then set up Colin Wilson's game- winner with 25 seconds to play and an empty-net goal by Shea Weber 5 seconds after that.
* At St. Louis, Alexander Steen's second-period goal was the difference in the Blues' 2-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings.
* At Columbus, Cal Clutterbuck scored in the third period as the Minnesota Wild rallied for a 4-2 win over the Blue Jackets. Niklas Backstrom stopped a season-high 43 shots for the Wild, off to one of the best starts in franchise history at 10-5-3. The Blue Jackets remain at the bottom of the NHL with a 3-13-1 record.
* At Dallas, Kris Versteeg and Stephen Weiss each had a goal and two assists in the Florida Panthers' 6-0 rout of the Stars.
* At Calgary, Bobby Butler scored two goals and Craig Anderson made 38 saves as Ottawa defeated the Flames, 3-1.
