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This Week in the Pacific Division: Vrbata, Sharks shutouts and empty-netters

Remember that Radim Vrbata guy? He's still pretty good.

By Jason Bartel
Bob Frid-USA TODAY Sports

We've made it through the first week of the season, and the Pacific Division has been filled with blowouts and other weird things going on, including possibly the greatest empty-net goal in the history of empty-net goals.

Let's take a look at some the studs and duds from the week that was in the Pacific.

San Jose Sharks (2-0-0)

Studs: Antti Niemi and Alex Stalock.

Not every year does a team start the season with two shutouts from two different goalies. In fact, it's never happened in San Jose.

Niemi had 34 saves and Stalock had 30.

Dud: Mike Brown. It's hard to pick a guy on a 2-0 team that's won by a combined score of seven to nothing to be a dud, but let's go with Brown. He had 7 PIM and somehow was not on the ice for any Sharks goals during his 24 shifts.

Highlight: Patrick Marleau scores after this great outlet pass from Matt Nieto.

Vancouver Canucks (2-0-0)

Stud: Radim Vrbata. I already miss Vrbata. Do you? Two goals, an assist and nine shots on net in the Canucks' first two games of the year. Yeah, he'll fit in there pretty ok probably.

Dud: Chris Higgins. Dude's got six shots, a penalty, and no points to show for it in 34 shifts.

Highlight: Henrik Sedin had possibly the greatest empty-net goal of all-time.

Anaheim Ducks (2-1-0)

Stud: Corey Perry. Through three games, he's got 4 goals, three of them on the power play. Being on pace for 82 power play goals in a season seems pretty good to me.

Dud: John Gibson. The Ducks goalie gave up six goals on 39 shots in his one game played against the Penguins. Frederik Anderson has given up half that number in twice the minutes since.

Highlight: Ryan Getzlaf won the game against Detroit in the closing seconds with this quick steal-and-score move in the Red Wings zone.

L.A. Kings (1-1-1)

Stud: Jeff Carter. Leads the team in goals, points, +/-, and shots on net. The Kings only have six goals in their three games played, so it's not like there's a lot of people out there scoring points.

Dud: Jonathan Quick. Quick got yanked on banner-raising night. That's enough to be the dud of the week. Also, he doesn't have a win. Martin Jones has the lone L.A. win.

Highlight: Jeff Carter trails Tyler Toffoli's breakaway to clean up the mess.

Arizona Coyotes (1-1-0)

Stud: Mikkel Boedker. Talk about a team with no offensive production yet. Boedker has two goals on nine shots so far this year.

Dud: Mike Smith. That was brutal in the first game. Just awful. Six goals allowed on 27 shots.

Highlight: Oliver Ekman-Larsson puts home the game-winner against the Kings with 14 seconds left in OT.

Calgary Flames (1-2-0)

Stud: Joe Colborne. If nothing else, this is weird, but center Joe Colborne has four assists and no shots on goal. A center with four assists has no shots.

Dud: Mikael Backlund. This center has six shots on net, one assist, and is -3 +/- with a couple of penalties. Neat.

Highlight: Curtis Glencross got this fun goal late in a loss to the Blues.

Edmonton Oilers (0-1-1)

Stud: Teddy Purcell. A power play goal and two assists is enough to get Purcell stud of the week on the Oilers, if that tells you anything about the Oilers so far.

Dud: Ben Scrivens. Five goals allowed on just 26 shots. In Scrivens we trust.

Highlight: Nail Yakupov crashes the net hard and is rewarded for his troubles with this goal.

That'll do it for This Week in the Pacific Division! If you see some highlights that you think should be considered for that team's play of the week, tweet it to me @jasonbartel!

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