October 14, 2008; career game #1,200

Tonight marked Mathieu's 1,200 career NHL regular season game, making him the 74th player in NHL player to reach that mark. He is currently third among defenseman in games played, coming in just behind Niklas Lidstrom (1,255) and a bit further behind Chris Chelios (1,616).

In the game he also got his first point as a Thrasher, but the only Mathieu sightings I had in the highlights were two give-aways leading to two goals against. Though as Mathieu put it, one was an awkward situation:

"Normally, I put that back into Kari, but Kari lost his stick. [Gaborik] made a nice play. I’d normally put it right back in a goalie’s pads, but without his stick that becomes pretty risky, too. Obviously, you don’t want to handle the puck in front of your net, but I didn’t have a lot of choice there." (from Atlanta Journal Constitution)

Game summary: Little (White, Schneider), 15:20 of 3rd; (high-sticking), 19:26 of 1st; (holding), 16:41 of 2nd.