San Jose’s Joe Pavelski has had a mostly quiet season for the Sharks, but with the season winding down and the playoffs approaching, that mean’s it’s his time to shine. Last year’s playoff star for the Sharks blew up last week scoring three goals and adding eight assists over four games to earn the NHL number one star of the week.
Pavelski recorded multi-point games in each of the four he played in last week, a stretch that saw the Sharks go 3-1-0 and was highlighted by his four assists in a 6-3 win over the Stars and his two goals and one assist against St. Louis on Saturday night. While he’s surrounded by bigger stars like Joe Thornton, Dany Heatley, and Patrick Marleau, Pavelski’s proven his worth and now that he’s heating up again the Sharks will be better off for it.
Anaheim’s Ray Emery earns the NHL’s second star of the week not just for making his comeback from hip surgery successful but for doing so by playing great. Emery went 2-0-0 last week with a 0.99 goals against average and .968 save percentage as he helped the Ducks jump into the eighth spot in the Western Conference this week. Emery’s play has helped steady things in goal for the Ducks while Jonas Hiller continues to miss time due to vertigo. The combo of Emery and Dan Ellis has done quite well in Hiller’s absence and the Ducks are benefiting greatly from it.
Montreal’s P.K. Subban may have caught your eye here this morning with his dazzling goal against the Wild last night, but his play last week earned him the NHL’s third star of the week. He had four goals and two assists last week including a historic hat trick last night, the first by a rookie defenseman in Montreal Canadiens history. Love him or hate him, Subban’s doing quite well in his rookie season for the Habs and should get serious consideration for the Calder Trophy at season’s end.