Players of the Night:
• Pekka Rinne, Nashville Predators: Rinne turned aside all 27 shots he faced in Nashville’s shutout win over the St. Louis Blues (check out the highlights by clicking the video at the top of the page). The Preds goalie has just one regulation loss in his last 15 decisions (13-1-1).
• Ryan Strome, Edmonton Oilers: Strome hasn’t had the best season, but he’s really upped his production of late. After scoring two goals in Sunday’s game against Anaheim, he’s now accumulated five goals in his last five games. Maybe the former fifth overall pick has finally figured it out.
• Rickard Rakell, Anaheim Ducks: Rakell found the back of the net three times in Sunday’s shootout loss to Edmonton, including two in the final 21 seconds to force overtime. Anaheim ended up losing the game in a shootout. Rakell has 25 goals and 51 points in 59 games this season.
• Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers: As you can imagine, the Oilers-Ducks game was pretty wild. Not only did McDavid register three assists, he also netted the shootout winner for the Oilers on Sunday night. The 21-year-old is up 74 points in 62 games, which puts him on pace to score 98 points in 2017-18.
• Jared Spurgeon, Minnesota Wild: Spurgeon picked up two points in Sunday’s win over the Sharks, including the game-winning goal in the overtime period. The overtime tally proved to be the 200th point of his NHL career.
• Daniel Sedin, Vancouver Canucks: Sedin scored Vancouver’s first two goals. The veteran has been hot of late, as he has nine points in his last seven games. He’s also put together three multi-point efforts in his last four outings.
Highlights of the Night:
There was some late drama between Anaheim and Edmonton:
Martin Jones made sure his team went into the intermission with a lead:
Jimmy Howard flashes the leather:
Check out this spin-o-rama pass from Henrik Sedin:
Rebound. Top shelf. Daniel Sedin. 👌 #VANvsARI https://t.co/3jipREw1jV
— NHL (@NHL) February 26, 2018
Nash’s Debut:
Rick Nash made his Bruins debut on Sunday, but it didn’t go according to plan. Not only did Boston lose, Nash also failed to pick up a point. He finished the night with a minus-1 rating and five shots on goal in 17:27 of ice time.
Here’s a picture of Nash in his new colors:
Get a load of the new guy. 👋 pic.twitter.com/98bt22g3wv
— NHL (@NHL) February 25, 2018
Spooner’s Rangers debut:
Ryan Spooner, who was part of the package that went from Boston to New York for Nash, picked up a pair of assists in his first game with his new team. He helped set up goals by J.T. Miller and Jesper Fast.
Factoids of the Night:
There were some pretty quick goals scored this weekend:
Fastest goals from start of game this season:
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) February 26, 2018
0:10, Tyler Pitlick (Feb. 24)
0:12, Nino Niederreiter (Nov. 14)
0:13, @Drat_29 (Feb. 25)#EDMvsANA #NHLStats @EliasSports pic.twitter.com/3UrDjVV1El
Preds GM David Poile has done quite a bit of winning during his career:
With a @PredsNHL win this afternoon, GM David Poile (1,318) moved within one victory shy of tying Glen Sather (1,319) for the most regular-season wins by an NHL GM in League history. #NHLStats #STLvsNSH pic.twitter.com/heKbiIfJmC
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) February 25, 2018
Ratelle’s special night:
The New York Rangers retired Jean Ratelle’s no. 19 on Sunday night:
1️⃣9️⃣ goes up to the rafters @TheGarden!
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) February 26, 2018
Jean Ratelle
Always A Gentleman,
Forever A Ranger!#NYR https://t.co/z24xGw4HVN
Scores
Predators 4, Blues 0
Sabres 4, Bruins 1
Red Wings 3, Rangers 2 (OT)
Oilers 6, Ducks 5 (SO)
Wild 3, Sharks 2 (OT)
Canucks 3, Coyotes 1
MORE: Pro Hockey Talk 2018 NHL Trade Deadline Tracker
--
Joey Alfieri is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @joeyalfieri.