St. Louis’ David Backes, Colorado’s Semyon Varlamov and Florida’s Jonathan Huberdeau were named the NHL’s three stars for the week ending Jan. 11, the league announced on Monday.
The highlights:
Backes led the NHL with five goals and eight points in three games, posting three consecutive multi-point performances to power the Blues (26-13-3, 55 points) to a trio of victories.
Varlamov went 3-0-0 with a 1.67 goals-against average, .962 save percentage and one shutout to lead the Avalanche (18-16-8, 44 points) to three consecutive wins.
Huberdeau shared second in the NHL with five points (3-2—5) in three outings to help the Panthers (20-11-9, 49 points) complete a perfect three-game trip through Western Canada and move within one point of the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Backes and the Blues have kicked off 2015 in style. They’re 4-1-0 since the calendar turned and have potted a staggering 28 goals over those five games, with Backes scoring five. It’ll be interesting to see if the Blues captain, who now has 14 goals on the year, can hone in on his career-high of 31 (which he’s done twice, once during the 2008-09 campaign and again in 2010-11.)