Line of the Night: The St. Louis Blues’ superb top trio.
Seemingly every night, at least one of the NHL’s best scoring lines seems to make its case as the best. It’s getting to the point where any off night is surprising, which seems almost impossible in a league where it’s still (allegedly?) tough to score on a nightly basis.
In Tuesday’s case, the Blues’ red-hot trio of Jaden Schwartz, Brayden Schenn, and Vladimir Tarasenko added to the Oilers’ profound miseries by triggering an 8-3 stomping.
Schwartz scored one goal and three assists, while both Schenn and Tarasenko enjoyed ridiculous two-goal, two-assists nights. Schwartz and Schenn both are at 30 points in 2017-18, while “The Tank” is rolling with 26. Tarasenko almost had a hat trick today, but settled for the Gordie Howe:
Our Play of the Game couldn't be anything other than @tara9191's Gordie Howe hat trick. #stlblues #BluesSocial pic.twitter.com/ajkdWmFZbB
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) November 22, 2017
Highlight of the Night: Jamie Benn vs. Jordie Benn, just in time for American Thanksgiving.
(They’re Canadians, but still.)
Shared sadness: The Canadiens lost a hard-fought game to the Stars as the 3-1 margin of defeat was inflated by an empty-netter, while the Oilers were just humiliated, yet both teams really needed wins and neither even got a standings point for their efforts. Times are getting tense for two Canadian franchises that came into 2017-18 with high hopes.
Brendan Gallagher’s reaction to the empty-netter says it all:
Factoid of the Night: Clearly, it’s totally Connor McDavid’s fault.
Connor McDavid has now been involved in 50.9% of the #Oilers offence this season, 2nd highest percentage in the NHL (Gaudreau: 51.7%)
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) November 22, 2017
Scores
Canucks 5, Flyers 2
Blues 8, Oilers 3
Stars 3, Canadiens 1
—
James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.