PROJECTED LINES
Rangers
Kreider – Desharnais – Buchnevich
Vesey – Hayes – Nash
Grabner – Miller – Zuccarello
Carey – Nieves – Fast
McDonagh – Holden
Skjei – Shattenkirk
Staal – Smith
Startling goalie: Ondrej Pavelec
NHL on NBCSN: Rangers visit surging Penguins; Wild meet streaking Kings
Penguins
Sheary – Crosby – Hornqvist
Guentzel – Malkin – Kessel
Hagelin – Sheahan – Rust
Kuhnhackl – Rowney – Reaves
Dumoulin – Letang
Maatta – Hunwick
Cole – Schultz
Startling goalie: Tristan Jarry
Three stars
1. Esa Lindell, Dallas Stars
Lindell scored his second and third goals of the season on Sunday, with the latter being the game-winner as the Stars demolished the New York Islanders 6-2.
This spot could have easily gone to either Alexander Radulov, Tyler Seguin or Jamie Benn, each who came away with three-point nights in the win. Dallas has won two straight and are 6-2-2 in their past 10 games.
Gotta love on the defensemen sometimes though.
2. Corey Crawford, Chicago Blackhawks
Crawford was struggling pretty bad prior to this past week after losing five straight. Since then, Crawford is 2-0-1 and has allowed just two goals in those three games.
Crawford’s recent surge was highlighted on Sunday after he stopped 39 shots on Sunday en route to a 3-1 Blackhawks win against the Minnesota Wild. The Hawks are just 2-5-3 in their past 10, so a better Crawford could go a long way as they try to position themselves in a tough Central Division.
3. Jonathan Marchessault, Vegas Golden Knights.
It looks like every game in the Pacific Division is going to have deeper meaning this year with how poor those teams can be at times.
Marchessault, with two goals and an assist, ensured that Vegas got back to winning ways with a three-point night in a 6-3 win against the Edmonton Oilers. Marchessault was riding a three-game pointless streak coming into Sunday.
Other notable performances:
Highlights of the night
Tremendous:
Slick feed:
Factoids
Scores
Stars 6, Islanders 2
Hurricanes 2, Devils 1
Blackhawks 3, Wild 1
Avalanche 4, Ducks 3 (OT)
Golden Knights 6, Oilers 3
Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck
Three stars
1. Cam Atkinson, Columbus Blue Jackets
Three goals for the hat trick and an assist to cap off a four-point night for Atkinson in a 4-1 win for the Blue Jackets against the Carolina Hurricanes. Not too shabby. Atkinson helped Columbus to its second-best start through 20 games in franchise history. The Blue Jackets have won three in a row and are sitting in the top spot in the Metropolitan Division.
Atkinson is rocking a four-game point streak now with six goals and nine points during that time. He’s currently on pace to eclipse the 40-goal mark, which would be a career-high. He had 35 two years ago.
Atkinson is now tied with Rick Nash for most hat tricks in franchise history at five.
2. Calle Jarnkrok, Nashville Predators
Jarnkork scored quite the hat trick himself on Saturday.
One of his goals came at even strength, another on the power play and one shorthanded. There should be a special name for that, like the hat-hat trick or something (terrible, right?) or maybe the three-phase hatty? I’m striking out.
Whatever ever way you slice it, it was no small feat. Since 2013-14, only seven players — including Jarnkrok — have done it. Not bad for your first hatty.
3. Aaron Dell, San Jose Sharks
San Jose got a Dell on Saturday night, and it stopped 30 shots for his fourth career shutout in a 4-0 win against the St. L
Not a bad purchase.
Dell exacted a bit of revenge after he was between the pipes on Nov. 9 when the Sharks were blanked by the same Blues team 4-0 on Nov. 9.
Other notable performances:
Highlights of the night
Erik Karlsson dropped his first goal with the San Jose Sharks. It was quite the rocket.
Jarnkrok’s hatty:
And Atkinson’s:
Factoids
Scores
Lightning 6, Flyers 5 (OT)
Red Wings 3, Devils 2 (OT)
Sabres 3, Wild 2
Canadiens 3, Canucks 2
Senators 6, Penguins 4
Rangers 4, Panthers 2
Blue Jackets 4, Hurricanes 1
Bruins 2, Coyotes 1
Predators 5, Kings 3
Flames 4, Oilers 2
Sharks 4, Blues 0
Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck
Hate.
At times on Saturday night at the Saddledome in Calgary, it seethed.
And it was glorious. Mightily, brilliantly, glorious.
Saturday night was alright for mayhem and the Battle of Alberta had it in droves.
A great game of hockey bookmarked massive hits, fights and hate. Did I mention hate?
The montage above was just first-period highlights.
Let’s recap:
The hit that led to Nurse and Bennett scraping is here:
The hate resumed in the second period, because of course it did.
Milan Lucic was engaged in this game, a sight for sore eyes for Oilers fans.
Here’s a sample of that engagement:
Now, if Lucic can bottle that and take some sips before each game going forward…
Oilers Twitter seemed quite pleased with No. 27 during the game.
Calgary prevailed in the game, winning 4-2 after scoring four unanswered as the Oilers squandered a 2-0 lead.
Neither team started their struggling No. 1 netminders. David Rittich for Calgary was the better of the two backups in the game, stopping three breakaways in the game. Edmonton simply couldn’t douse the Flames, who kept it coming in the third frame when the Oilers started to fizzle out.
Bonus: For old times’ sake, here’s the scrap of all scraps in the Battle of Alberta:
John Tortorella would have been proud.
Let the hype begin for the next game in the famed series on Dec. 9 in Edmonton.
Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck
Remember when the Buffalo Sabres were bad?
The answer is we all do. You don’t have to go that far back in the annals of hockey history to find some woefully bad Sabres teams.
But those days of Buffalo being the butt-end of jokes and all of that sort of thing seem to be over with. The western New Yorkers aren’t simply toiling as an embarrassing team anymore. It’s been a bit of a process to turn the ship around, but the fruits of that labor seem to be flourishing so far this season.
Case and point: Buffalo has now cobbled together five straight wins, including triumphs over the Tampa Bay Lightning — tops in the Atlantic Division — and the Winnipeg Jets and Minnesota Wild, teams sitting second and third in the Central Division, respectively.
They’ve embraced the grind, have learned to weather storms and are still standing at the end of it.
In Winnipeg on Friday, the Sabres were outshot 12-4 in the first period and survived. In Minnesota on Saturday, they were again pelted in the opening frame, doubled up 18-9 on the shot counter, and still found a way to only be down by a single goal.
And in both games, they battled back in the third, tied the game and then won it late in regulation or in extra hockey, as was the case in Winnipeg. And they did it on back-to-back nights when you’d have forgiven them for packing it in early against Minnesota after Friday’s game, which needed 65 minutes and seven rounds of a shootout.
Summer acquisitions of Jeff Skinner and Carter Hutton have played massive roles in Buffalo’s ascent up the standings a month-and-a-half into the season.
Skinner has 14 goals and 21 points in 20 games this season after coming over from the Carolina Hurricanes.
Hutton is 4-0-0 in his past four games with a 1.42 goals-against average and a .950 save percentage.
Linus Ullmark is 4-0-1 in his backup role and Buffalo had the 11th best team save percentage coming into Saturday.
Their penalty kill is in the top 10
Jason Pominville has turned back the clock with nine goals and 17 points thus far. Thirty-five years old and the wear and tear of 1,000 games? Pfft. Pominville is laughing at Father Time.
And most importantly, they’re resilient.
“I just think we bent a little bit but we didn’t break,” Sabres head coach Phil Housley said after Friday’s win in Winnipeg. “I think last year we maybe would have broke a little more and gave the game away. We hung in there. That’s what’s great about this group, that they stick with it. We make some adjustments in between periods and they follow through with those adjustments. But it’s great for them, they’ve shown the resiliency up to this point in the season.”
The Sabres are simply an exciting team to watch these days and they’re positioning themselves to be in the playoff hunt, both this year and in the future.
Imagine that.
Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck
