Three Stars
1. Blake Wheeler
What a night for the wildly underrated Winnipeg Jets captain.
Wheeler scored a goal and four assists, crossing 400 for his (again, wildly underrated) career. That milestone helper came as he read Nathan MacKinnon to create a turnover and set the table for Nikolaj Ehlers. Three of Wheeler’s four assists were primary helpers, too.
As usual, the winger brought a great all-around game, earning a +3 rating and logging a significant 3:13 of shorthanded time.
This virtuoso performance extended Wheeler’s point streak to nine games (two goals, 15 assists). Wheeler’s now at 21 points on the season, with 18 of them being assists, which ranks second in the NHL.
Mark Scheifele had a strong game against the struggling Avs, too, scoring a goal and two assists.
2. Mikael Granlund
The Wild absolutely dominated the Ducks, who seem to have no gear other than “hope John Gibson and a few deadly shooters can save the day.”
Granlund and Jason Zucker both generated three points, so you could consider them tied for the second star. Granlund gets the slight edge because he scored two goals and one assist, while Zucker generated two assists and one goal. Again, you could make the argument that Zucker should get that nod instead (or be the third star, if you’re really being difficult), as he had five SOG to Granlund’s two, and Zucker’s tally was the GWG.
Still, Granlund enjoyed a slightly more impressive night, including really making it easy for Zucker on his goal.
The Wild are quietly heating up, with wins in nine of their last 11 games. Bruce Boudreau just finds ways to keep his team’s regular-season-relevant, doesn’t he? Granlund and Zucker deserve serious credit for stepping up with Eric Staal banged up.
3. Chad Johnson
Friday was a solid night for goalies around the NHL. Sergei Bobrovsky earned praise from Torts and had the same number of saves (33) as Johnson. Like Bob, Frederik Andersen only allowed one goal while making 38 stops.
Chad Johnson is the only goalie who earned a shutout on Friday, though.
Considering Jake Allen’s substantial struggles, the Blues might want to lean on Johnson for a while, as the journeyman goalie has - on occasion - shown that he can carry a team in net at times during certain stretches. The Blues have been able to occasionally create a really nurturing atmosphere for hot-and-cold goalies (like Brian Elliott, Johnson’s creasemate from last season), so perhaps Johnson could go on a mini-run? If nothing else, this was a nice win, especially if Mike Yeo is in any way looking over his shoulder at Joel Quenneville.
In other Blues news, Ryan O’Reilly is on a nine-game point streak.
Highlights
It didn’t translate to a goal, but this bit of Scheifele wizardry was magical:
.@markscheifele55 having some fun. pic.twitter.com/vV5FEG4cPP
— NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) November 10, 2018
Speaking of magical, Nick Foligno’s beautiful pass to Oliver Bjorkstrand played a trick on three Capitals opponents:
Andreas Athanasiou ranks as one of Friday’s honorable mentions, scoring the goal that sent Detroit’s game against the Rangers into OT, then setting up Dylan Larkin for this OT game-winner:
Lowlight
Here’s hoping referee Brad Meier is feeling OK after this uncomfortable fall:
Referee Brad Meier goes down with a lower body injury. He has left the ice to be tended to. pic.twitter.com/q0P1lruwz0
— NBC Sports Capitals (@NBCSCapitals) November 10, 2018
Factoids
Wheeler’s 400th assist wasn’t the only milestone from Friday. Patrick Marleau didn’t do a whole lot for it (Nazem Kadri ended up batting down a puck for a nice goal), but most of his 600 career assists have surely been impressive. (These two assist milestones explain the big apples part of this post’s headline, in case that wasn’t clear.)
Kinda cool to see his old buddy Joe Thornton on this list with him:
Active NHL players with at least 600 career assists:
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) November 10, 2018
1,032 — Joe Thornton
713 — Sidney Crosby
636 — Ryan Getzlaf
604 — Nicklas Backstrom
600 — Patrick Marleau#NHLStats #NJDvsTOR https://t.co/LIxSZ78SFS
Chad Johnson’s enjoyed some nice peak moments in the NHL, but it’s been a while since he’s enjoyed a night like Friday.
Chad Johnson made 33 saves for the Blues in a 4-0 win against the Sharks. St. Louis has won four of its past five games. It was Johnson's first shutout since Nov. 30, 2016. https://t.co/nHYDJ92coy
— NHL.com (@NHLdotcom) November 10, 2018
Rarely a bad time to see your name next to Wayne Gretzky’s, eh, Blake Wheeler?
Per @NHL, Blake Wheeler is the first player to record an assist on 9 consecutive team goals since Wayne Gretzky did it on 10 straight Oilers goals in October 1986 pic.twitter.com/g2NkpLEYG6
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) November 10, 2018
Scores
TOR 6 - NJD 1
CBJ 2 - WSH 1
DET 3 - NYR 2 (OT)
STL 4 - SJS 0
WPG 5 - COL 2
MIN 5 - ANA 1
MORE: Your 2018-19 NHL on NBC TV schedule
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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.