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:
- The Edmonton Oilers and the Calgary Flames can both take a bow. What a game.
- We almost need to create a ‘Mike Hoffman Streak Watch’ section or something like that. Regardless, the man pushed his point streak to 15 games on Saturday with a goal and an assist, extending the franchise record.
- Carey Price is taking a beating in the media but he’s been solid over his past two games, including stopping 36-of-38 in a 3-2 win.
- Henrik Lundqvist captured win No. 438 to pass Jacques Plante for seventh on the NHL’s all-time list.
- Mark Stone had two goals in a 6-4 win for the Ottawa Senators over the slumping Pittsburgh Penguins.
- Chris Kreider is a big reason why the New York Rangers are near the top of the Metropolitan Division. He had a three-point night, scoring and adding two assists.
- Speaking of the Metropolitan, Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 30-of-31 and has now won in his past four appearances. His Blue Jackets are in first place.
- The Buffalo Sabres are good. Rasmus Dahlin is also good and he had a goal and an assist to help the Buffalo Sabres to their fifth straight win.
- Elias Pettersson scored again, so Vancouver can breathe again.
- Erik Karlsson finally scored his first of the season in his 21st game, so San Jose can also stop holding its breath.
- Jaroslav Halak continues to defy anyone and everyone’s expectations. He stopped 31 shots for his seventh win of the season. He’s got a .935 save percentage and a 2.07 goals-against average.
Highlights of the night
Erik Karlsson dropped his first goal with the San Jose Sharks. It was quite the rocket.
And there's goal No. 1 as a member of the @SanJoseSharks for @ErikKarlsson65! pic.twitter.com/v0xvoj1uCF
— NHL (@NHL) November 18, 2018
Jarnkrok’s hatty:
🚨 on the PP.
— NHL (@NHL) November 18, 2018
🚨 on the PK.
🚨 at even strength.
Basic math will tell you that's an @Enterprise hatty for @jarnkrok. https://t.co/yUatuj1Eqb
And Atkinson’s:
With his fifth career @Enterprise hatty, @CamAtkinson13 now has 5️⃣ hat tricks with the @BlueJacketsNHL, tying their franchise record. https://t.co/zcTHtHEkiL
— NHL (@NHL) November 18, 2018
Factoids
Max Domi (10-14—24) is the first @CanadiensMTL player with 24 or more points in his first 20 games with the franchise since Odie Cleghorn in 1918-1919 (24-6—30). #NHLStats #MTLvsVAN pic.twitter.com/EyV58wT1Is
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) November 18, 2018
Henrik Lundqvist surpassed Jacques Plante (437) for sole possession of 7th place on the NHL's all-time wins list. #NHLStats pic.twitter.com/WMXVw3EBD0
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) November 18, 2018
Saturday marked the 10th time in 2018-19 that three or more teams rallied from a multi-goal deficit to at least tie the score in the same day - matching the highest such total through the first 302 games of a season in the last 10 years (10 days in 2008-09). #NHLStats pic.twitter.com/u9Qyh209a0
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) November 18, 2018
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