Three Stars
1. Nikolaj Ehlers
Patrik Laine hit a milestone on Thursday, collecting his 100th career goal. Laine added another later on, pushing his league-leading total to 21 for the season, yet he wouldn’t even be in the Jets’ top three against Chicago.
Then again, that thought explains why Winnipeg is so scary: this team is about a lot more than Laine.
Ehlers, for example, stole Laine’s gimmick for a night by collecting a hat trick. Coming off of two straight 60+ point seasons, NHL opponents should tremble at the thought that the 22-year-old might just be coming into his own, from refining his game to becoming more confident.
This top star nod comes with some bonus fun. The coolest part: Ehlers collected a hat trick soon after shaving a design into the side of his head for Hockey Fights Cancer.
Ahead of tomorrow night’s #HockeyFightsCancer game, @NikolajEhlers24 cut his hair with both the HFC logo and a ribbon in support of the fight! pic.twitter.com/XjtHHdoanN
— Winnipeg Jets (@NHLJets) November 29, 2018
The other awesome part: his face after generating that hat trick.
2. Mark Scheifele/Blake Wheeler
Only three players collected three points on Thursday: Ehlers, Scheifele, and Wheeler. In the cases of Ehlers’ linemates, each got their points via three assists.
That trio sent a lot of pucks on net, even when they weren’t beating Corey Crawford. Scheifele fired six shots on goal, Ehlers had five, and Wheeler provided three.
Jets coach Paul Maurice enjoys plenty of decent options as far as the top line goes, including loading up with Laine alongside Wheeler and Scheifele (or Ehlers). Nights like these make you wonder if they should just stick with Ehlers - Scheifele - Wheelers long-term, though.
3. Adin Hill
Craig Anderson collected the other shutout of the night, stopping 27 shots. Hill finished with a 29-save shutout, and did it against a pretty tough (if banged-up) opponent in the Nashville Predators.
Hill suited up for just his fifth NHL start and seventh appearance overall. Interestingly, he’s been quite effective while being used very sparingly in 2018-19. He’s stopped all 35 shots he’s faced with the Arizona Coyotes in 2018-19, seeing a 20-minute appearance and a 15:57 showing in his other two games this season.
Looking at Hill’s stats at lower levels and during his other, rare NHL looks, it’s tough to imagine him keeping this up. Maybe that’s the true tiebreaker against Anderson, then: Hill might not be here again.
(Stranger things have happened, though. Right, Andrew Hammond?)
Highlights of the Night
In most cases, if a highlight gets its own post or is featured in a post, it may merely get linked. (For example: Nikita Kucherov’s nice goal lives here.) Elias Pettersson’s great effort and no-look pass is so good, though, that it’s foolish to risk you missing it. So here it is, again:
Matt Duchene is red-hot, and so is this puck movement:
Factoids
This post details that Patrik Laine became the fourth-youngest player in NHL history to reach 100 goals. He’s been especially fantastic during the month of November, too, as this nugget shows:
Patrik Laine of the @NHLJets is the seventh different player since 1989-90 to score 17+ goals in a calendar month. #NHLStats #CHIvsWPG pic.twitter.com/mDxpVVFKxE
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) November 30, 2018
Matt Duchene’s month might be even better, somehow.
With 2 points so far tonight, #Sens Matt Duchene leads the NHL with 21 points since Nov. 6
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) November 30, 2018
Ken Hitchcock coming up with the revolutionary strategy of “playing Connor McDavid more” helps the Oilers’ cause, but Mikko Koskinen delivering strong goaltending might be Edmonton’s most important development since all of those times they struck draft lottery gold.
Most wins by a goaltender through first 11 career appearances with the @EdmontonOilers:
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) November 30, 2018
8 – Ron Low in 1979-80 (8-2-1)
7 – Grant Fuhr in 1981-82 (7-1-3)
7 – Bill Ranford in 1987-88 (7-1-2)
7 – Mikko Koskinen in 2018-19 (7-2-1)#NHLStats #LAKvsEDM pic.twitter.com/KofhJPCpS8
Scores
BOS 2 - NYI 1 (SO)
CBJ 4 - MIN 2
OTT 3 - NYR 0
TBL 5 - BUF 4
ARI 3 - NSH 0
WPG 6 - CHI 5
EDM 3 - LAK 2
VGK 4 - VAN 3
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.