Three stars
1. Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay Lightning
Stamkos eclipsed the 700-point milestone in style on Monday as he scored a hat trick in a 6-3 win against the New York Rangers -- the ninth of his career and first since 2014.
Stamkos has 701 points now in 696 games (363 goals and 338 assists). He’s the first player from the 2008 NHL Draft to reach the 700-point plateau and third in franchise history to do so after Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier.
2. Jimmy Howard, Detroit Red Wings
Beating the Los Angeles Kings isn’t too tough a task these days, but the Kings didn’t lose this one quietly.
And a big reason why they picked up the ‘L’ was Howard, who made 42 saves. The Red Wings are lucky he did and are fortunate they were able to score on three of their 18 shots on goal.
Howard improved his record to 10-6-4 with a .923 save percentage -- the latter which ranks in the top 10 among starters.
3. Timo Meier, San Jose Sharks
Meier scored twice on Monday in a 5-2 win for the Sharks against the New Jersey Devils.
Meier now has 16 goals on the season, just five back from his career high of 21 set last season. He’s also up to 30 points, which is six back of his career high of 36, which was also set last season. He had those 21 goals and 26 points in 81 games last season. He’s up to 16 goals and 30 points with 53 games to go.
He’s going to shatter last year’s numbers, it would seem.
Highlights of the night
Drew Doughty’s ankles hurting after this one:
Here's @Dylanlarkin39 capitalizing on an opportunity... in the most beautiful way possible. ❤ https://t.co/L3nY0oh2jL
— NHL (@NHL) December 11, 2018
Stamkos’ hat trick, including one of the goals where he’s falling over and still manages to roof it:
A trio of goals for the @Enterprise hatty, along with his 700th career point.
— NHL (@NHL) December 11, 2018
Tonight was a good night for @RealStamkos91. 👏 https://t.co/CVKQLM8hPC
Passing, it’s a good thing:
Anybody up for some tic-tac-toe?
— NHL (@NHL) December 11, 2018
The @NYIslanders certainly are. https://t.co/otn49lTmc2
Factoids
Most goals this season, rookie defensemen:
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) December 11, 2018
6 – Maxime Lajoie
5 – Miro Heiskanen
5 – @dcholowski27
2 – Gavin Bayreuther
2 – Rasmus Dahlin#NHLStats #LAKvsDET pic.twitter.com/dCXoOKCxQK
Joe Pavelski reached the 20-goal mark for the sixth consecutive season and 10th time in his NHL career (all w/ SJS), trailing only Patrick Marleau (14) for the most campaigns with at least 20 goals in @SanJoseSharks franchise history. #NHLStats #NJDvsSJS pic.twitter.com/eJi04SULOq
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) December 11, 2018
Scores
Penguins 2, Islanders 1
Red Wings 3, Kings 1
Lightning 6, Rangers 3
Sharks 5, Devils 2
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