Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

The Buzzer: Draisaitl takes over league lead in goals, points

Edmonton Oilers v Columbus Blue Jackets

COLUMBUS, OH - OCTOBER 30: Leon Draisaitl #29 of the Edmonton Oilers celebrates with his teammates after scoring on goaltender Joonas Korpisalo #70 of the Columbus Blue Jackets during the first period of a game on October 30, 2019 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/NHLI via Getty Images)

NHLI via Getty Images

Three Stars

1. Leon Draisaitl, Edmonton Oilers. He is doing his best to show that his 50-goal, 100-point season from a year ago was no fluke. With two goals and an assist in the Oilers’ 4-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday night Draisaitl is now tied for the league lead in goals (12, along with Boston’s David Pastrnak) and is in sole possession of the top spot in points with 25. If you like to have fun with early season “on pace for” numbers those put him on track for 70 goals and 145 points over 82 games. Obviously he will slow down at some point, but what a start for the Oilers and their top forwards.

2. Brock Boeser, Vancouver Canucks. An absolutely massive game for the Canucks’ top young players as they crushed the Los Angeles Kings -- again -- this season. Boeser was the big star on the night with three goals and an assist in the win. He is now up to seven goals and 14 total points this season. Boeser, Elias Pettersson, and Quinn Hughes give the Canucks quite a trio of young stars to build around, and they all shined on Wednesday.

3. Jonathan Huberdeau, Florida Panthers. With eight minutes to play in regulation the Panthers found themselves trailing by two goals in Colorado. It was at that point that their stars took over. Aleksander Barkov scored his first goal of the season to bring the Panthers to within one, and then Huberdeau tied it with 1:30 to play and the goalie pulled for an extra attacker. As if that was not enough, Huberdeau won it just 29 seconds into overtime to give the Panthers a huge two points. The Panthers have earned at least a point in nine of their past 10 games.

Other notable performances from Wednesday


  • Tyler Johnson scored in overtime to give the Tampa Bay Lightning a wild come-from-behind win against the New Jersey Devils, who surrendered yet another two-goal lead. Read more about that game here.
  • St. Louis Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo scored to give his team a hard-fought 2-1 win over the Minnesota Wild. Read more about it here.
  • Four different Montreal Canadiens scored goals in their 4-1 win over Arizona, including Shea Weber (more on his goal below) and Jonathan Drouin who continued his great start to the season.

Highlights of the Night

This shot from Elias Pettersson is a thing of beauty. You can not place the puck in a better spot. A totally unstoppable shot.

Here is Huberdeau’s game-winner for the Panthers.

At least the Devils had this going for them on Wednesday. Kyle Palmieri scored three goals in the loss, with the third goal coming in the final 10 seconds to tie the game and send it to overtime.

Blooper of the Night

It was a tough night for Arizona Coyotes goalie Antti Raanta, and nothing illustrated that more than him losing a skate blade and allowing Montreal Canadiens defenseman Shea Weber to score an easy goal from the blue line.

Factoids


  • Boeser is the fifth player in Canucks history to record at least three hat tricks before their 23rd birthday. [NHL PR]
  • Anze Kopitar became the fifth player in Kings history to record 900 career regular season points. [NHL PR]
  • Nathan MacKinnon extended his season opening point streak to 12 consecutive games, the fifth player in the past 20 years to accomplish that feat. [NHL PR]
  • Tampa Bay’s come-from-behind win on Wednesday was the 12th multi-goal third period come-from-behind win of the season, the most in NHL history through the first 193 games of the season. [NHL PR]
  • James Neal scored his 11th goal of the season for the Oilers, meaning he and Draisaitl are just the fourth set of teammates in NHL history to each score at least 11 goals in the month of October. They are the first to do it since Mario Lemieux and Kevin Stevens for the 1991-92 Pittsburgh Penguins. [NHL PR]

Scores

Tampa Bay Lightning 7, New Jersey Devils 6 (OT)
Edmonton Oilers 4, Columbus Blue Jackets 1
St. Louis Blues 2, Minnesota Wild 1
Montreal Canadiens 4, Arizona Coyotes 1
Florida Panthers 4, Colorado Avalanche 3 (OT)
Vancouver Canucks 5, Los Angeles Kings 3

Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.