Three Stars from three games
1. Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers
Sunday night was quite the night for players putting up the sort of numbers you’d expect halfway through the 2019-20 season, not reaching such totals by the first night of December.
First up: the duo of Draisaitl and Connor McDavid.
The two scored two points apiece, with Draisaitl scoring two goals and McDavid providing two assists. With that, McDavid (51 points) and Draisaitl (50) became the first players to hit the 50+ point mark this season. Draisaitl scored the Oilers’ second and third goals of a 3-2 win against the Canucks, both on the power play (so, in case it escaped you, Draisaitl nabbed the GWG).
Draisaitl now has five game-winners so far this season, which would also translate into a lofty half-season total, and really not a bad mark over 82 games, either, for that matter. In fact, five GWGs matches Draisaitl’s career-high.
2. Tuukka Rask, Boston Bruins
It was David Pastrnak, not Rask, who best fits into the storyline of reaching the sort of numbers you’d expect from a league leader at the halfway mark. Pastrnak’s swaggery goal marked his 25th goal of 2019-20, which is pretty absurd since he’s only played 27 games.
[MORE: Can anyone catch Pastrnak for the Maurice Richard?]
When you zoom in and focus on Sunday’s specific stories, Rask played a big role in the Bruins winning their seventh straight game, thus handing the Canadiens a painful eighth consecutive loss.
Rask made 28 out of 29 saves against the Canadiens, only allowing a Joel Armia goal off of an odd bounce about two minutes into the game. The veteran goalie is now on a personal six-game winning streak, and he’s putting together some of the best work of his impressive career with a sparkling .933 save percentage in 2019-20.
3. Kevin Fiala, Minnesota Wild
Through the first eight games of the season, Fiala only had a single assist.
Maybe Fiala just needed to work his way through horror movie season, because he’s been lights-out since November, generating 13 points in his last 14 games.
Sunday marked one of the speedy sniper’s better performances during that span. Fiala scored a goal, grabbed a primary assist, and nabbed a shootout tally as Minnesota narrowly beat Dallas. Fiala was busy overall, with a robust eight shots on goal.
Highlight of the Night
Again, ouch, harsh. The celebration from Pastrnak really dug the knife deeper:
Factoids
- If you want to be sentimental and give Mikko Koivu the third star after he scored a goal and the shootout-winner during his 1,000th NHL game, that’s fair. Also, Koivu probably deserves to have a Selke on his resume, so maybe a nudge toward the third star is in order?
(The Wild note that Koivu hit point 700. By using my unparalleled math abilities, I estimate that Koivu’s scored points in 70 percent of his NHL regular-season games.)
- McDavid and Draisaitl tower over contemporaries, so you have to roll things back and channel Wayne Gretzky to keep them humble at 50 points before everyone else. Gretzky hit 50 before anyone else for seven straight seasons, according to NHL PR. There’s a lot of Gretzky, Gretzky + Mario Lemieux, and some Jaromir Jagr/Peter Forsberg sprinkled into the various milestones McDavid and/or Draisaitl have managed.
- Speaking of Lemieux, Pastrnak is the first player to hit 25+ goals by Dec. 1 since Mario did it in 1992-93, according to NHL PR. Pastrnak is one of 11 players to manage this feat ... and yes, Gretzky is also on that list. Sportsnet specifies in games played rather than by a date: Pastrnak’s 25 goals in 27 games is the best start since Jaromir Jagr in 1996-97.
- Also via Sportsnet: this eight-game losing streak is the third-worst in Canadiens’ history, and their worst since losing nine in a row 1940. The worst mark was 12 in a row, set in 1926.
Scores
MIN 3 - DAL 2 (SO)
BOS 3 - MTL 1
EDM 3 - VAN 2
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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.