Three Stars
1. Noel Acciari, Florida Panthers
Acciari never generated a multi-goal game before Monday’s hat trick. The Panthers forward authored quite a few firsts this week, as he added another hat trick (a natural one, too) against Dallas. Acciari completed his hat trick with a penalty shot goal, collecting another first.
Acciari actually assisted on a Vincent Trocheck goal for his point of the night, so he generated four overall on Friday. Click here for more on Acciari’s stunning spurt of hat tricks.
2. Nicklas Backstrom, Washington Capitals
Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin celebrated their 900th game together by bullying the poor Devils.
Backstrom matched Acciari by generating four points on Friday. In Backstrom’s case, the Swede collected two goals and two assists. The Capitals point out that this outburst pushes Backstrom to 900 points in his 900 games alongside Ovechkin. (Consider that an early factoid.)
Ovechkin and John Carlson enjoyed one-goal, one-assist nights themselves.
3. William Nylander, Toronto Maple Leafs
Last season, Nylander struggled after finally signing with Toronto, finishing with 27 points in 54 games. The 23-year-old reached 27 points on Friday, merely Nylander’s 36th game of 2019-20. Nylander produced two goals and one assist against New Jersey on Friday.
Generating 27 points in 36 games would translate to a 61 or 62 point pace (hinging on if you round up). Nylander managing such a pace would almost be too fitting, as 61 points is his career-high from both 2016-17 and 2017-18.
Highlight of the Night (non-Acciari division)
Picture a Maple Leafs - Rangers game, and you’ll envision lots of goals and plenty of mistakes. The two teams delivered, with Mitch Marner really making the Rangers pay on this nice goal. Jacob Trouba bumping him likely hurt a lot less:
Comic relief by way of a fight
Hockey players humble us with their feats of athletic fancy, so this goofy “fight” between Miles Wood and Nick Jensen serves as an amusing change of pace:
Factoids
- Curiously, all four games were decided by three goals. NHL PR notes that 36 goals ranks as the most goals scored on a four-game night since 40 on March 26, 1996.
- TVA’s Renaud Lavoie shares a stunning stat: the Oilers have now lost 26 games in a row when Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl failed to score a point. The Penguins extended their point streak against Edmonton to 19 games (15-0-4).
- Hockey Buzz’s Todd Cordell notes that, after about 76 minutes of power play time, P.K. Subban finally generated his first PPP of 2019-20. Sami Vatanen remains the only Devils defenseman with a primary power play point so far this season, though, according to Cordell.
- Acciari deserves a ton of attention, but don’t forget about Jonathan Huberdeau. Huberdeau joined Jozef Stumpel as the only two Panthers to generate four or more points in two straight games, via NHL PR.
- The Florida Panthers point out that Keith Yandle appeared in his 831st consecutive game, breaking a tie with Andrew Cogliano for the NHL’s fourth-longest “ironman streak.”
- Joe Pavelski became the 344th NHL player to play in 1,000 regular-season games. Through 37 games, it’s still strange to see him playing for the Stars instead of the Sharks, though.
Scores
TOR 6 - NYR 3
WSH 6 - NJD 3
FLA 7 - DAL 4
PIT 5 - EDM 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.