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The Buzzer: McDavid, Crawford should’ve given spoiler alerts

By James O'BrienMar 17, 2019, 2:07 AM EDT
3 Comments

Three Stars

1. Corey Crawford leads a group of spoiler goalies

Quite a few goalies made life miserable for teams in desperate situations, and Crawford topped the list. He generated an impressive (and, for the Canadiens, deeply annoying) 48-save shutout on Saturday, absolutely stealing a win for the Blackhawks. Even with Chicago now on a five-game winning streak, it would be surprising if we look back at that shutout as anything more than the Blackhawks spoiling a chance for Montreal to improve its playoff chances.

Again, that was in the air on Saturday.

Red Wings fans are likely reading through prospect rankings and wondering who will run the team in the future right now, but getting wins at this time of year? They might be rooting for the opposite, at least those who cross their fingers for higher draft lottery odds.

With that in mind, Jonathan Bernier wasn’t just a spoiler for the Islanders in making 41 out of 42 saves; he was, to an extent, a spoiler for his own team … depending upon how you look at things.

Blues goalie Jordan Binnington is doing the opposite of spoiling the Blues’ season, but he certainly robbed the Penguins often, making 40 of 41 saves. (Also of note: Anders Nilsson generated 35 saves as the Senators upset the Maple Leafs.)

2. Alex Killorn

It’s difficult to differentiate some strong three-point performances from Saturday, except one stands out as pretty tough to deny. Killorn generated a hat trick as the Lightning beat the Capitals in a testy game.

Killorn now has 16 goals in 2018-19, leaving him three behind his career-high of 19.

If you want to bring it back to playing spoiler again: the Lightning have basically everything locked up right now, so they messed up the Capitals’ chances of fattening their lead for the Metropolitan Division title.

3. Connor McDavid

Again, this is tough. Among other candidates, two Panthers (Evgenii Dadonov and Aleksander Barkov) enjoyed three-point games.

Like Dadonov, McDavid generated two goals and one assist for his three points (Barkov had thre assists).

McDavid gets the edge in some ways, and no, it’s not just that he’s Connor McDavid. For one thing, McDavid nabbed a game-winning goal with his overtime-winner. For another, McDavid scored this way for his other goal, generating arguably the highlight of the night:

So, slight advantage: number 97.

(Oh yeah, and the Oilers beat the Coyotes in OT, spoiling Arizona’s efforts to get a full two points.)

Highlight of the Night

Actually, I’m call it: that McDavid goal was the highlight of the night. So, with that, enjoy a bonus: the latest Hurricanes win celebration goes the “curling” route.

Question: does this mean they’re only getting more ingenious with their celes, or are they running out of ideas?

Factoids

  • McDavid now has multiple points in seven-consecutive games. Only two other Oilers have done that: Wayne Gretzky (15 times!) and Mark Messier (once). McDavid’s seven-game streak ties two other players for the longest run in 2018-19: Nikita Kucherov and Auston Matthews.
  • Connor Hellebuyck hits the 30-win mark once again. This makes for a nice feat for him, and quite the indictment on those who came before him, as he’s the only Thrashers/Jets goalie to post consecutive 30-win seasons.
  • Jordan Staal scored his 500th point, allowing him to join his brother Eric Staal on a select list of siblings:

Scores

STL 5 – PIT 1
DET 2 – NYI 1
FLA 4 – LAK 3
WIN 2 – CGY 1
BOS 2 – CBJ 1 (OT)
CHI 2 – MTL 0
OTT 6 – TOR 2
TBL 6 – WSH 3
CAR 4 – BUF 2
MIN 5 – NYR 2
EDM 3 – ARI 2 (OT)
NSH 4 – SJS 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.

The Buzzer: Price passes Plante; hats off for Jenner, Gaudreau

AP
By Adam GretzMar 13, 2019, 1:47 AM EDT
4 Comments

Three Stars

1. Johnny Gaudreau, Calgary Flames. The Calgary Flames kept pace with the San Jose Sharks in the Pacific Division race with a 9-4 win over the New Jersey Devils, featuring the NHL’s first six-point game since the 2013-14 season from Johnny Gaudreau. Read all about it here.

2. Carey Price, Montreal Canadiens. The list of Hall of Famers and legendary goalies to play for the Montreal Canadiens organization is a lengthy and impressive one. It is a who’s who list of some of the greatest goalies in the history of the league, and Carey Price now officially has more wins than all of them. By stopping 20 of the 21 shots he faced in a 3-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night, Price earned the 315th win of his career and moved him ahead of Hall of Famer Jacques Plante for sole possession of first place on the team’s all-time wins list.

3. Boone Jenner, Columbus Blue Jackets. The Columbus Blue Jackets’ offense has gone cold in the games after the trade deadline and it has put them in a tough spot when it comes to making the playoffs, especially with a tough schedule still remaining down the stretch. The offense finally clicked on Tuesday night in a 7-4 win over the Boston Bruins — who have now lost two regulation games in a row after going 19 consecutive games without one — that was highlighted by a hat trick from Boone Jenner to give him 15 goals on the season.

Highlights of the Night

Joe Pavelski scored the game-winning goal for the San Jose Sharks with just 3.6 seconds remaining in their 5-4 win over the Winnipeg Jets.

The Pittsburgh Penguins stormed back for a 5-3 win over the Washington Capitals thanks in part to a pair of goals from Sidney Crosby. The first of those two goals was a beauty.

Some highlights from Carey Price’s milestone night for the Montreal Canadiens.

This is not really a “highlight” in the traditional sense, but it is still worth watching as MacKenzie Blackwood’s water bottle did not cooperate.

Daniel Sprong has not always put it all together at the NHL level, but there is no denying his talent when he does. His goal on Tuesday was the game-winner for the Anaheim Ducks in their 3-2 win over the Nashville Predators.

Factoids

  • Believe it, the Arizona Coyotes are in a playoff spot thanks to their 3-1 win over the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday night, and Oliver-Ekman Larsson scored his 10th goal of the season. He is one of just four defenders, joining a list that includes Brent Burns, Roman Josi, and Mark Giordano, to score at least 10 goals in each of the past six seasons. [NHL PR]
  • Ben Bishop is on an incredible run for the Dallas Stars and quietly putting together a Vezina Trophy caliber season. He recorded his third consecutive shutout on Tuesday night, helping the Stars top the Buffalo Sabres. [NHL PR]
  • Evgeni Malkin and Alex Ovechkin are the fourth pair of players to each record 1,000 points after being selected No. 1 and 2 overall in an NHL draft year. Malking recorded his 1,000th point on Tuesday night, while Ovechkin recorded his 1,200th point in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 5-3 win. [NHL PR]

Scores

Dallas Stars 2, Buffalo Sabres 0

Pittsburgh Penguins 5, Washington Capitals 3

Columbus Blue Jackets 7, Boston Bruins 4

Montreal Canadiens 3, Detroit Red Wings 1

Arizona Coyotes 3, St. Louis Blues 1

San Jose Sharks 5, Winnipeg Jets 4

Calgary Flames 9, New Jersey Devils 4

Anaheim Ducks 3, Nashville Predators 2

—

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.

The Buzzer: Niederreiter keeps scoring; Atkinson lifts Blue Jackets into wildcard spot

Associated Press
By Scott BilleckMar 10, 2019, 12:50 AM EDT
2 Comments

Three stars

1. Nino Niederreiter, Carolina Hurricanes

The Hurricanes were going to need a hell of a performance against the Nashville Predators to beat them a night after the Canes dropped an 8-1 decision against the Winnipeg Jets.

Playing the top two teams in the Central Division on consecutive days seems like an unfair lot in life, but the Hurricanes swept aside their embarrassing loss on Friday and putting together a fine display in a 5-3 win on Saturday, helping them stay in third place in the Metropolitan Division.

Niederreiter led the way, scoring twice in the first period to declare Carolina’s intent. ‘El Nino’ has been lights out since he was traded to Raleigh from Minnesota. He has 11 goals and 10 assists in 22 games since the move.

2. Cam Atkinson, Columbus Blue Jackets

With the Blue Jackets struggling recently, Atkinson used a four-letter word to explain that the team needed to screw it on straight and start winning again. After losing to the Penguins on Thursday, Columbus needed a bounceback to climb back into a playoff spot and they got just that, with Atkinson scoring twice in a 4-1 win as the Blue Jackets moved into the second and final wildcard in the Eastern Conference, level on points with the Montreal Canadiens (who lost on Saturday), who have an inferior number of ROWs.

3. Philipp Grubauer, Colorado Avalanche

The Avs needed this one, if only to lift their spirits after the loss of Gabriel Landeskog for the remainder of the regular season.

Grubauer stood tall, making the 18 saves required of him in a 3-0 shutout of the Buffalo Sabres. The win moved the Avalanche to within two points of the final wildcard in the Western Conference.

It’s a long shot, especially with their captain lost to injury, but Nathan MacKinnon picked up the slack in this one, putting up points on all three goals to make sure Grubauer had the run support.

Highlights of the night

One of two incredible paddles saves by Matt Murray in Pittsburgh’s loss:

Scott Hartnell ceremonial faceoffs are the best ceremonial faceoffs:

When you get knocked down, always get back up:

Dirty pass, filthy goal:

So close…

Factoids

Scores

Avalanche 3, Sabres 0
Sharks 3, Blues 2 (OT)
Maple Leafs 3, Oilers 2
Bruins 3, Senators 2
Lightning 3, Red Wings 2
Flyers 5, Islanders 2
Rangers 4, Devils 2
Blue Jackets 4, Penguins 1
Coyotes 4, Kings 2
Hurricanes 5, Predators 3
Blackhawks 2, Stars 1
Golden Knights 6, Canucks 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

The Buzzer: Carey Price ties Jacques Plante on Canadiens’ wins list

Getty
By Adam GretzMar 6, 2019, 1:42 AM EDT
4 Comments

Three Stars

1. Carey Price, Montreal Canadiens. The Montreal Canadiens probably did not need Carey Price to be great on Tuesday night — he was still more than solid in their 3-1 win over a hapless Los Angeles Kings team — but he made some history by recording career win No. 314. That win moves him into a tie with legendary goalie Jacques Plante on top of the franchise’s all-time wins list. Any time you can tie Jacques Plante in something you deserve a star for the night. Granted, Price has spent his entire career playing in the shootout era, so the proper context needs to be applied to records and win totals like this, but it is still a huge accomplishment for Price and something that is worthy of some extra attention.

2. Jake Guentzel, Pittsburgh Penguins. With every team in the Eastern Conference playoff race gaining at least a point on Tuesday night it was a must for the Pittsburgh Penguins to get two points against the Florida Panthers, especially with a home-and-home against the Columbus Blue Jackets looming later this week. They were able to get the two points thanks to a pair of goals from Jake Guentzel, including a highlight reel winner in overtime. He is now up to a 33 goals on the season and has a real shot at scoring 40 goals. His contract extension he signed earlier this season might prove to be a bargain for the Penguins.

3. Sergei Bobrovsky, Columbus Blue Jackets. He has had probably the worst season of his career, or at least his worst season since joining the Columbus Blue Jackets, but Sergei Bobrovsky is still capable of taking over a game and stealing for his team. He did that on Tuesday night in the Blue Jackets’ 2-1 win over the New Jersey Devils. The Blue Jackets entered the game having lost three of their past four games and didn’t really play a particularly strong game against a team that is totally out of the race. They still managed to pick up two points thanks in large part to the play of Bobrovsky. Now the big test for the Blue Jackets and Bobrovsky this week — back-to-back games against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Other notable performances from Tuesday night

  • Ben Bishop posted a shutout and John Klingberg scored another game-winning goal to help lift the Dallas Stars to a 1-0 win over the New York Rangers to pick up a huge two points in the standings.
  • The Nashville Predators are back in first place in the Central Division and the Minnesota Wild are sticking around in the playoff race. Read all about it here.
  • Tough night for the Arizona Coyotes as they dropped two important points in the standings and had their six-game winning streak snapped in a 3-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks.
  • The New York Islanders needed a shootout to top the Ottawa Senators, but they managed to get the win and keep pace with the Washington Capitals in the Metropolitan Division. It was a costly win, however, as starting goalie Robin Lehner had to leave the game with an injury after a collision with Matthew Tkachuk on the play that produced the game-tying goal.
  • Nathan MacKinnon scored the overtime winner to complete the Colorado Avalanche’s late rally to top the Detroit Red Wings and get two points.

Highlights of the Night

The aforementioned Jake Guentzel overtime winner for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

David Krejci and Jake DeBrusk teamed up for a pair of goals on Tuesday night in their win over the Carolina Hurricanes. Krejci’s goal, set up by DeBrusk, came in overtime. It was a costly win for the Bruins as they lost Marcus Johansson to another injury.

The Detroit Red Wings were on the losing end of a 4-3 overtime decision against the Colorado Avalanche but here is a bright spot in another lost season for the Red Wings: Prized prospect and top draft pick Filip Zadina scored his first NHL goal.

Factoids

  • Matt Cullen played his 1,500th game tonight, making him just the second American-born player to ever reach that milestone (Chris Chelios is the other). Crazy thing about that is his career has overlapped 49.1 percent of the players to ever play a game in the NHL. [Penguins]
  • The Tampa Bay Lightning are the first team in NHL history to feature two different goalies that have each had a personal 10-game winning streak in a single season. This team is a machine. It was also a big night for Nikita Kucherov as he tied Vincent Lecavalier’s single season points record with still 15 games to play in the season. [NHL PR]
  • New York Islanders coach Barry Trotz recorded his 800th career win when his team defeated the Ottawa Senators. [Islanders]

Scores

Boston Bruins 4, Carolina Hurricanes 3 (OT)

Columbus Blue Jackets 2, New Jersey Devils 1 (SO)

New York Islanders 5, Ottawa Senators 4 (SO)

Pittsburgh Penguins 3, Florida Panthers 2 (OT)

Tampa Bay Lightning 5, Winnipeg Jets 2

Nashville Predators 5, Minnesota Wild 4 (SO)

Dallas Stars 1, New York Rangers 0

Colorado Avalanche 4, Detroit Red Wings 3 (OT)

Anaheim Ducks 3, Arizona Coyotes 1

Montreal Canadiens 3, Los Angeles Kings 1

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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.

Predators reclaim top spot in Central, Wild pick up huge point

By Adam GretzMar 5, 2019, 11:35 PM EDT

At some point you have to think all of the players the Minnesota Wild have lost over the past few weeks, whether by injury or trade, is going to catch up to them.

Even though they fell to the Nashville Predators in a shootout on Tuesday night, 5-4, they still managed to pick up a huge point in the standings by taking the game to overtime and extending their current point streak to seven games. They are 5-0-2 during that stretch and are guaranteed to remain in a playoff position in the Western Conference through the end of the night on Tuesday.

Considering what this team has gone through this season it is a pretty incredible accomplishment.

They’ve already lost Matt Dumba and Mikko Koivu to injury.

They traded Nino Niederreiter, Charlie Coyle, and Mikael Granlund.

On Tuesday they got another scare when forward Jason Zucker had to briefly leave the game with what looked to be a fairly significant injury only to see him return to the lineup.

Given where the Wild were in the standings when they started trading off players, and at one point had lost nine out of 10 games leading up to the trade deadline, they probably should have been out of this race long ago. But here they are, still hanging around. By this point we know the bottom of the Western Conference field is as weak as it has been in years, but it is still impressive this team has overcome the adversity it has over the past couple of weeks to still have a shot to get in.

Kevin Fiala, who was acquired from the Predators on deadline day in exchange for Granlund, played a big role in helping to keep them afloat on Tuesday when he scored a pair of goals against his former team, including the game-tying goal late in the third period.

But let’s not forget about the Predators here because this was a huge night for them, too.

Their win, combined with the Winnipeg Jets’ 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, put them back into the top spot in the Central Division for the time being. They have not been playing their best hockey as of late, but they have still won five of their past eight games to keep going back-and-forth with the Jets at the top of the Central.

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.