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The Buzzer: Schwartz helps Blues keep pace; Rinne, Rask pick up shutouts

By Scott BilleckMar 19, 2019, 11:55 PM EDT
1 Comment

Three stars

1. Jaden Schwartz, St. Louis Blues

There’s a real race for the third spot in the Central Division down the stretch here, with the Blues leading the Dallas Stars by two points for the spot.

Both teams won on Tuesday, and Schwartz led the way for the Blues, scoring a hat trick en route to a 7-2 thrashing of the Edmonton Oilers. Schwartz opened the game’s scoring and then scored in the second and a late third-period marker on the power play to complete his fourth career hatty.

Schwartz hasn’t had the season he would have hope after putting up 24 goals and 59 points last season. He’s now up to 10 tallies this year and 34 points after also grabbing an assist for a four-point night.

2. Pekka Rinne, Nashville Predators

The Predators are in tough to try and win another Central Division crown. They’re one point back of the Winnipeg Jets but the Jets have two games in hand. Basically, they need to win out and hope for some help.

Part of that help will come from within, and Rinne was on point in the crease on Tuesday against the Toronto Maple Leafs, stopping all 22 shots he saw. It’s the second time this season that Rinne has blanked the Leafs.

The Preds neutered the Maple Leafs high-powered offense in this one as the Predators nursed a one-goal lead for most of the game.

3. Tuukka Rask, Boston Bruins

The Bruins put in a complete effort against the Islanders in this one, and Rask only saw 13 shots come his way. But he stopped all 13 to snap a two-game stretch where he was less than the stellar goaltender that he had been. And sometimes those games where you barely see action can be the hardest.

Rask now has four shutouts on the season and 25 wins. He started the season off horribly and likely would have been in the Vezina conversation if not for that. Still, a focused — and well-rested — Rask is exactly what the Bruins need heading into the playoffs.

Highlights of the night

Hurricanes go duck hunting:

Here’s how to make Seth Jones look silly:

Simmons ends drought, scores first with Predators:

Factoids

Scores

Bruins 5, Islanders 0
Red Wings 3, Rangers 2
Canadiens 3, Flyers 1
Hurricanes 3, Penguins 2 (SO)
Capitals 4, Devils 1
Blues 7, Oilers 2
Predators 3, Maple Leafs 0
Avalanche 3, Wild 1
Stars 4, Panthers 2
Flames 4, Blue Jackets 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: McDavid, Crawford should’ve given spoiler alerts

Getty Images
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.

Two wins for Wild: beating Rangers, Zucker somehow avoiding injury

By James O'BrienMar 17, 2019, 12:22 AM EDT
1 Comment

Theory: Jason Zucker‘s limbs must be made of rubber, like those old pro wrestling action figures.

That makes sense as much as anything else, being that it’s pretty surprising that Zucker was able to bounce back from a scary moment where his leg bent awkwardly when New York Rangers defenseman Brady Skjei fell on it. (You can see video of that unsettling moment in the clip above this post’s headline.)

Remarkably, Zucker returned to the Wild’s eventual important 5-2 win against the Rangers on Saturday, to the point that he was doing this.

You never know how a player might feel after sleeping through the night, or even waiting a few days. But Zucker was able to return to that game, and Bruce Boudreau indicated that he was OK following the win:

The latest edition of the Push for the Playoffs stated it plainly: this was a big game for the Wild. Considering how little room for error Minnesota has in chasing a playoff spot, losing to the Rangers would have been extremely painful.

Perhaps that’s why Zucker pushed through his more literal pain on Saturday, then?

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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: Bob posts huge shutout; Tkachuk owns Rangers

Associated Press
By Scott BilleckMar 16, 2019, 1:15 AM EDT
1 Comment

Three stars

1. Sergei Bobrovsky, Columbus Blue Jackets

When the elite, Vezina-caliber Sergei Bobrovsky shows up on any given night, the Columbus Blue Jackets are nearly unbeatable. Such was the case on Friday.

‘Bob’ stopped a whopping 46 shots from the Corsi Kings (Carolina Hurricanes), who pelted Columbus’ No. 1 at every juncture, including 22 shots in the second period.

Bobrovsky was up to the task on each and every one of them, including multiple 10-bell saves to keep the clean sheet — the 30th of his career. Columbus, meanwhile, scored three times on 20 shots, including a shorthanded goal in the third period to win their second straight game.

They’re now on 83 points, tied with the Hurricanes and two points ahead of the idle Montreal Canadiens.

2. Matthew Tkachuk, Calgary Flames

Five goals for the Calgary Flames and Tkachuk was in on each of them, following up on Johnny Gaudreau‘s six-point game three nights ago.

Keith’s son scored twice and assisted on the other three in a 5-1 win for the Flames over the New York Rangers.

Tkachuk has 10 points now in his past three games, which is insane. He’s got 32 goals and 73 points now in 71 games.

3. Auston Matthews, Toronto Maple Leafs

Toronto has a litany of weapons at its disposal, but the one they have in Matthews is by far the most clutch.

And Matthews came through in that clutch scenario on Friday, scoring twice in 2:11 in the third period to give the Maple Leafs a 6-5 and 7-5 lead. His second (which may have been a hat-trick goal if not for this) stood as the game-winner after James van Riemsdyk completed his own hat trick late (honorable mention to JvR, who was a force for the Flyers).

Toronto is two points back of the struggling Boston Bruins now for second in the Atlantic. Given that these teams are likely to play each other in the first round, there’s a mini-battle here now for who gets home-ice advantage.

Highlights of the night

We’ve seen several of this flip passes lately, and this one is just as nice as the others:

Pettersson’s shot is so smooth:

Pettersson has filthy hands, too:

Factoids

Scores

Maple Leafs 7, Flyers 6
Blue Jackets 3, Hurricanes 0
Golden Knights 2, Stars 1
Flames 5, Rangers 1
Ducks 5, Avalanche 3
Devils 3, Canucks 2 (SO)

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

Kreider fined, not suspended, for elbowing Pettersson

NBCSN
By Adam GretzMar 14, 2019, 1:07 PM EDT
16 Comments

New York Rangers forward Chris Kreider was ejected from Wednesday’s game against the Vancouver Canucks when he caught star rookie Elias Pettersson with a spinning elbow to the head.

Given the nature of the play and the penalty, it was a given that the NHL’s Department of Player Safety was going to take an additional look at the play for possible supplemental discipline. After doing so, it seems that the ejection will be the harshest punishment Kreider receives.

The Department of Player Safety announced on Thursday morning that Kreider has been fined $5,000, the maximum allowed under the CBA, for the play.

He will not be suspended.

Here is a look at the play one more time.

While Pettersson has been a breakout star for the Canucks this season, it has also been a difficult year for him from a physical standpoint as this is already the second time an opposing player has been disciplined in some way for a play against him.

Earlier this season Florida Panthers defender Mike Matheson was hit with a two-game suspension for slamming Pettersson to the ice, knocking him out of the lineup for an extended period of time.

Pettersson was able to eventually return to the game after the hit, logging 14 minutes of ice time in the Canucks’ 4-1 win.

He has 58 points (26 goals, 32 assists) in 59 games this season and is the runaway favorite to win the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s rookie of the years.

Related: Rangers’ Kreider ejected for elbowing Pettersson

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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.