It was a light night in the NHL on Monday with only five games going on, but there was plenty to talk about while players were sticking it to their old clubs, a polarizing character extended his point streak, and an unlikely competitor etched himself in Oilers history.
Here are three things we learned in the NHL on Monday.
Revenge of the exes
It was the first time that the Anaheim Ducks and New Jersey Devils played each other since the two participated in a trade that saw defenceman Sami Vatanen head to the Devils while centre Adam Henrique headed to California.
As expected, the storylines heading into the night circled the two key players.
What wasn’t exactly expected, however, was that these two – along with another former player – would steal the show.
The Ducks jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the first period, and it was Henrique that picked up his first point inside Prudential Center wearing a red-less jersey. The 27-year-old picked up an assist on Jakob Silfverberg’s goal that put the Ducks up a pair.
Vatanen struck next when he picked up an assist of his own on the Devils’ opening goal, picking up his first point as a member of his new team.
Then Henrique scored a play-of-the-year-calibre goal by sending himself on a break with an alley-oop over Vatanen (of course) to himself before roofing a nasty backhand past Cory Schneider.
But with the game locked at three in the waning minutes of the third it was another ex-Duck that roasted his former team.
Stefan Noesen scored the go-ahead goal with 4:07 remaining and then added an empty-netter with seven seconds to go to secure the New Jersey win.
Ailment lit Marchand on fire
Just over five minutes into the opening period of the game between the Columbus Blue Jackets and Boston Bruins, Brad Marchand finished off a nifty give-and-go play with Patrice Bergeron to get the Bruins on the board for the first of many times.
Marchand’s 14th goal of the year extended his point streak to a career-high nine games.
The last time he was left off the scoresheet was on Nov. 11 against the Toronto Maple Leafs, after which he sat out for six games with an undisclosed ailment. Since his return, he has knocked in six goals and added eight helpers while registering five multi-point games.
Marchand added an assist in the Bruins’ 7-2 blowout of the Blue Jackets, marking the first time the Bruins have scored that many goals since Feb. 20, 2016.
During his current hot stretch, the Bruins have gone 6-2-1 and now hold the third spot in the Atlantic Division with 37 points.
Mr. 10,000
Ryan Strome had one of his best games as a member of the Edmonton Oilers and his two goals were instrumental in their 5-3 win against the San Jose Sharks on Monday.
Strome found the back of the net in the final two minutes of the first period to give the Oilers their first lead of the game, up 2-1.
Unbeknownst to him and his fellow teammates on the bench at the time, the 24-year-old etched his name in Oilers lore with the marker.
The goal was the team’s 10,000th goal ever scored.
Strome, in his first year with the team, contributed a grand total of four goals before stealing the honours.
As for the rest of the 10,000?
A guy named Wayne Gretzky has the most goals in team history with 583, followed by Jari Kurri (474), Glenn Anderson (417), Mark Messier (392), and Ryan Smyth (296).
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