At 41 years old, Minnesota Wild centre Matt Cullen became the 38th player in NHL history to reach 1,400 career games.
The historic milestone came during the Wild’s 4-2 loss against the Florida Panthers on Friday night.
During his 22-year NHL career beginning in 1997-98, Cullen has notched 250 goals and 446 assists playing for the Anaheim Ducks (the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim back then), the Panthers, the Carolina Hurricanes, the New York Rangers, the Ottawa Senators, the Wild, the Nashville Predators and the Pittsburgh Penguins. His last two years with the Penguins concluded with Stanley Cup wins.
Among active players, Cullen ranks fourth in games played behind Jaromir Jagr (1,730), Patrick Marleau (1,529) and Joe Thornton (1,479).
Eichel producing on his own
Jack Eichel has been centring a line between Sam Reinhart and Zemgus Girgensons under the most curious of situations.
Eichel’s wingers have racked up a grand total of two assists in a combined 36 games together. Somehow, however, Eichel continues to produce.
Eichel picked up two empty-net goals in the waning minutes of the Sabres’ game against the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday night, giving him 13 goals and 17 assists through 35 games.
But the narrative didn’t change. On both of Eichel’s empty-netters, the assists came from Marco Scandella and Ryan O’Reilly – not from his two linemates.
On the season, Eichel has 30 points while Reinhart and Grigensons have a combined 15: 11 and four respectively.
Canadiens offence continues to come from everywhere and anywhere
Do you know who is leading the Montreal Canadiens in scoring?
Well, it’s Phillip Danault who has 7-7-14. His 21 points are the lowest among team leaders in the entire NHL.
During the Canadiens’ 3-2 win over the Calgary Flames on Friday night, the trend continued. Of the eight Montreal players who picked up a point, only one — Brendan Gallagher — is in the top 10 in team scoring.
No one on this Montreal team is taking the reigns and leading the offence. Gallagher, who scored the team’s third goal on Friday, has 14 goals and six assists to sit one point behind Danault, but that was his first tally in seven games. Max Pacioretty (also with 20 points) has the fifth-most goals in the NHL since the start of 2011-12, but he has just eight markers on the year and hasn’t scored in eight games.
The other two goal-scorers on Friday were Byron Froese — his first of the year — and Nicolas Deslauriers — his fourth. Jordie Benn, who fired the shot that Froese tipped in, has four goals on the year, which is more than 11 of his teammates.
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