Social media was buzzing after Sidney Crosby‘s highlight-reel goal on Tuesday night against the Buffalo Sabres.
If you haven’t seen it yet, now is your chance. It’s one of five things we learned in the NHL last night.
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Sid the Kid
Sidney Crosby is on pace for one of the best — if not the best — season of his career and Tuesday’s 3-1 win over the Sabres was just another example.
The Penguins captain made the Buffalo defence look ridiculous late in the first period on an end-to-end power-play rush that put his team ahead 1-0. Crosby waltzed into the Sabres’ zone before using one hand to backhand a shot past Robin Lehner for his 41st goal of the season.
The beautiful goal came just minutes after he speared Buffalo forward Ryan O’Reilly in the groin from behind. That’s gotta hurt.
Crosby leads the NHL in goals and trails Connor McDavid by only one point for the scoring lead. If he stays healthy, the Penguins are in good shape for another post-season run. Pittsburgh clinched a playoff spot for the 11th straight season with the victory.
Speaking of end-to-end…
Torey Krug waited an extra day to give Bobby Orr a birthday gift.
The Boston Bruins defenceman gave his best Orr impression with an end-to-end rush that resulted in him beating Craig Anderson above his glove.
Orr, who turned 69 on Monday, made a career of rushes such as Krug’s. It also, coincidentally, appeared very similar to Crosby’s rush. Boston ended up falling 3-2 to the Senators.
Ovechkin can’t be denied
Alex Ovechkin was all over the ice in Washington’s 4-2 victory over the Calgary Flames.
The Capitals captain fired 11 shots on goal and almost didn’t have anything to show for it until he beat Brian Elliott at 17:09 of the third period on the power play. It was his 29th goal of the season and he added two assists to boot.
Elliott did all he could to keep his hot streak alive but it wasn’t enough. He finished the game with 36 saves as his winning streak was snapped at 11 games.
Not dead yet
The Winnipeg Jets aren’t out of the playoff picture just yet.
Winnipeg used third-period goals from Blake Wheeler and Mark Scheifele to get past the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2. The win pushes the Jets’ streak to three games and moves them to within eight points of the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
Winnipeg has a tough nine-game stretch remaining including a matchup against the Los Angeles Kings — whom it’s chasing in the standings — on Thursday and two games against the Anaheim Ducks.
Canucks hold on…barely
You can’t say that the Vancouver Canucks didn’t make this one interesting.
After blowing a three-goal lead, the Canucks squeaked out a 5-4 overtime win against the Chicago Blackhawks with Daniel Sedin scoring the winner on the power play.
Vancouver chased Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford just 2:12 into the third period after he allowed his fourth goal on 10 shots. Scott Darling came on in relief and it seemed to spark Chicago. They answered with goals from Marian Hossa, Richard Panik and Ryan Hartman to tie the game at 4-4 and eventually force extra time.
That includes a goal that was disallowed with just under four minutes left — something that’s been uncommon for the Blackhawks, who seem to have been getting calls to go their way of late.
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