Hockey players are tough, but you already knew that.
Thursday night saw various testosterone-fuelled displays, ranging from Max Domi‘s antics above, to a couple of hockey’s greatest stars settling scores that had been brewing for months.
Then there was also a revelation regarding a certain slumping winger who has been playing through some pain.
Here are five things we learned Thursday.
Pacioretty starts fresh in December
It really is amazing what a difference playing without a broken foot can make.
There was some concern about the lack of production from Max Pacioretty through this season’s first two months. Well, as much concern as there can be regarding a player on a first-place team.
It turns out, Montreal’s captain was battling a broken foot throughout much of November, an affliction historically correlated with decreased athletic performance.
Pacioretty is healed up now, and is starting to find the back of the net at the rate expected of a four-time 30-goal scorer.
His unassisted marker against New Jersey gave the 28-year-old three goals in four games this month, nearly matching his total of five through October and November.
If Pacioretty can continue to produce like this, it’ll go a long way towards mitigating the losses of Alex Galchenyuk and David Desharnais.
Price fights back
Carey Price has built a reputation as one of the game’s calmest goalies, which is why it was kind of weird to see him fly off the handle on Kyle Palmieri like so:
This is a guy who pretty much holds the key to Montreal’s Stanley Cup hopes, so it’s understandable that the Canadiens would take offence to anyone who dares to crash the crease. But seeing the response from Price was something else.
The crowd certainly loved it.
Montreal’s MVP has gotten physical before, so maybe this shouldn’t have been too surprising.
McDavid versus Manning
Connor McDavid is also tired of being pushed around, apparently.
On Thursday, the 19-year-old played against the Flyers for the second time since breaking his collarbone against them last season.
A brief reminder of what happened then: McDavid appeared to lose his balance and was ridden hard into the boards by Flyers defencemen Michael Del Zotto and Brandon Manning.
Manning even received death threats for his role in hurting hockey’s next big thing, with McDavid brushing off the incident as “just an unlucky play.”
The two were at each other’s throats all night on Thursday.
McDavid spoke out post-game, calling Manning “classless” and insinuating that last season’s hit was intentional.
All in all, it was a bit reminiscent of the kind of nights a young Sidney Crosby used to have against Ilya Kovalchuk and Derian Hatcher.
Manning and the Flyers got the last laugh in this one, rallying from a 5-3 third-period deficit to win the game in regulation.
At least McDavid got to keep his teeth.
Crosby continues to dominate
Crosby, older and wiser than he was when he collected a career-high 110 penalty minutes as a rookie, had no issue with any of the Florida Panthers‘ defencemen on Thursday.
His Penguins jumped out to a 3-0 lead before the game was even eight minutes old, with Crosby scoring once and assisting on another.
This year’s Art Ross Trophy race is shaping up to be a good one, unlike in 2015-16 when Patrick Kane jumped out to a scorching start and no one really came close.
McDavid still has a sizeable lead, though Crosby is making quite an effort despite having played in eight less games.
There’s also… everyone else, but for now all eyes are on No. 87 and No. 97.
We still have about 50 games left to see who finishes on top.
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Islanders & Hurricanes win, everyone in the East is ‘.500’
The New York Islanders have shaken off a tough start and are now one of hockey’s hottest teams, having won five of their last six contests.
Their last regulation loss came against the San Jose Sharks on Nov. 25, and they have since beaten the Flames, Penguins, Capitals, Rangers, and now the Blues.
Thursday’s game against St. Louis was a good one, with Anders Lee scoring twice and John Tavares turning all-world effort and skill into this:
The Carolina Hurricanes later stormed into Staples Center and came away with an impressive 3-1 win over the Kings, in part thanks to this pretty little passing play capped off by Derek Ryan‘s second of the night.
It was the Hurricanes’ first win in Los Angeles in 11 years.
Carolina (11-10-6) and New York (11-10-5) ensured that no Eastern Conference team would enter Friday with a “below-.500” record.
This is because of the NHL’s insistence on allowing teams that lose to still collect points in the standings, of course, and it seems with each year the general public gets more and more aware of that fact.
The league either doesn’t care, or doesn’t mind. There’s been zero mention of changing the points system from Thursday’s board of governors meeting.
