There were 12 NHL games on the eve of the trade deadline and no shortage of action.
Here are five things we learned on Tuesday night:
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Oilers no longer sellers
The Edmonton Oilers boosted their depth at centre by acquiring David Desharnais from the Montreal Canadiens for defenceman Brandon Davidson.
The trade took place during Edmonton’s 2-1 win over the St. Louis Blues.
As Sportsnet’s Mark Spector writes, Desharnais also brings playoff experience to a young Oilers lineup.
It’s been awhile
The Montreal Canadiens will be happy to see February come and go.
It was a rough month for the Habs, who underwent a long losing skid followed by a coaching change which seems to have finally turned things.
Caught up in the process was the fact that Montreal went all of February without a win in regulation. They came close against the Columbus Blue Jackets but ended up winning the game 1-0 in overtime.
Sportsnet’s Eric Engels wrote about how Montreal is escaping the month on a three-game winning streak.
Can’t stop this
Filip Forsberg can’t stop scoring.
The Predators forward tied the game at 17:37 of the third period before scoring the winner in overtime as Nashville edged the Buffalo Sabres.
Not bad for a guy who everyone thought was having a down year up until two weeks ago.
Elite company
Speaking of Nashville, or former Predators at least, Barry Trotz picked up his 700th career win behind the bench as the Washington Capitals downed the New York Rangers 4-1.
Trotz is only the sixth coach to reach the milestone and is now 26 victories shy of Lindy Ruff of the Dallas Stars. Trotz collected 557 wins with Nashville, where he coached from 1998-2014, before joining the Caps, where he’s won 143 games.
Scotty Bowman is the all-time wins leader by a coach with 1,244 victories.
Early and often
Wayne Simmonds was flying out of the gate against the Colorado Avalanche and it appeared as though he scored a hat trick in the first 10 minutes of the first period.
But, not so fast. Upon later review, officials deemed that Simmonds didn’t get his stick on the tip and instead awarded the goal to Jakub Voracek.
Regardless, it was a great start for Simmonds, who scored his first goal short-handed at 4:04 before extending the lead just over four minutes later on the power play. The 28-year-old now has 27 goals on the season.
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