A number-one draft pick went from face to heel, a stud defenceman got a taste of his own medicine, and a Wild season has a veteran seeing his career revitalized.
Here are five things we learned in the NHL Thursday.
Dubnyk 2, Price 0
It was the second matchup of the season between arguably the NHL’s top two goaltenders Thursday night: Carey Price versus Devan Dubnyk.
It wasn’t even close.
The Minnesota Wild trounced Price and the Montreal Canadiens 7-1 — a name (Price) and a number (7) that one doesn’t see too often in the same sentence.
To give some of those numbers context, Price had allowed three or more goals in only five of his first 24 games this year.
Price reportedly told the Canadiens coaching staff during the second intermission that he wished to stay in the game, despite the lopsided score. We all know what happened the last time Price was pulled from a game.
The score was 4-0 after two and the Wild scored three in the period on eight shots.
There’s no reason to panic in Montreal — Michel Therrien brushed off having any doubts about his goalie’s performance after the game — but it nonetheless draws our attention when such a rare performance happens.
At least it used to be rare…
Meanwhile, Dubnyk, the top candidate for the Vezina this season — with his league-leading goals-against, save percentage, and shutout numbers — lost the shutout with 8.5 seconds left in this one.
Son of a [expletive].
Josi gives, Josi receives
They say you get what you give.
Nashville Predators defenceman Roman Josi was on both sides of the injury ledger Thursday as he hurt Boston Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask with a high slap shot only to later leave the game after receiving a high hit of his own.
Both Rask and Josi did not return to the contest.
Here’s Rask living every goalie mom’s nightmare:
Rask told reporters after the game that he was “going to be OK,” which is a relief for backup Zane McIntyre and the Bruins who’ve thrived under Rask’s dominant play this season.
Shortly after Josi’s injurious shot, the defenceman was hit by Bruins forward Anton Blidh who appeared to make contact with Josi’s head. Blidh was assessed a five-minute major on the play and was ejected from the game.
Josi leads all Preds defenders in points this season with 22.
Elsewhere in this game, Predators goalie Juuse Saros — whose drum we’ve banged here before and will again — was spectacular for Nashville in this one as he has all season.
The Finnish goalie is now 4-3-1 this season behind Pekka Rinne, sporting a sparkling 1.25 goals-against average with a .957 save percentage.
Staal’s Wild season
At the outset of 2015-16, you’d be forgiven if you’d lost track of the fact that Eric Staal signed with Minnesota. But almost immediately, the elder Staal has not only made an impact — and a kind of career resurgence — but he leads the team in, like, all the stats.
In fact, he’s already surpassed some of his totals from last season.
Make that 11-0-0.
Staal had a goal and two assists in the aforementioned blowout of the Canadiens Thursday. All of that in just 15:24 of ice time.
The revitalized forward is on a three-year, $10.5-million contract that looks damn good now if it didn’t in the summer when it was largely ignored.
Wings’ power play snaps out of it
Struggling special teams can tell you a lot about a hockey club.
The Detroit Red Wings, who sit 15th in a 16-team Eastern Conference, finally scored a road power play goal in Thursday’s 5-2 loss to the Dallas Stars — a lengthy streak they likely hope not to repeat.
That means virtually no power play goals away from home since the start of the season. In fact, Detroit owns the worst power play in the entire NHL with an efficiency rate of 11.4 per cent. The Columbus Blue Jackets lead the league in that category (25.8 per cent).
A franchise that has made the post-season a record 25 straight years now finds itself in 27th place overall. Only four Wings players have more than three power-play points in 2015-16. Thomas Vanek leads the team with seven.
After Gustav Nyquist scored with the man-advantage in the first period, Detroit gave up four of the next five goals in the loss.
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Hall goes from face to heel
It was Taylor Hall night in the city of champions as 2010’s first overall pick returned to the city that saw his career take off with the Edmonton Oilers.
The game had a bit of everything: he recorded an assist, got a standing ovation from the home crowd, and even got in an elbow that led to a scrum with tough guy Zack Kassian.
What a heel turn:
In all seriousness, Hall may have had good reason to want to stick it to his old team. Sportsnet’s Mark Spector was on Sportsnet 590 The Fan Thursday saying Hall got “kicked in the teeth” while in Edmonton.
“I support Taylor Hall on sort of an emotional level,” he said. “He sat here as management fooled around and abjectly failed to support him with teammates that this rebuild could get anywhere. He played and kept his mouth shut. He got kicked in the teeth as an Edmonton Oiler year after year after year. He never once said ‘What’s going on here? Are we ever going to get a goalie? Are we ever going to get a team here?’
“[Edmonton gets Connor McDavid, Cam Talbot] and who gets shipped out? Taylor Hall. I can see how he feels a little slighted, I think that’s fair.”
The fans, for the most part, welcomed Hall with open arms.
Spector nailed Hall’s experience in his column from Thursday night.
What a night it was.