High-scoring hockey was nice while it lasted.
Sidney Crosby won’t yet give up the title of best player in the game, Shea Weber looks like a good player after all, and goaltenders are finally stonewalling their opponents.
Here are five things we learned in the NHL Saturday.
Crosby catching up to the pack
Though it was a shame that Sidney Crosby didn’t get to start the season healthy after a great World Cup, he hasn’t missed a beat since recovering from a concussion.
Crosby scored two goals in the first period against the Philadelphia Flyers Saturday, part of three that the Pens scored in 55 seconds to rally back from a 2-0 deficit.
And one of them looked like this:
Goalie Steve Mason was pulled after giving up all three on 13 shots.
The Penguins captain now has four goals in three games, bringing him to within two of the league lead at the time of his scoring. He hadn’t scored in Philadelphia since 2013 but he’s always been a Flyers killer.
So what’s been the difference between his start this year and last season when he struggled off the hop?
“[I’ve seen] a conscious effort to shoot more,” Nick Kypreos said on the Hockey Night broadcast. “He’s not ready yet to give up the mantle yet of best player in the world to Connor McDavid.”
Crosby was on the ice to kill of the final seconds as the Penguins topped the Flyers 5-4.
Shea whaaat!?!
It’s still too early to project what will happen this season but for now, Shea Weber just keeps scoring. He fired home the game-winning goal Saturday as the Montreal Canadiens edged the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1.
It was a blast from the point, to say the least.
And just like it’s too early to say what will happen by the end of this season, it’s also too early to say who wins the Weber-Subban trade — we may never know. But we don’t sit back and wait here at Sportsnet. We make Things out of things and that’s what this is: a season-long comparison between these two amazing defencemen.
Don Cherry thinks they’re both where they ought to be, winners or losers be damned.
It was Weber’s third game-winning goal of this young season.
Voted off the Island
Things are going from worse to worst for the New York Islanders. If it isn’t rumours about the organization looking for yet another arena to play in, poor ice conditions that players go public with, or a roster that’s getting older and slower around superstar John Tavares, it’s an untenable goaltending situation.
From player agent Allan Walsh who represents Jaroslav Halak and J.F. Berube:
Walsh’s comments Saturday were summarized here.
Then came a news bomb. Elliotte Friedman reported that the situation in New York may soon change.
Goalies ruin everything
Hey, remember when the 2016-17 season started off with what felt like a metric ton of goals?
Yeah, that was Thursday. The last two nights of NHL action have featured six shutouts, three of which came on Saturday.
Tuukka Rask, Jake Allen, and Devan Dubnyk all blanked their opponents on this night, while most other games were relatively low-scoring. Only the Flyers-Penguins game had fun with the score sheet.
Rask made 24 saves in a 1-0 win over the Red Wings, Allen stopped 27 in a 1-0 Blues win over the Kings, and Dubnyk stoned the high-flying Stars with 29 saves. It was Dubnyk’s third straight shutout, a franchise record.
The last goal Dubnyk gave up was an overtime winner, so his shutout streak sits at a beautifully clean 180:00.
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An NHL first
We’ve always got time for an NHL player’s first NHL goal.
In the third period of the Wild-Stars game, Brampton, Ontario native Tyler Graovac scored on a pretty, behind-the-back pass from Jason Zucker and celebrated…like you would.
The 23-year-old was selected in the seventh round of the 2011 by the Wild and has since played parts of four seasons in the OHL and three in the AHL. Saturday’s game was just his sixth in the NHL and first this year.
Way to go, kid. Great story. The bad news is he was sent back down to AHL Iowa after the game.
Finally, did you know that the Minnesota Wild are tied for most goals in the league so far with 32? And not only that, but those 32 goals have come from 18 different players.
Great early returns for new head coach Bruce Boudreau. #Playoffs
