Friday night saw 12 teams get into the action.
When it was all said and done, a couple of surprising teams found themselves in a playoff spot, at least temporarily.
Here are four things we learned.
Leafs leaf their way into playoff position
If the Toronto Maple Leafs are ever going to become a lockdown defensive team capable of protecting a lead, Friday’s win over the New Jersey Devils was a (very small) step in the right direction, in the sense that it could have gone so much worse.
Toronto stormed out to a 4-0 first period lead before retreating into something of a shell, coming away with a two points in a game that almost started to resemble an October loss in Winnipeg.
The Leafs didn’t even get a shot on net in the third period.
But we’re not here to focus on Toronto’s inability to close (there’ll be plenty of time for that the next time they actually blow a lead).
Cory Schneider, who entered Friday with a 6-0-3 record, a 1.81 goals-against average, and .935 save percentage in nine career starts against the blue-and-white, was pulled after allowing three goals on five shots.
Schneider has never been among the league’s best puckhandlers, and despite a concerted effort to improve in that regard over the years, it appears there’s still work to do.
By the end of the night, Toronto had managed to slip into third place in the Atlantic Division.
The Leafs are already fun, and they’re getting quite good.
If they can ever figure out their third-period jitters, they could become dangerous.
Canucks also in playoff position, apparently
OK, this is getting weird.
Not one to be outdone by their rivals in Ontario, the Vancouver Canucks took care of business against the Calgary Flames to win their sixth straight game and jump into the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
This game also had a 4-2 score, and again, the winning team couldn’t crack the 15-shot mark.
This is not how 2016-17 was supposed to go for the Canucks.
Granted, they’ve played more games than three of the teams right behind them (Dallas, Los Angeles, and Nashville), but none of that will matter if Vancouver keeps up its torrid pace.
In a league where Columbus was able to win 16 games in a row, anything must be possible right?
If the season ended with the standings as is, six Canadian teams would make the playoffs, something that seemed unfathomable after none of them made the post-season last year.
The Canucks, once thought to be hopeless, are suddenly one of the more interesting teams in the league.
Avs win battle of bad teams
You don’t have to have playoff aspirations to be interesting however. Case in point: the Colorado Avalanche.
If there’s a team worth watching as we move into trade deadline season, it’s the one with several interesting forwards who could be on the block.
Gabriel Landeskog, rumoured to have been mentioned in trade talks with Boston earlier this week, opened the scoring on Friday against the New York Islanders.
Landeskog has seen his production drop in each year since he put up 65 points in 2013-14, and is on pace for just 36 this season.
He’ll have to show that he’s capable of generating offence if a team is willing to spend significant assets to acquire him.
The 24-year-old has four more years on his contract at $5.57 million after this season.
The Islanders have issues of their own, and despite a not-that-terrible 15-15-7 record, their placement in a tough Metropolitan Division makes this season nearly already lost for them.
Colorado eventually won Friday’s game in overtime, nudging its goal differential to only minus-51, by the way.
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Luongo’s quest for 5th all-time on hold, for now
Roberto Luongo‘s next win will be his 448th, good enough to move the 37-year-old into sole possession of fifth place on the NHL’s all-time list.
It seems he’ll be stuck at a paltry 447 with Terry Sawchuk for the next little while, however.
Luongo was the likely starter for Florida’s game against the Nashville Predators on Friday, but an injury in warmups gave way to James Reimer.
There’s no word yet on the severity of Luongo’s upper-body injury, but he did have to leave the game as the Panthers signed Bobby Segin, a member of their team sales department to be Reimer’s emergency backup.
Reimer, who struggled to start the season, was in fine form against the Predators, stopping 29 shots in the win.
The 28-year-old has a .952 save percentage in his last five appearances. He now has a respectable 6-5-3 record this season, to go along with a 2.49 goals-against average and .918 save percentage.
Of course, his backup on Friday took some of the credit.
