The Toronto Maple Leafs fell to the Detroit Red Wings in overtime, the New Jersey Devils dominated the defending Stanley Cup Champions, while the Edmonton Oilers continued to be owned by the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Here’s four things we learned on Friday night:
Toews shows off a mean streak: It was odd to see the New Jersey Devils chase Corey Crawford from the net after three first-period goals, but it was entertaining to see Jonathan Toews drop the gloves for a Friday night fight.
With just over two minutes left in the first period, Toews scrapped with Devils forward Adam Henrique in his first fight since the 2012-13 season when the Blackhawks captain got into it with Joe Thornton of the San Jose Sharks.
According to hockeyfights.com, it was the fourth fight of Toews’ career.
It was hard to tell what specifically prompted Toews to throw down, but falling behind early to the Devils might’ve done the trick.
Zetterberg sets milestone in strange fashion: The Detroit Red Wings captain added another accomplishment to his esteemed career, becoming the eighth player in franchise history to reach the 300-goal mark.
However, it was a bit of an odd play.
As he entered the Maple Leafs’ zone with the puck, Zetterberg took an innocent shot from just inside the blue line and somehow the puck bounced off James Reimer’s body and trickled into the net.
Oddly enough, it was his first goal on the road versus Toronto in over a decade, according to the Sportsnet Stats department.
Kane on fire for Chicago: While Chicago’s loss to New Jersey was hardly a memorable performance, Blackhawks sniper Patrick Kane continued to produce offensively.
The Chicago forward scored the club’s first goal of the night to extend his point streak to nine games. He’s recorded 13 points over that stretch and only trails Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin for the league lead in scoring.
Kane has gotten some negative publicity throughout the first month of the regular season, but it seemingly hasn’t affected his play.
Penguins own the Oilers: The anticipated Sidney Crosby-Connor McDavid matchup didn’t end up happening but the Penguins and Oilers still battled in a highly-entertaining game.
Pittsburgh picked up the victory on a power play goal from Phil Kessel to pile on the one-sided record between the two clubs in recent years.
The Penguins are 4-0-1 against Edmonton over the last five games and Pittsburgh hasn’t lost to Edmonton in regulation since January of 2006.
For some context, 2005-06 was Crosby’s rookie season in the NHL and the Oilers’ top player was Chris Pronger who will be going into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday.
Yeah, that was a while ago.
