With the news that a certain projected top pick in the 2015 NHL Draft will miss up to six weeks, a number of storylines in the NHL were overshadowed this week.
Here’s what’s trending up and down across the NHL.
TRENDING UP: Sidney Crosby 
Let’s be honest, unless he’s dealing with an injury, Crosby will pretty much always be trending up. However, because he’s the face of hockey in Canada, his play is often scrutinized and nitpicked unfairly.
Crosby’s 1.405 career points-per-game currently ranks fourth all-time behind only Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Mike Bossy.
This season, Crosby is on a tear, averaging 1.667 points per game. He has never played all 82 games in a season, but let’s say for a second that he stays healthy (fingers crossed) and manages to play 78 games. If he does that and keeps at his current pace, he’ll end up with a career high 130 points. That point projection coming to fruition might seem unlikely, but because Crosby is always under the microscope, it’s nice to take a step back every once in a while and really appreciate what he has done in his career and what he continues to do this season.
TRENDING UP: Jim Nill
The Dallas Stars have been far from consistent this season, but a two-game winning streak is a sign that Jim Nill’s team could be turning things around.
Nill has garnered a lot of praise in his brief time as Stars GM and as a way to give his team a needed shakeup this week he traded Sergei Gonchar to the Canadiens for Travis Moen. The move added some grit to his lineup and freed up some cap space in the process, but more importantly give his younger defencemen like Brenden Dillon, Jamie Oleksiak a real opportunity to establish themselves as reliable, everyday blueliners.
With Jason Spezza hovering around a point per game and Tyler Seguin tied for the league lead in goals, the players Nill has brought to Dallas through high-profile trades have excelled. The Gonchar-for-Moen deal certainly wasn’t a blockbuster, but it is the type of move that good GMs aren’t afraid to make.
TRENDING UP: Rick Nash 
Rick Nash is off to an impressive start to the season with 12 goals in the first 16 games. The promising thing about Nash’s numbers is they don’t reflect a streaky player likely to go on a dry spell. Nash has registered at least one point in 75 per cent of his team’s games so far this season and with Derek Stepan now back in the fold, that eases the pressure on No. 61. There’s no reason his goal production should take a drastic dip any time soon.
TRENDING UP: Young guns 
Can we take a minute to acknowledge some of the players aged 25 and younger that are lighting up the NHL this season?
*takes deep breath*
Filip Forsberg is playing off the charts in Nashville with 20 points in 16 games and a league-leading plus-19 rating; Jakub Voracek is aiming to become the first Flyers player to win the scoring race; Aaron Ekblad is performing the like the No. 1 pick he is; Lars Eller and Jiri Sekac are developing excellent chemistry playing on the same line in Montreal; Johnny Gaudreau has shown skill beyond his years in Calgary; Vladimir Tarasenko continues to be the greatest thing since sliced bread, while Jaden Schwartz is becoming one of the most underrated players in the NHL; also in St. Louis Jake Allen is putting up the best goals-against average in the league and ranks fourth in save percentage; Sami Vatanen, Cam Fowler and Hampus Lindholm are rocks on the blue-line in Anaheim; oh, and these guys named Stamkos, Seguin, Johansen, and Tavares aren’t too shabby either.
TRENDING UP: Phil the Thrill 
Phil Kessel is an enigma. Not only is he playing excellent hockey of late (21 points in 17 games this season), but he is constantly entertaining people off the ice…even when it’s unintentional.
For example, the mere act of attending a Toronto Raptors game this week attracted plenty of attention on social media even though he literally did nothing to warrant it.
Melissa Couto on Twitter
Trend to watch for: Islanders getting support in the crease 
Jaroslav Halak has won four straight and became the first Islanders goaltender to register back-to-back shutouts since Rick DiPietro did it back in 2006. If Halak can continue his strong play the Islanders will be a serious threat to earn home ice in the first round of the playoffs.
TRENDING DOWN: McDavid’s metacarpals and the non-fighting groupies
There are some very intelligent hockey minds that want fighting out of the game and they’ll jump at any opportunity to put forth an argument to ban it. When Erie Otters phenom Connor McDavid broke a bone in his hand when he accidentally punched the boards during a fight, the “no more fighting!” brigade was out in full force, but can you recall one player that said fighting should be removed from the game after McDavid busted his hand? Didn’t think so.
This wasn’t a savage beating or unnecessary, contrived pugilism for the sake of entertainment. It was a spur-of-the-moment scrap between two young players that rarely take penalties. But because a star player was injured, out come the knee-jerk reactions.
If McDavid got hit in the head by a high slapshot from the point, do we ban high slapshots and force all players to wear full cages like they do in minor hockey?
After all the McDavid hoopla, Red Deer Rebels captain Conner Bleackley, a first-round pick of the Avalanche, sent out this tweet that sums it all up.
TRENDING DOWN: Corey Perry 
The Ducks power forward was off to such a hot start with 11 goals and 15 points in 13 games, but then things took an odd turn when he and teammate Francois Beauchemin were diagnosed with the mumps. You certainly don’t hear that everyday.
Perry is back skating and hopes to return to the lineup as soon as possible, but admitted it will take a while before he regains his full strength and gets his lungs under him. Hopefully he and Beauchemin can take comfort in knowing Lisa Simpson made a full recovery from the mumps in the early 90s.
Mike Johnston on Twitter
TRENDING DOWN: Any shred of hope in Buffalo 
The Sabres are getting outscored by more than 3.1 goals per game this season, which is on pace for the third-worst goal differential in NHL history. They’re also only averaging 1.33 goals per game, which would be one of the lowest totals since the 1920s. The worst team outputs ever were from the 1928-29 Chicago Blackhawks (0.75 GPG) and the 1928-29 Pittsburgh Pirates (1.05 GPG). The fact the Sabres are even in the same ballpark as those two teams is embarrassing.
Trend to watch for: Cory Schneider could slow down 
He earned his first shutout of the season Friday, but the talented netminder hasn’t had a break all season. The Devils are about to go on a Western road trip, so is wouldn’t be a shock if Schneider’s numbers take a slight dip.