• Everyone should hope for a Penguins-Blue Jackets playoff series
• Why are teams having trouble winning games after their bye weeks?
• Malkin reaches an impressive milestone
A Penguin found his place among royalty, a thrilling playoff series was previewed, and teams coming out of their bye weeks continue to struggle.
Here are three things we learned in the NHL Friday.
Bye week blues
Another team emerges from a bye week only to add an L to its record.
With a 2-1 overtime loss to the Colorado Avalanche Friday, the Carolina Hurricanes became the 10th team to lose its first game coming out of the league-mandated bye week. Collectively, teams are now 3-10-1 after their mini-vacations.
During a season already compressed by the World Cup of Hockey, the bye week was intended to provide relief to players exhausted by a grueling schedule. Only, the consequence appears to be more back-to-backs and apparently difficulty performing after the five-day break. The Toronto Maple Leafs lead the NHL this season with 18 back-to-back games.
Leafs head coach Mike Babcock believes the increased number of back-to-backs, thanks in part to bye weeks, are a concern for player safety.
“I think it’s 100 per cent wrong for player safety,” Babcock said on Jan. 7. “You’ve got so many games in such a short period of time and you’re jamming in more. To me, the more days rest you can have by not playing back-to-backs and jamming it in, the healthier you have a chance to be, I believe.”
By no means was Friday’s Avalanche-Hurricanes game one-sided but a trend seems to have already developed. The Avs are 13 points behind 29th-placed Arizona — surely a team that Carolina is capable of beating when at its best.
Get ready for game time with over 100 menu items delivered right to your door. Click here to learn more.
Penguins-Jackets destined for playoff matchup (for the benefit of all)
We can only hope.
With a 2-1 overtime win (sensing a pattern?) over the Pittsburgh Penguins Friday, the Columbus Blue Jackets inched to within one point of their division rivals, teasing a possible playoff matchup that could be one of the best in the first round.
This one had some playoff atmosphere. Currently, the teams are second and third in the Metropolitan.
These two teams have a brief but memorable playoff history and the fans apparently remember well. The 19,188 in attendance was the second-largest ever for a Blue Jackets regular-season game. Pittsburgh defeated the Jackets 4-2 in the 2014 post-season in a series that was closer than it sounds and closer than it should have been.
Brandon Dubinsky, a holdover from the last time these two met in the playoffs and a Sidney Crosby antagonist, was the hero in this one, scoring a beauty in overtime.
“It feels really good, especially against those guys in a packed building,” he said of the goal and the atmosphere in the building.
The teams combined for 78 shots on goal while Dubinsky went 12-for-18 in the faceoff circle. Crosby went 8-for-21.
Malkin hits milestone
Amid the heated Pittsburgh-Columbus game Friday, Evgeni Malkin recorded his 500th career assist in his 694th NHL game.
He’s just the fourth Penguins player to reach the mark behind Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, and Crosby.
Malkin, 30, now has 319 goals and 500 assists for 819 points. The Russian centre has four seasons with at least 50 assists (with two seasons of 49). He won the league’s Art Ross trophy in 2008-09 and 2011-12. His best mark for assists came in ’08-’09 when he tallied 78 helpers.
Friday’s assist was Malkin’s 35th of the 2016-17 season.
[relatedlinks]