Brady Tkachuk continues to impress, Patrick Kane‘s mitts are still as silky as ever and Henrik Lundqvist is in jeopardy of missing a couple of milestones.
Here are three things we learned in the NHL on Wednesday:
The future is bright in Ottawa
The Ottawa Senators are still a basement dweller, having officially clinched 31st overall, but Brady Tkachuk is doing everything in his power to change that. With a goal and an assist in a 4-1 win over the New York Rangers, Tkachuk now has 22 goals and 45 points on the season, good for second among all rookie skaters behind only Vancouver Canucks phenom Elias Pettersson.
Since the team fired head coach Guy Boucher on March 1, Tkachuk has seen his average ice time increase almost two full minutes and has rewarded interim head coach Marc Crawford with 13 points in 16 games, which tops all first-year players over that time frame.
Although Sens fans will likely watch the Colorado Avalanche draft Jack Hughes first overall in June with Ottawa’s pick, Tkachuk’s production as a teenager should make the decision to retain last year’s first-round pick a little easier to swallow.
Patrick Kane is still good at hockey
Although the Chicago Blackhawks were officially eliminated from playoff contention for the second straight year, Patrick Kane continues to be one of the best hockey players in the world.
With a goal and an assist against the St. Louis Blues, Kane set a new career-high in points with 107.
In the second period, Kane and Jonathan Toews broke in on a 2-on-1 when Kane sauced a filthy backhand pass over a diving Robert Bortuzzo for an easy tap-in for Toews.
In the third, Kane held off a Blues defender and roofed yet another nasty backhand top shelf over Jake Allen‘s glove.
Lundqvist still chasing win No. 450
It’s hard not to feel bad for King Henry this season.
One of the greatest goalies to ever strap on a set of pads, Lundqvist has had a miserable season behind a young New York Rangers team and has watched Alexandar Georgiev get the majority of the starts for New York as their season winds down.
Lundqvist has now lost six straight starts and only has two wins since Feb. 1, putting his streak of 13 straight 20-win seasons at risk of being snapped.
The Rangers have two games left this season and, with little to play for, Lundqvist should get the net in at least one of them. With one more win, he would become just the sixth goalie in NHL history to win 450 games and would be within four wins of Curtis Joseph for fifth all-time.
[relatedlinks]
