The end of an NHL season tends to bring a slew of milestones — young stars hitting new career-highs and former basement dwellers clinching post-season berths. Saturday night offered up another serving of those annual routines, bringing the 2018 playoff picture into clearer focus.
With 24 teams in action on a busy night in the NHL, here are a few things we learned around the league:
Donato the late-season game changer Bruins were looking for
Boston Bruins rookie Ryan Donato played his seventh game at the NHL level Saturday, tallying his fourth goal and seventh point as the B’s rolled over the Florida Panthers.
The 21-year-old has been an indomitable force on the Bruins’ front lines since joining the club two weeks ago. After posting 26 goals and 43 points through just 29 games in college this season, earning a Hobey Baker nomination in the process, Donato has emerged as the game changer the Bruins were seeking heading into the season’s home stretch.
It appeared that boost would come from marquee trade deadline acquisition Rick Nash, who cost Boston Ryan Spooner, Matt Beleskey, Ryan Lindgren, a 2018 first-round pick and a 2019 seventh-round pick to bring to town.
And yet, so far, Donato has already had more of an impact — his four goals and seven points through seven games have already moved him past Nash, who posted three goals and six points through 11 games before going down with injury. Nash is yet to resume on-ice activity, with a return date looking unclear at this point.
But in the meantime, Donato — who cost Boston little more than the 2014 second-round pick they used to draft him — is serving as the pre-playoff offensive boost Boston had been craving.
We're pretty sure @DonatoRyan has what we call the "scoring touch." pic.twitter.com/6lPstWoWf1
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) March 31, 2018
Columbus being paid handsomely for its trade market gambles
The Blue Jackets have rolled the dice on a few interesting deals in recent years, the two leading moves being those that brought Artemi Panarin and Seth Jones to town. The first of those two stars came from Chicago in exchange for Brandon Saad last summer, while the latter was acquired in exchange for former No. 1 centreman Ryan Johansen in 2016.
Neither were small-time swaps, but Columbus certainly seems to have done well in both cases given how the pair is performing in 2017-18.
The Jackets fell just short on Saturday, but managed to mount a late-game comeback against the Canucks to get at least one point out of the match-up. In the process, Panarin put up a four-point effort, tying his career-high mark of 77 points set back in 2015-16 with Chicago. Once thought to be simply the product of Patrick Kane‘s offensive wizardry, Panarin is now poised to set a new career-best mark in Columbus while Kane has posted his lowest total in three seasons.
Meanwhile, Jones also finished with a four-point night, taking his 2017-18 sum to a career-high 54 points. That vaults him into rarified air in team history, as Jones’ 54 points are now the most ever posted by a Jackets defender in one season. Panarin could soon be in the same boat, as he sits just two points behind Rick Nash’s single-season points record from 2008-09.
Penguins and Jets still winning, making history
Two of the most interesting clubs heading into the playoff race — the back-to-back champs looking to three-peat and previously overlooked Canadian squad hoping to go all the way — kept up their winning ways on Saturday, earning dominant wins over the Canadiens and Leafs, respectively.
In doing so, both earned a well-deserved prize.
Pittsburgh officially clinched a spot in the playoffs, stretching their current post-season streak to a franchise best 12 seasons.
The Jets, meanwhile, clinched home ice in the post-season — the first time Winnipeg has done so since the mid-80’s.
Seguin, Eichel still raising offensive ceilings
Not to be outdone by the previously mentioned clubs, a few other stars around the league bumped up their career-best marks.
In Nashville, Jack Eichel put up his first five-point effort, tallying five assists in the Sabres’ surprising shellacking of the Predators. The outing earned him his 100th career assist and a place in Sabres history:
In Dallas, Tyler Seguin continued his impressive 2017-18 effort, hitting the 40-goal mark for the first time in his career and becoming just the third player to do so since the Stars franchise moved to Dallas in the 90’s.
Seguin is the seventh player to hit 40 goals this season — that’s the most players to reach that mark in one year since 2009-10. The Stars centreman now sits just five goals off of Ovechkin’s league-leading sum as he contends for the Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard Trophy.
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