Patrice Bergeron had a night to remember, Matt Duchene is on a roll and Leon Draisaitl finally scored a power-play goal.
Here are five things we learned in the NHL.
Leon Draisaitl pops his PP bubble
When the Oilers signed Draisaitl to an eight-year, $68-million contract this summer, the expectation was he would be a superstar.
Therefore, the fact that he scored his first power-play goal of the season in January is a surprise, to say the least.
Draisaitl picked up the goal, Edmonton’s only goal, in another Oilers loss where the opponent scored five times.
Draisaitl now has 11 goals and 33 points this year but the goal was only his fourth power-play point. The Oilers entered Saturday ranked 25th in the league with a 16 per cent success rate on the man advantage, a disappointing number for a team that had Stanley Cup aspirations.
Entering Saturday’s action, 297 players had scored at least one power-play goal before Draisaitl did this season. Most of them aren’t making close to $9 million.
If the Oilers want to salvage anything from this season, improving their power play would be a good place to start. Mark Spector wrote about that, and other things the Oilers need to improve, in his post-game takeaways.
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Matt Duchene finding his groove in Ottawa
Things are pretty cold these days in our nation’s capital, but that hasn’t stopped the Ottawa Senators from getting hot.
The Sens took down the league’s best team on Saturday, one day after an impressive comeback win over the San Jose Sharks. They now have collected five of a possible six points in January, but more importantly, they seem to have rediscovered their scoring touch.
Specifically, Duchene has.
With another goal Saturday, Duchene now has three in three games in January. That equals the amount he scored with the Sens in 2017. In 23 games.
The Senators entered Saturday ranked 28th in total goals with 104. But with 12 goals in 24 hours, maybe things are starting to turn around.
Patrice Bergeron has the game of his life
The Boston Bruins were relentless against the Carolina Hurricanes and because of that, Bergeron picked up his 700th point a little earlier than expected.
Bergeron needed three points to hit the milestone and he got them in the first period with two goals and an assist.
He followed that up with two more goals in the second to become the first Bruin to score four times in a game since Dave Andreychuk in 1999.
Bergeron finished the night with five points and now has 702 in 933 games.
Known as more of a steady two-way forward, Bergeron’s offence has always been underrated. But he’s twice scored more than 30 goals and three times crossed the 60-point mark over his 14-year career.
With 16 goals and 31 points halfway through this season, Bergeron could very easily hit those marks again.
Eric Staal is up to 19 goals on the season
You read that right. Eric Staal has 19 goals this year.
Staal’s career has fallen out of the spotlight ever since he joined the Minnesota Wild in 2016, but it’s actually flourished there.
He now has 47 goals in a season and a half with the Wild and continues to be a dominant power forward in the NHL.
With 19 goals this season, Staal now has the same number as Auston Matthews, one more than Patrik Laine and two more than Patrick Kane, Vladimir Tarasenko, Phil Kessel and Steven Stamkos. That’s some impressive company.
Sure, he’s maybe not the 45-goal guy he once was, but Staal is still a very reliable offensive weapon for Minnesota.
Henrik Lundqvist continues to climb the wins list
With a shootout win over the Coyotes, Lundqvist passed Tony Esposito for eighth all time in wins with his 423rd.
Lundqvist improved to 19-10-4 on the season and the Rangers are now tied with the Blue Jackets for third in the Metropolitan Division with 49 points.
Even though he’s 35, Lundqvist doesn’t appear to be slowing down. While Martin Brodeur’s 691 wins might be out of reach, it’s very reasonable to expect him to jump all the way up to third place by the end of his career.
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