Patrik Laine, Jack Eichel and Connor McDavid.
All three young snipers were front and centre Thursday night, contributing highlight-reel plays for their respective clubs.
Pair that with milestones, quick goals and empty seats and here’s five things we learned in the NHL Thursday:
Eichel to the rescue
Eichel is back and the Buffalo Sabres couldn’t be happier.
Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston wrote earlier Thursday about Eichel’s return to the Buffalo lineup, which he was kept out of for 21 games due to a high-ankle sprain.
“We need to do something to get (the fans) into the game,” Sabres coach Dan Bylsma said in the article. “I know Jack’s one of those guys that gets everybody on their feet when he has the puck and touches the puck. That was the case last year.
“A lot of the excitement in the building came from that anticipation of Jack having the puck and making a play with speed.”
KeyBank Center and Sabres fans got no shortage of excitement from the 20-year-old centre in their 4-3 comeback win over the New York Rangers.
Eichel tied the game 3-3 at 12:45 of the third period on the power play before scoring the winner under two minutes later.
Not bad for his second game of the year.
Speaking of snipers…
Patrik Laine, you have one heck of a shot.
The Winnipeg Jets rookie was absolutely dealing with his lethal shot against Edmonton despite his team’s 6-3 loss to the Oilers.
Laine scored twice on the power play from an almost identical location on the blue line for his 14th and 15th goals of the season.
It appears as though the No. 2 overall pick at the 2016 NHL Draft is back on track after going a stretch of six-straight games in November without scoring.
With a goal against New Jersey on Tuesday and two more against the Oilers, Laine leads all rookies with 21 points and is second in the NHL goal-scoring race with 15, just one behind Sidney Crosby.
How did the league’s leading scorer do, you ask? Connor McDavid tacked on three helpers and leads the NHL with 34 points (11 goals, 23 assists).
Moving on up
Jaromir Jagr continued to move up the all-time games played list during the Panthers’s 2-1 overtime win over the Detroit Red Wings.
The Czech Republic native was fairly quiet in his milestone game, going pointless with two shots on goal and was a minus-one in 17:55 of ice time.
Next up for the 44-year-old winger is Ron Francis, who played 1,731 games over the course of his NHL career. Even if Jagr were to play every game for the rest of this season, he still wouldn’t catch the legendary Hartford Whaler, Pittsburgh Penguin and Carolina Hurricane.
Jagr is currently on a one-year deal and has put up decent numbers this season with four goals and eight assists in 24 games. Will the Panthers keep him around for a 24th NHL season in 2017-18?
Coming out firing
Chefs around the NHL must have been cooking something delightful pre-game that got the guys going, because a handful of teams had an extra hop in their step.
Six players scored within the first three minutes to give their respective teams the early advantage.
The quickest? Martin Hanzal, who found the back of the net 15 seconds into the first period on the power play in Arizona’s 4-3 loss to the Los Angeles Kings.
The weirdest? Johan Larsson. Take a look:
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Where are you, Canucks fans?
Was there a Michael Buble concert in Vancouver Thursday or something? (I checked, there wasn’t…)
The Canucks had a home game at Rogers Arena against the Anaheim Ducks but it appears as though someone forgot to tell people to show up.
The seats filled up and the announced attendance was 17,627 but they didn’t see that great of a performance. Vancouver managed just five shots on net during a scoreless first period although they finished the game with 28. The Canucks would end up falling to the Ducks 3-1.
Vancouver (10-12-2) has struggled this season and are currently second last in the Pacific Division standings.