It’s been quite a wild few days in the NHL and Tuesday night provided hockey fans with even more talking points.
Connor McDavid had his eight-game point streak snapped, Max Domi now has seven goals in his past seven games, the Kings won their first game since firing their coach, Joe Thornton played game No. 1,499 and Henrik Lunqvist moved within one win of tying the legendary Jacques Plante for seventh place in NHL history.
Here are five more things we learned Tuesday night in the NHL.
Sens thrive in first game after Uber controversy
Several members of the Ottawa Senators found themselves in an embarrassing and unfortunate situation early this week when Matt Duchene, Chris Wideman, Thomas Chabot, Chris Tierney, Dylan DeMelo, Colin White and Alex Formenton were secretly filmed saying some unkind things about their coaching staff.
It’s the latest in a series of scandals from the past year that have sullied the franchise, but the Sens weren’t going to let it impact them negatively on the ice Tuesday when they hosted the Devils.
Ottawa overcame a 2-0 deficit in a 7-3 win and it was the players involved in the Uber incident that led the way.
Formenton was sent back down to junior last week, but the other six players suited up against the Devils and combined for 10 points. Duchene, who issued an apology after the game, finished with three assists, Chabot had one goal and two assists, White had a pair of goals, Tierney had two apples, while DeMelo and Wideman combined for a plus-2 rating with four shots and four blocks.
That’s certainly one way to restore your image.
Mark Stone, one of the only Sens players to speak with the media prior to the game, also displayed his leadership on the ice with a five-point night. Stone finished with two goals and three assists and his first of the game was the 100th of his NHL career.
Pettersson now in truly elite NHL company
Another night, another Elias Pettersson accomplishment. The Vancouver Canucks’ star rookie wired home his 10th goal of the season in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Red Wings to become just the fifth player since 1917-18 to register 10 or more goals in the first 10 games of his career.
He’s the first to accomplish the feat since Dmitri Kvartalnov and Rob Gaudreau both did it during the 1992-93 campaign with the Bruins and Sharks, respectively.
It was an absolute howitzer, too.
The young Swede now has 16 points in 10 games, which is as good as it gets in terms of Canucks franchise history.
Fabbri off the schneid
What’s something Dec. 28, 2016 and Nov. 6, 2018 both have in common? Robby Fabbri scored a regular-season goal in the NHL on those dates. What does every single day in between have in common? Robby Fabbri did not score a regular-season goal in the NHL on those dates.
That’s right. The St. Louis Blues forward snapped a goal-scoring drought that lasted nearly two full calendar years.
After a quality rookie season in 2015-16, Fabbri tore the ACL in his left knee in early 2017, which cut his sophomore season short. He then reinjured his left knee the following training camp and missed all of last season.
“I forgot how it felt, but it felt good,” the 21st-overall pick from the 2014 draft told reporters following what was his third game of the season.
O’Reilly? More like O’Hatty!
While Fabbri was busy snapping goalless streaks, his teammate Ryan O’Reilly was busy doing something he had never previously done in his 10-year NHL career — scoring a hat trick.
O’Reilly, who was acquired in an off-season trade with the Buffalo Sabres, leads the Blues in points with 19 through 13 games thus far this season.
Home sweet home
Here’s one more stat for you and it’s pretty wild…
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