A quick mix of the things we gleaned from the week of hockey, serious and less so, and rolling four lines deep. I was adamant, but my wife made the organizational decision to not let me play in Vegas due to expected sin probability.
1. When the Toronto Maple Leafs took batting practice at Rogers Centre Friday, a day at the ballpark to thwack away their home demons, two players crushed home runs.
Boyhood baseball star Auston Matthews and fourth-line find Zack MacEwen.
“MacEwen put one in the second row,” Matthews told reporters. “Just straight power.”
Touch ’em all, Zack.
Toronto’s cheapest regular forward has been John Chayka’s money-ball victory.
MacEwen came one fight shy of a Gordie Howe hat trick in Thursday’s loss to Minnesota, saucing a beauty assist to Matthews and sniping one of his own. He’s played just 15 games and has already amassed as many points (six) as his two seasons in Ottawa and more than in his short-lived stint in New Jersey.
The offence is a bonus for a low-minutes grinder whose hockey hair flies reckless as he gets in on the forecheck and will pick a fight to shift momentum.
“I’m an energy player. I want to fire the boys up. I was fired up myself,” MacEwen said after his most recent goal. “You kind of black out in those moments and just do whatever feels right.”
Toronto felt right, MacEwen tells us, when he was rehabbing his surgically repaired knee and weighing multiple offers in free agency this past summer — even if he was raised a fan of the enemy.
“I don't know if I should say it, but my dad brainwashed me early. I was a Montreal fan,” MacEwen smiles. “But Leafs forever now.”
The 30-year-old Charlottetown native says Prince Edward Island is crawling with Leafs fans who rejoiced over his choice on July 1.
Returning to Canada was one reason. Securing two years of term was another. That the ex-Canuck already knew Chris Tanev, Troy Stecher, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson was a bonus. But it was Chayka’s fourth-line vision that convinced him after his time as a Devil ended with a fluke ACL tear after just three games.
MacEwen underwent surgery last November and was training hard to give the Devils a playoff boost… but they didn’t make the cut.
“The frustrating side of the game is coming to a new team, feeling like you found a new fit and just wanting to show up and play well, and then having a couple unlucky injuries,” MacEwen says. “You know, it's part of the game. But when it's that long, it's hard to deal with.”
MacEwen began skating in May, training in Halifax under Alexi Pianosi, Nathan MacKinnon’s guy, and arrived at Leafs camp with “zero doubts” his knee was strong enough.
That’s what a summer of on-ice sessions with MacKinnon and Sidney Crosby and Brad Marchand will do.
“It’s really intense. It's hard. It's fast. It's everything you want in summer skates,” says MacEwen, who studied Crosby. “Just the way he competes on every loose puck in practice. He's never quitting on pucks. He's battling, whether it's a warmup drill or the last drill of practice.
“You take so much from him, especially growing up as a kid from the Maritimes. I looked up to Sid, like a lot of people, and now I get to shoot it with him before practices and just pick his brain. It's awesome.”
MacEwen’s enthusiasm is refreshing. As is his drive.
“Nothing’s given; everything’s earned. That's what I've heard my whole career,” MacEwen says. “I realize coming off a knee injury and not playing many games last year, I'm going to have to really prove myself here, and that's what I plan on doing.”
The forward was nervous his injury history and all those donuts beside his 3 GP on his 2025-26 stat line would hurt his chances of getting NHL offers.
“But there was a lot of interest out there, for sure. I definitely had a few other offers,” he says.
He would’ve had more if teams could see MacEwen’s impact through his first 15 games for Toronto.
“Just enforcing my will and playing that physical style of game — that's what teams need, driving the play and creating space and protecting guys out there,” MacEwen says.
“That’s my game, and that's what I'm going to be doing. So, I just want to make myself valuable to the team.”
For $870,000? He’s a home run.
2. The greatest trick the Devils ever pulled was convincing the world that Winnipeg is more dangerous than Newark.
We’re not buying Connor Hellebuyck’s framing his beg out of town was mostly about being a good father protecting his family. Our take on his “complex” trade request: His trophy case is already full of everything but the big one.
He wants to win a Stanley Cup, and he believes he has a better shot to do so in New Jersey. That’s fine. He got his wish. But this attempt to have his cake and eat it too tastes awful.
Hellebuyck wants to be beloved by the organization he gave his best years to but won’t show that city enough to respect by simply showing up and playing.
He ducked. And with the Devils only traveling to Manitoba once per season, he could keep ducking.
If there’s a silver lining here, the Jets got their win and appear fuelled. After thumping the Stars 8-3 Thursday, they’ve now won five straight.
No sweat to Jersey, who keeps rolling whenever their new prize does suit up, but this week’s debacle will stick with Hellebuyck’s reputation.
“Helle, well rested!” coach Sheldon Keefe quipped after the goaltender extended his perfect record to 6-0 against Washington Thursday. “Looked solid in there.”
3. No shooter is hotter than Cutter Gauthier, who became the first player in NHL history to notch three hat tricks within the first 10 days of a calendar month.
Gauthier is also the first since 1992-93 (Hall of Famers Mario Lemieux and Alexander Mogilny) to score 14 goals in a seven-game span and the first since 1921-22 (Punch Broadbent and Joe Malone) to score 12 goals in his team’s first six games of a calendar month.
The Ducks sniper’s 20.3 shooting percentage is off the charts, and likely unsustainable, but anytime you join a guy named Punch in the record books, you’re doing something right.
“I’m just shooting the puck and they’re going in, so I’m just going to keep shooting it,” Gauthier told reporters.
Bulletproof logic.
4. Quote of the Week.
“I’m glad I can do something instead of just play a sport, because that doesn’t make a huge impact on humanity.” —Devin Cooley, the gift that keeps on giving
5. No one skates more (28:12) or has the puck on his stick more than Quinn Hughes, who ranks second among NHL defencemen in points (28) and is thriving through the uncertainty of his future.
“I don’t think anything bothers him,” says Troy Stecher, a former teammate of Hughes’s with the Vancouver Canucks. “Even during a game, like between periods, I thought he was half asleep sometimes, you know? Just staring off in the distance. A hard guy to read, man. Once you get to know him as an individual and you kind of build a little bit of friendship, you understand who he is as a person. But as a hockey player, I’m still trying to figure out how he’s able to kind of turn it on and off like a light switch. It’s pretty impressive.”
Equally impressive is how the will-he-or-won’t-he-sign? cloud hanging over the superstar doesn’t seem to have affected the Wild’s dressing room.
Nick Foligno believes that having so many mature veterans around helps. As does Hughes’s nonchalance.
“There’s guys that it consumes them, right? You can see it. When it’s a contract year, they’re nervous, the anxiety of it. Quinn doesn’t play with anxiety. Quinn doesn’t know how to live with anxiety, I don’t think,” Foligno chuckles. “He’s a special player and person in that way, where he can separate the two. He can compartmentalize a lot of things. We have no doubt that he loves being here and it’s his decision, so you rest easy with that.
“Obviously, we’d all like to see him sign, but it’s his right, and every player goes through it.”
Foligno believes Hughes’s demeanour contributes to his greatness. But don’t confuse calmness for a lack of competitiveness.
“If you really sit down with him, he wants to win. He wants to be great,” Foligno continues. “But he knows the energy he puts out in every shift. So, in between, especially when you're playing 30 minutes a night, he's got to just take a take a second to take a breather. But I love him. I love getting to know him, and he's an incredible teammate and player, and we're lucky to have him.”
For seven more months, sounds like. And nothing guaranteed beyond.
6. Submissions for Hit of the Year have closed early. We’ve seen enough to award a winner.
No one is topping Jakob Chychrun’s completely clean demolishing of Nick Cousins along the boards. Not sure I’ve watched one highlight more all season. The reverse angle is necessary to understand how this body check took the Senators winger out for at least a week:
While we’ve yet to hear Cousins’ reaction to the collision, the player wasted no time unfollowing Chychrun on Instagram. Guess that counts for revenge in 2026…
7. Among the multitude of first-quarter issues plaguing the Maple Leafs is their underdiscussed penalty problem.
It flew under the radar because Toronto’s PK was so effective early, but that has fallen off lately. The Leafs have allowed nine power-play goals over their past nine games.
They have taken 14 more penalties than they’ve drawn, the third-worst ratio in the NHL.
“When you put it that way, it’s a big difference, right? So, probably something that we can do better,” Oliver Ekman-Larsson says. “Some penalties we can take back and actually smarten up a little bit, and that's a big part of the game now these days too. Because everybody’s so good on the power-play, it takes a lot of energy to kill the penalty. So, obviously you want to stay out of the box.”
Leaguewide, power-plays are humming at 22.47 per cent — the most efficient conversion rate since 1982-83, increasing the value of a good whistle.
Enjoying the plus side of the net-penalty counter are Cup dreamers New Jersey (+24!), Tampa Bay (+15), Minnesota (+11), and Vegas (+10).
Taking significantly more penalties than you’re drawing is an issue in cities like Dallas (–17) and Montreal (–15) and Calgary (–14) as well. But it doesn’t appear to be high on the Leafs’ radar.
“I didn’t know that was a thing until you asked me,” Willima Nylander said, “so I don’t seem like I am overly concerned.”
Should the coaching staff not be harping on all these stick minors?
“A few have been bad. I’m not concerned about it. I think it's just guys wanting to do the right thing and wanting to work hard and wanting to get into battles,” Ekman-Larsson considers. “It's the ones in the O-zone that you can take out of your game, those lazy ones when you stop skating and checking with your stick instead of coming back with one or two hard strides and lifting the stick.
“You got to be smart about the timeliness of it — the end of a period or beginning of a game. Like, you just get that momentum going the wrong way. You don't want that.”
8. If the ghost of Gauthier isn’t haunting Philadelphia enough, the Flyers are now dealing with the escalating tension around young stud Matvei Michkov, who may or may not want a trade and who definitely has clashed with teammates and wants more ice time.
Is it a coincidence that the talented but testy winger skated a whopping 20:44, his second-highest time on ice all season, after going public with his desire for more shifts?
Michkov’s highest ice time in any game last season was 18:44.
Rick Tocchet is trying to keep him happy, and we can’t blame the coach.
As frustrating as it must be to see this play out publicly, the Flyers should be desperate to keep what young talent they have. Exhaust all options and work with the player before making a trade you’re bound to lose.
9. The insane and oft-cited stat used to contextualize Connor McDavid scorching start is that he has more assists (38) than anyone else has points (linemate Leon Draisaitl has 37).
I like this one. McDavid’s 49 points through 20 games this season exceeds the total goal output of five teams: the Blackhawks (42), Blue Jackets (42), Kings (47), Flames (47), and Flyers.
Forty-nine points also already matches the total 2025-26 output of familiar names such as Quinton Byfield, Claude Giroux, Taylor Hall, Elias Lindholm, Brock Boeser, Vladimir Tarasenko, Matt Duchene, Roope Hintz, Logan Cooley, Anders Lee, Frank Nazar, Mikael Granlund, Jordan Staal, Gabriel Landeskog, and and and….
10. With a trio of assists Thursday in Toronto, Kirill Kaprizov has at least a point in all but two of the Wild’s first 20 games. His 11 even-strength goals are tops in the league. He’s a driver on the most dominant 5-on-5 line in hockey; he and Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy have outscored the opposition 17-0 when they share the sheet.
The superstar is on pace for 134 points, which would crush his previous best of 108. Simply a treat to watch.
“His competitiveness, man. Like, his hard skill. I mean, that's what's so unique with him is just how he competes on pucks,” Foligno notes. “With his skill combined, it's a hard guy to play against. Playing against him all those years and sometimes being tasked to be against him, you knew you had to be at your best — because he was going to compete as much as he was going to beat you with skill. And you're seeing that. He puts himself in the right position.”
Hadn’t watched Kaprizov live in a while and initially thought his aggressively bargained $17 million AAV was a reach. But with the way he has elevated and the spike in salaries, he’s giving Draisaitl a run for Best Winger in Hockey.
There is detail and edge, consistency and responsibility going on here. Not simply gaudy production. Kaprizov is what Michkov should aspire to become one day.
“He’s still the same guy. I just see a little bit more maturity,” coach John Hynes observes. “We’ve been in tight games, playing with a lead, playing in the 0-0 game. Like, he's not forcing offence. He's starting to just play and play and play and realize that if you do it the right way, it's gonna happen for him. And that's been great growth, I think, for him and for our team.”
After seeing Colorado, Edmonton, Vegas, Utah, and Minnesota in-person this season, the Wild looks like the most playoff-ready outfit in the West.
11. While his teammates were busy beating the Leafs Thursday, Brock Faber was in the bowels of Scotiabank Arena working out hard.
The top-pair defenceman could make his season debut Saturday in Boston. What an addition for an already strong Minnesota group. And what a quick recovery for a 24-year-old who suffered a fractured skull in a preseason action on Sept. 25.
“You just get worried for him, because we all love him. He's an incredible player, incredible teammate, and just happy that it wasn't as bad as it could’ve been in some ways,” Foligno says.
“He’s such a warrior and a guy that you knew was just wanting to get back on the ice as soon as possible. So, I'm not surprised that he's already a little ahead of schedule. It'll be a big, big boost when that time comes.”
12. Hey, wasn’t it around this time last season that the Maple Leafs got a blue line boost by adding Stecher?
“November 15th,” Stecher says, without missing a beat.
Good memory for dates?
“Well, that one specifically because I got put on waivers, which as a hockey player is the last thing you ever want to do is not be wanted,” the defenceman says. “So, yeah, that one sticks with me and added a chip on my shoulder for sure.”
Stecher has gone 2-1 with a goal and an assist and a plus-2 rating against the Oilers since they didn’t want him. Edmonton’s bags have already been loaded into Scotiabank Arena for Saturday’s annual visit.
Never forget.
