Down the Frozen River

Tag: Martin Jones

  • Sick Hands Sunday – Panarin and Lundqvist Can’t Be Stopped, Win This Week’s Crown.

    Hey everyone, I’m back again for a new week of Sick Hands Sunday! I can’t wait to get another version out to all my fans for you all to enjoy! This week was a little easier to pick the winner so let’s get right into it!

    So for the forward portion of this article, like I stated above, it was an easy week to pick the winner! The reason why I say this was because Blackhawks winger Artemi Panarin was on fire over the last week picking up ELEVEN points (4G, 7A) in just four games and in four of his five games this week he tallied at least two points and three power-play goals as well. Here’s how Panarin did game by game.

     

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    Panarin celebrates his goal (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

     

    In Panarin’s first game, he recorded a power play goal in a solid 3-1 win against the Dallas Stars. The “BreadMan” as they like to call him, received a beautiful pass right on the left-hand dot from Duncan Keith. Panarin let a nasty one-timer go from his knee that beat Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen right under the blocker to ice the game and push the score to 3-1. You can see his goal down below:

    In Panarin’s second game they took on the streaking New York Rangers in a battle of hot teams. Panarin recorded two assists in a 2-1 win. His best assist came on the Hawks first goal of the game early in the second period. He came down the left-hand boards, cut towards the dot, and delivered a great pass to a streaking Trevor van Riemsdyk who ripped a shot past Antti Raanta for the opening goal. He added a secondary assist late in the game as well. You can see the great pass down below:

    In the Blackhawks’ third game Panarin picked up three points (2G, 1A) with all three points coming on the power play! Panarin scored his first goal of the game just like he did in his first game. He received a cross-ice pass from Brent Seabrook right in his wheelhouse and Panarin fired the one-timer top cheese to bring the Hawks back a goal at 2-1. Here’s his rocket down below:

    Panarin would tally yet another power play goal in basically the same spot with the same setup. He took another beauty of a pass from Seabrook right on the left side dot and ripped another one-timer far side that beat Isles goalie Thomas Greiss high glove side to tie the game up at four goals a piece.He finished with another assist for three points on the night. Here’s his goal down below:

    In Panarin’s fourth game he had another monster game with three points (1G, 2A) in a 6-4 win over the St. Louis Blues. His first assist came on Brian Campbell‘s tap in goal. Panarin received a cross-ice pass from Patrick Kane on the left side boards. Panarin then spotted Campbell sitting wide open at the back door and he rifled a pass over to him for the tap in goal to tie the game at 3-3. Here’s the beautiful pass below:

    Panarin then put his great hands to use again with another fantastic assist. He spotted a wide-open Niklas Hjalmarsson at the points and sauced him a beaut of a pass at the top and Hjalmarsson fired a one-timer past Jake Allen to tie the game back up at 4-4. Panarin also added the icing to the cake with an empty net goal late in the goal to cap off the come from behind win! Here’s the awesome pass below:

    Panarin’s last game of the week he tallied two assists in a commanding 4-1 win over the San Jose Sharks. Panarin’s first assist came on Kieth’s first goal of the season. He stopped on the half wall on the left-hand board and passed to Keith who was wide open at the point. Keith let a massive one-time clap bomb go that beat Sharks goalie Martin Jones blocker side to tie the game at 1-1. He would then get another assist on an empty net goal to cap off an amazing week. Here it is below:

     

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    Lundqvist makes a save vs the Stars (Jermone Miron/USA Today Sports)

     

    Now for the goalie part of the article, I decided to go with Rangers goalie, Henrik Lundqvist! Even though he had games where he was benched because of poor play, he still finished with an extremely strong week. He finished with a record of 3-0 a .98 GAA and a .967 SV%. He only gave up three goals on 90 shots in three games and also grabbed one joint shutout with Rannta vs the Stars. If some of you guys don’t know he had to come out of the game because he was decked by Stars goon Cody Eakin, who has later suspended four games, but later returned to complete the shutout! So it was pretty easy to pick “King Henrik” as the winner for this week!

    The Honorable Mention goes to Devan Dubnyk and Eric Staal. I will see you guys next Sunday for another recap of the best player of the week! (Thanks to the Chicago Blackhawks’ Twitter for the videos of the goals!)

  • December 16 – Day 65 – Gargantuan goalies

    Happy Friday. Kick back with some hockey tonight, starting with two games at 7 p.m. (the New York Islanders at Buffalo and Los Angeles at Pittsburgh [NBCSN/SN/TVAS]) and another pair half an hour (San Jose at Montréal [RDS] and Washington at Carolina). 9 p.m. marks the puck drop of two more contests (Florida at Colorado and Columbus at Calgary), with tonight’s nightcap – Tampa Bay at Vancouver – waiting an hour before starting. All times eastern.

    Two division leaders meet up in the Bell Centre this evening, so even though both clubs have already been featured once this week, we have to make the trip to The City of a Hundred Steeples.

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    The Sharks make their yearly visit to the Bell Centre with an 18-11-1 record, and winners of their last three contests. They’ve been able to attain that Pacific Division lead with an impressive defense and goaltending, which has only allowed 66 goals so far this season – the fifth-fewest in the NHL.

    Martin Jones has made 26 starts for the Sharks this year, and has made good use of his time. To earn his 15-10-1 record, he’s earned a .92 save percentage and 2.1 GAA, the 14th and ninth-best effort in comparison to his 40 peers with 13 or more appearances.

    A lower save percentage in comparison to a good GAA is always indicative of a solid defense, and the Sharks are no different. Led by Brent Burns‘ 56 blocks, San Jose has allowed only 26.6 shots per night to reach Jones’ crease, the second-best rate in the league.

    Hosting that impressive defense are the 19-6-4 Canadiens, the leaders of the Atlantic Division. Although the have an impressive offense, they have also been led by a dominant netminder this season, who has led his team to allowing only 63 goals – the fourth-best total in the league.

    16-3-2 Carey Price has been having a career season , as his .94 save percentage and 1.8 GAA are both third-best in the NHL among goalies with 11 or more appearances.

    Price’s play has been necessary, as his defense has allowed 30.7 shots per game to reach his crease, the 13th-highest average in the NHL. Shea Weber has done all he can, as his 61 blocks lead the team, but him, Alexei Emelin and Jeff Petry are the only three skaters with more than 40 shot blocks to their credit. If others do not improve their effort, Canadiens fans could have concern Price is overworked as the playoffs roll around.

    Montréal has already played made their dive into The Tank for the season, but like most teams that visit Northern California, they could not escape with even a point two weeks ago. The Sharks won 2-1, with Joe Pavelski taking credit for the winning goal in the first period.

    Some players to keep an eye on include Montréal‘s Price (16 wins [second-most in the NHL], including two shutouts [tied for seventh-most in the league], on a .94 save percentage and a 1.8 GAA [both third-best in the NHL]) and Weber (+18 [tied for second-best in the league]) & San Jose‘s Jones (15 wins [tied for third-most in the NHL], including two shutouts [tied for seventh-most in the league], on a 2.1 GAA [ninth-best in the NHL]).

    Just like their first meeting, this game will most certainly star Jones and Price. Since Montréal has the more explosive offense to go with their home-ice advantage, I like the Habs to take tonight’s victory.

    Hockey Birthday

    • Eric Belanger (1977-) – Drafted by Los Angeles in the 1996 NHL Entry Draft, this center played exactly 820 games over his 12 seasons in the greatest hockey league in the world. By the time he played his final contest in the NHL, he’d notched 358 points, including 220 assists.

    A second goal in the second period was the deciding factor in the Ducks‘ victory over Boston in yesterday’s DtFR Game of the Day.

    Continuing the theme of the number two, Zdeno Chara (Second Star of the Game David Backes and Brad Marchand) scored his second goal of the season with 7:53 remaining in the first period to give the Bruins the lead, followed only 13 seconds later by an Austin Czarnik (Ryan Spooner and Riley Nash) snapper to double it to 2-0. Only 24 seconds after Czarnik’s tally, Andrew Cogliano buried an unassisted wrister to pull Anaheim back within one. Scoring subsided until 2:10 remained in the period, when Kevin Bieksa (Ryan Getzlaf) leveled the game at two-all with a wrister. That score lasted into the first intermission.

    Anaheim took their first lead of the game 55 seconds after returning to the ice when Josh Manson (Jakob Silfverberg and First Star Rickard Rakell) buried his first goal of the season. That lead lasted only 71 seconds though, as David Krejci (Backes and Torey Krug) scored a power play wrister to level the game at three-all. The Ducks earned the game-winning score at the 5:02 mark when Rakell (Sami Vatanen and Cam Fowler) potted a wrister that proved to be the final tally of the night.

    Jonathan Bernier earned the victory after saving 31-of-34 shots faced (91.2%), leaving the loss to Anton Khudobin, saving 23-of-27 (85.2%).

    The fourth-straight win by the teams in white sets the DtFR Game of the Day record at 36-21-10, but the series still favors the hosts by nine points.

  • December 14 – Day 63 – Keeping up with the Jones

    There’s only four games on the schedule today, but most of them are very good. Like it usually does, the action starts at 7 p.m. when San Jose visits Ottawa (SN/TVAS), trailed half an hour later by Boston at Pittsburgh (NBCSN). Tampa Bay at Calgary (SN/SN360) drops the puck at 9:30 p.m., leading tonight’s nightcap – Philadelphia at Colorado (NBCSN) – by 30 minutes. All times eastern.

    The most competitive contest of the evening is where we try to turn our attention to, and I think that will occur tonight in the Canadian Tire Centre.

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    The most recent winners of the Campbell Bowl are currently the proud owners of a 17-11-1, the best mark in the Pacific Division and winners of their past two games. They’ve reached that distinction riding an impressive defense and goaltending that has allowed only 63 scores this season, a total that is second-fewest in the Western Conference.

    As has been the case since last season, Martin Jones mans the Sharks’ crease, and does a pretty good job of it. Although he only has a 14-10-1 record, his .921 save percentage and 2.07 GAA are 13th and ninth-best, respectively, among the 38 goalies in the league with 13 or more appearances. With numbers like that, his record is more representative of an offense that has managed only the ninth-fewest goals.

    Part of the reason Jones has been so good has been due to the blueline in front of him. Led by Brent Burns‘ 55 blocks, Jones faces an average of only 26.4 shots per night, the second-fewest in the entire NHL.

    Hosting that impressive Sharks defense are the 16-11-2 Senators, losers of their last two games. Although I’m not really impressed by either aspect of Ottawa‘s game, their defense and goaltending has certainly overshadowed their offensive efforts. They’ve allowed 78 goals so far this season, the 11th-fewest in the NHL.

    Even though 12-6-1 Craig Anderson has been the main man in net for the Senators, Dean Brown says it will by 4-3-1 Mike Condon in net this evening.

    Condon is the proud owner of a .923 save percentage and 2.28 GAA, the 19th and 17th-best effort, respectively, among all 60 goaltenders with four or more appearances.

    Regardless of who is in net for Ottawa on a given night, they certainly earn their paycheck. The Senators‘ defense allows 31.2 shots-per-game to reach the crease, the eighth-most in the league. What’s disheartening is Erik Karlsson (79 blocks), Cody Ceci (64) and Dion Phaneuf (63) have been putting their bodies on the line for their goaltenders, but they are the only ones with more than 40 blocks to their names. If the Sens want to hold onto their current playoff spot, more blueliners need to get involved in performing their primary job description.

    A good spot to start would be on the penalty kill, where Ottawa ranks eighth-worst in the league on a 80.2% kill rate. Phaneuf has been especially active when down a man, as he leads his club with 21 shorthanded blocks, but he’s the only skater with more than 13.

    These squads just met up last Wednesday in The Tank, where Condon and the Senators were able to pull off the 4-2 victory.

    Some players to keep an eye on this evening include Ottawa‘s Karlsson (20 assists [tied for sixth-most in the league]) and San Jose‘s Jones (14 wins [tied for fourth-most in the NHL], including two shutouts [tied for seventh-most in the league], on a 2.07 GAA [10th-best in the NHL]).

    All bets are off in Vegas in this game, but I feel pretty confident in picking the Sharks to come away with the victory for no other reason than the Senators are struggling right now. Ottawa‘s penalty kill is not very good, and their defense has not been gelling of late. Add that to San Jose wanting revenge for losing on home ice, and you have a Sharks winner.

    Hockey Birthday

    • Patrik Sundstrom (1961-) – A 10-year NHL veteran, this Swedish center was selected by Vancouver in the 1980 NHL Entry Draft. Sundstrom played 679 games over his career, and very near evenly split them between the Canucks and New Jersey.
    • Bill Ranford (1966-) – Boston selected this Canadian goaltender in the 1985 NHL Entry Draft, but he spent most of his 15-year career in Edmonton, where he won his only Stanley Cup in 1990. He also won the Smythe Trophy that season.

    Only three goals were struck in yesterday’s DtFR Game of the Day series – and all in the same period – but it was Chicago who avenged their home loss to the Rangers to steal the 2-1 victory in Madison Square Garden.

    Trevor van Riemsdyk (Artemi Panarin and Second Star of the Game Artem Anisimov) took credit for the Blackhawks‘ first goal of the night, only 25:18 after the initial puck drop. That lead lasted only 2:57 before Jesper Fast (Oscar Lindberg) tipped-in his third goal of the season to level the game for the Blueshirts. Anisimov (Brian Campbell and Panarin) takes credit for the Hawks‘ game-winner on a snap shot with 69 seconds remaining in the second period, and that 2-1 score held until the final horn.

    First Star Scott Darling earns the victory after saving 33-of-34 shots faced (97.1%), while Third Star Antti Raanta takes the loss, saving 24-of-26 (92.3%).

    The road teams’ second-straight victory pulls them back within a dozen points of the home sides, but the hosts still host a 36-20-9 record in the DtFR Game of the Day series.

  • December 9 – Day 58 – The Tank empties into The Pond

    You made it through another week of work, so you deserve to watch some hockey. Washington at Buffalo gets things started at 7 p.m., followed half an hour later by a pair of contests (Columbus at Detroit and St. Louis at New Jersey). 8 p.m. marks the puck drop of Edmonton at Minnesota, with the New York Rangers visiting Chicago (NHLN) 30 minutes later. San Jose at Anaheim (SN) acts as this evening’s nightcap, getting underway at 10 p.m. All times eastern.

    Short list

    • New York at Chicago: It’s an Original Six matchup between two of the top teams in the league.
    • San Jose at Anaheim: This rivalry may not have existed 25 years ago, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth watching.

    It’s been a long time since we’ve checked in on the Ducks, so let’s head out to the Honda Center!

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    The reigning Western Conference Champion San Jose Sharks are well on their way to making their second-straight playoff appearance, as their 15-10-1 is third-best in the Pacific Division. They’ve gotten to that position by playing some good goaltending and even better defense, yielding only 55 goals so far this season – the third-fewest in the NHL.

    Martin Jones has only had three days off, but that hasn’t affected him much. He has a 13-9-1 record with a .92 save percentage and 2.04 GAA to rank (t)14th and seventh-best among the 36 netminders with 12 or more appearances.

    An impressive GAA paired with a less-impressive save percentage is almost always due to an impressive defense. San Jose is definitely one of those cases. Led by Justin Braun and Brent Burns‘ co-leading 48 blocks, the Sharks‘ blueline has allowed only 25.8 shots to reach Jones’ crease per game, the best rate in the league.

    Hosting that strong defense this evening are the 13-9-5 Ducks, the club sitting in fourth place in the Pacific Division. Anaheim is a well-rounded team, but I’m more impressed by their offense that has scored 72 goals this season, a total that ties them for 14th in scoring.

    Ryan Kesler has been the man in charge of the Ducks offense so far this season, leading the club with his 23 points as well as his 12 goals. But, it hasn’t been just him. Captain Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry join Kesler in the 20+ point club.

    One of the main reasons for this success has been the Ducks‘ opportunistic play. Kesler’s 11 power play points has led Anaheim to converting 22.1% of their man-advantages, the sixth-best rate in the league. The incredible center has completed a lot of those attacks, taking credit for seven of the 19 extra-man tallies.

    Some players to keep an eye on this evening include Anaheim‘s Getzlaf (20 assists [tied for second-most in the league]) and San Jose‘s Jones (13 wins [tied for fourth-most in the NHL], including two shutouts [tied for seventh-most in the league], on a 2.04 GAA [ninth-best in the NHL]).

    Vegas has marked Anaheim a -112 favorite, but I like the underdog in tonight’s contest. San Jose has a superior defense going against a slightly above-average offense. Unfortunately, I’ve been wrong in my last few picks, so we’ll have to see if it’s the Ducks or Sharks that are grateful I’ve sided with NorCal.

    Hockey Birthday

    • Germain Gagnon (1942-2014) – This left wing may have only played five seasons, but he played for four different clubs in that relatively short amount of time. Although he appeared on three Chicago teams, he played most of his 259 games for the Islanders.
    • Pit Martin (1943-2008) – 1101 games were played over 17 NHL seasons by this center, most of which with the Blackhawks. Although he never won a Stanley Cup, he did claim the 1970 Masterton Trophy.
    • Dana Murzyn (1966-) – Hartford selected this defenseman fifth-overall in the 1985 NHL Entry Draft, but he spent most of his days in Vancouver. After playing his amateur days in Calgary, he joined the Flames in 1988 and played on the 1989 Stanley Cup winning team.
    • Petr Nedved (1971-) – Nearly half of this center’s career was spent playing with the Rangers, but he was drafted second-overall in the 1990 NHL Entry Draft by Vancouver. By the time his NHL days came to a close, he’d played for seven teams.

    For the second time in four days, and coincidentally the same statecommonwealth, goaltending took the night off in the DtFR Game of the Day in favor for a barn-burner as Philadelphia beat Edmonton 6-5.

    Only one goal was struck in the first period, and it belonged to the visiting Oilers. Third Star of the Game Leon Draisaitl (Jesse Puljujarvi and Kris Russell) scored a snap shot 4:39 into the game to give Edmonton an early lead.

    That lead doubled 4:35 into the second period when Connor McDavid (Draisaitl and Milan Lucic) buried a power play snap shot, but Philly reeled them in when Mark Streit (Travis Konecny and Ivan Provorov) buried a slap shot 7:56 later to set the score at 2-1. The Flyers leveled the score with 6:36 remaining in the frame when Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (Andrew MacDonald and Chris VandeVelde) scored his first goal of the season with a snapper. Philadelphia scored again 19 seconds later to take their first lead, courtesy of a flying First Star Claude Giroux (Second Star Jakub Voracek) slap shot. The Oilers didn’t like that very much, so Andrej Sekera (Mark Letestu and McDavid) buried a shorthanded slap shot to tie the game at three-all going into an exciting final period.

    As crazy as the second period was, the third was even more wild. With goals from Benoit Pouliot (Draisaitl and Sekera) and Oscar Klefbom (Jordan Eberle and Drake Caggiula) at the 3:07 and 5:12 marks respectively (Klefbom’s was on the power play), the Oilers had a strong 5-3 lead. But it would end up not even yielding a point. A Voracek (Shayne Gostisbehere and Giroux) power play snap shot pulled the Flyers back within a goal at the 6:31 mark, followed 5:40 later by a Giroux (Radko Gudas and Voracek) snap shot to tie the game. The game stayed tied until 89 remained – that’s when Michael Raffl (Voracek and Streit) buried his game-winning snap shot.

    Steve Mason took the victory after saving 28-of-33 shots faced (84.8%), leaving the loss to Jonas Gustavsson, saving 25-of-31 (80.6%).

    Philadelphia‘s home victory is the fourth-straight in the DtFR Game of the Day series. They join with previous home teams to set the hosts’ record at 33-19-8 in that series, leading the visitors by nine points.

  • Sick Hands Sunday – Hoffman and Jones Both Go On a Tear to Capture All The Glory For This Week’s Title.

    Hey everyone, I’m back again for a new week of Sick Hands Sunday! Sorry, that I’m getting this week’s article out a day late, I was traveling all day back from Pittsburgh. But here I am, I can’t wait to get another version out to all my fans for you all to enjoy! This week was a little easier to pick the winner so let’s get right into it!

    For the forward position of the article, once again it was pretty easy to pick the winner! So if it keeps going like this picking the winner is going to be easy from here on out and I will love it. I decided to go with Senators left winger Mike Hoffman who registered seven points (4G, 3A) in just four games. In all four games, he had at least one point and had four total power play points in four games as well. Here is how Hoffman did game by game:

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    Hoffman drives into the offensive zone with the puck (Julie Oliver/Postmedia)

    In Hoffman’s first game he tallied an assist in a 2-0 win over the powerhouse New York Rangers. Hoffman’s assist came on the Mark Stone‘s power-play goal to stretch their lead to 2-0 after two periods. Hoffman picked up the puck, skated down the left-hand boards, and threw a pass to the streaking Stone right in the slot. Stone received the pass and quickly fired the pass over Antti Raanta‘s blocker for the goal. Here’s the beautiful pass below:

    In Hoffman’s second game of the week, he recorded four points, including a hat trick and an assist in a 5-4 loss against the struggling Buffalo Sabres. Hoffman’s first goal came off a juicy rebound from a point shot, the puck was kicked back into the slot by Sabres goalie Robin Lehner. He jumped right on the loose puck and slammed it into the back of the net to bring the Sens within a goal at 2-1. Here’s his first of the night:

    With Hoffman’s second of the night, it was a beauty. The play started with Stone bringing the puck down the left-hand side and throwing a cross-ice pass over to Erik Karlsson who skated down to the right-hand dot. Karlsson then dished an amazing pass to Hoffman who was making a B-line right to the front of the net. All Hoffman had to do was redirect the puck into the wide-open net, and he did to bring the Sens back to within a goal at 4-3 at the end of period two.

    For Hoffman’s third and final goal, it was an absolute rocket! Hoffman received a great pass from teammate Dion Phaneuf right into his wheelhouse. Hoffman let the one-timer go and the shot trickled past Sabres goalie Anders Nilsson. That goal capped off a highly impressive night from the young man, but it wasn’t enough as the Sens could not complete the comeback. You can see all his goals in full time down below including the final goal:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GPDrrKFg98

    The Senators then took on the Flyers where Hoffman recorded a power play goal in a 3-2 OT loss. The play all started by Kyle Turris cycling the puck down to Mark Stone below the goal line at the side of the net. Stone spotted Hoffman all alone standing at the side of the net and rifled a pass over to Hoffman who then fired the slap shot into the wide open net to open the scoring at 1-0. You can see his goal below:

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    Jones makes one of his 31 saves during the 2-1 win over Montreal. (Getty Images)

    Hoffman added an another assist in their 2-0 win over the Florida Panthers to round off the week on a high note. Now let’s move on to the goalie portion of the week! For the winner of this week, I decided to go with Sharks goalie Martin Jones who had a stellar week in the net! Jones started three of the Sharks games during the week going 3-0 in that span only letting in three goals finishing with an amazing .962 SV% and a 1.00 GAA. Jones was on fire and no one could score. He is turning his season around after a slow start and boosted his stats up to 13-8-1 with a 1.99 GAA and a .924 SV%. Down below you can see Jones’ absolute larceny on Alex Galchenyuk with a sprawling glove save.

    The Honorable Mention goes to Connor McDavid and Steve Mason I will see you guys next Sunday for another recap of the best player of the week! (Thanks to the Ottawa Senators’ Twitter for the videos of the goals!)

  • November 30 – Day 49 – When that Shark bites with his teeth babe

    It’s Wednesday, so you know what that means: a light NHL schedule. Don’t worry though, most off tonight’s offerings are quality matchups.

    We start at 8 p.m. with Pittsburgh visiting the New York Islanders (NBCSN/TVAS), followed half an hour later by Toronto at Calgary (SN). Finally, at 10:30 p.m., San Jose at Los Angeles (NBCSN) drops the puck.

    • Pittsburgh at New York: We’ve already featured this rivalry once this season. It’s usually a good one.
    • San Jose at Los Angeles: Another rivalry, but this one cuts a little deeper this season given these squads met in the Western Conference Quarterfinals.

    The added “oomph” of the playoff rematch takes us to the City of Angels!

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    Only seven months ago, these teams were battling in the First Round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Obviously, the Sharks won as they represented the Western Conference in the Finals, but their 4-1 victory over the rival Kings surprised many, given that Los Angeles had home ice advantage. But San Jose actually dominated the season series with a 3-1-1 record, three points better than the Kings head-to-head.

    Nowadays, those Sharks are 13-9-1 and sit atop the Pacific Division. To earn that position, they’ve played some excellent defense and goaltending to allow only 49 goals, tied for the fourth-fewest in the game.

    At 20 starts, Martin Jones has been between the pipes for almost every single game the Sharks have played so far this season. Over his 1148 minutes, he’s earned an 11-8-1 record on a .919 save percentage and 2.09 GAA, the 13th and (t)seventh-best rates, respectively, among the 34 netminders with 10 or more appearances.

    A GAA that is significantly better than its associated save percentage is indicative of a great defense, and this instance is no different. Led by Justin Braun‘s 46 blocks, the Sharks have allowed 25.9 shots to reach Jones per night, the second-lowest average in the league.

    Unsurprisingly, this success has continued to the penalty kill, where San Jose ranks ninth-best. Braun continues to lead the effort with 12 shorthanded shot blocks, and that has guided the team to effectively limiting opposing power plays 84.9% of the time.

    The skating tenants of the Staples Center are 12-9-1, good enough for only fourth place in the Pacific Division. Similar to their NorCal rivals, the Kings play a great defensive game, allowing seventh-fewest goals against in the NHL at 53.

    The main headline this year has surrounded Los Angeles‘ crease not being patrolled by Jonathan Quick. He is still expected to need another month of rehabilitation, leaving the net to Peter Budaj. Already on course for his most starts in a season since his days in Colorado, the Slovak has taken advantage of the opportunity presented to him to set a 12-6-1 record – yes, he’s been in net for each and every one of the Kings‘ points. He’s done that with a .917 save percentage and 2.04 GAA, the (t)17th and eighth-best efforts, respectively, among the 40 goaltenders with nine or more appearances.

    Once again we have a decent goalie playing with an excellent defense. Leading the charge in only his second season (after a rookie season where he played only 22 games with the senior squad) has been Derek Forbort, with an impressive 52 blocks to his name. The entire blueline’s effort has led to the Kings allowing only 25.5 shots-against-per-game, the lowest in the league.

    Where Los Angeles is really lacking is on their power play. Successful on only 12.1% of attempts, they rank third-worst in the NHL. Five different players have three man-advantage points to their credit, but it’s been Jeff Carter and Tyler Toffoli leading the goal-scoring charge with only two power play-goals apiece.

    Some players to keep an eye on this evening include Los Angeles‘ Budaj (12 wins [tied for second-most in the NHL], including two shutouts [tied for sixth-most in the league] on a 2.04 GAA [ninth-best in the NHL]) and Toffoli (+12 [tied for fifth-best in the league]) & San Jose‘s Brent Burns (21 points [tied for ninth-most in the NHL]) and Jones (11 wins, including two shutouts [both tied for sixth-most in the league]).

    Bets are off in Vegas, which is always a good sign. I’m leaning towards San Jose winning tonight’s contest on the road not only because they won the first meeting this season 2-1, but based on their power play – I believe it to be better than the Kings‘ penalty kill. We’ll see if that holds true.

    Hockey Birthday

    • Jason Pominville (1982-) – This right wing was selected by Buffalo in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft, but he’s currently playing in Minnesota. He was an All-Star in 2012, the same season he was traded.

    Tom Rowe may not have turned the Panthers into winners overnight, but they were good enough to force a shootout in Chicago before falling 2-1.

    With 2:10 remaining in the first period, Richard Panik (Dennis Rasmussen and Marcus Kruger) scored a backhander to give the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead they would not yield until the third frame.

    Only 35 seconds after returning to the ice from the second intermission, Jaromir Jagr (Jonathan Marchessault and Aaron Ekblad) took advantage of a Niklas Hjalmarsson hooking penalty carried over from late in the second period with a power play wrister to level the game at one-all.

    Neither team was able to score a winner in either the remaining time in regulation or three-on-three overtime, so we were off to the Game of the Day series’ second shootout in four days.

    1. Up first was Patrick Kane for Chicago, but his shot was saved by Roberto Luongo.
    2. Vincent Trocheck went next, but he did even worse than Kane – his shot wasn’t even on frame and did not require a Corey Crawford save.
    3. Second Star of the Game Artemi Panarin was the first to strike shootout blood, giving Chicago a 1-0 lead.
    4. Aleksander Barkov‘s tying attempt was saved by Crawford.
    5. Panik sealed the victory for Chicago with another goal.

    First Star Crawford earned the victory after saving 38-of-39 shots faced (97.4%), while Third Star Luongo saved 32-of-33 (97%) in the shootout loss.

    That home victory extends the hosts’ lead to eight points in the DtFR Game of the Day series with a record of 28-16-7.

  • November 17 – Day 36 – Campbell Bowl

    Wednesday was a light schedule, so you know what that means: gobs and gobs of hockey tonight. The action commences at the usual 7 p.m. with two games (Tampa Bay at Buffalo and Winnipeg at Philadelphia), followed half an hour later by another pair (Florida at Toronto and Nashville at Ottawa [RDS]). 8 p.m. marks the beginning of our third pair (San Jose at St. Louis and Boston at Minnesota), with Colorado at Dallas trailing 30 minutes later. A final pair drop the puck at 10 p.m. (Arizona at Vancouver and New Jersey at Anaheim) with Edmonton at Los Angeles (SN360) getting underway half an hour later. All times eastern.

    Short list:

    • San Jose at St. Louis: In a thrilling six-game series, the Sharks advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals by beating St. Louis.
    • Arizona at Vancouver: Radim Vrbata took a two-year hiatus from playing with the Coyotes from 2014-’16. You remember correctly, he played for Vancouver.
    • Edmonton at Los Angeles: In addition to the more historic than current rivalry between the clubs, Milan Lucic makes his first return to the Staples Center after calling it home a season ago.

    In the spirit of playoff rematches from a season ago, we’re off to the Gateway to the West.

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    The Sharks swim into St. Louis (Yeah, just ignore it. It’s bad.) with a 9-7-0 record, which is good enough for third place in the Pacific Division. Before losing in Carolina Tuesday night, the Sharks were riding a three-game winning streak.

    While they’ve certainly been let down by their offense, San Jose has found their nine wins on a solid defense.

    Martin Jones has started 14 games already this season to an 8-6-0 record. He has a .913 save percentage and 2.2 GAA to his credit, which ranks 16th and 11th-best among goaltenders with at least seven appearances.

    These are not numbers one would expect from a netminder that was two wins away from hoisting the Stanley Cup. Why has he been able to find wins?

    I’d argue it is his blue line. Led by Justin Braun‘s 35 blocks, the Sharks allow only 25.7 shots per night to reach the net, the second-lowest rate in the NHL. Of course, knowing that Jones is facing far fewer shots than most goalies and still not performing well is a bit distressing, but at this point a win is a win!

    That defensive success has continued to the penalty kill, where the Sharks rank third-best in the league by negating 89.5% of their infractions. They’ve also done well to limit opposing extra-man opportunities, facing only 38 power plays so far this season (2.4 per game).

    Playing host this evening are the 8-6-3 St. Louis Blues. Although neither the offense nor defense has been anything near impressive, the thing that concerns me as an admittedly-biased Blues fan is the decline in defense and goaltending.

    Last season, St. Louis allowed only 197 goals – 2.4 per game. So far this year, they’ve allowed 2.8 per game. You’d think that four-tenths of a goal isn’t much, but at this rate the Blues will allow 30 more goals by season’s end than they did a year ago.

    Manning the net this season is 6-3-3 Jake Allen, who has a .901 save percentage and 2.49 GAA to his credit, which ranks 12th and 23rd-worst among the 42 netminders with six or more appearances.

    None of that blame may be placed on St. Louis‘ defense. Led by Colton Parayko‘s 31 blocks, the Blues have allowed only 26.3 shots to reach net, the third-lowest average in the league.

    Just like San Jose, that defensive success has continued to the Blues‘ penalty kill. Only 10.3% of opposing power plays have found the back of Allen’s net, the second-lowest rate in the league.

    Offensively, the Blues have found much of their success on the power play. Led by Kevin Shattenkirk and Vladimir Tarasenko, both of whom have nine power play points, St. Louis has connected on 22% of their extra-man opportunities, the 10th-best rate in the NHL.

    The last time these teams met, the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl was awarded to the Sharks for besting the Blues in six games. It should have been expected given that the Sharks won the 2015-’16 season series 2-1-0.

    Some players to keep an eye on this evening include St. Louis‘ Tarasenko (18 points [tied for sixth-most in the league] on 12 assists [tied for sixth-most in the NHL]) and San Jose‘s Jones (one shutout [tied for ninth-most in the league] and eight wins [tied for fourth-most in the NHL]).

    St. Louis comes into tonight’s game slightly favored at -110. Since the Sharks are on the tailend of a long eastern roadtrip, I’ll stick with Vegas’ decision.

    Hockey Birthday

    • The Western Pennsylvania Hockey League (1896-1910) – This league was the first of it’s kind, allowing players to be paid for their services and be traded between clubs.
    • Dennis Maruk (1955-) – The California Golden Seals drafted this center 21st overall in the 1975 NHL Entry Draft. Not only was he a part of the merge with Minnesota, he returned to the North Stars for the final six seasons of his career.

    The Penguins were nothing short of whipped in yesterday’s Game of the Day, falling 7-1 in Washington.

    Second Star of the Game T.J. Oshie (Jay Beagle) didn’t wait long to open the scoring, but he did choose the most difficult circumstances. He potted a backhand shot while the Capitals were short-handed 7:32 after the opening puck drop. The eventual game-winning goal was struck almost 10 minutes later by First Star Nicklas Backstrom (Oshie and Matt Niskanen), who scored a snap shot with 2:30 remaining in the period. Oshie (Backstrom and John Carlson) struck again with eight seconds remaining in the first frame to set the score at 3-0.

    Dmitry Orlov (Marcus Johansson and Backstrom) scored an insurance goal in the second period, as did Justin Williams (Oshie and Backstrom), Alex Ovechkin (Andre Burakovsky) and Backstrom (Nate Schmidt and Brooks Orpik) in the third.

    The Penguins did get on the board with a tally from Phil Kessel (Nick Bonino and Justin Schultz) with 3:32 remaining in the game, but it was far too little too late to make any sort of an impact on the tone of the contest.

    Third Star Braden Holtby saved  25-of-26 shots faced (96.2%) to earn the victory, while Matthew Murray takes the loss after saving 12-of-14 (85.7%). He was lifted for Marc-Andre Fleury with 24 seconds remaining in the first period after taking Evgeni Malkin‘s stick to the face. Fleury saved 20-of-25 (80%) for no decision.

    The Capitals‘ victory sets the DtFR Game of the Day series at 22-12-4, favoring the homers by 10 points over the roadies.

  • November 5 – Day 24 – Rematch, Vol. II

    Exactly what Elton John said. So good for fighting, in fact, that we’ll have 13 of them, starting with a matinee featuring Minnesota at Colorado (SN) at 3 p.m. The usual starting time of 7 p.m. brings eight puck drops (Columbus at St. Louis, New Jersey at Tampa Bay, the New York Rangers at Boston [NHLN], Philadelphia at Montréal [CITY/TVAS], Buffalo at Ottawa [SN1/SN360], Florida at Washington, Edmonton at the New York Islanders [SN] and Vancouver at Toronto [CBC]), followed an hour later by two more (Carolina at Nashville and Chicago at Dallas). The west coast gets involved at 10 p.m. with Calgary visiting Los Angeles (CBC/SN1), followed half an hour later by our nightcap: Pittsburgh at San Jose. All times eastern.

    Short List:

    • New York at Boston: It’s an Original Six rivalry as well as hockey’s iteration of the USA’s most famous sports rivalry.
    • Buffalo at Ottawa: Another rivalry for the Sabres this week.
    • Philadelphia at Montréal: Dale Weise returns to the Bell Centre wearing white after spending three seasons with the Canadiens.
    • Calgary at Los Angeles: Kris Versteeg is also making a return to his home arena of a year ago, but he only played for the Kings one season.
    • Pittsburgh at San Jose: It’s the second and final Stanley Cup Finals rematch this year, this one taking place on the surface where hardware was distributed.

    The Penguins and Sharks won’t run into each other again this calendar year, so we’re off to the Tank!

    tIMcw8ylStanley Cup Final LogoUnknown

    Game 8 of the Stanley Cup Finals goes down tonight!

    …Wait…

    Well, it is the eighth and final meeting between the Pens and Sharks in 2016, and Pittsburgh has certainly had the advantage in that time-span. Not only do they have the Stanley Cup in their possession due to beating the Sharks four times in early June, but the Penguins already won the first rematch in Pittsburgh 3-2.

    San Jose enters the night with a 6-5-0 record, even if they are riding a two-game losing skid. So far this season, they’ve found success in their defense and goaltending, allowing only 27 goals against.

    Martin Jones has started all but one game this season, and has a 5-5-0 record to show for a .909 save percentage and 2.34 GAA. Those are both decent statistics, but I would contest that they’re due in part to the help he is getting from his blue line (and sometimes even forwards!), as three skaters (Justin Braun, Brent Burns and Paul Martin) have 20 or more blocks to their credit and three more have over 10 (Joe Pavelski, David Schlemko and Marc-Edouard Vlasic).

    In the other corner, the 7-2-2 Penguins enter the Tank on a five-game point streak. While the Sharks are a defensive-minded club, the Penguins prefer to score with 31 goals already to their credit.

    Leading the way for Pittsburgh as been Evgeni Malkin, who has 11 points to his credit to average a point-per-game. That being said, Sidney Crosby is hot on his tail with eight points on six goals. He’s appeared on the score sheet in each of the five games he’s played since returning from his concussion and has been a force to be reckoned with.

    The Pens have been exceptionally potent on the power play so far this season. For every four extra-man opportunities, Pittsburgh has found the back of the net once – the fifth-best rate in the league. Michael Haley will need to keep himself contained if the Sharks want to earn a victory.

    That being said, part of the reason the Sharks have been so strong has been their ability to negate penalties. Their 86.7% kill rate ranks sixth-best in the league, a good match for Pittsburgh‘s attack.

    Some players to keep an eye on in tonight’s game include Pittsburgh‘s Marc-Andre Fleury (six wins [tied for second-most in the NHL]) and Malkin (six goals [tied for fourth-most in the league]) & San Jose‘s Pavelski (eight assists [tied for seventh-best in the NHL]).

    The Sharks desperately want to defend the Tank and earn a win this evening given what happened the last time the Penguins came to town. Vegas has them marked to win with a -125. I don’t feel quite that confident, but that may be partially my bias. Whichever team is able to win the special teams battle, especially when Pittsburgh has the man-advantage, should walk away with tonight’s victory.

    Hockey Birthday

    • Cooney Weiland (1904-1985) – A center from Ontario, Weiland played 11 NHL seasons, 71.7% of which were with the Bruins.
    • Sergei Berezin (1971-) – A left winger from Russia that played seven NHL seasons. He started his career in Toronto, where he played 357 games and scored 220 points.
    • Alexei Yashin (1973-) – Another Russian, but Yashin played center. He was drafted second overall in the 1992 NHL Entry Draft by Ottawa and played 850 games over a dozen seasons.
    • Toby Enstrom (1984-) – This Swedish defenseman is working on his 10th season in the NHL, all of which have been spent with the Atlanta/Winnipeg franchise.
    • Nikolai Zherdev (1984-) – The fourth overall of the 2003 NHL Entry Draft, this right wing has played six seasons in the best league in the world so far. Currently playing in the KHL, he’s most remembered for his four seasons in Columbus.

    On a night where 24 goals were scored among five teams (Montréal was shutout by Columbus), a 5-1 Anaheim victory seemed par for the course in yesterday’s Game of the Day.

    The Ducks struck first, waiting 9:05 before Kevin Bieksa (Third Star of the Game Corey Perry and Second Star Rickard Rakell) scored his first goal of the season on a power play slap shot. The eventual game-winner was struck 3:06 later when Rakell (Perry and Michael Sgarbossa) found Anaheim gold with a slap shot of his own. The third and final tally of the frame also belonged to the Ducks, this time a Jakob Silfverberg (First Star Antoine Vermette and Andrew Cogliano) backhander to set the score at 3-0 45 seconds before the first intermission.

    With 6:37 remaining in the second period Vermette (Ondrej Kase and Josh Manson) scored a slap shot to give the Ducks a 4-0 lead. Arizona finally stopped the bleeding with a goal from Jamie McGinn (Radim Vrbata and Christian Dvorak) 3:09 later, but was unable to find another with the remaining time.

    Rakell (Ryan Kesler) scored another insurance goal in the third period to put the final nail in the Coyotes‘ coffin.

    John Gibson earns the victory after saving 21-of-22 shots faced (95.5%), while Louis Domingue saved 18-of-21 (85.7%) in the loss. He was replaced after 20 minutes of play by Justin Peters, who saved 10-of-12 (83.3%) for no decision.

    With the Ducks‘ victory, the DtFR Game of the Day series stands at 14-9-3, favoring the home squads by four points.

  • November 1 – Day 20 – The Great Dane

    We’re trying out our new DtFR mirror technology. I can only assume that a night with no hockey that aligned with the one night of the year when your neighbors give out free candy has you looking something like this.

    Simmer down, kiddo.

    Anyways, hockey’s one-day vacation has us feeling all types of withdrawals. Thank goodness we get a healthy serving of games today, starting with two at the usual time of 7 p.m. (St. Louis at the New York Rangers and Dallas at Columbus), followed half an hour later by four more (Boston at Florida [TVAS], Carolina at Ottawa [RDS2], Tampa Bay at the New York Islanders [NBCSN] and Edmonton at Toronto). 8 p.m. brings with it two puck drops (Buffalo at Minnesota and Washington at Winnipeg), with Calgary at Chicago trailing by 30 minutes. Nashville at Colorado finds its start at 9 p.m. At 10 p.m. the San Jose at Arizona (NBCSN) game starts, followed 1800 seconds later (that’s 30 minutes, guys) by Anaheim at Los Angeles, tonight’s nightcap. All times eastern.

    Short list:

    • Tampa Bay at New York: Last year, the Lightning defeated the Islanders in the Eastern Conference Semifinals in five games.
    • San Jose at Arizona: Mikkel Boedker spent eight seasons in Glendale before being traded away to Colorado at the deadline last season.
    • Anaheim at Los Angeles: You might have heard about this one. They call it the Freeway Face-Off. It’s kind of a big deal.

    Eight seasons is a long time, and I don’t feel like we’ll have many reasons to go watch Arizona this season, so I’m drawn to the late game in the desert.

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    Danish right wing Boedker was drafted eighth overall in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft by the Coyotes. He jumped right into the league that season, scoring 11 goals under head coach Wayne Gretzky, which tied him for sixth-most on the squad.

    Boedker’s best campaign with Arizona was in 2013-’14 when he tied Radim Vrbata for the second-most points on the team with 51. But, as has been par for the course for the Coyotes since 2011-’12, it did not yield any playoff action.

    Last season, Boedker shed his brick red sweater for a burgundy Avalanche uniform after being traded on February 29. It was all for naught though, as Boedker found himself on the golf course following the regular season for his fourth season in a row.

    This offseason he joined a San Jose Sharks who knows a little bit about the playoffs, coming off a Stanley Cup run that fell just a series short a season ago. He has little to show for his work on San Jose‘s second line, notching a lone goal.

    The 6-3-0 Sharks have played a more defensive game this season, allowing only 21 goals against – three fewer than the league average. Martin Jones has a .916 save percentage for 2.15 GAA, but he is getting a lot of help from his defensive corps. Four skaters (Justin Braun, Brent Burns, Paul Martin and Joe Pavelski) have 15 or more blocks to their credit, and their efforts have resulted in only 25.2 shots against per game, the second-fewest shots against per game in the league.

    The 2-6-0 Coyotes would have to be classified as an offensive club, due to the fact that they definitely don’t play defensive hockey. They’ve scored 24 goals this season – on par with the rest of the league – led by Brad Richardson‘s seven points. That being said, it is Oliver Ekman-Larsson getting a lot of the accolades with a team-leading five goals to his credit.

    Some players to keep an eye on in tonight’s game include Arizona‘s Max Domi (six assists [leads the team]), Ekman-Larsson (five goals [leads the team]) and Richardson (seven points [leads the team]) & San Jose‘s Burns (seven assists [tied for third-most in the league]), Jones (five wins [tied for third-most in the NHL]), Pavelski (11 points [tied for third-most in the league] on seven assists [tied for third-most in the NHL]) and Joe Thornton (seven assists [tied for third-most in the league]).

    Vegas marks Arizona with a +150 in almost every book, meaning that the Sharks are favored.

    I’d say that’s a very safe bet.

    Hockey Birthday:

    • Al Arbour (1932-2015) – Arbour won eight total Stanley Cups: four as a player (two of which were with Toronto) and four in a row as head coach of the New York Islanders.
    • Phil Myre (1948-) – This goaltender played 14 seasons in the NHL for six different teams. Four years after being drafted fifth overall in the 1966 NHL Entry Draft, he was on the 1970-’71 Montréal Stanley Cup winning team .
    • Tie Domi (1969-) – A right wing that played 16 NHL seasons as an enforcer, Domi is most remembered for his 11 campaigns in Toronto. Maybe son Max will give him a goal for his birthday.
    • Matt Moulson (1983-) – This left wing is in his third season with Buffalo. Two seasons ago he struck 41 points, the second-best effort on the squad that year.

  • October 20 – Day Nine – Rematch, Vol. I

    Get ready for a wild ride tonight, because there’s going to be a lot of hockey action tonight. Pucks start dropping at 7 p.m. eastern (New Jersey at Boston, Anaheim at Philadelphia and San Jose at Pittsburgh), followed half an hour later by another trio of games (Arizona at Montréal [RDS/SN360], Colorado at Tampa Bay and Washington at Florida). Toronto visits Minnesota at 8 p.m., followed 30 minutes later by Los Angeles at Dallas. 9 p.m. marks the beginning of two games (Carolina at Calgary and St. Louis at Edmonton) followed by this evening’s nightcap an hour later: Buffalo at Vancouver (SN360). All times eastern.

    Short list:

    • Anaheim at Philadelphia: With the Flyers‘ first home game of the season, it’s the first time they’re sporting their new threads honoring their 50th anniversary.
    • San Jose at Pittsburgh: You know, it’s just a Stanley Cup rematch. No big deal (or, as the kids put it, NBD).
    • St. Louis at Edmonton – Traded only five days before the season, Nail Yakupov returns to Edmonton, where he spent his first four seasons.

    Let’s get real. There’s only two Stanley Cup rematches a year. This being the first one, we have to give it our attention. Sorry Philly and Yakupov.

    UnknowntIMcw8ylThe San Jose Sharks enter the night with a 3-1-0 record, with their lone loss occurring three days ago in Madison Square Garden, falling 7-4 to the Rangers.

    Other than that lone blemish, the Sharks have picked up right where they left off a few months ago. San Jose has scored exactly as many goals as they’ve given up (12), but excluding the score-fest in New York, the Sharks are +3, which would tie them for the third best mark in the league. Defenseman Brent Burns has led the Sharks‘ scoring, notching three goals and five assists for eight points.

    Their opposition also only has only one regulation loss on their record, due in part to playing goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury two times in as many days and three times in four days. That’s far from the only reason though. They failed to find the back of the net once against Montréal Tuesday 4-0.

    Similar to San Jose, if you exclude their lone debacle of the season, the Penguins would have a +1 goal differential on the season. Matt Cullen, Evgeni Malkin and Conor Sheary have all scored one goal and two assists for three points on the young season, but Sheary is currently questionable after sustaining a bruise around his eye in Montréal.

    Some players to keep an eye on in tonight’s contest include Pittsburgh‘s Fleury (two wins [tied for seventh-most in the league] on a .914 save percentage [ninth-best in the NHL]) and San Jose‘s Burns (eight points [leads the NHL] on five assists [tied for the league-lead] and three goals [tied for sixth-most in the NHL]), Martin Jones (two wins [tied for third-most in the league]), Joe Pavelski (four assists [tied for seventh-best in the NHL]) and Joe Thornton (five assists [tied for the league-lead]).

    Bets look to be off with most books in Vegas, which should only prove the expected quality of this game. The only reason I give the Penguins the edge in this contest is due to them having home ice. Then again, seeing that banner might give San Jose just the motivation they need. We’ll have to watch and see.

    Hockey Birthday

    • Mikhail Shtalenkov (1965-) – The Russian goaltender spent seven seasons in the NHL, most of which were spent with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.  He had a career save percentage of 89.8%.
    • Colin Wilson (1989-) – This marks Wilson’s eighth professional season, all of which spent with the Nashville Predators. Last season, the center scored his 200th NHL point on March 24 against the Canucks.

    Yesterday’s Game of the Day was our second 5-4 overtime thriller of the season. Go figure that one included Auston Matthews and the Maple Leafs too, and just like last time, it was the home squad – the Winnipeg Jets in this case- that rose to the occasion in sudden death.

    Mike Babcock and the Leafs will be kicking themselves after this one. They scored both goals in the first frame, starting with Connor Carrick‘s (James van Riemsdyk and Mitchell Marner) 6:46 after dropping the puck. Third Star of the Game Nazem Kadri (Morgan Rielly and Milan Michalek) takes credit for the second tally with 3:48 remaining in the frame.

    Three more goals were scored in the second period, and two belonged to Toronto. William Nylander‘s (Matthews and Nikita Zaitsev) wrister found the back of Michael Hutchinson‘s net 6:47 after resuming play, followed eight seconds later by a goal from Kadri (Nylander and Leo Komarov) to set the score at 4-0. Tyler Myers (Second Star Mark Scheifele and Shawn Matthias) scored the Jets’ first goal with 6:56 remaining in the frame before the squads returned to their dressing rooms.

    As good as the Maple Leafs‘ first period was, Winnipeg’s third was better. Only a minute after returning to the ice, First Star Patrik Laine (Dustin Byfuglien and Scheifele) pulled the score to 4-2 with a wrister. Scheifele (Josh Morrissey and Drew Stafford) followed that 5:05 later with his third score of the season to pull the Jets within one.  55 seconds before what could have been the final horn, Laine (Nikolaj Ehlers) struck again with a snap shot to force three-on-three overtime.

    Overtime lasted only 2:40 before Laine (Byfuglien) completed the first hat trick of his career with a wrister past Frederik Andersen to secure the victory.

    Hutchinson earns the victory after saving 36-of-40 (90%), while Andersen takes the overtime loss, saving 29-of-34 (85.3%).

    With that victory, Winnipeg improves the home team’s record to 7-3-1 in the DtFR Game of the Day series, leading the roadies by four points.