Most productive player
It was a high-scoring week, with Edmonton Oilers' Connor McDavid dominating. The Oilers may have lost two of their four games, but the Canadian did everything he could to change that.
He scored only one goal, but he assisted ten others and was involved in eleven of the seventeen goals the franchise scored. The five points scored on the power play were also the league's best performance of the week.
Goaltender of the Week
No.1 goalie Thatcher Demko is out with a knee injury, but the Vancouver Canucks, one of the surprises of the season, were bailed out by backup goalie Casey DeSmith. Against Buffalo, Montreal and Calgary, he let it only five of 58 shots and maintained a goals-against average of 1.67 goals per game. He is one win short of 70 in his career.
Highlight of the week
Dissatisfaction can be expressed in a variety of ways, and Philadelphia Flyers coach John Tortorella is certainly not afraid of anything. His team are unexpectedly holding onto a playoff position, but even so, the mercurial strategist decided to make his captain Sean Couturier a healthy scratch.
The 2015 world champion from Prague ended up missing two games, before returning for Saturday's win against Boston. "It's not nice to hear that you're a healthy scratch, but it's cool now. It's been the whole time, really," the forward told The Athletic.
Not everyone liked the coach's decision, for example Brandon Dubinsky, a former Columbus mainstay: "How about instead of taking out the captain and one of your best players, you give the same guy twenty minutes on the ice and let him play?" he wrote on social media.
Stat of the week
When Pavel Bure crossed the 50-goal mark in Florida for the second straight season in 2000-01, Panthers fans probably didn't expect to wait 23 years for the next one. On Sunday, Sam Reinhart surpassed the mark, becoming the second player in franchise history to do so.
Along with him, Edmonton's Zach Hyman also did the same thing. Two 50-goal scorers on the same day? The last time it happened was on April 4, 2001, with Jaromir Jagr and Joe Sakic.
From social media.
On display at Chicago Blackhawk's practice, veteran and one of the team's leaders, Nick Foligno, coached 19-year-old junior defenseman Kevin Korchinski. And afterwards, he made sure to praise him, as he should.
Photo of the week
Neither goalie Jordan Binnington nor forward Jake Neighbours could stop Minnesota Wild's Brock Faber from scoring on Saturday. The young back has been one of the best rookies this season and there are even rumours that he will be the one to take home the Calder Trophy.
"Connor Bedard is obviously a superstar, but Faber should win this one. Try to convince me otherwise," former defenseman Jason Demers wrote on X.
Ladislav Smid's view
"Nashville broke the club record for most goals scored in a week (16). I don't know if anyone expected this. I was picking them to be a quiet, mid-table side. It's hard to say if I thought they would even be in a playoff position. But when it works - it just works. I recently read an interview with general manager Barry Trotz and he himself around the transfer deadline didn't know whether to buy or sell. But he met with the team and told the players that it's mostly up to them. And if they showed the determination to make the playoffs, he would bring in the reinforcements. And that's what happened.
And now the Predators are one of the best teams in the league, with top goalie Juuse Saros. But the star of the show is clearly defenseman and captain Roman Josi. I know that when it comes to quarterbacks, a lot of talk in the NHL is about Cale Makar or Quinn Hughes, and Josi is kind of forgotten. Yet he is clearly one of the top three defensemen in the entire league, scoring a ton of points and playing full minutes every game. It's no surprise that he's the team's busiest player. Plus, he's a leader on and off the ice.
The club currently holds the first Wild Card spot, what will happen next in the knockout stage is hard to predict. One can't help but think of the St. Louis Blues, who were a write-off a few years ago and ended up winning the Stanley Cup in 2019."
