A fantasized look at Thursday night's NHL action
It's Ondrej Palat-mania! Two more points (both apples) for him and he's on a five game point scoring streak with an impressive 2+7=9. We will forget the fact that this streak came on the heals of five straight pointless games for the youngster.
Brendan Gallagher notched a multipoint night for the second straight time. He now has 5 points and 10 shots in his last 4 games.
It was a trio of assists for Nazem Kadri and he is absolutely on fire of late. He has a four game point scoring streak and points in 7 of his last 8 games to the tune of 3+9=12, 14 hits, 14 PIM, and 3 PPP.
Ryan Johansen scored twice on five shots last night which puts him at 21 goals and 40 points on the season. No one could have seen this coming but I hope you jumped on him before the others could.
It was a pretty line for Brandon Dubinsky as he got his name in practically every column with 1+1=2, 2 PIM, 2 shots, 3 hits, and plus-1. It broke a three game point scoring drought for him which also coincided with a three game losing streak for the Blue Jackets. Hmmmm.
I don't normally like to write about elite talent on here since we all already know how good guys like Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin are. However, it should be said that Jason Spezza has turned it on after a prolonged cold streak. He had two assists last night and now has 7 points with 4 PPP in his last five games.
Patrik Elias scored the game winner in overtime and added an assist. He's on a mini run with 3+3=6 and 4 PPP over his last six games.
Not to be outdone by his teammate, Travis Zajac also notched a goal and an assist and he's got 2+4=6 and 4 PPP over his last five games.
Mikael Backlund made it three straight games with two points as he registered a couple of apples in last night's contest. He'd only had two points in two other games all season.
The other Mikael, Mikael Granlund, had 1+2=3, 5 shots, 2 hits, and plus-2 last night so let's go with him for fantasy line of the night. He has a four game point scoring streak going and he's begging you to add him to your fantasy team. You should listen.
It would be wrong for me to not mention Zach Parise in today's piece. He had a game to remember with 2+2=4, 9 shots, and plus-2. Too bad the Wild lost.
Jason Pominville had a goal and an assist for the second straight game. He, too, has a four game point scoring streak going with 6 points and 12 shots over that span.
Nathan MacKinnon has a modest three game streak going after he had 1+1=2 including the GWG last night. He's really heated up of late with 4+4=8 and 16 shots over his last six games.
Ryan Miller stopped 38 shots on the way to a 3-2 victory over the Coyotes last night. It's the fifth time over his last six games that he's stopped at least 31 shots.
Zemgus Girgensons went 14 straight games without registering a point before last night. He had a nifty line of 1+1=2, 4 shots and 5 hits which included the shorthanded game winning goal. Good for the kid.
It was a three point night for Jussi Jokinen as he also had a couple of PPP. He has 7 points over his last 7 games and it must be nice to share a line with Geno.
Jeff Zatkoff stopped 30 of the 31 shots he faced as he registered the win last night. He's 9-0-1 in his last 10 games and hasn't lost a game in regulation since October. If you take out his first two games of the season in which he lost both, allowing 10 goals combined, his season stats are pretty strong (.927 sv% and 2.14 gaa).