NHL Peachy: NHL Morning Skate – Jan. 6, 2017
THURSDAY’S RESULTS
Home Team in Caps
Edmonton 4, BOSTON 3
WASHINGTON 5, Columbus 0
Nashville 6, TAMPA BAY 1
Carolina 4, ST. LOUIS 2
CHICAGO 4, Buffalo 3 (OT)
Detroit 4, LOS ANGELES 0
Minnesota 5, SAN JOSE 4
CAPITALS HALT BLUE JACKETS’ RECORD-SETTING WIN STREAK
Five different players scored and Braden Holtby posted a 29-save shutout as the Capitals (24-9-5, 53 points) halted the Blue Jackets’ (27-6-4, 58 points) franchise-record win streak at 16 games, one shy of tying the NHL record set by the 1992-93 Penguins (17-0-0, March 9 – April 10, 1993).
* John Carlson (1-1—2), Nate Schmidt (1-1—2) and Evgeny Kuznetsov (0-2—2) led the offense for Washington, who moved to 11-2-3 in their past 16 contests, including four straight wins.
* Holtby, meanwhile, registered his fourth shutout of the season (t-2nd in NHL), with three of those coming in his past 12 appearances dating to Dec. 5 (7-2-2, 1.74 GAA, .938 SV%).
BREAKING DOWN THE SECOND-LONGEST WINNING STREAK IN NHL HISTORY
A closer look at the Blue Jackets’ historic 16-game winning streak, which saw them defeat 14 different teams over the course of 36 days:
* Columbus’ run, which began with a 5-1 victory against the Lightning on Nov. 29, propelled the club from a share of ninth place in the NHL standings into the top spot overall.
* The Blue Jackets’ win streak was part of an overall stretch of 18 consecutive contests with a point (17-0-1), also a franchise record. They also established a club record with an 11-game road point streak that began in Washington on Nov. 20 (10-0-1).
* Columbus had an even split of home and road victories during their 16-game win streak to establish and match franchise records for longest home and road win streaks, respectively.
* The Blue Jackets outscored opponents 62-27 during the winning streak, with Cam Atkinson (10-8—18), Brandon Saad (8-8—16) and Sam Gagner (7-9—16) leading the way.
* Sergei Bobrovsky went 14-0-0 during the win streak to equal the second-longest win streak by a goaltender in NHL history, behind a 17-game run by Boston’s Gilles Gilbert in 1975-76.
WILD RALLY (TWICE) TO RETURN TO WINNING WAYS
The Wild fell behind 4-2 in the third period – their second two-goal deficit of the game – before Eric Staal (2-1—3) scored the first of three unanswered goals to help his club rally for a victory in San Jose, their first contest since New Year’s Eve when Columbus ended Minnesota’s franchise-record winning streak at 12 games.
* Minnesota improved to 24-9-4 (52 points) overall this season to keep pace with Chicago, who also won to move to 24-12-5 (53 points), in the race for first place in both the Central Division and Western Conference.
* Signed as a free agent in the offseason, Staal leads the Wild in goals (13) and points (33) through 37 games – equaling his goal total from 2015-16 (83 GP w/ CAR & NYR). Zach Parise (1-2—3) and Mikko Koivu (2-0—2), who skated in his 800th NHL game, provided the other goals.
* Via Elias, the Wild overcame multiple deficits of two or more goals to win for just the second time in franchise history (also Dec. 4, 2009 vs. ANA: 5-4 SO W).
* The Wild extended their road winning streak to seven games, one shy of matching the Blue Jackets for the longest such run in the NHL this season.
CAREER FIRSTS POWER OILERS, PREDATORS AND RED WINGS
Oilers forward Patrick Maroon and Predators forward Colton Sissons each scored their first career hat trick, while Red Wings goaltender Jared Coreau posted his first career shutout:
* Maroon (260 GP) opened the scoring 68 seconds into the game and tallied the eventual game-winner midway through the third period to help the Oilers move to 5-1-2 in their past eight contests. Maroon has collected 14-7—21 through 40 games in 2016-17, establishing a career high for goals in a season, besting his previous mark of 11 set with the Ducks in 2013-14 (62 GP).
* Sissons (79 GP) scored three of the Predators’ four unanswered goals over the final two periods as Nashville extended its road win streak to four games. Sissons, a second-round pick (50th overall) in the 2012 NHL Draft, entered the contest with 7-6—13 in his first 78 career contests, including 2-1—3 in 27 games this season.
* Coreau (5 GP) made 34 saves to register his first career shutout while the trio of Andreas Athanasiou (1-2—3), Thomas Vanek (2-0—2) and Anthony Mantha (1-1—2) combined for all four goals in Detroit’s win. Athanasiou posted his first career three-point game.
LOOSE PUCKS
Patrick Kane (1-2—3), who has five overtime goals in 123 career playoff games, scored his third such goal in the regular-season (699 GP) . . . Jeff Skinner, who led the Hurricanes with seven game-winning goals in 2015-16 (82 GP), netted his first such goal of the season. He leads the club with 14-14—28 in 37 GP . . . Connor McDavid (0-2—2) extended his League lead for assists (31) and moved into sole possession of first place in the overall scoring race (14-31—45 in 40 GP) . . . Sabres forward Jack Eichel scored to extend his point streak to five games (3-3—6) . . . Duncan Keith (0-1—1) became the third defenseman in Blackhawks history to record 400 career assists, joining Doug Wilson (554) and Pierre Pilote (400) . . . The Bruins honored Milt Schmidt, a member of the 100 Greatest NHL Players who passed away Wednesday at age 98, during a pregame ceremony at TD Garden . . . The NHL fined Capitals forward Evgeny Kuznetsov $2,000 as supplementary discipline under NHL Rule 64 (Diving/Embellishment) . . . The League announced details of the 2017 NHL Fan Fair, official fan festival of 2017 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend . . . The United States overcame deficits of 2-0 and 4-2 before Ducks prospect Troy Terry scored the lone goal in the shootout to clinch the gold medal at the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship.
SNEAK PEEK AT FRIDAY’S ACTION
All Times Eastern
Toronto @ New Jersey, 7:30 p.m., MSG+, SNO
Nashville @ Florida, 7:30 p.m., TVAS, FS-F, FS-TN
Carolina @ Chicago, 8:30 p.m., NHLN-US, CSN-CH, FS-CR
NY Islanders @ Colorado, 9 p.m., ALT, MSG+ 2
Calgary @ Vancouver, 10 p.m., SNP, SNW
Arizona @ Anaheim, 10 p.m., FS-W, FS-A
FINALE OF SERIES CHRONICLING JOURNEYS TO OUTDOOR CLASSICS
The fourth and final episode of the series that chronicled the journeys of four teams – the Red Wings, Maple Leafs, Blackhawks and Blues – as they prepared for the 2017 Scotiabank NHL Centennial Classic and 2017 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic, respectively, debuts tonight in both the United States and Canada.
Viewers in the United States can watch the finale of EPIX Presents Road to the NHL Outdoor Classics at 10 p.m. ET/PT / 9 p.m. CT via EPIX, EPIX.com and NHL.com. Click here for more details on the U.S. broadcast schedule.
Viewers in Canada can catch the finale of Sportsnet All Access: NHL Outdoor Classics following the Maple Leafs-Devils game on Sportsnet Ontario and Sportsnet NOW. Click here for more details on the Canadian broadcast schedule.
