The losses keep piling up for the Senators, December has been good to Edmonton’s scorers and the NHL’s newest franchise gets a familiar face back.
Here’s four things we learned in the NHL on Tuesday night.
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Senators leave it too late against Sabres
The storyline was all too familiar for the Ottawa Senators in a 3-2 road loss against the Buffalo Sabres.
Ottawa allowed three goals in the second period — two coming in a 1:12 span — on some rough defensive breakdowns. The Sens have now lost 12 of their last 13 games.
Ottawa was also haunted once again by a former goaltender in Robin Lehner. Entering the game, Lehner along with Brian Elliott and Ben Bishop had combined for a 17-0-7 record, 1.81 goals-against average and .940 save percentage against their former club. Lehner improved on those totals with a 24-save performance on Tuesday.
Derick Brassard did add a little bit of positivity for the Sens by snapping a seven-game scoring drought. He scored late in the third period for his seventh goal of the season.
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Marleau achieves multiple milestones
Maple Leafs forward Patrick Marleau collected a pair of milestones in Toronto’s 4-2 loss against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Marleau started by appearing in his 1,525th regular season game which passed Leafs president Brendan Shanahan for 16th place on the NHL’s all-time games played list.
Marleau then became the 60th player in NHL history to reach the 1,100-point mark with a first period goal.
The 38-year-old veteran has enjoyed a decent start to his tenure with Toronto, scoring 11 goals and seven assists in 32 games. Marleau signed a three-year deal with the club on July 2.
Oilers light up Bobrovsky
The Edmonton Oilers are slowly starting to find their scoring touch and Sergei Bobrovsky was the team’s latest victim.
Edmonton put five goals past the Russian goaltender in a 7-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. Bobrovsky, who was pulled to start the third period, had entered the game with the second best save percentage in the NHL (.930) among goalies with 10 or more starts this season.
It was a good bounce back for the Oilers, who were shutout 1-0 in Toronto on Sunday while playing on a back-to-back. All in all, Edmonton has scored 22 goals so far in five December games.
And, of course, Oilers captain Connor McDavid was in on the action, recording one goal and three assists.
Fleury returns after lengthy absence
Marc-Andre Fleury made his long awaited return to the Vegas Golden Knights‘ net and performed well in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.
Fleury made 35 saves through regulation and overtime after missing the last 25 games with a concussion. He was injured in just his fourth appearance of the season in October.
The 33-year-old didn’t have any chance on a flukey first Hurricanes goal, and then couldn’t get his glove up on time when (one-time teammate) Trevor van Riemsdyk roofed one on him in the second period.
Vegas will welcome some stability in net after rolling through five goaltenders already in its inaugural season.
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