Dallas’s coach earned a big career win, the Islanders’ dynamic duo continues to produce, and Carolina got off to a fast start.
Here’s five things we learned in the NHL on Thursday night.
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Stars earn Hitchcock milestone win
The Dallas Stars came through for coach Ken Hitchcock by earning him the 800th victory of his career in a 4-0 win over the Chicago Blackhawks. Ben Bishop made 24 saves for the shutout.
Hitchcock is the third coach to reach the milestone and it took him 1,490 games to do so.
And he also beat the man who he’s chasing for second on the all-time winningest coaches list, Joel Quenneville. Hitchcock trails Quenneville by 68 wins while Scotty Bowman, who currently serves as an advisor with the Blackhawks, has the most with 1,244 victories.
The 66-year-old Hitchcock entered the NHL in 1995-96 as Dallas’s head coach and has also been behind the bench for the Philadelphia Flyers, Columbus Blue Jackets and St. Louis Blues. He won a Jack Adams Award as the league’s top coach in 2012 during his first season with the Blues.
Tavares and Bailey link up again
Josh Bailey‘s career year to date took another step in the right direction with an impressive performance against the Anaheim Ducks.
Bailey had three assists and linemate John Tavares scored two goals and a helper, but it wasn’t enough as the New York Islanders fell 5-4 in overtime to the Ducks.
Bailey extended his point streak to seven games while Tavares has points in six straight games. They joined impressive company in the process:
Getzlaf continues point streak since injury
Ryan Getzlaf has been dynamite for the Anaheim Ducks since returning from a fractured zygomatic bone.
Getzlaf assisted on four of Anaheim’s five goals to give him a point in five of the six games since his return.
The 32-year-old took a puck to the face in a game against the Carolina Hurricanes on Oct. 29 and missed over a month while recovering from the injury.
Anaheim entered the night three points back of a wild-card spot in the tight Western Conference and having their captain producing is a huge boost.
Hurricanes come out flying against Predators
If we were playing baseball, batting .333 would be a very good average.
Unfortunately, this is hockey, and Pekka Rinne‘s .333 save percentage from Thursday night is not a very good average.
The Carolina Hurricanes came out flying to score four goals, including two on the power play, in the first 6:27 en route to a 4-1 win over the Nashville Predators.
Rinne was pulled after the fourth goal and finished with two saves on six shots. Juuse Saros replaced him and stopped all 26 shots he faced.
Thornton continues to climb charts
Joe Thornton rose one more spot on the NHL’s all-time points list with two goals and an assist in a 5-4 overtime win over the Vancouver Canucks.
The longtime San Jose Shark moved past Doug Gilmour for sole possession of 18th on the list with his 1,416 points.
Thornton, 38, now trails Adam Oates by four points for 17th place.
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