A prolific scorer continues to find his touch, a rookie is legit and a team does more with less.
Here are three things we learned in the NHL on an early/late Friday night.
Laine’s best friend
For the second consecutive game in Helsinki, Winnipeg Jets forward Patrik Laine found the back of the net. The 20-year-old Finn scored one of the Jets’ two goals in a 4-2 loss to the Florida Panthers, just 24 hours after he picked up a hat trick in a 4-2 win against those same Panthers.
On Friday, Laine got it done on the power play with an assist coming from Jets captain Blake Wheeler. If that sounds familiar, its because that’s been the story all season. All three of his Thursday goals had Wheeler’s name attached via the assist.
But wait, there’s more.
Every single goal Laine has scored this season has been assisted by Wheeler. Yes, even his Oct. 18 goal against the Vancouver Canucks, and his Oct. 14 goal against the Carolina Hurricanes.
So far in the 2018-19 season, Wheeler has been the jelly to Laine’s peanut butter.
Pettersson continues to live up to hype
Another Canucks game is in the books and that means that rookie Elias Pettersson continued to give Vancouver Canucks fans reasons to drool over their future.
Midway through the second period, Pettersson already had two assists (both on Brock Boeser‘s goals) including this brilliant intentional assist off the end boards.
Less than 10 minutes later it was Pettersson himself finding his name in the goal column, his third point of the night and 13th point in just nine games.
More importantly, the goal was his eighth of the season making him the fastest centre to score eight goals through nine games since Joe Sakic did in 1988-89.
Not bad company.
And that was before he tied the game up at six with his second of the game in the final minute of the third. The talented Swede finished with five points on the board.
Short and early
The Arizona Coyotes got off to a slow start to begin the season. They failed to score a goal in their first two games and had just four in their opening five tilts.
They may have finally found a solution, which is to just play short-handed.
The Coyotes opened the scoring against the Carolina Hurricanes with a short-handed goal, giving them four straight games while scoring a man down, the first team to do so since 2012.
That gives the Coyotes seven short-handed on goals on the season while their power play has only managed to pick up five.
Short-handed or not, the Coyotes seem to have found their scoring touch. They put up three goals in the first period against the Hurricanes, marking the third consecutive game they achieved that feat.
Heading into Friday’s game, the Coyotes scored 27 goals in their previous six games.
[relatedlinks]
