Sidney Crosby reached a couple of milestones against the Philadelphia Flyers, Michael DiPietro was thrust into action and Alex Ovechkin continues his rise on the NHL scoring list.
Here are three things we learned in the NHL.
Crosby continues to dominate Flyers
Crosby scored his 40th career goal against Philadelphia in the first period, becoming only the seventh player in NHL history to score that many against the Flyers.
It is the only team Crosby has reached that milestone against and Mike Bossy is the only other player to reach 40 in 65 or fewer games. Ovechkin currently leads all active players with 40-plus goals against three teams while Patrick Marleau has done it against two.
In 65 career games against Philadelphia, Crosby has 40 goals, 57 assists and 97 points, which are the second-most points overall against one team as Crosby has 113 points in 66 career games against the New York Islanders.
The 31-year-old has 24 goals and 40 assists in 53 games this season. He also passed Sergei Fedorov for 50th place on the NHL’s all-time points list with 1,181 career points (483 goals, 696 assists) in 917 career games.
DiPietro debut a rare feat
It was a surprise to find out DiPietro was going to make his NHL debut against the San Jose Sharks as he became the second-youngest goalie in Canucks history to do so.
DiPietro joined Rick DiPietro, Dan Blackburn, Marc-Andre Fleury and Jonathan Bernier as the only goalies to start an NHL game before their 20th birthday. The main distinction that those goalies have over DiPietro is that they were all drafted in the first round of the NHL draft while the Canucks prospect was selected in the third round of the 2017 NHL draft.
The 19-year-old has split his junior season between the Ottawa 67’s and the Windsor Spitfires, posting an 18-10-1 record, a .908 save percentage and a 2.37 goals-against average.
Ovechkin passes Brind’Amour
Ovechkin continued his climb up the NHL’s all-time scoring list, passing Rod Brind’Amour for 48th place.
With a goal and two assists against the Los Angeles Kings, Ovechkin now has 645 goals, 541 assists and 1,186 points in 1,058 career games. Brind’Armour had 452 goals, 732 assists and 1,184 points in 1,484 games overall.
In 55 games this season, Ovechkin leads the NHL in goals with 38, adding another 26 assists for 64 points. He also became the all-time leading scorer among Russian players in the NHL back on Feb. 5 — passing Fedorov — and only needs 14 more points to tie Dino Ciccarelli for 47th overall.
Thornton continues to rack up the milestones
Ovechkin wasn’t the only player to make some history as Joe Thornton moved past Gordie Howe for ninth place on the all-time assists list.
With a helper on Kevin Labanc’s goal, the 39-year-old also tied Teemu Selanne for 15th place on the all-time points list and moved into the top 15 for all-time games played. In 48 games this season, Thornton has 10 goals, 20 assists and 30 points.
Not bad for a player who had season-ending surgery last year to finish his 2017-18 campaign with 13 goals and 29 points in 47 games.
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