A father-son duo made history, Nikita Kucherov’s point total reached a remarkable 120 on the season, Michael Grabner continued his exceptional short-handed play for the Coyotes and a pair of Panthers forwards entered the franchise’s record books.
Here are four things we learned in the NHL Thursday.
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Like father, like son
Now there’s a sub-header we’re sure you didn’t expect to read.
Thomas Steen finished his career with 817 points over the course of 14 seasons with the Winnipeg Jets between 1981-1995. And after a two-assist outing on Thursday, his son – Blues forward Alex Steen – joined his father in the 600-point club.
In doing so, the Steen’s became just the fourth father-son duo in NHL history to each record 600 career points.
Of the other three father-son scoring duos on the list above, Mark and Gordie Howe lead the pack with a combined 2,592 points between them.
Simply put, Kucherov is unstoppable
When Nikita Kucherov looks back at his season-to-season production a few years down the road, he’ll likely flash a smile when reflecting on his historic 2018-19 campaign in particular.
Thursday’s contest saw the league’s leading scorer accomplish another milestone, as Kucherov reached the 120-point mark for the first time in his career. It took the Russian only 75 games to do so, too, which made him the first player in 20 years to reach that points total in that span.
Kucherov also became the first player since 2007 to net 120 points, and the fourth-fastest player to do so since the 1993-94 season.
With only seven games left on the Lightning’s schedule, Tampa Bay’s most electric offensive weapon should start preparing a speech ahead of his inevitable Art Ross Trophy haul.
That is, if he hasn’t been writing it already.
Side note: Tampa Bay can become the winningest team in NHL history if they win five of their seven remaining games.
Huberdeau, Barkov the dynamic duo
After assisting on Mike Hoffman’s second-period goal, Jonathan Huberdeau joined teammate Aleksander Barkov as the only members of the Florida Panthers this season to reach the 80-point plateau.
This marks the first time in the 25-year history of the Florida Panthers that two teammates have each recorded 80 points in the same season.
Prior to both Huberdeau and Barkov reaching 80 points, Olli Jokinen and Pavel Bure were the only other players to reach that total over the course of a season for Florida.
Jokinen did so twice, finishing the 2005-06 campaign with 89 points then topping that total the following season with 91, while Bure eclipsed the 90-point mark in both the 1999-00 and 2000-01 seasons.
Just last season Barkov and teammate Vincent Trocheck nearly reached 80 points, finishing with 78 and 75, respectively.
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Grabner loves playing shorthanded
Normally when your team is killing a penalty, the objective is simply to try and prevent the opposition from capitalizing on its man advantage with a goal.
That school of thought doesn’t apply to some of the NHL’s select players, though, with Arizona Coyotes’ forward Michael Grabner qualifying as one of those individuals.
While Arizona was killing off Florida’s power play midway through the first period, Grabner took advantage of a turnover, then sprung in on the breakaway and beat Panthers’ goaltender Roberto Luongo for the short-handed marker.
The goal was Grabner’s sixth short-handed tally of the season, which is all the more impressive considering the 31-year-old has only appeared in 33 games and has nine goals total on the campaign.
Grabner’s finish also helped the Coyotes’ establish a new franchise record for most short-handed goals in a season with 16.
Arizona now only trails the Calgary Flames (18) for most short-handed goals in the 2018-19 regular season.
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