The NHL has seen a big increase in scoring so far this season, but to those hoping that would continue, Friday was a little disappointing. Just one of the six games had more than five total goals scored and there were three shutouts.
No worries, the night still had some great moments and we took away a few things we learned. Here’s what we got out of Friday night…
JEFF SKINNER IS WHO WE THOUGHT HE WAS
Think all the way back to 2010-11 when a baby-faced Jeff Skinner, who broke right into the NHL after being drafted seventh overall the summer before, scored 31 goals and 63 points and was awarded the Calder Trophy. At the time, it looked like we had another young super star scorer in our midst, and that the sky was the limit for him.
Then, sadly, Skinner ran into concussion problems and was forced to miss time in a few seasons, resulting in an up and down career as he dealt with those issues and tried to recapture that rookie magic.
He’s certainly shown he can be that same player when healthy. In 2013-14, Skinner played 71 games and got back to the 30-goal plateau for the second time, setting a career-high with 33. He managed to score 28 last season in 82 games and, so far this season, he’s off to a great start with four goals in six games, including two on Friday night against the Rangers and Henrik Lundqvist.
With a 56.7 Corsi For percentage so far this season, Skinner is off to as hot a start as anyone could have hoped for, but he’s not only scoring goals — he does what great players do and makes his linemates better.
This great chance for Lee Stempniak, which was turned aside by a terrific Lundqvist save, was all because of Skinner’s great effort. Funny story on this play: it was hat night in Carolina and this goal appeared to be Skinner’s third of the game, so the fans littered the ice with the freebies. Turns out it was deflected, so the Canes handed out more free hats in case Skinner scored again! (He didn’t)
He has five assists to accompany his four goals for a nine-point start to the season and has certainly helped give Victor Rask a boost (Rask picked up two more assists Friday) and looks like the kind of “face of the franchise” player he was in his exciting rookie season.
In fact, with a strong up-and-coming defence corps, the Hurricanes are set up nicely to take a big jump some time in the near future. The issue right now for them is in net, where neither Cam Ward nor Eddie Lack has a save percentage of even .875.
COULD THE BLACKHAWKS ACTUALLY MISS THE PLAYOFFS? NO
It would have been quite bold to have said in the preseason that the Blackhawks would find themselves on the outside looking in when playoff time rolled around. And it is still early, so let’s be careful with what we project here, but there are cracks in the foundation.
To start, salary cap complications have again bit the Hawks, who now fill out the bottom of their forward units with the likes of Jordin Tootoo, Dennis Rasmussen and Nick Schmaltz. So, there could be some depth concerns there as the season wears on. But more than that, their penalty kill has been atrocious like no team before and sit dead last with a 50 per cent kill rate. That’s right…50 per cent.
Consider that they play in the toughest division in the NHL with Winnipeg, St. Louis, Dallas and Nashville all pre-season favourites, and Colorado due for a recovery season. And maybe, just maybe, the dynasty chasers would miss out altogether?
Not so fast. While the penalty kill has been putrid, there’s no way it can be this bad all season, right? And they’re still a top-10 Corsi team in the league with a 52.22 mark and have outscored their opponents 16-9 at 5-on-5. So they’re not dead yet. Far from it.
DEVILS-BLACKHAWKS WITH A BEAUTIFUL GESTURE
Friday night was Hockey Fights Cancer night at the Prudential Center in New Jersey.
Earlier in the day, the team signed nine-year-old Devils fan Santino Anastasia, who is being treated for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, to a one-day contract, and he went on down to the dressing room to be part of the team for the day.
Anastasia also got to drop the puck before the start of the game and captains Jonathan Toews and Andy Greene had a little surprise for him to leave with.
BRIAN ELLIOTT ISN’T SO BAD AFTER ALL
The Calgary Flames brought in Brian Elliott to be their saviour in net and to make sure they didn’t spoil another year with a great blue line and terrific young offensive talent. But with back-to-back bad losses to rival Edmonton, the air of excitement around the team was quickly sucked out of the city.
In his first three starts, Elliott allowed 14 goals on 87 shots — an .839 save percentage. But you’ll get a couple of these kinds of games out of Elliott over a full season, and since he’s no longer in a tandem with another supposedly capable No. 1 in Jake Allen, he’s going to have to fight through the bad stretches instead of taking a break.
There were seven times last season when Elliott allowed four or more goals, but only once did he do it in back-to-back games. The season before it was the same thing. This season, he started with three in a row.
But in his past three starts, he’s made 31, 23 and 31 saves for three consecutive wins — all against, arguably, better teams than Edmonton and Carolina. He has a .944 save percentage since that slow start and he was money in Friday night’s 5-2 win over Ottawa, keeping Calgary in it when they were being out shot 26-12 through two periods. This was the kind of game Calgary would have lost last season.
Remember, Elliott has been in a tandem for a while. The last time he was the undisputed No. 1 starter he played 55 games between Ottawa and Colorado in 2010-11 and 55 games for Ottawa the season before that. His save percentage was below .910 in both of those seasons, so expecting a .922 save percentage may be asking for too much — and hey, save percentages are down league-wide anyway. He’s still a good goalie who should keep the Flames in it this season with performances like these.
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THE CANUCKS ARE A THROWBACK TEAM TO THE WRONG ERA
Let’s start this off with a tweet:
The Canucks were one of those surprise starters, winning their first four games and getting a point in their first five. Could they overachieve?
Vancouver is being carried by great defensive play, a part of their roster that was actually supposed to be a weakness. They came in to Friday’s game against Edmonton allowing the eighth-fewest shots against per game with a GAA of 2.29.
But their offence has been completely absent and they play a slow, shutdown style akin to the Devils and Wild of old. They generate the fewest shots for per game in the league and are nearly two full shots behind the 29th-ranked team. Ever since scoring four goals against Carolina in that second game, the Canucks have nine goals in six games — and have now been shut out twice in a row after losing 2-0 to the Oilers.
It’s great that the defence has been so good, but at least for now, the NHL is about speed and offence again. How can a slow team compete with this?
The Sedin twins have combined for nine points in eight games and free agent acquisition Loui Eriksson is still without a goal. Those three were supposed to drive the offence and were really the only positive you could look at heading into this season where you could say “hey, if these guys go off, the Canucks could maybe finish 11th!”
If the Oilers are for real and if Elliott is enough to give the Flames a boost into playoff contention, just where does that leave the Canucks?
Probably right at the bottom of the standings, where most people had them anyway.
