Thursday night saw two of the NHL’s best square off in New York City, with the Rangers getting the better of the Oilers in a game that was a good indicator of the work yet to be done in Edmonton.
We also had six games needing overtime or a shootout, another milestone for Marian Hossa, and a mixed bag of results for the remaining Canadian teams.
Here are five things we learned.
Condon, Senators getting stingy
The Ottawa Senators couldn’t have asked for a better debut from Mike Condon.
One day after being acquired from the Penguins, the 26-year-old stopped everything sent his way by the Vancouver Canucks while earning just his second career shutout.
The last Senators goalie to keep a clean sheet in his first game with the club was Craig Anderson, who made 47 saves in a 1-0 shootout win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 19, 2011. Anderson is currently taking a personal leave of absence to be with his wife, Nicholle, who was recently diagnosed with cancer.
Ottawa has now shut out its opponents in three of its last five games, and gave up just a single goal to Carolina in an overtime win on Tuesday.
After letting in 20 goals in their first five games of the season, the Senators have surrendered just six in their last five.
Of course, Thursday’s shutout shouldn’t have been too much of a shock given the opponent…
Canucks can’t score
Frustration must be starting to mount in Vancouver, as the Canucks haven’t scored in four of their last five games.
They’ve dropped seven straight, all after starting the year 4-0-0.
Vancouver went through a similar dry spell toward the end of the ’15-16 season, when they were shut out four times in five games in March as part of a nine-game losing streak.
With this season still young, it’ll be interesting to see what head coach Willie Desjardins can come up with to get some offence out of his team.
Loui Eriksson remains without a goal in 11 games with Vancouver, and is currently mired in his longest goalless streak since his 12-game drought with Boston near the beginning of the ’14-15 season.
Andersen might be finding his game
The Maple Leafs beat the Sabres, in Buffalo, Thursday night to give Toronto its first winning streak of the season.
Mitch Marner supplied the offence with the first two-goal game of his young career, but it was Frederik Andersen who stole the show, making 42 saves including several showstoppers.
Since that disastrous start against Tampa on Oct. 25, Andersen has gone 3-1-0 with a .954 save percentage.
He’ll likely get a chance to improve on those numbers at home on Saturday against the aforementioned slumping Canucks.
Ovechkin cools the Jets
The Winnipeg Jets came oh so close to completing their third three-goal comeback of the season — this time against the Washington Capitals — but were undone by an Alex Ovechkin power-play goal in overtime.
The Capitals earned the extra man when the Jets were whistled for having five skaters on the ice in the extra frame, something coach Paul Maurice calmly disagreed with:
In a matchup between Patrik Laine and his idol Ovechkin, it was the Russian who came out ahead.
Washington swept the home-and-home, thanks to Ovechkin’s three points on Thursday. He’s not quite ready to give up his title as the game’s best scorer yet.
Having now lost three straight, Winnipeg will have to get over this one quickly — it plays Detroit on Friday.
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Tkachuk makes Flames brass look good
The Calgary Flames had a decision to make regarding rookie Matthew Tkachuk: send him back to the London Knights, or burn a year of his entry-level contract by dressing him for his 10th NHL game.
They chose the latter option, and the kid responded with a two-goal effort in a road win over the San Jose Sharks.
Calgary now has 11 points on the season, enough to sneak into third place in the Pacific Division.
This is still a team that needs to get Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan going, but getting offence from the 18-year-old could go a long way this season.
