Weekend Takeaways: From Crosby to Zuccarello, veterans showing they've still got it

The kids get a lot of credit these days.

And to be clear — and also in the interest of not sounding like grumpy middle-aged guy — it’s completely justified. Some of the most preposterous things being done with pucks right now are happening on the sticks of NHLers who have no meaningful memory of the 1990s. From Mitch Marner’s point streak that started four days before Halloween to Connor McDavid averaging nearly two points per game (yeah), to Jason Robertson and Tage Thompson making you wonder what Team USA’s lines would look like if we had a best-on-best tourney tomorrow, it's incredible what this the 25-and-unders are accomplishing.

But let’s not forget to fête the vets, too.

NHLers are burning the candle at both ends these days, because as much as the super-skilled youth are having their day, established players keeping their bodies in top-form are making an impact well past the time athletes are traditionally supposed to tail off.

Sidney Crosby was in on all three goals — two tallies and helper — the Pittsburgh Penguins used to beat the Buffalo Sabres 3-1 in Western New York on Saturday. The 35-year-old is on pace for 111 points, which would represent the most he’s had since posting a career-best 120 when he was a teenager himself in 2006-07. Crosby is also tracking the first 50-goal season of his career.

And he’s far from the only upper classman doing great stuff.

Thirty-five-year-old Anze Kopitar, selected 10 picks after Crosby in the 2005 NHL Draft, had himself a three-point weekend in Montreal and Columbus and is on pace for 71 points in his 17^th season with the Kings team that called his name nearly 20 years ago. Crosby’s teammate, Evgeni Malkin is playing at a point-per-game pace, as are Capital Alex Ovechkin, Dallas Star Joe Pavelski, Minnesota’s Mats Zuccarello and Boston’s Brad Marchand. That’s six players 34-or-older as of the Jan. 31, 2023 (the cutoff point Hockey Reference uses to determine your age for a season) tracking and 82-point year.

For reference, from 2009-10 through 2020-21, we saw just eight point-per-game seasons from players who fit that age description. Then last season, Crosby, Malkin, Zuccarello and Ovechkin pulled the trick before continuing their brilliance this year.

Steven Stamkos, who turns 33 in two months, scored against Florida on Saturday and is on a 13-game point streak; 33-year-old Logan Couture is on pace for his best season ever; 33-year-old Jamie Benn has turned back the clock in Dallas, and the 1-2 centre punch of Patrice Bergeron (37) and David Krejci (36) are helping drive the league’s best team in Boston.

On the blue line, we’ve all seen what Erik Karlsson is doing 13 years after debuting with the Senators in 2009-10, while 32-year-old Roman Josi is producing like a high-end forward again (14 points in past 12), and elder statesman Brent Burns is playing at a 61-point pace at age 37 in his first go with the Carolina Hurricanes.

An overall spike in goals-per-game this season is obviously playing a role in these impressive outputs. Nonetheless, it’s undeniable that more players are remaining viable offensive options as they whiz through their mid-30s, doing all they can to keep the kids on their toes.

Other Takeaways

• One young gun who gets lost in the mix a bit — for a variety of reasons — is Clayton Keller. The 24-year-old registered the first hat trick of his career on Sunday night, notching the overtime winner in a 5-4 defeat of the Philadelphia Flyers. (The Avs’ Mikko Rantanen also pulled off the hatty capped by an extra-time winner on Sunday, too). Given the fact his breakout campaign last year ended prematurely with a fractured leg, it’s awesome to see Keller with 26 points in 26 contest this season. A lot of people raised their eyebrows when, as a relatively unproven commodity, he inked a deal worth just over $57 million total in 2019. And, let’s face it, you’ve got to do extra special things to get noticed for the hockey you play in Arizona. A few years on, though, Keller looks worth every penny. Maybe he’d even be a good fit on that fantasy Team USA line with Thompson and Robertson.

• We’ve been shouting out the young skaters, but how about this freshmen class of goalies? Pyotr Kochetkov’s shutout of the New York Islanders on Saturday got me thinking: If we voted on the Calder Trophy today, would three goalies finish among the top half-dozen vote-getters? Vegas’s Logan Thompson is there for sure and Stuart Skinner, who backstopped Edmonton to a win over the Wild on Friday and is 5-1-0 in his past six appearances, would surely get lots of love, too. Now comes Kochetkov, who’s stepped into the Canes crease and has a .918 save percentage in 11 games.

The last goalie to be named top rookie was Steve Mason in 2009. Seattle’s Matty Beniers will have a lot to say about it, but maybe this is the year that drought ends.

• Taking nothing away from Kochetkov, he only had to make 16 saves versus the Islanders as Carolina went into UBS Arena and smothered the home team. The Hurricanes are now 5-0-1 in their past six and actually have just one regulation-time loss in their past 12 outings. Their expected goals percentage during that run is better than everyone in the league save the Boston Bruins.

• You think 38-year-old Eric Staal was happy to score his first NHL goal in about 18 months on Sunday?

Weekend Warrior

Less than two weeks after being diagnosed with the second stroke of his young life (this one, thankfully, less severe than the first), Kris Letang returned to the Penguins lineup on Saturday and proceeded to play almost two minutes more than the second-busiest Pens skater.

Red and White Power Rankings

1. Toronto Maple Leafs (18-5-6) Michael Bunting finally broke through with his first domestic tally of the season in the 5-4 overtime victory against Calgary, as the Blue and White keep racking up W's.

2. Winnipeg Jets (18-8-1) The Jets were thumped 5-2 by the visiting Washington Capitals on Sunday, but Pierre-Luc Dubois scored to keep his career year humming; the centre is on an 88-point pace, which would be nearly 30 more points than his previous high of 61.

3. Edmonton Oilers (16-12-0) Kailer Yamamoto — playing on the second line with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins — scored his first goal in 16 tries this season during the Oilers’ 5-2 win over Minnesota on Friday. The 2017 first-rounder now has three points — half his season total — in his past two games.

4. Calgary Flames (13-11-4) Losses Friday to old friend Johnny Gaudreau and the lowly Jackets, then 24 hours later in Toronto killed the good vibes of the three-game winning streak Calgary carried into Columbus.

5. Montreal Canadiens (13-12-2) Saturday’s 4-2 setback to the L.A. Kings underscored the fact the Canadiens have had some of their poorest showings at the Bell Centre this season. Montreal’s 3.92 home-ice goals-against average is worse than everyone in the league, save Columbus.

6. Ottawa Senators (11-14-2) Shane Pinto doubled his assist total for the year by registering a pair of helpers in Ottawa’s big 3-2 overtime win in Nashville Saturday.

7. Vancouver Canucks (12-13-3) The Canucks — who lost 3-0 on Saturday to the Wild — last won in regulation time on Nov. 26. Since then they’ve allowed two or fewer goals in a game on just a single occasion.

The Week Ahead

• The NHL’s board of governors are meeting Monday and Tuesday in Florida, so we’ll see what kind of salary cap news we get out of there.  

• Wade Redden will be inducted into the Ottawa Senators’ ring of honour on Monday. Only Chris Phillips played more games as a Sens defenceman than No. 6.

• With two goals on the weekend, Alex Ovechkin is now just three shy of 800 for his career. If he has a good week, he could hit the mark on a huge Saturday night stage versus the Leafs.