Meanwhile David Clarkson had his first multi-point game as a Maple Leaf, thanks to his scoring the empty-netter late in the third. He actually had a legitimately beastly fantasy outing with a goal, an assist, a +4 rating, 4 PIMs, three hits, and three shots on goal. That’s a seriously filled in boxscore.

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Vancouver is kind of an interesting case this season, in that, I thought they played pretty well on Saturday and have played pretty well in general, but their goaltending and defense hasn’t been all that good. It sure wasn’t on Saturday night…

Still, based on their polished special teams and roughly average ability to control the flow of games at even-strength, this Vancouver team looks like it’s perhaps not as far behind the California kaiju as most expected (myself included) before the start of the season. With the San Jose Sharks looking vulnerable, the Anaheim Ducks underwhelming, and the Los Angeles Kings losing their fastball – it seems like the Pacific could be surprisingly wide open…

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The Detroit Red Wings erased an early 2-0 deficit to win head coach Mike Babcock his 500th career game on Saturday night. Stephen Weiss managed another point and is now the 16th best skater in a Yahoo! Fantasy league (that counts G, A, PPP, +/-, hits, shots as cats) based on point per game averages… 

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Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 33 of 34 shots to lead the Columbus Blue Jackets surprisingly past the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday. Though he had a somewhat quiet fantasy outing, Victor Hedman logged 25 minutes and took four shots on goal. He also had a Corsi For percentage that was pushing 80 percent…

This is where I note that, based on point per game averages, Hedman is the second most valuable skater in a Yahoo! Fantasy League (that counts G, A, PPP, +/-, hits and shots as cats) based on point per game averages. The only guy ahead of him? Sidney Crosby.

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Aaron Ekblad had a massive game on Saturday night, managing three assists in Florida’s victory over the Buffalo Sabres. Ekblad becomes just the third 18-year-old defenseman of the past 28 years to record three assists in a game, joining Zach Bogosian and Oleg Tverdovsky (strange company, eh), according to SBN’s Adam Gretz. 

I know everyone is caught up in Filip Forsberg’s astounding start to the year, but what Ekblad is doing in Florida deserves some praise and attention too. The teenage man-child has 17 points in his first 25 games, a total that leads all Panthers defenders by a vast margin. He’s also holding down bona fide top-four minutes (at 18!), while logging a regular shift short-handed and on the penalty-kill. His underlying numbers are extremely good by the way, though he does probably benefit in this respect from playing a lot with Brian Campbell…

Still, I’m not sure we’ve ever seen a teenage defenseman be this effective this quickly. It’s pretty astounding.

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The New Jersey Devils are in serious trouble after another loss, this one on Saturday to the Washington Capitals. The Devils’ underlying numbers have cratered over the past several weeks, and they’re clearly headed in the wrong direction. Is a shake up of some sort needed? I’d certainly suggest so, because this team isn’t going anywhere as currently comprised…

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The Chicago Blackhawks wrested top spot in the Central Division away from the Nashville Predators thanks in large part to a stellar 32 save performance by goaltender Scott Darling. 

Darling has had an interesting career, having never even really been an AHL regular until his was a 24-year-old. He’s been stellar in the AHL though (after years of posting sort of meh numbers in a variety of lower tier leagues) and has looked a lot more competent than Antti Raanta in relief of Corey Crawford this season. 

With the Bowman’s involved, you know the Blackhawks won’t get caught up on goaltender pedigree. I legitimately expect Darling to get a serious look in Crawford’s absence over the balance of this month. 

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Tyler Seguin scored twice over the reeling Montreal Canadiens and now leads the NHL in scoring by four goals (St. Louis forward Tarasenko is second). Meanwhile the Habs have lost six of their last seven games and appear to be in something of a free fall.

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The Boston Bruins finished off a tough west coast trip with a much needed and decisive 5-2 victory over the Arizona Coytes on Saturday night. The Coyotes are poised to be something of an oasis for Eastern teams on West Coast swings this season, particularly banged up teams like the Bruins.

Brad Marchand had a dominant outing Saturday, managing two goals, a +2 rating, two PIMs, four shots on goal and five hits. 

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Finally the Calgary Flames ran into a spot of Calga-regression on Saturday, losing a game in which they thoroughly throttled the San Jose Sharks.

Realistically I came away from that contest massively impressed by Calgary’s performance. Surely the return of Matt Stajan can’t mean that much to the club, can it?

Truly though that was the sort of game, and in particular the sort of first period, that the Flames just haven’t put together often enough this season to make a believer of me. On Saturday they rather ironically just ran into a hot goaltender in Antti Niemi (who made some lucky stops on the night), and got a bit unlucky overall.

If that “out-shooting a quality opponent” trick the Flames pulled off on Saturday was the start of a trend, then this team will be fine (it was, however, more likely just a blip).