Pastrnak Hat Trick, Pettersson Injured, plus more…

David Pastrnak recorded his second career hat trick in the Bruins’ 8-2 rout over the Red Wings on Saturday afternoon. If you have Pasta on your head-to-head team, you might be winning the goals category this week. He’s scored six goals over his past three games, which following the game vaulted him to second place in the NHL in goals with seven. This past offseason I signed him to be on my keeper team for five more seasons knowing that he's only 22 and has a chance to become one of the game's elite goal scorers. 

Pastrnak’s linemate Patrice Bergeron recorded three assists, which gives him four consecutive multipoint games. Over that stretch Bergeron has 11 points, which following this game makes him the NHL’s scoring leader among anyone who does not play for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Jake DeBrusk scored his first two goals of the season on Saturday as well. This is encouraging for DeBrusk, who had been held without a point over his first four games. Hopefully you didn’t drop him for a player off to a hotter start but with lower upside.

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With two assists on Saturday, Thomas Chabot now has eight points in five games and points in all five of those games. With an assist on Saturday, Maxime Lajoie now has three goals and six points in his five games played. I should also mention Chris Wideman’s two goals on Saturday. Erik who?

Chabot is now owned in over half of Yahoo leagues, so he obviously should be added in leagues where he still happens to be available. At just 20 percent ownership, though, Lajoie is less likely to be owned and is at least worth a flier if you have an injured blueliner. His icetime is still a little up and down, but he has made his way onto the second-unit power play. I don’t think I’d drop a slower-starting established blueliner (eg. Kevin Shattenkirk, Jake Gardiner, to reference two from my last Ramblings) for Lajoie, but I’d add him if you can easily make room for him.

Thought this was funny, given the bang for buck that the Sens’ young blueliners are providing:
 

From @tsn_wally , with Ottawa still paying Dion Phaneuf 1.75m a season, and Cody Ceci out today, Phaneuf is the highest paid Sens d-man on the ice in the OTT/LA game. 👀

— James Duthie (@tsnjamesduthie) October 13, 2018

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Elias Pettersson scored a power-play goal against the Panthers, which gives him five goals on the season and points in all five of his games. But that’s not what the topic of discussion surrounding Pettersson was on Saturday.
 

Elias Pettersson goes down hard. Shaken up on the play and has left the game. #Canucks pic.twitter.com/5CIiNIeMky

— /Cam Robinson/ (@Hockey_Robinson) October 14, 2018

This is the worst type of fear regarding the slight (170 lb.) Pettersson, who was targeted after he deked Mike Matheson out of his skates a moment earlier. Surprisingly, Matheson was not given a penalty. There should be a suspension here, but I’m not expecting the league to do the right thing, which will only fuel the fire among Canucks’ fans that there should have been “payback” for Matheson (there was not). I have no problem with the hit itself. But the body slam? Don’t get me started.

I would think this is a head injury, given the clip and the fact that Pettersson looked very woozy getting up. The Canucks did not provide an update on Pettersson after the game, which I would think puts his next game (Tuesday in Pittsburgh) in doubt.  

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With offense as high as it’s been, some of the shots on goal totals from Saturday’s games should not be surprising:

Carolina: 57 shots overall vs. Minnesota

Dallas: 51 shots overall (including 30 in the second period!) vs. Anaheim

Justin Faulk led the Canes’ charge with eight shots on goal. Meanwhile, Tyler Seguin fired nine shots to lead the Stars in that category.

Speaking of that Carolina game, Sebastian Aho scored two goals (including the OT winner) and added two assists. This gives him ten points (4g-6a) in just five games, including points in all five of his games. The Canes continue to score and score and score some more, averaging over four goals per game. It’s to the point where veteran Justin Williams has seven points over his last three games, including three points on Saturday. Jordan Staal, with goals in three consecutive games, is also looking like a decent waiver-wire add, even though we know what to expect over a full season from him by now (between 45 and 50 points).

This was the kind of game where Devan Dubnyk allowed five goals, yet ended up with a respectable .912 SV%.

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Welcome back to fantasy relevance, Tomas Tatar. Playing on a line with Brendan Gallagher and Phillip Danault, Tatar scored two goals and added an assist while firing six shots on goal in 21:30 of icetime. Given the Habs’ lack of scoring depth, there was a real possibility that Tatar would play in the Habs’ top 6, and that’s what he’s doing. He played nearly 20 minutes in his previous game. It may not have seemed like it at the time, but the Pacioretty trade may have helped Tatar’s fantasy value.

It’s looking more and more likely that Jesperi Kotkaniemi will stay with the Habs beyond the 10-game mark, according to Chris Johnston on Hockey Night in Canada.

The Penguins not only lost to the Canadiens in the shootout, but they also lost Justin Schultz with a nasty-looking leg injury. I’ll let you Google that clip, but he was seen with crutches and a walking boot after the game. Adjust your lineup accordingly.

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The Lightning scored a touchdown with a two-point convert on the Blue Jackets on Saturday. Brayden Point led the charge, scoring two goals and adding an assist skating on a line with Steven Stamkos and Yanni Gourde. With an eight-goal outburst from his team, Jon Cooper might decide to let that line stick for a while. That would benefit Gourde the most, who scored a goal and added an assist in this game. It’s difficult to make out what kind of scorer Gourde will be after his surprise 64-point campaign last season, but his chances of success improve if he’s skating alongside truly talented offensive drivers like Stamkos and Point.

The good news if you’re a J.T. Miller owner? He scored a goal and added two assists in this game. The bad news? His even-strength linemates (again) were Adam Erne and Cedric Paquette. If it ain’t broke, it might not get fixed anytime soon. At least Miller was on the first-unit power play. But Point wasn’t.

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Just to keep the Leafs fans happy: Auston Matthews is the first player to reach 10 goals this season. He’s also recorded multiple points in each of his first six games of the season. That was an interesting poll question on the Dobber Facebook page about which superstar (Matthews or John Tavares) would lead the Leafs in scoring. It was tight, but 57 percent of respondents chose Matthews.

Morgan Rielly recorded “just” one assist, but he is cementing his place in NHL history with his incredible start.
 

He is the third defenseman in NHL history to record at least 13 points in his team’s first six games of the season.
Harry Cameron (1917-18): 9-6—15
Paul Reinhart (1989-90): 5-9—14@mriles4 (2018-19): 3-10—13#NHLStats pic.twitter.com/W6qAG7tHun

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) October 14, 2018

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With two goals (including the overtime winner) on Saturday, Alex DeBrincat continues his fast start. DeBrincat now has six goals and nine points in just five games, with two goals in back-to-back games. DeBrincat took nearly 200 shots in his rookie season last season, but this season he’s really shooting the puck. In four of his five games, DeBrincat has taken at least four shots on goal.

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Saturday shutouts, for those of you in leagues that count them:

Marc-Andre Fleury stopped all 26 shots he faced in the Golden Knights’ 1-0 shutout of the Flyers. This was just the Golden Knights’ second win in six games.

In his first game of the season, Linus Ullmark stopped all 36 shots he faced in the Sabres’ 3-0 win over Arizona. The Sabres upgraded offensively this offseason, but a major reason for their improved play is actually their goaltending, which has been in the top half of the league so far.

While we’re talking about the Sabres, it’s worth mentioning that Rasmus Dahlin scored his first NHL goal on Saturday. The 2018 first overall pick now has two points in five games.

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Finally, if you’re a fan of a Canadian team, you probably aren’t a fan of all of these teams… but you have to admit this is pretty cool.
 

It’s Canada 🇨🇦 Day!
Montreal wins!
Toronto wins!
Ottawa wins!
Calgary wins!
Edmonton wins!
Vancouver wins!

WOW!

— John Shannon (@JSportsnet) October 14, 2018

Has this ever happened, you ask? Here’s your answer. I believe that year was the last time two Canadian-based teams faced each other in the Stanley Cup Final.
 

FYI…
This is just the 2nd time in NHL history when 6 Canadian based teams have won on the same day!
Only other time, 6 Canadian-based teams won on same date was October 7, 1989.

— John Shannon (@JSportsnet) October 14, 2018

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For more fantasy hockey information, you can follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding.