Ramblings: 17 Goals in Detroit! Marner Piles on Six Points, Flames Score Seven, Stamkos Shines in Stadium Series Game (Feb 27)

Ian Gooding

2022-02-27

With Ryan Nugent-Hopkins leaving the game in the first period with an upper-body injury, Derek Ryan was able to pick up the slack. Ryan recorded his first career hat trick in the Oilers' 4-3 win over Florida. After RNH left, the Oilers were down to 10 forwards, so it's hard to know what to make out of their lines. Although Ryan's role seemed to remain as a bottom-6 forward in this game, he has picked up seven points in his last seven games. If the Nuge misses any time, it's possible Ryan is bumped up a bit, although remember that the Oils still have Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl up the middle.

About Nugent-Hopkins' injury…

The other big star for the Oilers on Saturday was Mikko Koskinen, who stopped 44 of 47 shots in earning a road win against the league's highest-scoring team. I've heard a few people suggest that the Oilers should put Koskinen on waivers to send him to the minors in order to recall Stuart Skinner, who has better NHL numbers than both Koskinen and Mike Smith. The Oilers are a long way from being out of the woods when it comes to a reliable goalie situation, but at least Koskinen was able to postpone that discussion for one more day. Smith also seems not far away from another injury, which may necessitate a Skinner callup anyway.

Aleksander Barkov scored a pair of power-play goals while taking 10 of those Panthers shots on Koskinen. He has five multiple-point games in his last seven games.

Jonathan Huberdeau chipped in with an assist, extending his point streak to 10 games. Over that streak he has 17 points. He is currently tied with Connor McDavid in the Art Ross race – each player has 75 points. Leon Draisaitl is one point behind.  

If you needed goals and assists to make up serious ground in your head-to-head matchup, the Leafs/Wings game provided no shortage of those in a game that was reminiscent of an All-Star Game or a 1980s matchup. Or conversely, this game could have singlehandedly ruined your head-to-head week. A miracle for one person is a heartbreaking defeat for someone else.

The Leafs appeared ready to coast to victory with a 6-1 lead midway through the second period and a 7-2 lead late in the second period. But in the third period, the Wings exploded for four goals within the first six minutes to make it a one-goal game before the Leafs were eventually able to secure a 10-7 win. Four goals in the first period. Five goals in the second period. Eight goals in the third period. A 17-goal game! In addition, not a single one of those goals was scored on the power play. It was the highest-scoring game since 2011, when the Jets and Flyers also combined for 17 goals.

There were tons of scoring stars in this game, but the most notable was Mitch Marner, who recorded his first career hat trick while finishing with four goals and two assists. That six-point game tied Mason Marchment for the most points by a player in one game this season.

Marner's line finished the game with a combined 15 points! Auston Matthews scored again (third consecutive game with at least a goal) while adding three assists, while Michael Bunting scored a goal as well while adding four assists. With 40 points in 52 games, Bunting is nipping at the heels of Lucas Raymond for the rookie scoring lead. Whether you think Bunting should be a rookie is another matter, but he could receive a few Calder votes.

Raymond retained his first-place spot in the rookie scoring race (42 points) with a pair of goals and an assist. Filip Hronek scored a goal and added three assists while taking four shots.

With an assist, Dylan Larkin extended his point streak to nine games. Over that span he has 17 points, which has helped him vault over the point-per-game mark. Over a full 82-game season Larkin is on pace for 94 points, although bear in mind that he has already missed five games. Regardless, Larkin is on his way to a career high in points after a dreadful 2020-21 season that was shortened by injury and something closer to a 40-point pace.

In games like this, it's sometimes more interesting if not humiliating to mention which players did not register a point. So if John Tavares, Morgan Rielly, or Tyler Bertuzzi are on your roster, this must feel like a missed opportunity. Tavares has now gone 12 games without scoring a goal, although he's provided eight assists over that span.

This may not be a huge shocker given the score, but all four goalies that dressed for this game also not only saw action, but were all tagged with a really bad start. Jack Campbell, Petr Mrazek, Alex Nedeljkovic, and Thomas Greiss… all fit the criteria for an RBS because each of their game save percentages was below .850. Mrazek won the game in relief after taking over when Detroit scored its fifth goal in the third period, but he's proof that a goalie can earn both a win and an RBS. The more you know.

Mrazek has two really bad starts in his last three games. Going back further, Campbell has six really bad starts in his last 11 games. Leafs fans have to be feeling unsettled about their team's goaltending situation, especially when a first-round matchup with either Florida or Tampa Bay seems like a very real possibility. Meanwhile, I have to be choosier about matchups for Campbell on one of my fantasy teams, although the Red Wings didn't seem projected to provide an overly difficult test in this one.  

To wrap up, this was a long section because the more I would dig, the more interesting stats I would find out about this game.

In a 27-save 2-1 win over the Capitals, Carter Hart earned his first quality start in four games. He had allowed a combined 13 goals over his previous three starts.

Cam Atkinson scored one of the Flyers goals and assisted on the other. He entered this game with just a single point (an assist) over his previous six games.

After allowing at least four goals in each of his previous three starts, Tristan Jarry rebounded nicely on Saturday. The Penguins goalie posted a 27-save 1-0 shutout of the Rangers, his first win and first quality start in four games.

Evgeni Malkin scored the lone goal in the game, which gives him goals in three of his past four games and a five-game point streak.

Filip Chytil was held out as a healthy scratch for the Rangers. He has just a single point (a goal) in his last six games. Don't be surprised if his name comes up a lot in trade rumors as we approach the trade deadline.

Steven Stamkos was the scoring star of the Stadium Series game, scoring a goal and adding two power-play assists on five shots in Tampa Bay's 3-2 win over Nashville at Nissan Stadium. Stamkos has now scored goals in four consecutive games and has seven points over those four games.

Tanner Jeannot isn't slowing down, as he opened the scoring in the outdoor game. Jeannot now has four goals in his last four games and is tied with Bunting for the rookie goal-scoring lead with 18 goals.

The Stadium Series outdoor game also featured this memorable moment involving the recently retired Pekka Rinne:

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Laurent Brossoit has not registered a win in any of his last four games, including Saturday's 3-2 loss against Colorado. However, he has earned quality starts in two of those games. Not that Brossoit is a terrible goalie, but at 20 GP, he is only one game shy of exceeding his career high in games played. And he's played NHL games in eight different seasons. Brossoit had even started back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday. Robin Lehner participated in a full practice a few days ago, so hopefully for Vegas's sake he hasn't experienced some kind of setback.   

A few more injuries to mention:

The good news for Mathew Barzal is that he returned for one shift but couldn't return. He wouldn't have tried that if it were a truly serious injury. But we'll have to wait and see.

In a scary situation, Oliver Kylington was pretzeled into the boards and needed help to get off the ice. In a non-fantasy hockey rant, I know it's natural and even expected to go after the player responsible, which in this case was Ryan Hartman. But for heaven's sake, whatever you do, stay away from the injured player! Good on Jacob Markstrom to shelter his injured teammate in that situation. Fortunately, Darryl Sutter mentioned after that game that he expects Kylington to be fine.

In a somewhat similar play, Mario Ferraro also left his game on Saturday with a lower-body injury after crashing into the boards. He's not a huge scorer (no points in his last 15 games), but only Brent Burns averages more minutes among Sharks than Ferraro (23:19). He also leads the Sharks in both hits (101) and blocked shots (127), so he's got a bit of value in bangers leagues.

Brad Marchand scored a pair of goals while adding an assist with a plus-3 in the Bruins' win in San Jose. With eight shots on Saturday, Marchand has fired 15 shots in the two games he has played since returning from his six-game suspension.

Over his past five games, Jeremy Swayman is 4-0-1 with a 0.98 GAA and .964 SV%. Tuukka who?

The worries about Tyler Toffoli's icetime in Calgary should hopefully be put to bed. After averaging just over 12 minutes in each of his first three games as a Flame, Toffoli was up to 16:40 with first-unit power-play time on Saturday. In a 7-3 win over the Wild, Toffoli scored a pair of goals and added an assist. I wouldn't expect Toffoli to play on the top line simply because Johnny Gaudreau, Elias Lindholm, and Matthew Tkachuk have been rolling while the Flames make a serious case to be the Pacific Division's top team. Toffoli could be a solid fourth option on the power play, but he'll have to score his goals as more of a depth scorer. Having said that, he's a player that could really help the Flames.  

Fantasy Impact: Calgary Acquires Tyler Toffoli

As it turns out, that Calgary top line is the most productive unit this season, and they're running away with it.

Line CombinationTeamGF
ELIAS LINDHOLM – JOHNNY GAUDREAU – MATTHEW TKACHUKCGY51
MITCHELL MARNER – MICHAEL BUNTING – AUSTON MATTHEWSTOR32
JOE PAVELSKI – ROOPE HINTZ – JASON ROBERTSONDAL31
MATS ZUCCARELLO – RYAN HARTMAN – KIRILL KAPRIZOVMIN30
MATT DUCHENE – MIKAEL GRANLUND – FILIP FORSBERGNSH26

Like Toffoli, Tkachuk also scored two goals with an assist. Both of Tkachuk’s goals came on the man advantage.

To tie the late game of Hockey Night in Canada into the earlier high-scoring game, the Flames managed to score seven goals in a game after allowing seven to the Canucks in their previous game. A discussion on Twitter about whether that has ever happened led to the below 1980s special: A 7-7 tie.

If you're into Scorigami, this is one you won’t ever see again unless the NHL decides to allow tie games again someday. Even if it does, reaching that score will be an amazing feat in and of itself. I’ll leave it at that because if you're still reading, I've dragged you far enough down the rabbit hole today.

For more fantasy hockey discussion, follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding

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