Leon Draisaitl became the first Germany-born and 10th Europe-born player to lead the NHL in points. The Edmonton Oilers forward had 110 points (43 goals, 67 assists) in 71 games.
It’s the third time in four seasons an Oilers player won the Art Ross Trophy; Edmonton is the first team to achieve that feat since the Pittsburgh Penguins won seven straight scoring titles from 1994-95 to 2000-01 (Jaromir Jagr, 1994-95 and 1997-01; Mario Lemieux, 1995-97).
Draisaitl and teammate Connor McDavid (97), the Art Ross winner in 2016-17 and 2017-18, were first and second in points. It’s the seventh time in 44 seasons that teammates finished first and second in the scoring race.
For the fifth time in NHL history, the top-four scorers were born in different countries (McDavid, Canada; David Pastrnak of Boston Bruins, 95 points, Czech Republic; Artemi Panarin of New York Rangers, 95 points, Russia). This also occurred in 2018-19, 2005-06 (top five), 1998-99 and 1997-98.
Video: EDM@LAK: Draisaitl buries McDavid’s feed for PPG
Richard race ends in tie: Pastrnak and Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals each scored 48 goals to share the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy, introduced in 1998-99 and given annually to the top goal-scorer in the NHL. Pastrnak is 23; Ovechkin is 34. It’s the first time in 57 seasons that one player 23 or younger and another 34 or older were the top two goal-scorers in the NHL. Bobby Hull of the Chicago Black Hawks (50 goals) was 23 and Gordie Howe of the Detroit Red Wings (33 goals) was 34 when they finished first and second in 1961-62.
Pastrnak is the first player since Phil Esposito (61 in 1974-75) to lead the NHL in goals for the Bruins. He also joined Esposito (three times) and Bobby Orr (twice) as the third Boston player with at least four hat tricks in one season.
Ovechkin topped the NHL in goals for the third straight season and an NHL-record ninth time overall. He had an NHL career-high four hat tricks and is the fourth player in NHL history to score at least 48 goals in one season at age 34 or older, joining Jaromir Jagr of the New York Rangers (54 in 2005-06 at 34), Johnny Bucyk of the Bruins (51 in 1970-71 at 35) and Teemu Selanne of the Anaheim Ducks (48 in 2006-07 at 34).
Video: WSH@MIN: Ovechkin nets one-timer on two-man advantage
Ovechkin became the eighth player in NHL history to reach the 700-goal mark when he scored against the New Jersey Devils on Feb. 22. He finished the season with 706, passing Hockey Hall of Famers Luc Robitaille (668), Teemu Selanne (684), Lemieux (690), Steve Yzerman (692) and Mark Messier (694) along the way.
Pastrnak and Ovechkin were among 56 NHL players with at least one hat trick.
The five 40-goal scorers in the NHL this season were born in different countries, the seventh time that’s happened (Ovechkin, Russia; Pastrnak, Czech Republic; Auston Matthews of Toronto Maple Leafs, 47 goals, United States; Draisaitl, Germany; and Mika Zibanejad of the Rangers, 41, Sweden).
It was the first season in NHL history to end without a Canada-born player among the top eight in goals.
Rookie defensemen shine: Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks (53 points; eight goals, 45 assists in 68 games) and Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche (50 points; 12 goals, 38 assists in 57 games) finished first and second among rookies in points. It’s the first time in the NHL modern era (since 1943-44) that defensemen finished first and second in rookie scoring.
Hughes became the third modern-era defenseman to lead rookies in scoring, joining Orr (1966-67) and Brian Leetch of the Rangers (1988-89).
Blackhawks forward Dominik Kubalik topped NHL rookies with 30 goals. He’s the first player born in the Czech Republic or the former Czechoslovakia to lead NHL rookies in goals, and the third to reach the 30-goal mark in his first NHL season after Petr Klima of the Red Wings (32 in 1985-86) and Petr Prucha of the Rangers (30 in 2005-06).
Video: CHI@TBL: Kubalik records first career hat trick
D-man leaders: Zach Werenski led defensemen with 20 goals, the most by a Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman since they entered the NHL in 2000-01.
Werenski is the eighth active NHL defenseman to score at least 20 goals in one season.
John Carlson of the Capitals led defensemen with 60 assists and 75 points. He was on pace to finish with 89 points, which would have been the most by an NHL defenseman since Hockey Hall of Famer Sergei Zubov had 89 for the Rangers in 1993-94.
Goalie leaders and achievements: Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning won 35 games to lead the NHL in victories for the third consecutive season. He’s the second goalie to lead the League in wins in at least three seasons before his 26th birthday, joining Terry Sawchuk, who did it in five straight seasons for the Red Wings (1950-55). Vasilevskiy is the first goalie of any age to lead the NHL in wins for at least three consecutive seasons since Martin Brodeur of the Devils did it in four straight (2002-07).
Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets led the NHL with six shutouts, tying the single-season Jets/Atlanta Thrashers record he set in 2017-18. He was second to Vasilevskiy with 31 victories, the third time in his NHL career he won at least 30 games.
Boston’s Tuukka Rask was No. 1 in goals-against average (2.12) and second in save percentage (.929) to Anton Khudobin of the Dallas Stars (.930) among goalies who played at least 23 games. Rask and Jaroslav Halak combined to win the William M. Jennings Trophy, awarded to the goalie(s) whose team allows the fewest goals.
Pekka Rinne of the Nashville Predators made NHL history Jan. 9 when he scored the 13th goal credited to a goalie during the regular season (there have been two in the Stanley Cup Playoffs).
Rinne shot the puck into an empty net against the Blackhawks for the first goal by an NHL goalie since Mike Smith of the Phoenix Coyotes scored against the Red Wings on Oct. 19, 2013.
Video: NSH@CHI: Rinne launches home first NHL goal
Comebacks galore: Leads were rarely safe this season.
There were 457 games won by a team that trailed at some point, tied for the second-most comeback wins through 1,082 games in NHL history (474 in 2005-06 and 457 in 2018-19). The Capitals and St. Louis Blues shared the League lead with 21 comeback victories.
Of those 457 comeback wins, 125 came after a team trailed by multiple goals, the most in NHL history through 1,082 games. There were 43 games won by a team that trailed by multiple goals in the third period, the second most in NHL history through 1,082 games (45 in 2009-10). In 21.5 percent of all games (233 of 1,082), a team at least tied the score after trailing by more than one goal.
There were five games when a team won after trailing by at least four goals. That’s tied for the most in a single season, matching the mark set in 1983-84 and equaled in 1985-86.
Close games were also the rule, with 70.4 percent (762 of 1,082) decided by one goal or by multiple goals with at least one into an empty net.
Youth will be served: Younger players continue to excel.
Ten of the 17 players to score at least 30 goals were age 24 or younger, and the top three in the points race (Draisaitl, 24; McDavid and Pastrnak, each 23) all were under 25. It’s the fifth time in NHL history that’s happened, but the first since 2009-10 (also 1983-84, 1984-85, 1994-95).
None of the League’s top five in points has reached his 30th birthday (also Panarin, 28, and Colorado Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon, 24, who had 93 points).
Rookie goalies accounted for 10 shutouts, with five by Elvis Merzlikins of the Blue Jackets.
A total of 16 players born in the 2000s played at least one game this season. That includes five members of the 2019 NHL Draft class (Jack Hughes of the Devils, Kaapo Kakko of the Rangers, Kirby Dach of the Blackhawks, Ville Heinola of the Jets and Tobias Bjornfot of the Los Angeles Kings).
The Olympic rings are set up at Trocadero plaza that overlooks the Eiffel Tower in Paris.Michel Euler/The Associated Press
In the middle of a record haul at the Tokyo Olympics, Canada’s women’s swim team had one letdown – the 4×200-metre freestyle relay.
Canada had taken bronze in the event at Rio 2016 and again at the 2019 world aquatics championships. The team looked good for another medal.
On the day of the final, a Chinese team that was not considered a contender surprised everyone, winning in world-record time. Canada came fourth.
A battling result, but still disappointing. It looks a little worse than that now.
Over the weekend, the New York Times reported that nearly half the Chinese swim team failed a drug test seven months before the Tokyo Games. Twenty-three swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine, or TMZ.
TMZ is a synthetic substance. You’re not going to pick it up because you’ve chosen the wrong hot-dog vendor.
China was allowed to do its own investigation into the mass positive. That probe determined the athletes had been exposed to TMZ in tainted food at a team hotel. How exactly so many of them ingested it, while others did not, wasn’t explained.
Unusually, no announcement was made about the positive tests, and no one was suspended while the investigation was under way. The World Anti-Doping Agency knew what was going on, but decided the best way to determine if China had done anything wrong was to ask China to look into it. When China gave China the all clear, WADA signed off.
One of those who tested positive was Zhang Yufei. Zhang won three medals in Tokyo, one of them as part of the 4x200m relay team.
The swimming world is now playing doping leapfrog throughout those Games. The Canadian relay team is on a long list of unlucky losers. Had China’s violations stuck, the medal table would look very different.
It would also have pushed a Games that was on the edge closer to the drop. Few in Japan were super stoked about the world dropping by en masse during what would become that country’s first mass COVID wave.
The main reason the Tokyo Games happened was that so much money had been spent, much more was still owed, and insurers were not willing to write down 10 or 15 billion.
Picking a fight with China in that precarious moment could not have seemed like a great idea. Even more precarious – the next Games, to be held six months later in Beijing.
As an event, at absolute best, Beijing 2022 was going to be a very expensive bummer (which it absolutely was). That’s the sort of party that’s easy to call off.
You don’t need to be a Reddit obsessive to see what happened here. The Chinese swim team got caught mid-purge, and the people in charge had to prioritize their response.
Priority No. 1 – the Olympic business.
Priority No. 2 – the Olympic ideals.
They picked money over fairness.
It’s easy to lash them now, so plenty of people are. The head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency called it “a devastating stab in the back of clean athletes.”
(Is it possible to be undevastatingly stabbed in the back?)
The stickiest criticism involves Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva. She also tested positive for trace amounts of TMZ before an Olympics. She also had one of those ‘maybe the dog gave me steroids’-type excuses.
But since everybody hates Russia, Valieva did not get the benefit of an in-house probe. She was dragged upside-down and backward through the global press and stripped of her medals. There’s your fairness.
It’s fitting that WADA take a reputational beating here. That is its most useful function – to absorb stakeholder rage after another own goal has been scored by the Doping Police.
But out in the real world, no one cares. Of course the Olympics is dirty. The Olympics has spent the last half century repeatedly reminding us of that.
Between Games, the Olympics makes news only two ways – ‘Upcoming host city X is having serious second thoughts’ and ‘So-and-so cheated their way to gold.’
These stories have become so numerous that the only people registering them are the ones who make their living in an Olympics-adjacent business, like sports administration or media.
Those people are happy to complain – complaining is good for trade – but they don’t want things to change. Change is dangerous. Who knows where change will land you?
In this specific instance, real change in the form of zero tolerance could have hobbled one Olympics and gotten the next one cancelled. Then what?
You start cancelling Olympics and people learn to live without them. Sponsors find new things to sponsor. Broadcasters move on.
Better to compromise. Chinese swimmers did a little TMZ. So what? Figure skaters, tennis players, breaststrokers – everybody’s doing it nowadays. It’s like weed for the Marx and Engels crowd.
With all that in mind, here’s something you won’t often read in this space – WADA made the right call.
It’s not like it was going to go swanning into Guangdong province in early 2021, right in the teeth of the pandemic, to figure out what was what. The only way to get any sort of answers was to rely on Chinese investigators. How do you know if they’re on the up and up? You don’t. WADA had two choices – take China’s word for it, or go scorched earth right before the two most tenuously assembled Games in history.
The proof that WADA made the correct choice is that those Games happened. Maybe it would make a different call now, and that might be right, too.
As far as fairness goes, it doesn’t belong in this conversation.
If a Belgian or a Tanzanian gets caught cheating, don’t even bother asking for consideration.
An American? Probably not.
An American everyone knows? Maybe.
A lot of Americans everybody knows? Let’s talk.
This can’t be discussed because once that discussion gets going, it points toward the sort of change no current stakeholder want to think about. If someone who tests positive can negotiate their way out of it and fairness is the goal, isn’t it fairer to stop testing altogether?
Was it an alley-oop? A Hail Mary? A Jerry Rice post route? Catch and ReLeaf?
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Whatever it was, it was the goal Toronto Maple Leafs fans were waiting for.
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If the Leafs go on to beat the Boston Bruins and make it out of the first round for the second year in a row, fans will look back at Max Domi’s flip pass and Auston Matthews’ catch and finish as the moment it all became possible.
Matthews’ 70th goal of the season (69+1 if we’re splitting hairs) was maybe his finest.
The play: Incredible. The catch: Immaculate. The finish: Nasty. The timing: Perfect.
Social media had plenty to say about Monday’s game-winning goal, but first let’s listen to calls of the play from every corner of the playoff series:
Chris Cuthbert on Hockey Night in Canada:
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Retiring voice of the Boston Bruins Jack Edwards:
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Of course, nothing can compare to Joe Bowen’s call on Toronto radio. Any Leafs moment isn’t complete until fans hear what the High Priest of Holy Mackinaw said, and he didn’t disappoint:
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It didn’t take long for Matthews’ game-winner to go viral across social media, with fans, media and ex-players weighing in on the incredible goal. The Leafs and Bruins resume their first round series on Wednesday in Toronto at 7 p.m.
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It was a game of big numbers at Rogers Place that featured 82 shots, 72 faceoffs, 112 hits and 11 goals. Connor McDavid scored 5 points, Zach Hyman and Evan Bouchard 4 each. Adam Henrique scored his first playoff point in 12 years. And the Edmonton Oilers won the opening game of a playoff series on their home ice for the first time in 12,409 days.
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But win it they did, cruising to a 7-4 win over Los Angeles Kings to establish a 1-0 series lead in the 2024 edition of the seemingly annual opening round series between the two.
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It wasn’t always pretty, but several of the goals sure were. The Oilers held the advantage in play, outshooting the Kings 45-37 with an 18-10 advantage in Grade A Shots as recorded by the Cult of Hockey (running count). 8 of those Grade A shots came on a red-hot powerplay that produced 3 goals in a combined time of 4:50.
#2 Evan Bouchard, 7. Moved the puck well for the most part and had 4 secondary assists to show for it, not to mention a tertiary that doesn’t show up on the scoresheet. But was among the defensive culprits on both LA goals that cut a 4-0 lead in half before the end of the second period. Way more good than bad on the night. Contributions to Grade A Shots (GAS): Even Strength +3/-2, Special Teams +1/-0.
#5 Cody Ceci, 6. Played a rock solid defensive game, landing 5 hits and winning the lion’s share of battles. Victimized on a couple of unlucky goals against in garbage time, and in the spotlight himself on 1 of them when his stick exploded making a routine D-to-D pass after a won neutral zone faceoff. His 19:00 at even strength led the team. GAS: ES +2/-3; ST +1/-0.
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#13 Mattias Janmark, 5. Classic Janmark game in which not a whole lot happened during his 10 minutes of action, pro or con. Tagged with an undeserved -1 on the Ceci-stick-explodes goal. GAS: +0/-0; ST 0.
#14 Mattias Ekholm, 6. Solid with a couple of shaky moments. Made a couple of lunging stops on the same dangerous sequence. His neutral zone turnover led to a Viktor Arvidsson breakaway early in the second, then he was unable to contain Adrian Kempe on the 4-2. Delivered a great stretch pass to Hyman for a breakaway chance. Led the D with 2:00 on the penalty kill. GAS: ES +4/-2; ST 0.
#18 Zach Hyman, 9. All over it from the get-go, driving hard to the net time and again. Scored a goal in each period by materializing in a dangerous spot and converting a McDavid pass from close range. Added a primary assist on Henrique’s goal. Took a goalie interference for another net drive gone wrong. Later drew a call the other way. Hit a post in a scramble. Robbed by Talbot’s best save of the game on a breakaway. Took a knock on the continuation of that play and was in pain, but returned for another shift and appeared to be OK. May have set a record for most hats on the ice for a hat trick. 9 shots on net to lead both teams. Also added 5 hits and was a central figure in the battle all night long. GAS: ES +7/-1; ST+3/-0.
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#19 Adam Henrique, 7. His first playoff game in 6 years and his first playoff win in 12. Won a battle leading to the first Oilers goal, scored the second himself with a strong wrist shot from range, then earned an assist on the third. Made a great aerial deflection of Ceci’s outside shot. Took a penalty. Among those beaten on the first Kings goal. GAS: ES +4/-1; ST +1/-1.
#25 Darnell Nurse, 6. Played a solid 2-way game with 7 shot attempts, 2 blocks, and 6 hits. Won a lot of battles along the way. Pasted Kempe in the early going with a booming open-ice hit. Safe and sound behind his own blueline until the very late going, when a cross-ice pass caught his skate and found the net to make it 6-3. GAS: ES +0/-2; ST 0.
#27 Brett Kulak, 5. Low event game including no goals at either end of the sheet during his 16 minutes. GAS: ES +0/-2; ST 0.
#29 Leon Draisaitl, 8. Nearly wrecked himself on his opening shift when he took a run at a King and missed, but thankfully survived. Did his best work on the powerplay, setting up an RNH tally with a brilliant pass and scoring the winning goal himself with a brilliant shot. Also made a superb pass to RNH on an even-strength 2-on-1 that wasn’t converted. Strong defensively. Drew a penalty. Rock solid on the faceoff dot at 15/24=63%. 3 shots at one end, 2 blocks (!) at the other. GAS: ES =0/-0; ST +5/-0.
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#37 Warren Foegele, 6. Mashed Drew Doughty with an excellent hit in the very early going. Played a simple, solid game. Scored the empty netter that finalized the score line, after first stealing the puck in the neutral zone.
#39 Sam Carrick, 5. Played his first career playoff game at age 32 and got the job done. His line with Holloway and Janmark lost the possession battle but held their own on the scoresheet until the late fluke. He did get tagged with a -1 on the 4-2, but his “mistake” there was to do the job hjje was sent out to do and win a d-zone faceoff. 1 shot, 2 blocks, 4 hits, and 10/18=56% on the dot. GAS: +0/-0; ST 0.
#55 Dylan Holloway, 5. Held his own in his second career playoff game. GAS: +0/-0; ST 0.
#71 Ryan McLeod, 6. Played a fine defensive game between the vets Kane and Perry. 2 takeaways, 2 blocked shots. GAS: ES +2/-0; ST 0.
#73 Vincent Desharnais, 6. Rock of Gibraltar on the blue, with 6 hits and 5 shot blocks. On the receiving end of a nasty low-bridge hit by Trevor Moore that left him in obvious pain as the second period wound down, but returned in the third to finish the job. Best of all, the Oil scored the game winner on the resultant powerplay. GAS: +0/-1; ST 0.
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#74 Stu Skinner, 6. Very good in the first half of the game. Contributed the TSN Turning Point when he got a tiny piece of his pad on Viktor Arvidsson’s breakaway shot, with the Oilers subsequently scoring on the continuation. The game that could have been 2-1, was instead 3-0. The back half of the game went less well with 4 official GA and a fifth which was gloved in and correctly called back after a couple of nervous minutes. Struggled a bit with rebound control. 37 shots, 33 saves, .892 save percentage.
#90 Corey Perry, 5. Put the puck in good places, including on Kane’s stick for a couple of great chances in tight. 3 hits, 2 takeaways. GAS: ES +2/-0; ST 0.
#91 Evander Kane, 6. Was visible throughout, mostly in good ways. Fired 6 shots on net including a couple of powerful wristers. nearly squeezing one through Talbot. Did have a couple of issues suppressing outside shots from the point. Led EDM forwards with 15:45 TOI at even strength. GAS: ES +3/-1.
#93 Ryan Nugent Hopkins, 6. Set up perfectly by Draisaitl for what apepared to be a wide open net, but the puck rolled off his stick. Made up for it a few minutes later with a strong goal mouth finish of another sweet Draisaitl feed. 4 shots, 2 blocks, 2 hits, 1 takeaway, and a team-high 2:04 on the 2-for-2 penalty kill. GAS: ES +0/-0; ST +1/-0.
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#97 Connor McDavid, 9. Became just the 15th player in NHL history with 5 (or more) assists in a playoff game, joining dynasty Oilers Wayne Gretzky (2x), Paul Coffey, Glenn Anderson and 10 others from other teams. 4 of them were primary assists, including all 3 of Hyman’s tallies. Twice McDavid beat defenders with brilliant spin moves before dishing. Threaded a bullet pass through Matt Roy’s skates for Hyman’s hat trick goal. 3 shots, 3 hits, and uncounted passes. GAS: ES +3/-0; ST +6/-0.
STAPLES: Big questions about Nurse-Ceci pairing
STAPLES: Hitting is way up in playoffs. Are Oilers up to it?
McCURDY: Kane, Janmark, Holloway all look good to go for Game One
McCURDY: Oilers vs. Kings anything but a foregone conclusion
STAPLES: Kane, Janmark missing from practice. What are the implications?
STAPLES: Pretty much every NHL commentator is picking Oilers over Kings
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