Connor McDavid is simply the best

The three stars of the week were announced on Monday and Patrick Marleau was named the number one star for breaking the all-time record for games played in the NHL as he beat Gordie Howe’s mark of 1,767. The next game Marleau also played in his 900th straight game, becoming only the fourth NHLer, behind Doug Jarvis, Keith Yandle and Gary Unger to reach the mark.

Cam Talbot was the second star of the week as he was a perfect 3-0-0, with a 1.67 GAA and a .953 save percentage as he turned aside 101-of-106 shots. He has been everything the Wild could have asked for this season as he is 17-6-3 with a 2.33 GAA and a .926 save percentage.

Jonathan Huberdeau was the third star as he scored once and added six assists in four games. Huberdeau has 16 goals and 52 points this season in 49 games, 14th best in the NHL.

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MONTREAL 2 CALGARY 1

The Canadiens picked up a huge win as they defeated the Flames 2-1 to move six points ahead of Calgary for the fourth and final playoff spot in the North. Had Calgary won in regulation, they would have been only two points in arrears of the slumping Canadiens.

Jake Allen picked up the start and stopped 21 shots in the win. He evened his record at 9-9-4 and has a 2.49 GAA and a .913 save percentage.

Shea Weber opened the scoring with a power play goal, his sixth of the season but Elias Lindholm tied it up later in the first with his 15th of the campaign. It was also on the power play.

Tyler Toffoli scored the winner at the 18:05 mark of the second on a gorgeous drop pass from Joel Armia. It was Toffoli’s 25th of the season, and he is fourth in the race for the Rocket Richard Trophy.

Jacob Markstrom made 22 saves in the Calgary cage. He is 17-17-2 with a 2.73 GAA and a .903 save percentage.

Mark Giordano had four penalty minutes and five shots on goal along with three block shots.

Highly regarded rookie Cole Caufield made his NHL debut for Montreal and had four shots on goal playing 15:40.

ST. LOUIS 4 COLORADO 1

David Perron had a big game with a goal and two assists as the Blues upset Colorado 4-1 Monday. The loss kept the Avs four points behind Vegas in the race for first place in the West as the two sides meet Wednesday in Sin City.

Perron has 14 goals and 45 points this season to lead the Blues. Vladimir Tarasenko opened the scoring with a power play goal as he potted his fourth of the season. Robert Thomas, who returned to action on Saturday after missing a couple of weeks with a shoulder injury, scored his second of the season in his 23rd game. He also has seven assists.

Nathan MacKinnon scored the lone goal for Colorado. The power play effort was the only shot to beat Jordan Binnington. MacKinnon led both teams with six shots on goal but was a minus-three on the night, the same as linemates Andre Burakovsky and Gabriel Landeskog, who picked up the assists on MacKinnon’s 19th of the season.

Binnington made 31 saves and is 14-14-5 with a 2.68 GAA and a .910 save percentage. He has won two in a row, both over Colorado, and if he is on, the Blues will cause heartache for a lot of teams.

Jonas Johansson had won his last three starts (his only wins of the season) but managed to turn aside only 16-of-20 shots as he is 3-6-2 with a 3.10 GAA and a .894 save percentage. He is 3-1-1 as an Avalanche after starting the season in Buffalo, going 0-5-1.

Justin Faulk and Perron were each a plus-three while Cale Makar joined the Avs top line and was a minus-three.

The Avalanche were held to less than two goals for the first time in 32 games, dating back to February 22.

OTTAWA 2 VANCOUVER 1

Marcus Hogberg turned aside 25 shots as the Ottawa Senators upended the Vancouver Canucks 2-1. The loss kept the Canucks in sixth place, but only one point up on Ottawa, although Vancouver does have seven games in hand.

Josh Norris and Drake Batherson scored for Ottawa as Batherson’s 17th goal of the season was the game winner.

Olli Juolevi with his second of the season, scored the lone Vancouver goal.

Ryan Dzingel and Jake Virtanen battled in the first period and both picked up five minutes for fighting. Dzingel also had a holding penalty in the second period.

Hogberg picked up only his third win of the season as he is 3-7-0. He lowered his goals-against-average from 4.14 to 3.81 and has a .877 save percentage.

Braden Holtby made 25 saves in taking the loss, snapping a three-game winning streak. He is 7-7-2 with a 3.24 GAA and a .904 save percentage.

Thatcher Demko was slated to start but suffered a lower-body injury in morning practice and is day-to-day.

Tyler Motte and Josh Brown each had five hits.

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DALLAS 4 CAROLINA 3 (Overtime)

It was Jamie Benn night as he set up the first three Dallas goals and then scored the overtime winner as the Stars picked up an important two points with a 4-3 win over Carolina.

Benn has been a stud since moving to center 11 games ago as he has really picked up his game. Benn has four goals and 13 points in 11 games since he started playing on the second line with Denis Gurianov and Jason Dickinson.

Dickinson and Gurianov also scored as did Joe Pavelski who scored with the man-advantage in the first period.

Rookie netminder Jake Oettinger stopped 29-of-32 shots to improve to 10-6-6 with a 2.26 GAA and a .915 save percentage.

Max McCormick scored his first of the season for Carolina, and it was his first goal since the 2018-19 season as he potted one with Ottawa in 14 games.

Defensemen Jaccob Slavin and Jani Hakanpaa also scored for Carolina. Hakanpaa was picked up at the trade deadline for Haydn Fleury and was third in the NHL in hits at the time with 168, but he had only three assists in 42 games. Since coming to Carolina, Hakanpaa has scored twice in seven games with 23 hits, remaining third behind Radko Gudas and Brady Tkachuk.

James Reimer got a rare start, stopping 27 shots. He is 14-5-2 with a 2.74 GAA and a .905 save percentage. He has been passed on the depth chart by Alex Nedeljkovic with Petr Mrazek the starter when healthy.

Morgan Geekie and Jason Robertson each had two assists. 

NASHVILLE 4 FLORIDA 1

Juuse Saros has been one of the unsung stories of the 2020-21 NHL season. He was 3-5-0 with a 3.47 GAA and a .882 save percentage. Since then, he has gone 15-4-1 and now has a 2.23 GAA and a .929 save percentage, giving up 35 goals on 657 shots for a .947 save percentage. He stopped 39-of-40 shots on Monday in a 4-1 win over Florida.

Erik Haula led the way offensively with a goal and an assist while Mikael Granlund, Nick Cousins and Yakov Trenin also score for the Predators.

Sam Bennett with his eighth of the season, broke up the shutout bid of Saros. Bennett has been a stud since leaving Calgary as he has four goals and seven points in six games as a Panther.

Chris Driedger got the start for Florida and stopped 14-of-16 shots but suffered a lower-body injury at the 15:05 mark of the second and could not return. Sergei Bobrovsky took over and gave up two goals on 11 shots the rest of the way. Coach Joel Quenneville said after the game that Driedger was day-to-day.

Bennett and Owen Tippett had five shots on goal.

EDMONTON 6 WINNIPEG 1

It was the Connor McDavid show for the Oilers like it has been every time the Oilers and the Jets have played this season. McDavid had the hat trick and added an assist to give the Oilers a 6-1 win and moved them ahead of Winnipeg for second place in the North.

McDavid has played eight games against Winnipeg this season and has had at least two points in every contest. McDavid has seven goals and 19 points in the eight games as Winnipeg has been unable to shut down the NHL’s best player.

McDavid has 81 points, 15 better than teammate Leon Draisaitl, who is in second place in NHL scoring. Draisaitl had a goal and an assist with Alex Chiasson and Darnell Nurse also scoring.

Mike Smith was great as he stopped 36-of-37 shots for the win. He is 17-5-2 with a 2.32 GAA and a .923 save percentage and is giving the Oilers the netminding they need to go deep into the playoffs.

It was a rough night for the Jets as Connor Hellebuyck gave up all six goals on only 23 shots before he was replaced after the second period. Laurent Brossoit stopped all seven shots in the third period as the Jets dropped their fourth straight.

Mark Scheifele scored on the power play for the lone Jets goal.

Mason Appleton and McDavid each had seven shots on goal.

Blake Wheeler had seven hits.

McDavid, Jesse Puljujarvi and Nurse were all plus-four.

Wheeler and Tucker Poolman were each a minus-four.

Draisaitl’s goal gave him 488 points and he became the all-time leading scorer from Germany, surpassing Marco Sturm.

LOS ANGELES 4 ANAHEIM 1

In the battle of Los Angeles (and surrounding area) the Kings scored twice in the first and twice into the empty net, to defeat the Anaheim Ducks 4-1 and open up a five-point lead for seventh place in the West Division.

Sean Walker with his second and Mikey Anderson with his first, scored in the first to give the Kings a 2-0 lead after one.

Rookie defenseman Jamie Drysdale scored his third of the season in the second period to cut the lead in half. Drysdale is one of the young stars that Anaheim is planning to build around after he was selected sixth overall in the 2020 Draft. Trevor Zegras, who is currently in the minors, is expected to be the Ducks next star up front.

Dustin Brown and Trevor Moore scored into the empty net to seal the win.

Jonathan Quick turned aside 21 shots for the Los Angeles win. He is 9-9-2 with a 2.95 GAA and a .893 save percentage. He last played on April 14, giving up three goals on eight shots to Vegas.

Anthony Stolarz made 21 saves in taking the loss. He is 3-3-0 with a 2.25 GAA and a .926 save percentage.

Max Jones had six hits.

SAN JOSE 6 ARIZONA 4

San Jose jumped out to a 4-0 lead, saw Arizona come back and cut the lead to one but former Leaf Alexander Barabanov scored his first NHL goal as San Jose held on to defeat the Coyotes 6-4.

Noah Gregor and Brent Burns scored in the first 3:07 of the first period and Logan Couture and Erik Karlsson scored in the first 3:19 of the second to give the Sharks a 4-0 lead before Arizona mounted a comeback.

Michael Bunting with his eighth, Clayton Keller and Jakob Chychrun with a pair, scored for the Coyotes. For Chychrun, he regained the NHL scoring lead among defensemen as Darnell Nurse tied his mark of 14 earlier in the night for the Oilers. Chychrun’s 15th goal of the season at the 2:02 mark of the third made it 4-3. He sliced the lead to one with his 16th of the season with 4:44 left in the third.

Darcy Kuemper got the start for Arizona and he gave up four goals on 11 shots before he was pulled after the Erik Karlsson goal in the second stanza.

Adin Hill finished up and gave up one goal on 22 shots the rest of the way.

Josef Korenar picked up his first career win after suffering three losses as he stopped 21 Arizona shots.

Evander Kane had a great game with an empty netter and three assists to clinch the game. Tomas Hertl had two assists as did Nick Schmaltz.

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NIGHTLY LEADERS

Goals

Connor McDavid – 3

Jakob Chychrun – 2

Assists

Jamie Benn – 3

Evander Kane – 3

Tomas Hertl – 2

Nick Schmaltz – 2

Jason Robertson – 2

David Perron – 2

Ryan O’Reilly – 2

Morgan Geekie – 2

Shots on Goal

Connor McDavid – 7

Mason Appleton – 7

Evander Kane – 7

Nathan MacKinnon – 6

Jakob Chychrun – 6

Hits

 Blake Wheeler – 7

Max Jones – 6

Ilya Lyubushkin – 6

J.T. Compher – 5

Josh Brown – 5

Tyler Motte – 5

Dylan DeMelo – 5

Luke Kunin – 5

Penalty Minutes

Ryan Dzingel – 7

Jake Virtanen – 5

Mark Giordano – 4

Jake Walman – 4

Oliver Ekman-Larsson – 4