NHL issues additional clarification of new rules for 2019-20

 

NEW YORK – With the 2019-20 regular-season underway,  NHL Hockey Operations and Officiating is providing the following interpretations/clarifications with respect to the new rules. This information has been compiled to answer a number of questions that have arisen during the 2019-20 pre-season.

 

As a reminder, the intent of new Rule 38.2 (b) is to address a missed stoppage event in the offensive zone that results in a goal.

 

 

MISSED GAME STOPPAGE EVENT IN OFFENSIVE ZONE LEADING TO A GOAL

RULE 38.2 (b): A play that results in a “GOAL” call on the ice where the defending team claims that the play should have been stopped by reason of any play occurring in the offensive zone that should have resulted in a play stoppage but did not.

 

Clarification – High-Sticked Pucks

 

i) If the missed game stoppage is a high-sticked puck committed by the attacking player from the neutral zone to himself or a teammate in the offensive zone – a Coach’s Challenge by the defending team would be successful. While the puck was high-sticked in the neutral zone, the rule infraction does not occur until that player or a teammate touches the puck in the offensive zone.

 

ii) If the missed game stoppage is a high-sticked puck committed by a defending player to a defending player – either in the defending zone or from the neutral zone back to a teammate in the defending zone – a Coach’s Challenge by the defending team would be unsuccessful. The spirit of the rule is to address Missed Game Stoppages in the Offensive Zone caused by an attacking player.

 

Clarification – Batted Pucks

 

i) If the missed game stoppage is a batted puck committed by the attacking player from the neutral zone to a teammate in the offensive zone – a Coach’s Challenge by the defending team would be successful. While the puck was batted in the neutral zone, the rule infraction does not occur until a teammate touches the puck in the offensive zone.

 

ii) If the missed game stoppage is a defending player batting the puck from the neutral zone back to a teammate in the defending zone – a Coach’s Challenge by the defending team would be unsuccessful. The spirit of the rule is to address Missed Game Stoppages in the Offensive Zone caused by an attacking player.

 

Clarification – Offensive Zone Puck Out of Play

If the missed game stoppage is a puck deflected or shot out of play (i.e. into the netting) in the offensive zone, regardless of whether it last touched the stick of an attacking or defending player – a Coach’s Challenge by the defending team would be successful.

 

 

NO LINE CHANGE

RULE 63. 7

Pages 97-98 of 2019-20 Official Rules

 

Net Dislodged: If the net is dislodged by both players and it can’t be determined conclusively that it was the actions of the defender, the face-off defaults to the regular dot and the defending team will be allowed to make a line change.

 

Goalie Freeze on Shot Past Center: When a puck is shot from beyond center and frozen by the goaltender – the defending team will suffer the loss of a line change without exception.

 

Note: There will be no TV commercials after either of the two stoppages listed above.

 

IDENTIFYING THE FACE-OFF LOCATION

If no direction is given from a Club in situations where the offensive team has the right to choose which side of the ice the face-off will occur – the face-off alignment will default to the regular location identified by the on-ice officials.

 

PUCK DROP AFTER GOALS AND START OF OT

A change this season will see linesmen dropping the puck at center ice after all goals and prior to the start of OT.

 

PRESS RELEASE WRITTEN BY NHL PUBLIC RELATIONS; COURTESY NFLmedia.com

 

Posted in NHL | No Comments »

NHL 2019-20 Season-Opening Rosters by the Numbers

 

Ages as of Oct. 2, 2019; Players listed by birth country; Excludes injured players

Click here for information on season-opening rosters in addition to the chart below.

 

690	Number of players on official season-opening rosters
295	Number of Canadian players, the most of any country (42.8% of 690) – a full breakdown of NHL season-opening rosters by birth country is included in the attachment
177	Number of U.S. players on season-opening rosters – last season, 153 U.S.-born players skated in their team’s opening game (the most ever)
41	Percentage of players age 25 or younger (284 of 690)
23	Percentage of players age 23 or younger (157 of 690)
35	Number of players who have yet to play an NHL regular-season game
20	Number of different birth countries represented
16	Highest representation of one country on a single roster – the Blues have 16 Canadians
14	Number of teenagers, with Jack Hughes (NJD) as the youngest (18 years, 141 days)
11	Players born in the 2000s, with 10 different teams carrying at least one – including two on the Jets (David Gustafsson and Ville Heinola)
11	The most U.S. players on a single roster, with the Wild leading the list (followed by Coyotes, Devils and Jets, all with 10)
9	The most countries represented on a single roster, with the Avalanche (Canada – 9; United States – 4; Russia – 3; Finland – 2; Austria – 1; Czech Republic – 1; Germany – 1; France – 1; Sweden – 1) and Blue Jackets (Canada – 7; United States – 5; Sweden – 4; Finland – 2; Denmark – 1; France – 1; Latvia – 1; Russia – 1; Switzerland – 1) leading the list
4	Number of 18-year-olds (age in years-day): Jack Hughes (NJD; 18-141), Tobias Bjornfot (LAK; 18-179), Kaapo Kakko (NYR; 18-231) and Ville Heinola (WPG; 18-241)
2	Players who skated in an NHL game in the 1990s (Zdeno Chara and Joe Thornton)

 

PRESS RELEASE WRITTEN BY NHL PUBLIC RELATIONS; COURTESY NHLmedia.com

Posted in NHL | No Comments »

NHL 2019-20 Season-Opening Rosters

 

NEW YORK – Following are NHL club rosters to open season. Players who recently have agreed to terms with their respective clubs but whose contracts had not yet been approved by the League are not included.

 

Anaheim Ducks

Max Comtois, Michael Del Zotto, Nicolas Deslauriers, Cam Fowler, Ryan Getzlaf, John Gibson, Derek Grant, Brendan Guhle, Adam Henrique, Korbinian Holzer, Max Jones, Jacob Larsson, Hampus Lindholm, Isac Lundestrom, Josh Manson, Ryan Miller, Rickard Rakell, Nick Ritchie, Carter Rowney, Devin Shore, Jakob Silfverberg, Troy Terry.

 

Injured: Patrick Eaves, Ondrej Kase, Ryan Kesler, Sam Steel.

 

Arizona Coyotes

Jakob Chychrun, Eric Comrie, Lawson Crouse, Jason Demers, Christian Dvorak, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Conor Garland, Alex Goligoski, Michael Grabner, Barrett Hayton, Vinnie Hinostroza, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Clayton Keller, Phil Kessel, Darcy Kuemper, Jordan Oesterle, Antti Raanta, Brad Richardson, Nick Schmaltz, Carl Soderberg, Derek Stepan.

 

Injured: Marian Hossa.

 

Boston Bruins

David Backes, Patrice Bergeron, Brandon Carlo, Zdeno Chara, Charlie Coyle, Jake DeBrusk, Matt Grzelcyk, Jaroslav Halak, Danton Heinen, Steven Kampfer, David Krejci, Torey Krug, Sean Kuraly, Par Lindholm, Brad Marchand, Charlie McAvoy, David Pastrnak, Tuukka Rask, Brett Ritchie, Urho Vaakanainen, Chris Wagner.

 

Injured: Anton Blidh, Kevan Miller, John Moore, Joakim Nordstrom.

 

Buffalo Sabres

Rasmus Dahlin, Jean-Sebastien Dea, Jack Eichel, John Gilmour, Zemgus Girgensons, Carter Hutton, Marcus Johansson, Johan Larsson, Curtis Lazar, Jake McCabe, Colin Miller, Casey Mittelstadt, Kyle Okposo, Lawrence Pilut, Sam Reinhart, Rasmus Ristolainen, Evan Rodrigues, Marco Scandella, Conor Sheary, Jeff Skinner, Vladimir Sobotka, Linus Ullmark, Jimmy Vesey.

 

Injured: Zach Bogosian, Matt Hunwick, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Brandon Montour.

 

Calgary Flames

Rasmus Andersson, Mikael Backlund, Sam Bennett, TJ Brodie, Austin Czarnik, Michael Frolik, Johnny Gaudreau, Mark Giordano, Travis Hamonic, Noah Hanifin, Mark Jankowski, Oliver Kylington, Elias Lindholm, Milan Lucic, Andrew Mangiapane, Sean Monahan, Tobias Rieder, David Rittich, Derek Ryan, Michael Stone, Cam Talbot, Matthew Tkachuk.

 

Injured: Juuso Valimaki.

 

Carolina Hurricanes

Sebastian Aho, Ryan Dzingel, Joel Edmundson, Haydn Fleury, Warren Foegele, Jake Gardiner, Dougie Hamilton, Erik Haula, Jordan Martinook, Brock McGinn, Petr Mrazek, Martin Necas, Nino Niederreiter, Brett Pesce, James Reimer, Jaccob Slavin, Jordan Staal, Andrei Svechnikov, Teuvo Teravainen, Lucas Wallmark.

 

Injured: Max McCormick, Trevor van Riemsdyk.

 

Chicago Blackhawks

Drake Caggiula, Ryan Carpenter, Corey Crawford, Calvin de Haan, Alex DeBrincat, Erik Gustafsson, David Kampf, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, Slater Koekkoek, Dominik Kubalik, Robin Lehner, Olli Maatta, Alexander Nylander, Brendan Perlini, Brandon Saad, Brent Seabrook, Andrew Shaw, Zack Smith, Dylan Strome, Jonathan Toews.

 

Injured: Kirby Dach, Connor Murphy, John Quenneville.

 

Colorado Avalanche

Mark Barberio, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Andre Burakovsky, Matt Calvert, J.T. Compher, Joonas Donskoi, Pavel Francouz, Samuel Girard, Ryan Graves, Philipp Grubauer, Erik Johnson, Tyson Jost, Nazem Kadri, Vladislav Kamenev, Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Valeri Nichushkin, Matt Nieto, Mikko Rantanen, Conor Timmins, Colin Wilson, Nikita Zadorov.

 

Injured: Ian Cole.

 

Columbus Blue Jackets

Josh Anderson, Cam Atkinson, Emil Bemstrom, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Nick Foligno, Vladislav Gavrikov, Scott Harrington, Boone Jenner, Seth Jones, Joonas Korpisalo, Dean Kukan, Jakob Lilja, Elvis Merzlikins, Sonny Milano, Ryan Murray, Riley Nash, Markus Nutivaara, Gustav Nyquist, David Savard, Alexandre Texier, Alexander Wennberg, Zach Werenski.

 

Injured: Brandon Dubinsky, Liam Foudy.

 

Dallas Stars

Jamie Benn, Ben Bishop, Andrew Cogliano, Blake Comeau, Jason Dickinson, Justin Dowling, Radek Faksa, Taylor Fedun, Denis Gurianov, Miro Heiskanen, Roope Hintz, Mattias Janmark, Anton Khudobin, John Klingberg, Esa Lindell, Jamie Oleksiak, Joe Pavelski, Corey Perry, Roman Polak, Alexander Radulov, Tyler Seguin, Andrej Sekera.

 

Injured: Martin Hanzal, Stephen Johns.

 

Detroit Red Wings

Justin Abdelkader, Andreas Athanasiou, Jonathan Bernier, Tyler Bertuzzi, Madison Bowey, Dennis Cholowski, Trevor Daley, Jacob De La Rose, Danny DeKeyser, Christoffer Ehn, Jonathan Ericsson, Adam Erne, Valtteri Filppula, Luke Glendening, Mike Green, Darren Helm, Taro Hirose, Jimmy Howard, Filip Hronek, Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha, Patrik Nemeth, Frans Nielsen.

 

Injured: Johan Franzen, Chase Pearson, Henrik Zetterberg.

 

Edmonton Oilers

Josh Archibald, Ethan Bear, Matt Benning, Colby Cave, Alex Chiasson, Leon Draisaitl, Markus Granlund, Gaetan Haas, Tomas Jurco, Zack Kassian, Jujhar Khaira, Oscar Klefbom, Mikko Koskinen, Adam Larsson, Brandon Manning, Connor McDavid, James Neal, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Darnell Nurse, Joakim Nygard, Kris Russell, Patrick Russell, Mike Smith.

 

Injured: Kyle Brodziak, Logan Day, Ryan Mantha, Joel Persson, Riley Sheahan.

 

Florida Panthers

Noel Acciari, Aleksander Barkov, Sergei Bobrovsky, Henrik Borgstrom, Josh Brown, Brett Connolly, Evgenii Dadonov, Aaron Ekblad, Jayce Hawryluk, Mike Hoffman, Jonathan Huberdeau, Dryden Hunt, Denis Malgin, Mike Matheson, Sam Montembeault, Mark Pysyk, Colton Sceviour, Anton Stralman, Vincent Trocheck, Frank Vatrano, MacKenzie Weegar, Keith Yandle.

 

Injured: None.

 

Los Angeles Kings

Michael Amadio, Tobias Bjornfot, Dustin Brown, Jack Campbell, Jeff Carter, Kyle Clifford, Drew Doughty, Carl Grundstrom, Ben Hutton, Alex Iafallo, Adrian Kempe, Anze Kopitar, Ilya Kovalchuk, Trevor Lewis, Blake Lizotte, Kurtis MacDermid, Alec Martinez, Jonathan Quick, Matt Roy, Joakim Ryan, Tyler Toffoli, Austin Wagner, Sean Walker.

 

Injured: Derek Forbort, Gabriel Vilardi.

 

Minnesota Wild

Jonas Brodin, Ryan Donato, Devan Dubnyk, Matt Dumba, Joel Eriksson Ek, Kevin Fiala, Marcus Foligno, Jordan Greenway, Ryan Hartman, Brad Hunt, Mikko Koivu, Luke Kunin, Zach Parise, Greg Pateryn, Victor Rask, Nick Seeler, Carson Soucy, Jared Spurgeon, Eric Staal, Alex Stalock, Ryan Suter, Mats Zuccarello, Jason Zucker.

 

Injured: Mason Shaw.

 

Montreal Canadiens

Joel Armia, Paul Byron, Ben Chiarot, Nick Cousins, Phillip Danault, Max Domi, Jonathan Drouin, Cale Fleury, Christian Folin, Brendan Gallagher, Keith Kinkaid, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Brett Kulak, Artturi Lehkonen, Victor Mete, Jeff Petry, Carey Price, Mike Reilly, Nick Suzuki, Tomas Tatar, Nate Thompson, Jordan Weal, Shea Weber.

 

Injured: Noah Juulsen, Michael McCarron, Gustav Olofsson, Joel Teasdale.

 

Nashville Predators

Viktor Arvidsson, Nick Bonino, Daniel Carr, Matt Duchene, Mattias Ekholm, Ryan Ellis, Dante Fabbro, Filip Forsberg, Mikael Granlund, Rocco Grimaldi, Dan Hamhuis, Matt Irwin, Calle Jarnkrok, Ryan Johansen, Roman Josi, Pekka Rinne, Juuse Saros, Colton Sissons, Craig Smith, Kyle Turris, Austin Watson, Yannick Weber.

 

Injured: None.

 

New Jersey Devils

Mackenzie Blackwood, Jesper Boqvist, Jesper Bratt, Will Butcher, Connor Carrick, Blake Coleman, Andy Greene, Nikita Gusev, Taylor Hall, John Hayden, Nico Hischier, Jack Hughes, Mirco Mueller, Kyle Palmieri, Kevin Rooney, Cory Schneider, Damon Severson, Wayne Simmonds, P.K. Subban, Sami Vatanen, Miles Wood, Pavel Zacha, Travis Zajac.

 

Injured: Brian Strait.

 

New York Islanders

Josh Bailey, Mathew Barzal, Anthony Beauvillier, Johnny Boychuk, Derick Brassard, Casey Cizikas, Cal Clutterbuck, Michael Dal Colle, Noah Dobson, Jordan Eberle, Thomas Greiss, Ross Johnston, Leo Komarov, Tom Kuhnhackl, Nick Leddy, Anders Lee, Matt Martin, Scott Mayfield, Brock Nelson, Adam Pelech, Ryan Pulock, Devon Toews, Semyon Varlamov.

 

Injured: Robert Carpenter, Andrew Ladd, Mitchell Vande Sompel, Bode Wilde.

 

New York Rangers

Lias Andersson, Pavel Buchnevich, Tony DeAngelo, Jesper Fast, Adam Fox, Alexandar Georgiev, Libor Hajek, Brett Howden, Kaapo Kakko, Chris Kreider, Brendan Lemieux, Henrik Lundqvist, Greg McKegg, Vladislav Namestnikov, Artemi Panarin, Brady Skjei, Brendan Smith, Marc Staal, Ryan Strome, Jacob Trouba, Mika Zibanejad.

 

Injured: Yegor Rykov.

 

Ottawa Senators

Craig Anderson, Artem Anisimov, Drake Batherson, Mikkel Boedker, Mark Borowiecki, Erik Brannstrom, Connor Brown, Thomas Chabot, Filip Chlapik, Dylan DeMelo, Anthony Duclair, Tyler Ennis, Cody Goloubef, Ron Hainsey, Anders Nilsson, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Bobby Ryan, Scott Sabourin, Chris Tierney, Brady Tkachuk, Colin White, Nikita Zaitsev.

 

Injured: Rudolfs Balcers, Ryan Callahan, Marian Gaborik, Clarke MacArthur, Christian Wolanin.

 

Philadelphia Flyers

Justin Braun, Connor Bunnaman, Sean Couturier, Brian Elliott, Claude Giroux, Shayne Gostisbehere, Robert Hagg, Carter Hart, Kevin Hayes, Travis Konecny, Scott Laughton, Oskar Lindblom, Samuel Morin, Matt Niskanen, Ivan Provorov, Michael Raffl, Travis Sanheim, Carsen Twarynski, James van Riemsdyk, Jakub Voracek.

 

Injured: Nolan Patrick, Tyler Pitlick, Andy Welinski.

 

Pittsburgh Penguins

Zach Aston-Reese, Nick Bjugstad, Teddy Blueger, Sidney Crosby, Brian Dumoulin, Alex Galchenyuk, Erik Gudbranson, Jake Guentzel, Patric Hornqvist, Tristan Jarry, Jack Johnson, Dominik Kahun, Kris Letang, Evgeni Malkin, Jared McCann, Matt Murray, Marcus Pettersson, Juuso Riikola, Chad Ruhwedel, Bryan Rust, Justin Schultz, Dominik Simon, Brandon Tanev.

 

Injured: Justin Almeida, Zach Trotman.

 

San Jose Sharks

Lean Bergmann, Jonny Brodzinski, Brent Burns, Logan Couture, Aaron Dell, Brenden Dillon, Mario Ferraro, Dylan Gambrell, Barclay Goodrow, Tim Heed, Tomas Hertl, Martin Jones, Evander Kane, Erik Karlsson, Melker Karlsson, Kevin Labanc, Timo Meier, Dalton Prout, Lukas Radil, Marcus Sorensen, Joe Thornton, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Danil Yurtaykin.

 

Injured: Radim Simek.

 

St. Louis Blues

Jake Allen, Ivan Barbashev, Jordan Binnington, Sammy Blais, Robert Bortuzzo, Jay Bouwmeester, Tyler Bozak, Vince Dunn, Robby Fabbri, Justin Faulk, Carl Gunnarsson, Mackenzie MacEachern, Ryan O’Reilly, Colton Parayko, David Perron, Alex Pietrangelo, Zach Sanford, Brayden Schenn, Jaden Schwartz, Alexander Steen, Oskar Sundqvist, Vladimir Tarasenko, Robert Thomas.

 

Injured: Erik Foley, Jordan Kyrou.

 

Tampa Bay Lightning

Erik Cernak, Anthony Cirelli, Braydon Coburn, Yanni Gourde, Victor Hedman, Tyler Johnson, Mathieu Joseph, Alex Killorn, Nikita Kucherov, Pat Maroon, Ryan McDonagh, Curtis McElhinney, Ondrej Palat, Jan Rutta, Mikhail Sergachev, Kevin Shattenkirk, Gemel Smith, Steven Stamkos, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Carter Verhaeghe, Luke Witkowski.

 

Injured: Cedric Paquette, Brayden Point, Daniel Walcott.

 

Toronto Maple Leafs

Frederik Andersen, Tyson Barrie, Cody Ceci, Frederik Gauthier, Justin Holl, Michael Hutchinson, Andreas Johnsson, Kasperi Kapanen, Alexander Kerfoot, Timothy Liljegren, Martin Marincin, Mitchell Marner, Auston Matthews, Ilya Mikheyev, Trevor Moore, Jake Muzzin, William Nylander, Morgan Rielly, Rasmus Sandin, Nicholas Shore, Jason Spezza, John Tavares, Dmytro Timashov.

 

Injured: David Clarkson, Travis Dermott, Nathan Horton, Zach Hyman, Kalle Kossila, Mason Marchment.

 

Vancouver Canucks

Jay Beagle, Jordie Benn, Brock Boeser, Thatcher Demko, Alexander Edler, Loui Eriksson, Oscar Fantenberg, Micheal Ferland, Adam Gaudette, Bo Horvat, Quinn Hughes, Josh Leivo, Jacob Markstrom, J.T. Miller, Tyler Motte, Tyler Myers, Tanner Pearson, Elias Pettersson, Tim Schaller, Troy Stecher, Brandon Sutter, Christopher Tanev, Jake Virtanen.

 

Injured: Antoine Roussel.

 

Vegas Golden Knights

William Carrier, Cody Eakin, Deryk Engelland, Marc-Andre Fleury, Cody Glass, Nick Holden, William Karlsson, Jonathan Marchessault, Brayden McNabb, Jon Merrill, Tomas Nosek, Max Pacioretty, Brandon Pirri, Ryan Reaves, Nate Schmidt, Jimmy Schuldt, Reilly Smith, Paul Stastny, Mark Stone, Malcolm Subban, Shea Theodore, Valentin Zykov.

 

Injured: Alex Tuch, Zach Whitecloud.

 

Washington Capitals

Nicklas Backstrom, Travis Boyd, John Carlson, Pheonix Copley, Nic Dowd, Lars Eller, Martin Fehervary, Radko Gudas, Carl Hagelin, Garnet Hathaway, Braden Holtby, Nick Jensen, Brendan Leipsic, Tyler Lewington, Dmitry Orlov, T.J. Oshie, Alex Ovechkin, Richard Panik, Ilya Samsonov, Jonas Siegenthaler, Chandler Stephenson, Jakub Vrana, Tom Wilson.

 

Injured: Kody Clark, Michal Kempny, Riley Sutter.

 

Winnipeg Jets

Mason Appleton, Anthony Bitetto, Gabriel Bourque, Laurent Brossoit, Kyle Connor, Andrew Copp, Carl Dahlstrom, Nikolaj Ehlers, David Gustafsson, Ville Heinola, Connor Hellebuyck, Dmitry Kulikov, Patrik Laine, Mark Letestu, Bryan Little, Adam Lowry, Josh Morrissey, Mathieu Perreault, Neal Pionk, Tucker Poolman, Jack Roslovic, Mark Scheifele, Blake Wheeler.

 

Injured: Nathan Beaulieu.

 

PRESS RELEASE WRITTEN BY NHL PUBLIC RELATIONS; COURTESY NHLmedia.com

 

Posted in NHL | No Comments »

NHL ‘Three Stars of The Week’ for October 2-6: Rangers’ Zibanejad, Red Wings’ Mantha and Maple Leafs’ Matthews

 

NEW YORK (Oct. 7, 2019) – New York Rangers center Mika Zibanejad, Detroit Red Wings right wing Anthony Mantha and Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews have been named the NHL’s “Three Stars” for the week ending Oct. 6.

 

FIRST STAR – MIKA ZIBANEJAD, C, NEW YORK RANGERS

Zibanejad topped the NHL with 4-4—8, collecting four points in each of his first two outings of the season to power the Rangers (2-0-0, 4 points) to a pair of victories. He registered 1‑3—4, including the tying goal in the third period, in a 6-4 triumph over the Winnipeg Jets Oct. 3. Zibanejad then posted 3-1—4 (including the winning goal) – scoring on the power play, at even strength and while shorthanded – to lift New York to a 4-1 victory over his former team, the Ottawa Senators, Oct. 5. The 26-year-old Huddinge, Sweden, native became the first NHL player since 1995-96 to record eight or more points through his team’s opening two games of a season (Jaromir Jagr: 3-5—8 w/ PIT) and just the second player in Rangers history to achieve the feat (Rod Gilbert: 0-8—8 in 1976-77). Zibanejad, the sixth overall selection in the 2011 NHL Draft, also became the first NHL player to compile four-plus points in each of his team’s first two contests of a season since 1990-91 (John Cullen: 1-8—9 w/ PIT).

 

SECOND STAR – ANTHONY MANTHA, RW, DETROIT RED WINGS

Mantha shared the League lead with five goals and ranked second overall with seven points (5-2—7) in two games to also guide the Red Wings to a 2-0-0 start to the season. He recorded 1-2—3 in a 5-3 victory at the Nashville Predators Oct. 5. Mantha then scored all four Detroit goals, including a natural hat trick and the tiebreaking tally with 53.3 seconds remaining in regulation, in a 4-3 win versus the Dallas Stars Oct. 6. The 25-year-old Longueuil, Que., native became the second player in Red Wings franchise history to register four or more goals in the team’s home opener, joining John Sorrell in 1933-34 (4-0—4 vs. NYA). Mantha, the 20th overall pick in the 2013 NHL Draft, also became the 23rd different player in team history to post a four-goal game and the first to do so since Feb. 2, 2011 (Johan Franzen: 5-0—5 at OTT).

 

THIRD STAR – AUSTON MATTHEWS, C, TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS

Matthews matched Mantha with five goals in three games (5-0—5) to help the Maple Leafs (2-0-1) earn five out of a possible six standings points. He scored twice, including the winning goal, in a 5-3 triumph over the Ottawa Senators Oct. 2. In doing so, the No. 1 overall selection from the 2016 NHL Draft became the fourth player in League history to collect at least one goal in each of his first four career season openers (9-2—11 in 4 GP). Matthews added one goal in a 4-1 victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets Oct. 4, followed by two goals – including the tying strike with 1:15 remaining in regulation – in a 6-5 shootout loss to the Montreal Canadiens Oct. 5. The 22-year-old Scottsdale, Ariz., native ranks third in the NHL with 116 goals (in 215 GP) since making his debut in 2016.

 

PRESS RELEASE WRITTEN BY NHL PUBLIC RELAATIONS; COURTESY NHLmedia.com

Posted in NHL | No Comments »

Patrick Marleau’s re-signing with San Jose for 22nd season, has him chasing many milestones

Veteran within striking distance of climbing all-time lists

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

 

Posted in NHL | No Comments »