NHL highs and lows: Penguins fly, Bolts and Wings in play-off bubble plus five ideal post-season match-ups

Gene J. Puskar / AP Photo

Gene J. Puskar / AP Photo

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John Woods / The Canadian Press

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Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press

With the season around the 45-game mark, games are starting to be thought of in a playoff context. “Every point counts” is a phrase that arises more and more. With that in mind The National’s ice hockey writer, Rob McKenzie, recaps the highs and lows of last week in the NHL. Click or swipe through for more.

1. All alone out front

The week began with a new team atop the western conference standings: the Minnesota Wild.

The Wild had rolled into Chicago last Sunday tied with their hosts for first place in the west. Minnesota won 3-2 as the Hawks’ recurring weakness — a lack of depth on the blue line, which is a problem for a lot of teams — came back to bite them.

On the Wild’s winner the puck came to Jason Pominville after caroming off the back boards. Pominville was so wide open by the side of the Chicago net he had time to make himself dinner and do the dishes before scoring past Corey Crawford. Michal Roszival was protecting the right side of the net but his defensive partner Trevor van Riemsdyk had drifted out towards the centre of the defensive area, guarding nothing other than open ice.

The Hawks lean on Duncan Keith, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Brent Seabrook for more than 21 minutes a game each. After that the calibre drops off.

2. Tough night for goalies

Same deal out east: Monday dawned with a new leader in the conference standings. In this case it was the Washington Capitals, who last Sunday had won their ninth game in a row, running away from Philly 5-0. That put them a point up on Columbus.

The Caps’ first test as front-runners came on Monday night with a trip to Pittsburgh, whose best defenceman, Kris Letang, had been placed on injured reserve that same day after twisting a knee.

It was a brutal night for the goalies. Washington’s Braden Holtby was pulled in favour of Philipp Grubauer after the second goal of Evgeni Malkin’s second-period hat trick. And the Pittsburgh keeper Matt Murray, recently back from injury, looked awful when he gave up a fat rebound off a Dmity Orlov shot from the point that Lars Eller cashed in.

When all the goals were added up, the Penguins had won 8-7 in overtime.

Pittsburgh-Washington would be a great playoff series ...

3. Wish list

... in fact Pens-Caps would be on my list of Top 5 potential playoff series this season. The Crosby v Ovechkin storyline will remain vivid until both men have won Stanley Cups. Penguins hold an 8-1 edge all-time in this post-season matchup, their most recent win coming in last season’s second round.

The other four potentially excellent series:

Chicago v San Jose: These guys are the class of the west and it’s really hard to try to predict who would win. Hawks and Sharks have met only once in the post-season, a Chicago sweep in the 2010 conference final en route to Cup glory.

Montreal v Toronto: This matchup would epitomise the rebirth of the NHL’s Canadian clubs one year after none of them reached the post-season. Habs hold the 8-7 all-time edge here, including a win in their last tilt, way back in 1979.

Calgary v Edmonton: A Battle of Alberta is always crazy intense and never disappointing. Oilers hold a 4-1 edge all-time, Calgary’s win coming in 1986 on the infamous Steve Smith goal. They most recently met in 1991.

And for the final, Chicago v Washington: could the west’s perennial powerhouse hold off Ovechkin when he was finally so close to his goal? These teams have never met in the playoffs.

4. Advantage, Edmonton

If Calgary and Edmonton did meet in the playoffs, you would have to give the edge to the Oilers. On Saturday they crushed the Flames 7-3 — in Calgary, no less — to sweep the season series for the first time ever.

This one was over quickly.

The Oilers scored on three of their first four shots. The Flames then yanked Chad Johnson and sent in Brian Elliott, whom they acquired from St Louis in the off-season. That slowed the bleeding but the Oilers would score two more before Calgary replied. Inevitably the game got a little chippy later.

5. Detroit rallies

The Detroit Red Wings have had a great run — 25 straight years in the playoffs.

But this season their fans have not had a lot to cheer. The Wings’ young forwards have not progressed and the team misses Pavel Datsyuk (now captaining first-place Saint Petersburg in the Russian league; and on the weekend he showed off his skills as part of all-star weekend in Ufa: LINK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6FpkC__5MM).

On Wednesday against Boston, though, the Wings put together a great effort for the home crowd at Joe Louis Arena.

They trailed 4-1 after one period and had narrowed it to 5-4 late in the third. Then Dylan Larkin, who has struggled in his sophomore season, made a beauty pass to Tomas Tatar in the crease for the tying goal. The game went to a shoot-out and Frans Nielsen scored the winner: he lured Tuukka Rask into attempting a poke check, then slid the puck over the Boston goalie. Nielsen is now tied with Radim Vrbata for most career shoot-out goals, at 44.

6. Tampa is tested

The noises out of Tampa are that their general manager, the former Wings star Steve Yzerman, is willing to do a big trade to shake up his sagging team. The Bolts were pre-season Cup favourites but are not even in playoff position. Through Sunday their 142 goals-against are second-worst in the east, better than only Philadelphia’s 154.

In three games in California last week, Tampa tightened up on D and gave up only five goals (one of them in overtime). And they did it with their best blueliner, Victor Hedman, out with an injury.

Anton Stralman, who is normally paired with Hedman, said something interesting before Thursday’s 2-1 loss to San Jose. He said that without Hedman, the players are forced to think of themselves more as a unit. That, he said, means forwards are more conscious of the need to supply defensive support, which in turn means that those players are in better position for breakout passes.

And then on Saturday night they went and stunk out the joint, giving up five goals to lowly Arizona in the first two periods of an eventual 5-3 loss. There was a telling stretch midway through the third when the puck was in the Bolts’ zone for 45 seconds — a full shift — as the Yotes repeatedly stymied Tampa’s attempts to break out.

7. Goalies up and down

After being sent down to the minor-league Manitoba Moose at the season’s start, Ondrej Pavelec was back in net for the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday. Goaltending has been the Jets’ weakness for a few years now and Pavelec, previously the problem, is starting to look like the solution.

He beat the Arizona Coyotes 6-3 in his return and the highlight was his sprawling stick save on Vrbata to preserve a 4-2 lead.

That earned him a second start, Saturday against visiting St Louis, which has goaltending problems of its own. Jake Allen had been pulled in three straight games and was being given a few days off to clear his head. Phoenix Copley, a rookie from North Pole, Alaska, got the start for the Blues. He made some sharp saves but lost 5-3.

Pavelec was stellar and set a franchise record by making 25 saves in the second period without surrendering a score. The old single-period record was held by Pavelec himself, 24 saves against Ottawa in 2009, back when what are now the Jets were still stationed in Atlanta.

8. Desperate Islanders

Teams fire coaches because sometimes it works. Obvious example: Pittsburgh were so-so last season, then replaced Mike Johnston with Mike Sullivan and won the Cup.

The New York Islanders will be happy if Doug Weight gets them to the playoffs. The Isles have been near the bottom of the conference standings all season. After Weight succeeded Jack Capuano on Tuesday, he made the usual noises — the guys have to play better, battle harder, etc. And maybe it’s a short-term fix but the team won points in its first three games under Weight, defeating Dallas and LA before falling to Philadelphia in overtime on Sunday.

This leaves the Isles five points out of a playoff position. The subtext here is they need to show promise if they want to re-sign their star player, John Tavares, whose contract expires after the 2017/18 season.

Weight had been an assistant coach with the Isles since 2011/12, and as a player the Islanders were the last stop of his 19-year NHL career. Capuano finishes with a record of 227-192-64. Last season he coached the Islanders to their first playoff win in 23 years.

9. In summation

Standings: The Canadiens (63 points) are eight points up on Ottawa in the Atlantic but the other three division races are tight. The Caps and Columbus (68 points) are tied atop the Metropolitan, as are the Wild and Hawks (65) atop the Central. In the Pacific the Anaheim Ducks (61) are one up on San Jose and Edmonton.

Standouts: Edmonton’s Connor McDavid leads the league with 56 points, and now has 103 in 93 career games. Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby has the most goals, 27 (and in only 39 games). Best plus-minus belongs to Minnesota’s Ryan Suter at +30 and best goals-against average (minimum 10 games played) to his teammate Devin Dubnyk at 1.91.

Standing tall: The Penguins are 17-0 when leading after two periods.

Standing small: Two minutes and a bit left in the third, Anaheim and Colorado tied at one, and the Avalanche show why they are the league’s worst team: Nikita Zadorov has the puck in his own zone and pokes it right to Anaheim’s Ondrej Kase, who slips it back to Nick Ritchie for the game winner. It was so brutal they should’ve given Zadorov an assist. This marked the third time in January that Colorado had led a game after two periods — and in each case, they blew the lead and lost in regulation. Colorado = anti-Pittsburgh.

Standard-bearer: In his 16th season Henrik Sedin scored his 1,000th point. His twin brother Henrik (968 career points through Friday) assisted and his former teammate Roberto Luongo was the goalie he scored on. Nice touch: Luongo skated out to give Henrik a handshake. Vancouver would score again to beat Florida 2-1 on Friday night. The other three Swedes with four-figure NHL point totals are Mats Sundin (1,349), Daniel Alfredsson (1,157) and Nicklas Lidstrom (1,142).