NHL Weekly: Oilers begin to find slick form as Crosby and Brisson share sliding doors moment
Most productive player
Four players scored eight points in the week, they were Nathan MacKinnon, Joel Eriksson Ek, Kirill Kaprizov and Auston Matthews. Looking at the stats, Toronto's star has the most shots on goal (19) and the best +/- rating (+5).
The American, who scored five times and had three assists, shone especially against Calgary, where he scored a hat trick and added an assist. But he would probably trade more points for more wins, as the Maple Leafs won only two of the four battles.
Goaltender of the Week
There was a lot of competition here as well, but the prize went to Buffalo's Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. He started in three games, but although he lost one, his numbers were fantastic. He kept clean sheets against San Jose and Chicago and only conceded twice in the 3-1 loss to Tampa Bay. He stopped a total of 60 shots and pushed his goals against average to 0.67.
Czech of the Week
David Rittich and Petr Mrazek recorded two wins, Adam Klapka made his NHL debut, Jan Rutta and Jakub Lauko scored their first goals of the season, but only David Pastrnak can be the winner again. He scored five times in three games, added two assists and helped the Bruins to three wins.
He scored three goals for Colorado, recorded his 16th hat trick in the NHL regular season and became the best Czech in the history of the league by surpassing Jaromir Jagr. He scored his 30th goal of the season against Montreal on Saturday, surpassing that mark for the seventh time in 10 league seasons. He also leapfrogged Bobby Holik into fourth place in the Czech historical scorers' table and now has 331 goals.
Highlight of the week
This week is marked by two legendary goalkeepers. On Monday, Minnesota beat the New York Islanders 5-0 and goalie Marc-Andre Fleury became the second most successful goalie in history with win number 552. He surpassed Patrick Roy and is now second only to Martin Brodeur, who celebrated a massive 691 times.
But Roy was not to be shamed and returned to the media spotlight. On Saturday, Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello announced that the former Montreal and Colorado legend will be the new bench boss after they recently fired Lane Lambert.
He returns to the bench after more than seven years out of the NHL. "The fans are extremely important to us, I want them to love coming to our games and look forward to them. I want them to wear the jersey with pride," Roy told NHL.com.
Stat of the Week
After an embarrassing start to the season, the Oilers are finally showing some strength, and they don't necessarily need superhuman performances from Connor McDavid ("as high as" ninth in scoring) and Leon Draisaitl (16th in scoring). The club has been rolling incredibly, beating Calgary 3-1 on Saturday, recording their 13th straight win and setting an NHL record for consecutive wins by a Canadian team.
From social media
The Czech/Slovak Buffalo Sabres fan club may not be the biggest, but it is loyal and dedicated. And it's been that way for more than 20 years. This time, its members went to Buffalo to cheer for the Sabres and enjoyed the trip. They met former players, were in the thick of the action and were even liked by fans of the local club.
Photos of the week
Sidney Crosby has been an idol since he was young. He was even lucky enough to have one of the best hockey players in history as his childhood babysitter, and that's because his father Pat was Crosby's agent. The appropriately American story continued on Saturday when rookie Brendan Brisson decided the Vegas v Pittsburgh battle with his first NHL goal - with Crosby on the other side.
"He lived at home for a while before he went to the draft. So did Malkin. Just to jump on the ice against them is something unbelievable," the 22-year-old Brisson told the Las Vegas Sun.
Ladislav Smid's view
"Lately in the NHL, there have been decisions by referees that don't make complete sense to me. Since I'm not in the league, the meter has changed a lot, all the slightest stick interference, as well as all possession, is whistled. The league wants to see more goals and offensive play and wants the biggest stars to have space. That's fine, unfortunately collisions and harder hits have started to be whistled a lot. But unnecessarily too much from my perspective. I wouldn't whistle shoulder-to-shoulder collisions or some matchups, it's part of hockey and it always has been.
"I honestly don't know why this trend is being deployed, when I watch some of the interference it's clean collisions, but the referee gives two minutes.
"It is also sometimes even a suspension. Seems to me the NHL was cleaner when a player was careful not to get hit. Of course I'm not talking about any blind-side collisions where a player gets taken down from where he can't see him, but what's hard and clean shouldn't be judged by a two-minute suspension.
"Luckily there's always the playoffs where the meter is more lenient, the game is a little different and tougher. For me it should be like that all season, otherwise the hardness fades and it's wrong."
