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The three stars were announced on Monday.
The first star was Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs who had four goals and five assists in four games as he is first in the race for the Rocket Richard Trophy and fourth overall in points with 68. It could have easily been a sweep of the top line for Toronto this week as Mitch Marner also had four goals and five assists including a four goal, two assist game against Detroit, while Michael Bunting had a pair of goals and five assists.
But the second star of the week was given to J.T. Miller of the Vancouver Canucks who had two goals and eight points in three games to give himself 20 goals and 59 points this season.
The third star was Steven Stamkos who had two goals and two assists in two games including a goal and two helpers in the Stadium Series contest that took place in Nashville Saturday. His goal was the game winner.
The NHL and the IIHF came out against Russia on Monday and deservedly so. The NHL condemned Russia’s invasion into the Ukraine and suspended all business partnerships in Russia as well as halting the Russian portion of their website.
The IIHF in the meantime, suspended both Russia and Belarus from all participation in all age categories and will not play the 2023 World Junior Championships in Russia. All men’s and women’s teams will not be allowed to participate for now.
Well done!
There were three games in the NHL on Monday.
TORONTO 5 WASHINGTON 3
Rasmus Sandin scored the winner with just 3:23 left in the third as the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the struggling Washington Capitals 5-3.
Sandin blasted home his third of the season on a gorgeous pass from Justin Holl, past Vitek Vanecek who was seeing his first ice time since Feb. 1 as had replaced starter Ilya Samsonov after a poor first period.
The Maple Leafs got things started early when Michael Bunting scored his 19th of the season as he roofed the puck past Samsonov after receiving a great pass from Mitch Marner.
The Capitals evened the score late in the first when Conor Sheary put in his 12th of the season.
But the Leafs struck for a pair before the end of the first when William Nylander scored his 21st of the season with 1:11 left and then Justin Holl with his second, snuck in from the blueline with 1.6 seconds left in the opening period to give Toronto a 3-1 lead.
Vanecek was between the pipes to start the second and settled down the Caps. Tom Wilson scored his first of two goals on the night when he cut the lead to 1 with a power play goal 11 seconds past the halfway mark of the game.
Wilson then evened the game at 3 in the third on a shorthanded effort. Wilson came in with Lars Eller on a 2-on-1, used Eller as a decoy and wristed a shot from the faceoff circle past Petr Mrazek.
The goal set up Sandin’s winner as Pierre Engvall scored his ninth of the season, into the empty net.
Mrazek stopped 30 shots for the win as he is 9-4-0 with a 3.07 GAA and a .895 save percentage. Do not be surprised if he was between the pipes Wednesday at home to Buffalo as Jack Campbell has struggled of late and could use a few games on the bench.
Samsonov started for Washington and gave up three goals on 10 shots before Vanecek took over and gave up the lone goal to Sandin before he was pulled for an extra attacker.
John Carlson had assists on all three Washington goals.
Mitch Marner and John Tavares each had two assists.
Auston Matthews was not only held off the scoresheet, he did not have a shot on goal, both rare occurrences this season. But he did make the save of the game as he knocked the puck away with his stick as it was rolling on the goal line, a microinch before it was about to go into the net. Garnet Hathaway would have been credited with the goal had it crossed the line.
Michael Bunting had four minutes in penalties as did Evgeni Kuznetsov and Eller.
Holl also had an assist, giving him five points in his last two games after picking up only eight in his first 39 games. He is on a four-game points streak.
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NEW JERSEY 7 VANCOUVER 2
The New Jersey Devils scored early and often Monday as they defeated the Vancouver Canucks 7-2.
Jack Hughes faced his brother Quinn for only the third time in their young NHL careers (the first time since Nov. 10, 2019) and Jack prevailed with a goal and an assist while Quinn was held pointless.
Hughes has been red-hot of late with six goals and 16 points in his last 12 games.
Five other Devils had a goal and an assist, including Jesper Boqvist, Jesper Bratt, Dawson Mercer, Yegor Sharangovich and defenseman Ryan Graves while Dougie Hamilton scored his eighth of the season to complete the scoring in the third.
Vasily Podkolzin with his ninth and Tanner Pearson with his 11th, scored for Vancouver who outshot the Devils 38-33.
Nico Daws won his second straight game as he kicked out 36 shots to improve his record to 3-1-0 with a 2.50 GAA and a .918 save percentage.
The night was not kind to Jaroslav Halak in the Canucks cage as he gave up six goals on 14 shots before being pulled just 6:19 into the second frame. He is 2-6-2 with a 3.42 GAA and a .883 save percentage. Thatcher Demko, who thought he was getting the night off, came on in relief and gave up only one goal on 19 shots.
Nico Hischier had two assists.
Nathan Bastian had seven hits.
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BOSTON 7 LOS ANGELES 0
Jake DeBrusk opened the scoring with the natural hat trick as the Boston Bruins easily defeated the Los Angeles Kings 7-0.
DeBrusk has been red-hot of late as he is on a five-game points streak with seven goals and two assists. He has fit in brilliantly on the top line with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand. DeBrusk requested a trade earlier in the season when he was not getting the ice time he thought he deserved but despite his recent outstanding play, he likely still wants out of Boston.
DeBrusk has 14 goals and 24 points this season as he drew an assist on the Bruins seventh goal.
Bergeron, Taylor Hall and Erik Haula with two, also scored for Boston with Bergeron’s and the first of Haula’s goals coming on the power play.
Jeremy Swayman picked up the start and stopped all 34 shots to go to 13-7-3 with a 1.95 GAA and a .929 save percentage.
Jonathan Quick picked up the start and was pulled after giving up five goals on 19 shots for the loss. Cal Petersen gave up two goals on 11 shots in a mop-up role.
Trent Frederic and Brendan Lemieux fought each other and each had five for fighting.
Bergeron, Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy all had two assists.
DeBrusk had six shots on goal.
Mikey Anderson was a minus-five while Drew Doughty, Trevor Moore, Phillip Danault and Viktor Arvidsson were all minus-four.
NIGHTLY LEADERS
Goals
Jake DeBrusk – 3
Tom Wilson – 2
Erik Haula - 2
Assists
John Carlson – 3
Patrice Bergeron - 2
Mitch Marner – 2
John Tavares – 2
Nico Hischier – 2
David Pastrnak – 2
Brad Marchand – 2
Charlie McAvoy - 2
Shots on Goal
Tom Wilson – 7
Ilya Mikheyev – 6
Jake DeBrusk - 6
Hits
Nathan Bastian – 7
Brendan Lemieux - 6
Garnet Hathaway – 6
Auston Matthews – 5
Craig Smith – 5
Tomas Nosek - 5
Penalty Minutes
Brendan Lemieux – 5
Trent Frederic - 5
Michael Bunting – 4
Lars Eller – 4
Evgeni Kuznetsov - 4
