* The Penguins celebrated their captain Sidney Crosby’s 1,200th career game with a 10-goal performance at SAP Center that helped set the NHL record for most tallies in a day at 114 – a staggering 10 more than the previous mark. Saturday’s average goals per game was 7.6, with three contests reaching double digits.
* Captain Mark Stone led the way with a couple of shorthanded goals as Vegas pushed its season-opening point streak to 12 games – the longest run by any team in more than a decade.
* Four players netted hat tricks Saturday night, including Auston Matthews who joined an elite list with his third of the season during the Maple Leafs’ Hockey Fights Cancer night at Scotiabank Arena.
PENGUINS PILE IN 10 DURING NHL RECORD-SETTING NIGHT
Sidney Crosby celebrated his 1,200th career game in a contest that helped set the NHL record for most goals in a day as the Penguins reached a double-digit goal total for the fourth time in 30 years and joined the Canucks as the second team to do so in 2023-24.
* Crosby (0-1—1) factored on Kris Letang’s goal, marking the 290th time in their career that the pair has combined on a tally. Only two other forward-defenseman duos have factored on more goals together: Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey (350) as well as Phil Esposito and Bobby Orr (306).
* Saturday also marked the 222nd time that the trio of Crosby, Letang and Evgeni Malkin (2-0—2) all found the score sheet in the same contest – the Penguins improved to 181-30-11 in those games.
* Jake Guentzel (2-2—4), Reilly Smith (2-2—4) and Bryan Rust (1-3—4) all recorded a game-high four points and combined for the fifth instance since the turn of the millennia that Pittsburgh featured three players record four-plus points. The others: Nov. 27, 2019, March 20, 2012, Dec. 13, 2006 and March 29, 2001.
THE STREAK GOES ON FOR VEGAS
Mark Stone (2-2—4) scored twice on the penalty kill to achieve a franchise first while Adin Hill stopped all 41 shots he faced to help the Golden Knights extend their season-opening point streak to 12 games. Vegas became just the 10th team in NHL history to post such a run and the first to do so since Chicago in 2012-13 (24 GP) – a Blackhawks team that went on to capture the Stanley Cup.
* Stone scored both of his goals on the penalty kill, becoming Vegas’ first-ever skater to record two shorthanded tallies in the same game. The Golden Knights captain also recorded his fifth four-point outing with the club, surpassing Chandler Stephenson for sole possession of the most in franchise history.
* Hill’s 41 saves marked the second-most stops in a shutout performance by a Vegas goaltender, trailing only Marc-Andre Fleury (42 on March 18, 2018). He improved to 6-0-1 in 2023-24 – the longest season-opening point streak by a goaltender in franchise history.
MULTIPLE HAT TRICKS ADD TO HOCKEY FIGHTS CANCER DONATION
Jets forward Nino Niederreiter (3-0—3) and Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews (3-0—3) were two of four players that recorded a hat trick Saturday (also Brayden Point & Ryan O’Reilly). With every hat trick this season, AstraZeneca will donate $5,000 to the Hockey Fights Cancer Fund of the V Foundation up to $500,000. Click here for more information.
-01083905.jpg)
* Niederreiter’s three-goal outing helped the Jets rally for their League-leading (tied) second multi-goal comeback win of the season and improve to 7-0-0 in their last seven games against Arizona dating to Jan. 4, 2022. Among Swiss-born players, only Timo Meier (4) has more career hat tricks than Niederreiter (3).
* Matthews netted his third hat trick of the season – and 10th of his career – to recapture the League lead in goals. In the process, Matthews surpassed Reg Noble (9) and moved into a tie with Rick Vaive for the fourth-most hat tricks in Maple Leafs history.
HURRICANES, WILD COMPLETE MULTI-GOAL COMEBACKS
October featured 67 comeback wins in 140 games (47.9%) – tied with 1986-87 for the most in NHL history at this stage in a season – and that trend looks to be staying steady in November, thanks in part to a couple of three-goal comebacks from the Hurricanes and Wild on Saturday night.
* The Hurricanes rallied from a three-goal deficit (and multi-goal, third-period deficit) to secure the victory. It marked the fourth time in the past 15 years the team rallied from three goals down on the road to earn a win in the regular season, following Jan. 1, 2022, Dec. 15, 2010 and Oct. 11, 2008.
* After the Wild fell into a three-goal hole less than seven minutes into the contest, Marc-Andre Fleury came into the game in relief and stopped 13 of 14 shots en route to his NHL-record 65th shootout win. Minnesota claimed just its 10th three-goal comeback victory in franchise history and second in the past five years (also April 10, 2022 vs. LAK).
HIGHLIGHTS FROM A PACKED #NHLSTATS: LIVE UPDATES
With 30 teams in action, Saturday’s #NHLStats: Live Updates edition was action-packed and brimmed with 114 notes to accompany the 114 goals on the record-setting day. Some highlights included:
* Cam Talbot made 24 saves in a perfect performance and became the fifth goaltender in NHL history to record a shutout with six-plus franchises, joining Sean Burke (7), Lorne Chabot (6), Dwayne Roloson (6) and Jaroslav Halak (6).
* Nikita Kucherov (1-4—5) factored on five of Tampa Bay’s six goals – including all three of Brayden Point’s tallies – to help his club skate to victory. With his fourth career five-point outing, Kucherov surpassed Vincent Lecavalier for the most in Lightning history.
* Elias Pettersson scored to record his 20th point of the season (6-14—20 in 11 GP) and moved into a tie with Jack Hughes (5-15—20 in 10 GP) for the most points in the NHL as the Canucks shut out the Stars to extend their point streak to seven games dating to Oct. 21 (6-0-1) – their longest run since 2021-22 (8-0-1). Pettersson became the third player in franchise history to reach the 20-point mark in a season in 11 or fewer contests, joining Tony Tanti (10 GP in 1983-84) and Patrik Sundstrom (11 GP in 1983-84).
* Bedard (18 years, 110 days) became the youngest player in franchise history to record a three-game goal streak – a mark previously held by Jeremy Roenick (19 years, 31 days on Feb. 17, 1989) – and became the fifth Blackhawks player in nearly 80 years to score five goals through his first 10 career contests, joining Andrew Shaw (5 in 2011-12), Jonathan Toews (5 in 2007-08), Igor Radulov (5 from 2002-03 to 2003-04) and Dimitri Nabokov (5 in 1997-98).
QUICK CLICKS
*WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds retire Patrick Marleau’s No. 12
* Max Pacioretty skating after Achilles injury, return for Capitals unclear
*CHL notebook: Kraken prospect Jagger Firkus improving production in WHL
*Former NFL player Carl Banks talks love of hockey ahead of Stadium Series
* Dan Rusanowsky found niche calling hockey, led to Hall of Fame as Foster Hewitt winner
TWO-GAME SUNDAY CLOSES OUT FOURTH WEEK OF THE SEASON
The fourth week of the 2023-24 campaign will close out with Jesper Bratt and the Devils visiting Connor Bedard and the Blackhawks on Sportsnet and TVA Sports, before the Ducks welcome the Golden Knights to Honda Center.
