NHL 2023-24 Recap Week 19 Bruins Stars boring overtime, Canucks and Wild in a wild one, Ovechkin might pass Gretzky

Earlier this season, it was mentioned the NHL was exploring options to implement a shot clock during overtime. They can submit the Dallas Stars vs Boston Bruins as exhibit A. In a great game, the Stars and Bruins headed to overtime, where the Stars had the puck for almost the entire first 3:30 of overtime. They spend most of it skating around and changing players. They had no shots on goals, and the few they attempted completely missed the net or hit the post. I like the Stars but was rooting for the Bruins to take the puck and score to end this bore-fest. It wasn’t until the Bruins started occasionally possessing the puck that we had a good back-and-forth and actual scoring attempts. The Bruins won in the shootout. This overtime was not the intention of the 3-on 3-format.

Things I like

1. There’s nothing like a wild 10-7 hockey game. The Minnesota Wild took on the Vancouver Canucks, and the Canucks were leading 5-2, and then came the penalty parade. The Wild scored on all four power plays and even had three 5-on-3 goals to make it 8-5 Wild. Surprisingly, the Canucks came back to make it 8-7. But the Wild scored two empty net goals to ice the game. There were three hat tricks in the game, two by the Wild (Joel Eriksson Ek, Kirill Kaprizov) and one by the Canucks (J.T. Miller). Strangely, the Wild were the team that used two goalies. Marc-Andre Fleury gave up two goals on eight shots before being pulled.

Things I don’t

1. The Vancouver Canucks had a bad February. Besides the loss above, they lost to the Bruins, Detroit Red Wings, Winnipeg Jets, Colorado Avalanche, and Seattle Kraken. Those are playoff teams or teams trying to get in. They came back and beat the Bruins the second time they played after they were down 2-0 and looked out of it. Of course, they were aided by a terrible too many men penalty on the Bruins in the overtime. The Bruins have to change better than that. It’s great that the Canucks are going through adversity, but I can’t see them getting past the second round at this point. The green men made a special appearance in this game and were their usual charming selves.

2. Alex Ovechkin has been mildly hot lately, with eight goals in his last ten games, renewing people’s faith that he might catch Wayne Gretzky’s record. I sure hope he doesn’t. I’ve mentioned that it bothers me Gretzky’s 46 WHA goals don’t count. But there would be nothing worse than an aging Alex Ovechkin just barely beating Gretzky’s record. The Capitals aren’t winning, so it’s almost like he’s simply there to break the record. He was never a great passer or defensive player, making it even more grating. He needs another two season after this to break it. I hope that Auston Matthews breaks it. He has 52 goals in 56 games this season and should hit at least 70. He already has 351 career goals and if he plays as many games as Ovechkin, he’ll easily break it. Sure, he could break Ovechkin’s record, but it’s not as monumental as breaking Gretzky’s. Connor McDavid could possibly do it, but he’s too much of a passer first.

Fights of the Week

Special thanks to hockeyfights.com for making this section a little easier to do.

Matthew Rempe vs Nicolas Deslauriers

These two really go at it for a long time. One of the best fights you’ll see. Lame that Deslauriers decides to take down Rempe because his jersey is over his head.

Blake Coleman vs Mattias Janmark

These two also really go at it, but not as long. I love these fights.

Parker Wotherspoon vs Corey Perry

Corey Perry tried to motivate his team, and he succeeded. Not a bad fight, either.

Goal of the Week

Quinton Byfield - Los Angeles Kings

The stickhandling in this play was unreal. Byfield goes around one player, kicks the puck to himself, and then scores in one motion.

https://www.nhl.com/video/cbj-lak-byfield-scores-goal-against-elvis-merzlikins-6347291631112

Goat of the Week

Evander Kane - Edmonton Oilers

I’m befuddled as to what Kane was trying to do. He had a close, open outlet pass but chose to pass it across the ice to the boards. There were no Oilers there. David Pastrnak said thank you very much and made them pay. The Oilers scored to force overtime, but the Boston Bruins won in overtime.

https://www.nhl.com/video/bos-edm-pastrnak-scores-goal-against-stuart-skinner-6347368373112

This game also had another goal of the week courtesy of Charlie McAvoy. This was the overtime winner.

https://www.nhl.com/video/bos-edm-mcavoy-scores-goal-against-stuart-skinner-6347369756112

Stat Line of the Week

2/24/24 Toronto 4 vs. Colorado 3

In a game I couldn’t watch because it was on the NHL network ugh, Tyler Bertuzzi had his third hat trick on his birthday to help the Maple Leafs beat the Avalanche. Bertuzzi is the player the Maple Leafs needed that Wayne Simmonds could have been if they had used him properly. Bertuzzi had two power-play goals and a dirty work goal. He has a great net presence and awareness. With all ten goals, his production is down, but he’ll pay dividends in the playoffs.

On a side note, the NHL network is pointless. No carrier has it. I only had it briefly when I had Playstation Vue. It rarely shows games, so there’s no reason for them to. Occasionally, showing a great game to prevent most people from having it is terrible business. It’s bad enough I can’t watch Kings or Ducks game already. The channel needs to die.

Numbers, Numbers

102 – Points By Nikita Kucherov

0:35 – Matt Grezlyk ice time before he became injured against the Oilers

1 – Pavel Buchnevich’s natural hat trick against the New York Islanders

10 – Game winning streak by the New York Rangers snapped by the Columbus Blue Jackets

12 – Straight losses by the Arizona Coyotes

Rankings

The rankings are based on how the teams are currently playing.

Top 5

1. NY Rangers
2. Florida
3. Toronto
4. Detroit
5. Los Angeles

Bottom 5

30. Chicago
31. Arizona
32. Montreal
33. Anaheim
34. San Jose