Andreas Athanasiou scored a goal tonight that will be on Red Wings highlight reels for years. pic.twitter.com/ePcxRo0VZZ
— Brad Galli (@BradGalli) March 1, 2016
If Dylan Larkin is the fastest skater in the NHL, a fellow Detroit Red Wings rookie can't be far behind.
Andreas Athanasiou scored his second goal Monday against the Dallas Stars in spectacular fashion, speeding into the offensive zone before toe-dragging around defenseman Johnny Oduya and roofing the backhand past goalie Antti Niemi.
His two-goal performance doubles his season total in his 18th game with the Red Wings.
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Tyler Johnson recorded his first multi-goal game of the season and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 31 saves as the Tampa Bay Lightning held off a young Toronto Maple Leafs lineup for a 2-1 victory Monday, extending their winning streak to seven games.
The big performance from Johnson comes just one day after he was forced from a game against the Boston Bruins due to a puck to the head from an Adam McQuaid clearing attempt. The 28-year-old has three goals and two assists in his last six games.
The other story from the game came from a quartet of Maple Leaf rookies making their NHL debuts in William Nylander, Kasperi Kapanen, Zach Hyman, and Nikita Soshnikov. All four impressed, but were ultimately kept off the scoresheet.
| Player | TOI | SOG | Hits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nylander | 18:41 | 2 | 0 |
| Kapanen | 16:48 | 3 | 2 |
| Hyman | 15:58 | 2 | 1 |
| Soshnikov | 14:12 | 3 | 1 |
After Nazem Kadri scored with under three minutes left to make it a one-goal game, head coach Mike Babcock turned to Nylander, Kapanen, and Hyman for the game's final shift and the Maple Leafs kept considerable pressure before defenseman Jake Gardiner failed to keep the puck inside the blue line.
"I thought they were good," said Babcock of the debuting Leafs, per James Mirtle of the Globe and Mail. "I was impressed with them."
Though the result didn't go the way they'd hoped, it was clearly a dream come true for all four players to hit the ice at the NHL level.
"When you're standing in front of (Steven) Stamkos, you're like 'this is the NHL,'" Nylander told reporters, but admitted: "I just wanted to score, that's the only thing, and win the game. Otherwise it was lots of fun."
Kapanen: "It was pretty awesome I'm not going to lie."
— James Mirtle (@mirtle) March 1, 2016
The Leafs now head to Washington on Wednesday, where recent acquisition Brooks Laich will visit his old team. The Lightning, who have drawn even with the Florida Panthers at 78 points atop the Atlantic, will wrap up their three-game trip against the Ottawa Senators.
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Derek Stepan gets the SHG to put the Rangers back in the lead, 2-1 #hockey #NYRvsCBJ - Streamable
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Derek Stepan wasn't interested in playing overtime.
The New York Rangers forward pounced on a loose puck after a miscue by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the neutral zone, then faked out goaltender Joonas Korpisalo and scored to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead with under three minutes left.
Stepan's 14th goal of the season came with seven seconds left in a tripping penalty to teammate Marc Staal, and helped the Rangers secure their third straight victory as they held on for a 2-1 win.
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Jonathan Drouin has a standing offer to return to the Tampa Bay Lightning organization, but that reportedly isn't going to happen.
“That ship has sailed," a source close to the situation told TSN's Frank Seravalli, mere hours after Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman said "the door is open" for Drouin to return, but that the onus is on the player.
Servalli's source stressed Drouin's return is not a possibility, and Yzerman's offer is reportedly believed to only include the Syracuse Crunch, the club's AHL affiliate.
Even if the the offer included a chance to return to the Lightning before the playoffs, Servalli reports Drouin isn't believed to be interested.
The 20-year-old forward was suspended indefinitely without pay by the Lightning for failing to report to a game with the Crunch last month.
Yzerman elected not to trade Drouin, despite garnering plenty of interest from around the league, saying it "made no sense" to deal him for a rental player that he couldn't or wouldn't want to re-sign.
Drouin has been skating in the Montreal area with his former midget team while awaiting a deal. He could still be traded before the end of the season, but any team acquiring him wouldn't be able to use him in the playoffs.
The 2013 third overall pick could also be dealt at the draft, which takes place in Buffalo on June 24 and 25.
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"Here come the sock penguins" is not something you hear every night.
— NHL (@NHL) March 1, 2016
It's Patric Hornqvist's first NHL hat trick.https://t.co/6FrLfydL2E
It was a hat trick for Patric.
What made the feat even more memorable was that it came on Sock Penguin Night in Pittsburgh, as Penguins winger Patric Hornqvist found the back of the net against the Arizona Coyotes off feeds from Sidney Crosby, Chris Kunitz, and Evgeni Malkin, sending both hats and plenty of stuffed "sock penguins" over the glass in celebration.
The third goal gave the Penguins a 4-0 lead midway through the second period.
Hornqvist has the Penguins' first ever hat trick on Leap Day.
— Seth Rorabaugh (@emptynetters) March 1, 2016
They've given up two Leap Day HTs. Ted Irvine (1976) and Gary Roberts (1996)
With the first hat trick of his career, the 29-year-old Hornqvist now has 15 goals on the season, and 10 in 17 career games against the Coyotes.
His three-goal performance continues an impressive run across the NHL:
4 Hat tricks in the past 3 days... 2 Natural Hat Tricks(NSH Forsberg & OTT Zibanejad) and 2 regular Hat Tricks(ANA Perry & PIT Hornqvist)
— SiriusXM NHL Network (@SiriusXMNHL) March 1, 2016
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[Insert Sparks pun] #TMLtalkhttps://t.co/Sv1RsCAtjM
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) March 1, 2016
Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Garret Sparks hasn't seen NHL action since Dec. 17, but you'd never know from his early performance Monday against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The 22-year-old made 15 first-period saves to keep the game scoreless, including the series of saves above, ending with a sprawling stick stop to rob Valtteri Filppula.
General manager Lou Lamoriello said he needed a better look at Sparks after trading James Reimer to San Jose ahead of the trade deadline, and the young goalie is certainly making a good impression so far.
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