It's safe to say Patrick Maroon has picked up a few tricks playing on Connor McDavid's wing. Among them: the slickest of hands.
Maroon put his new moves on display Saturday during the Edmonton Oilers' matchup with the Anaheim Ducks, embarrassing a couple defenders before floating a pass through the slot for McDavid.
The captain's finish marked his 29th goal of the season, and took his league-leading point total to 92.
The Toronto Maple Leafs phenom recorded two goals and an assist in a 5-4 victory over the Detroit Red Wings Saturday, with the second tally tying Matthews with Peter Ihnacak for the most points in a season by a Toronto freshman.
Ihnacak set the mark during the 1982-83 campaign. With five games remaining on the season, plenty of time remains for Matthews to claim sole possession of the record.
As impressive as the achievement is, it wasn't even the only record Matthews set on Saturday night:
Matthews' second goal of the night at 18:51 of the third period gave Toronto a 5-3 lead, but proved to be the winner when Detroit's Mike Green tallied with 44.2 seconds left in regulation.
With two goals and an assist, Matthews tied Peter Ihnacak's Leafs rookie points record of 66, set in 1982-83.
James van Riemsdyk scored with 2:36 left in the third period to snap the 3-3 tie and put the Leafs ahead for good. Van Riemsdyk slipped a backhander past Detroit's Jimmy Howard.
The Montreal Canadiens are the class of the Atlantic Division, and they aren't about to let the rest of the Eastern Conference forget it.
Canadiens winger Alexander Radulov made sure of this on Saturday night, wiring home a monstrous one-timer in overtime to clinch a 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The tally, set up by captain Max Pacioretty, was Radulov's 17th of the season, and just his second game-winner. Montreal's victory gives them 45 wins in 2016-17, as well as a division-leading 99 points.
The 25-year-old, who's been toiling away in the AHL since 2011, debuted to little fanfare back in December. Since making his way back to the Lightning roster in early March, Gourde has come up with a few spectacular offensive efforts.
He's ramped things up as of late, however, coming up with three goals in as many games - the latest coming during Tampa Bay's Saturday night tilt against the Montreal Canadiens.
Gourde's goal came by way of a slick top-shelf deflection that found its way past Carey Price, which wound up being Tampa Bay's only goal of the night.
Gourde is simply the latest in a long line of young Lightning forwards showing offensive promise. That's nothing new for Tampa Bay, as they already possess two of the game's finest goal-scorers, Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov, as well as one of the brightest playmakers of the future in Jonathan Drouin.
The odds of the Lightning making the playoffs this season remain slim, but with depth options like Gourde doing their part, the club might just have enough offensive juice to hold on until reinforcements return to the lineup.
John Klingberg and Devin Shore added empty-netters and Lehtonen stopped 25 shots in his second shutout in six starts to help the Stars snap a two-game losing streak and deal a serious blow to the Hurricanes' already slim playoff chances.
Cam Ward stopped 21 shots for Carolina, which began four points behind Boston for the East's final playoff spot with six games left and Tampa Bay between the teams.
The Hurricanes failed to earn a point for the first time since losing at Colorado on March 7 - a club-record stretch of 13 straight games with either a win or an overtime loss. They fell to 2-4-2 against the bottom four teams in the Western Conference: Dallas, Vancouver, Arizona and Colorado.
Dallas scored more than two goals for just the third time since March 6 in earning just its 12th road win of the season.
Carolina, which scored an NHL-best 54 goals in March, was shut out for the first time since a 4-0 loss to Toronto on Feb. 19.
Spezza scored the game's first goal 4:46 into the second with a wrist shot from the circle that beat Ward high to his glove side. That gave Spezza 19 career goals against the Hurricanes.
Meanwhile, the Hurricanes missed a prime chance earlier in the game. Dallas - and its league-worst penalty-kill unit - drew a minor midway through the first, but the Hurricanes came up empty on a 3-on-nobody rush after they caught the Stars on a line change.
NOTES:
The Hurricanes reassigned G Alex Nedeljkovic to their ECHL affiliate in Florida. Nedeljkovic was brought up Tuesday, one day after Eddie Lack was hurt at the end of an overtime loss to Detroit. ... Dallas LW Curtis McKenzie was back in Texas after a high stick he took near his eye two nights earlier at Boston caused him to bleed profusely on the ice.
The first 36 goals scored by Toronto Maple Leafs rookie Auston Matthews have done little to prepare netminders around the NHL for future scores.
Matthews made that clear while tallying his 37th of the season Saturday, streaking up ice and dishing to Leo Komarov before getting the puck back and scoring off a lightning quick wrist shot.
With his 37th in tow, Matthews temporarily moved into sole possession of fourth place in the 2016-17 goal-scoring race, trailing third-place Nikita Kucherov by just one.
The San Jose Sharks may be going to the dance, but only after stumbling through the door with as little grace required.
One year removed from their first-ever trip to the Stanley Cup Final, the Sharks look set to enter the 2017 postseason amid their worst stretch of the season, having lost eight of their past nine games.
Contributing factors can be found throughout the veteran lineup, but there's no denying the lackluster play of netminder Martin Jones isn't helping matters.
The 27-year-old has done his club few favors with his performance over the past month. After getting pulled from San Jose's Friday night loss to the Calgary Flames, Jones has now posted just one win in his past six appearances, and has allowed a total of 23 goals over that span.
Jones excelled as a steady No.1 option during his first season as a full-fledged starter last year, coming up with a .918 save percentage and six shutouts for San Jose.
He started off 2016-17 in a similar spot, posting steady numbers over the first three months of the season - including a dominant November:
Martin Jones
Save Percentage
Record
October
.916
5-3-0
November
.924
7-5-1
December
.916
7-4-0
However, things took a turn once the calendar rolled over to 2017, and Jones has been in decline ever since:
Martin Jones
Save Percentage
Record
January
.911
7-3-1
February
.908
4-0-4
March
.885
3-7-0
It's that final row that his been the most significant thorn in the Sharks' side, as the club is lacking any semblance of momentum with the playoffs fast approaching.
San Jose has gotten some decent play from backup Aaron Dell, who's played seven of the club's March tilts - as opposed to Jones' 10 - posting a far better save percentage of .921.
But Dell's play down the stretch means little for San Jose.
With the Sharks set to come up against some of the most dominant offensive names in the game - particularly league scoring leader Connor McDavid, whose Edmonton Oilers are presently slated to face San Jose in the first round - the club is going to need every bit of their No.1's talent to weave together a meaningful run.
Unfortunately, right now they're getting the opposite. This March has been by far the worst stretch of Jones' tenure in San Jose, and his performances have been getting progressively worse as the month has gone on.
There's still time for a turnaround, and there's no question Jones has the talent to backstop San Jose to another shot at the finals, but the club is quickly running out of time for him to show that ability.
And with two more dates with Calgary and Edmonton to close out the season, it's not about to get any easier.