When Ryan Reaves was acquired by the Pittsburgh Penguins this summer, most expected him to fill the position of Sidney Crosby's personal on-ice body guard. And while he's filled that role quite nicely, it's his role as Phil Kessel's new bestie that's garnering the most attention.
Reaves' love for his new friend was on full display following Saturday's loss to the Vancouver Canucks, rocking an awesome shirt for his postgame interview with Kessel's head Photoshopped on the body of Michael Jackson on his famous "Thriller" album cover.
Shooting hoops, playing pranks on each other, and now custom gear, this budding relationship is starting to look like a full-blown bromance.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) Rookie Brock Boeser had three goals and an assist, leading the Vancouver Canucks to a 4-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night.
It was Boeser's first career hat trick. Bo Horvat had a goal and three assists for Vancouver (7-4-2), and Sven Baertschi also had three assists.
Jacob Markstrom made 37 saves as the Canucks snapped a two-game slide where they scored just one combined goal in consecutive home losses.
Jake Guentzel and Greg McKegg scored for Pittsburgh (8-6-2), and Matt Murray made 17 stops.
The Penguins tied it at 2 at 4:49 of the third period when McKegg tipped home his second of the season. But Boeser scored his fifth goal of the season just 1:07 later after taking a feed from Horvat in the slot and ripping a shot against the grain, glove side on Murray.
The goal came moments after Patric Hornqvist hit the post behind Markstrom.
Fans at Rogers Arena littered the ice with hats to salute the 20-year-old rookie's first three-goal game.
Horvat put the game at 16:29 when he roofed a shot up and over Murray for his fifth. Boeser nearly had a fourth into an empty net with under a minute to go, but chose to pass instead of shoot.
Tied 1-1 after a spirited first, Boeser scored his second of the night at 7:14 of the middle period off a good Canucks cycle. Horvat fed a no-look pass from the corner in front to Baertschi, who kicked the puck to his stick and over to Boeser at the side of the net, where he slide his shot past Murray.
Markstrom, who was bailed out by Christopher Tanev with the puck sitting on his goal line on the first shift of the game, returned the favor in the second when he stopped Phil Kessel with his glove after the Canucks defenseman turned the puck over.
The Penguins opened the scoring on the power play 2:53 into the first.
Sidney Crosby tapped a no-look touch pass between his own legs to Kessel, who quickly fed a wide-open Guentzel at the side of the net for his fourth.
Boeser tied at 7:07 when Horvat pressured Pittsburgh defenseman Olli Maatta along on the wall. The puck eventually found its way to Boeser, and he evaded Kris Letang before using a nice backhand move on Murray.
Playing their third game in four nights, and NHL-leading 11th road contest, the Penguins almost scored on the game's first shift when Tanev cleared Conor Sheary's shot off the goal line after it squeezed through Markstrom.
NOTES: The Canucks host the Detroit Red Wings on Monday to wrap up their five-game homestand. ... The Penguins return home to face to the Arizona Coyotes on Monday. ... Vancouver visits Pittsburgh on Nov. 22.
Saturday nights mean lots of hockey, and subsequently plenty to discuss.
With that being said, here's five immediate takeaways from a busy night in the NHL.
Rangers making up for slow start
After a dreadful start to the season, the New York Rangers seem to be slowly pulling things together.
Kevin Shattenkirk's overtime marker against the Florida Panthers gave the Blueshirts their third win in a row, and fourth in five games. Perhaps more encouraging, though, is the Rangers have out-chanced opponents in each of those wins, and are one victory away from reaching a .500 mark that seemed unattainable a short time ago.
Pacioretty finally breaks through
(Photo courtesy: Action Images)
Max Pacioretty hadn't recorded a point on the power play since February 28 - an absurd 36-game span.
The Montreal Canadiens captain snapped out of his funk in a big way versus the Winnipeg Jets, recording an assist on the man advantage in regulation, then icing the game in overtime with a power-play conversion from the slot.
He also achieved some history in the process:
Max Pacioretty scored his ninth career regular-season OT goal to tie Aurel Joliat and Howie Morenz for the most in @CanadiensMTL history. pic.twitter.com/fFBRkB2svV
If goals are your thing, then Saturday was your night, as four different games ended with a 5-4 final, along with 6-4 and 5-1 finishes.
After the day's lone afternoon contest between the Ottawa Senators and Vegas Golden Knights, NHL Public Relations revealed that after 200 matches played this season, there's been an average of 6.2 goals scored per game. That's the league's highest mark since 2005-06 (6.4).
Duchene has big night
(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)
If Matt Duchene wants to use Friday's reportedly kiboshed trade as motivation to expedite his departure from Colorado, he did a good job Saturday, snapping a three-game pointless drought with a goal and an assist in a win over the Philadelphia Flyers.
Duchene also eclipsed 20 minutes in ice-time for the second time this season, and set a season high with 30 shifts.
East's best put on show
The contest between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Columbus Blue Jackets - both leading their respective divisions - lived up to its game-of-the-night potential, with the Bolts ultimately earning a highly entertaining 5-4 shootout win.
Saturday nights mean lots of hockey, and subsequently plenty to discuss.
With that being said, here's five immediate takeaways from a busy night in the NHL.
Rangers making up for slow start
After a dreadful start to the season, the New York Rangers seem to be slowly pulling things together.
Kevin Shattenkirk's overtime marker against the Florida Panthers gave the Blueshirts their third win in a row, and fourth in five games. Perhaps more encouraging, though, is the Rangers have out-chanced opponents in each of those wins, and are one victory away from reaching a .500 mark that seemed unattainable a short time ago.
Pacioretty finally breaks through
(Photo courtesy: Action Images)
Max Pacioretty hadn't recorded a point on the power play since February 28 - an absurd 36-game span.
The Montreal Canadiens captain snapped out of his funk in a big way versus the Winnipeg Jets, recording an assist on the man advantage in regulation, then icing the game in overtime with a power-play conversion from the slot.
He also achieved some history in the process:
Max Pacioretty scored his ninth career regular-season OT goal to tie Aurel Joliat and Howie Morenz for the most in @CanadiensMTL history. pic.twitter.com/fFBRkB2svV
If goals are your thing, then Saturday was your night, as four different games ended with a 5-4 final, along with 6-4 and 5-1 finishes.
After the day's lone afternoon contest between the Ottawa Senators and Vegas Golden Knights, NHL Public Relations revealed that after 200 matches played this season, there's been an average of 6.2 goals scored per game. That's the league's highest mark since 2005-06 (6.4).
Duchene has big night
(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)
If Matt Duchene wants to use Friday's reportedly kiboshed trade as motivation to expedite his departure from Colorado, he did a good job Saturday, snapping a three-game pointless drought with a goal and an assist in a win over the Philadelphia Flyers.
Duchene also eclipsed 20 minutes in ice-time for the second time this season, and set a season high with 30 shifts.
East's best put on show
The contest between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Columbus Blue Jackets - both leading their respective divisions - lived up to its game-of-the-night potential, with the Bolts ultimately earning a highly entertaining 5-4 shootout win.
Moments before potting the overtime winner against the Winnipeg Jets, Pacioretty levelled Dustin Byfuglien in the offensive zone as the puck swung around the boards.
Byfuglien clearly wasn't pleased as he skated off.
Dustin Byfuglien gave the officials big stick taps of loving support as they left the ice.
Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck believes the call should have been made.
#NHLJets G Connor Hellebuyck also thought an interference minor should have been called on #Habs captain Max Pacioretty prior to the goal pic.twitter.com/PbTdOaVH6G
Byfuglien may have been interfered with, but he then failed to clear the puck, and that allowed the Canadiens to work it around for the decisive goal seconds later.
Moments before potting the overtime winner against the Winnipeg Jets, Pacioretty levelled Dustin Byfuglien in the offensive zone as the puck swung around the boards.
Byfuglien clearly wasn't pleased as he skated off.
Dustin Byfuglien gave the officials big stick taps of loving support as they left the ice.
Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck believes the call should have been made.
#NHLJets G Connor Hellebuyck also thought an interference minor should have been called on #Habs captain Max Pacioretty prior to the goal pic.twitter.com/PbTdOaVH6G
Byfuglien may have been interfered with, but he then failed to clear the puck, and that allowed the Canadiens to work it around for the decisive goal seconds later.
Not only is the 800-game mark a nice, round number, but it also puts Cogliano in some elite iron-man company. He is now the fourth player in NHL history to play 800 consecutive games, and the second player to achieve the mark from the very beginning of his career, according to NHL Public Relations.
Player
Consecutive games
Doug Jarvis
964
Garry Unger
914
Steve Larmer
884
Andrew Cogliano
800
As you can see, Cogliano isn't too far behind the all-time record. If his streak continues all of this season and all of next season, he will be sitting at 950 consecutive games. At that point, he will only need to play 15 straight games to begin the 2019-20 NHL season for the record to be his.
Heading into his 800th consecutive game, Cogliano had 148 goals and 194 assists.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) Steven Stamkos had a power-play goal in regulation and the lone goal during the shootout, helping the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-4 on Saturday night.
Stamkos is 9 for 38 in the shootout over his career.
Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov and Yanni Gourde also scored for the Lightning. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 30 saves.
Columbus got goals from Seth Jones, Zach Werenski, Markus Hannikainen and Brandon Dubinsky, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 32 shots.
Hannikainen, on a wraparound, and Dubinsky scored 1:59 apart midway through the third to tie it at 4. It was Dubinsky's first goal in 17 games dating to last season.
Stamkos put Tampa Bay ahead 3-2 from the low left circle after taking a pass from Kucherov at 6:20 of the second. Both Lightning stars have a point in 13 of 15 games.
Gourde made it 4-2 late in the second, extending his goal streak to three consecutive games.
Both Vasilevskiy (2.42 goals-against average) and Bobrovsky (2.07 GAA) allowed two goals by the midpoint of an uptempo first period.
Jones (2:30), Point (2:54) and Kucherov (3:32), who got his 14th goal from the low right circle off a nifty pass through the slot by Mikhail Sergachev, each scored early in the game.
Sergachev, a 19-year-old rookie defenseman acquired from Montreal for forward Jonathan Drouin in June, has eight assists and 12 points in 15 games.
Werenski tied it at 2 with 9:05 left in the first. Tampa Bay outshot Columbus 17-15 in the period.
Blue Jackets left wing Matt Calvert lost his helmet and was shaken up on a center-ice check by Dan Girardi in the third.
NOTES: The Lightning honored the 2004 Stanley Cup championship team before the game as part of a 25th season celebration. Columbus coach John Tortorella coached the title-winning squad. ... Stamkos and Lightning LW Alex Killorn both were fined $5,000 by the NHL for unsportsmanlike conduct in Thursday night's game against the New York Rangers.
UP NEXT
Blue Jackets: Complete a three-game trip Monday night against the New York Rangers.
Lightning: Start a three-game western swing Wednesday night at San Jose.
