Jim Jost came into our lives a couple days ago when his grandson, Colorado Avalanche rookie Tyson Jost, took to the ice for his first time as a pro, and wept at the accomplishment of his grandson. The heartwarming moment was instantly replayed across the hockey world and beyond.
Grandpa Jost one-upped himself on Thursday night when young Tyson scores his first NHL goal.
First, watch the goal.
Sidney Crosby was on the verge of creating an international incident (in hockey) by going point-less in three straight games.
Thank Gord! Mike Sullivan finally put him on the ice with the offensive powerhouses of the Pittsburgh Penguins in order to get Sid off the schneid and past career point No. 998.
Just as you assumed, the two players are: Jake Guentzel and Bryan Dumoulin.
Stationed at the goal line Sid receives a pass from Dumoulin, settles the puck and times a darn near perfect pass of his own to the net-crashing Guentzel. Boom. Score.
SWEET RELIEF!
That was the only point Crosby would pick up in the game leaving him at No. 999 in his career. He won’t have to endure the questions of when he’s going to hit No. 1,000 for too long. The Penguins take the ice next on Thursday against the Winnipeg Jets.
Sidney Crosby does amazing things on the ice almost every night. Scoring point No. 995 was no different.
Chris Kunitz passes Crosby the puck through approximately a million St. Louis Blues players. Crosby receives the pass on his backhand while down on one knee.
With one of the best backhands in the game Crosby makes it look easy as he roofs it in the semi-lunge position.
As the great Tracy Jordan once said, “I love [that goal] so much, I want to take it behind a middle school and get it pregnant.”
After that spectacular goal, it was just another three point night for the Pittsburgh Penguins captain. He assisted on Justin Schultz’s ninth tally of the year and added an empty netter to seal the game for the Pens at 4-1.
Crosby has three points to go before hitting number 1,000.
In the first period of the game between the Ottawa Senators and Florida Panthers the two teams combined for five goals.
It looked like if Roberto Luongo was going to earn his 450th career win he might need a little luck on his side.
And for being such a good soldier, the hockey gods smiled down upon Bobby Lu and gave him a meltdown by the Sens.
By the end of the second, the Panthers erased a 4-2 deficit to tie the game.
Henrik Sedin wanted to be in front of the fans in Vancouver when he picked up the 1,000th point of his NHL career.
He got his wish Friday night, scoring a goal with three pretty cool footnotes attached.
The primary assist on the goal went to his brother Daniel. (They’re identical twins, if you haven’t heard.) At the time of publication, Daniel sits at 968 points.
Second, he scored the goal on his former teammate Roberto Luongo. Sedin assumed the captaincy in Vancouver after Luongo held it. Bobby Lu went and gave his buddy some love after the goal.
Alex Ovechkin has always had a flare for the dramatic.
Going into Monday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens, Ovechkin needed three points to reach 1,000 for his career and only one goal to tie Maurice “Rocket” Richard with 544 goals at 29th overall.
Scoring three points in the game, he nearly accomplished both, but alas, he’d only hit one major milestone tonight.
In front of the Montreal crowd and on the power play (of course), Ovechkin tied the legendary Richard’s record.
It feels apropos that Ovechkin would hit this milestone in Montreal where Richard spent his entire NHL career. The trophy that bears Richard’s name for the top goal scorer each season has been earned by Ovi a league high six times.
Just as everyone predicted at the beginning of the season, the most anticipated game to close out the calendar year is … the Minnesota Wild versus the Columbus Blue Jackets?
(Sorry Pittsburgh and Montreal.)
The hockey world was gifted with The Unsustainabowl. A confluence of two teams riding franchise high win streaks; Minnesota with 12 wins in a row and Columbus with 14.
Two teams would enter and only one team, the Columbus Blue Jackets, would leave as victors; extending their franchise high win streak to 15 games. The streak
The game started as a battle of the goaltenders. Sergei Bobrovsky earned the first quality save of the game as he robs Zach Parise.
David Backes was the story going in to the game between the Boston Bruins and the St. Louis Blues.
The game marks the first time Backes has faced his former since leaving for Boston in the offseason as a free agent.
On the power play, Backes is perched in front of his former teammate Jake Allen. Torey Krug sends in a shot on net and the former Blues captain cleans up the garbage. As he bats the puck into the net his stick breaks.
The goal itself is memorable for two reasons beyond Backes scoring on his former team.
Yes, you read that right.
Connor McDavid didn’t score a hat trick in the NHL until the 64th game of his NHL career. Pfft, Connor McJesus…
The hat trick couldn’t come at a more opportune time for McDavid, or at least for the mainstream hockey (cough, Canadian) media that covers him. They were starting to worry.
In the past 10 games, McDavid has been held without a goal. Not a point, but a goal. He has seven points in those 10 games.
Against the Dallas Stars, all that concern about the well-being of the Edmonton Oilers captain went right out the window as he got the first of what will probably be many hat tricks in his career.
The 19-year-old is now tied with Mark Scheifele for the league lead with 22 points.
As for the Oilers, they spotted the Stars four goals before Dallas put up two of their own. In the third period, McDavid’s third goal sealed the game at 5-2. Unfortunately the hatty was scored in Dallas and not Edmonton where they’d still be picking up the hats. Slow clap for the fan in attendance that threw a blue wig on the ice.
Jen Neale 