• Malkin stars in 700th game
• Flames hot streak improves playoff chances
• Trouba returns with a bang
It’s never too early to talk about the playoff race, and when your favourite team is the Calgary Flames, a playoff spot is starting to look more and more like a real possibility.
The Flames won their sixth straight game on Friday, giving them a seven-point cushion for a wild-card spot ahead of the St. Louis Blues.
On top of that, a big night for Evgeni Malkin and the return of Jacob Trouba are just some of the highlights from a busy Friday in the NHL.
Here are four things we learned.
Malkin makes most of milestone night
Evgeni Malkin skated in his 700th career game Friday and he made sure it was a night to remember.
Malkin picked up two goals and an assist in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 5-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lighting. He has been a dominant force for the Penguins over his 11-year career and Friday night was no different.
He scored two goals like this, one-timing perfect passes from Phil Kessel past new Lightning goaltender Peter Budaj.
Malkin now sits sixth in the scoring race with 28 goals and 65 points on the season. For his career, he has 323 goals and 502 assists for 825 points.
Sidney Crosby may be the leader of the Penguins (he also picked up two points Friday), but it’s hard to argue Malkin isn’t having a Hall of Fame career too.
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Suspension doesn’t slow Trouba down one bit
It may seem like forever ago since Trouba played a game and in a way it has been. Since the Jets just got off their bye week, his two-game suspension turned into an almost two-week break between games.
Despite the time off, Trouba wasted no time returning to his physical play. Just take a look at this big hit he threw on St. Louis’ Zach Sanford.
The Jets beat the Blues 3-0 on Friday with Trouba picking up an assist and six hits.
After sitting out the first month of the season over a contract dispute, Trouba has been one of the more consistent players on the back end for the Jets. He’s averaging a career-high 24:45 of ice time per game and has 24 points. He also has 81 hits and 92 blocks.
With Tyler Myers being out of the lineup since November, having Trouba step up his game this season has been a pleasant surprise for the Jets.
Flames remain hot with sixth straight win
Don’t look now but the Flames are closing in on their Alberta rivals in the Pacific Division standings. With their sixth straight win on Friday, the Flames now have 74 points, seven clear of the St. Louis Blues.
Everything has been going right for the Flames lately. They have a new top line—Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan and Micheal Ferland—who are helping each other pick up points in the streak.
But depth of scoring has been an asset too, and that was especially apparent against the Red Wings. Gaudreau, Monahan and Ferland combined for one assist, but Kris Versteeg and Mikael Backlund chipped in with goals. Not having to rely on superstars every game has helped the Flames a lot this season.
Finally, Brian Elliott is slowly returning to form. He picked up the win Friday, making 35 saves and improving his record to 17-13-3 on the season. The Flames traded for Elliott over the summer expecting him to be a starter, and in recent games, it appears he’s finally ready to grab the reigns.
Between their depth scoring and solid goaltending, the Flames sure look like a playoff team, but there’s still a lot of hockey left on the schedule.
The bye week results are in…
Finally, a quick note. Much has been made about how the new bye weeks are hurting teams when they come back. Well, after the Anaheim Ducks came back from their break and beat the Toronto Maple Leafs Friday night, every team has now finished their bye week. So now we know how much damage the breaks did. As expected, it isn’t pretty.
Only one third of teams came away with two points in the first game after their bye week. There are obviously a lot of factors that go into any loss, but you’d be hard-pressed to find someone happy with this record.
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