Another week of NHL action is in the books, and plenty of headlines emerged. Luckily, CBS Sports is here to help you keep track of them all with the weekly NHL Rewind.
On Saturday night, another epic battle took place between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins. The bitter rivals went back and forth in a see-saw affair before Brad Marchand played the role of hero and broke quite a few hearts in Toronto.
The trade market also saw some notable action with the Calgary Flames sending veteran defenseman Nikita Zadorov to the Vancouver Canucks. Zadorov’s first game as a Canuck happened to be against the Flames, and he managed to get on the scoresheet in a 4-3 win.
Let’s recap all the best highlights and biggest storylines from the week that was in the NHL.
Goal of the week: Tristan Jarry becomes a sniper
Tristan Jarry is known more for making saves rather than putting the puck in the net, but that might have changed a little last week. On Thursday night, Jarry became the first Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender to score a goal.
Late in the third period, the Tampa Bay Lightning pulled goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy while trailing 3-2. As the Bolts were pushing to tie the game, they dumped the puck into the Penguins’ zone, but a chip-in was off the mark. It slid straight to Jarry, and he saw an opportunity.
In one motion, Jarry corralled the puck and flung it back down the ice, well over the heads of all 11 skaters. It finally landed in between the circles at the other end of the rink and bounced into the gaping cage for Jarry’s first career goal.
Not only did Jarry become the first Penguins goalie to score, but he is also just the fourth netminder to accomplish that feat in the last decade.
Oddly enough, Jarry’s backup in this game was Alex Nedeljkovic, who is no stranger to scoring goals himself. Nedeljkovic hasn’t scored in the NHL, but he is the only goalie to score more than once in AHL history, with his most recent tally coming just a couple weeks ago.
Save of the week: Juuse Saros stretches to preserve the lead
Juuse Saros is still trying to get rolling this season, and his performance against the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday should help. Saros made his best save of the season while preserving the Nashville Predators‘ 2-1 lead in the third period.
The Predators jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period, and Saros took over from there. In the third period, the Sabres trailed 2-1 and were turning up the pressure in front of the Nashville net. Buffalo forward Dylan Cozens got the puck in the slot without a Predator in his zip code, and it looked like the game might be tied.
Cozens had Saros sliding to the short side before making a move to the far post in hopes of sliding the puck around the Nashville goaltender. Somehow, Saros was able to stop on a dime and fling his left pad backward as he robbed Cozens of the tying goal.
Saros hasn’t been playing his best hockey so far this year as his save percentage is down at .900. But when he plays like he did against the Sabres, the Predators become a very tough out.
Bruins break hearts in Toronto
The rivalry between the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs rarely fails to deliver, and fans got to see another classic on Saturday night. Unfortunately for the Leafs, the result was another heartbreaking loss.
In the first period, Toronto played well and outshot Boston 10-7, but the Bruins have David Pastrnak. The Czech sniper crossed the offensive blue line and fired a seed under the crossbar to beat Toronto goaltender Joseph Woll.
Boston defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk doubled the lead with his first of the second period, but Toronto was able to get back into the game when Auston Matthews went hunting for rebounds in front of Linus Ullmark and found one. Matthews hammered the puck into an empty net for his 15th goal of the season.
Early in the third period, Max Domi got his first of the season to tie the game at 2-2, but the roller coaster was far from done. The Bruins’ Trent Frederic punched home a greasy goal with just under seven minutes left in the third to give his team the lead again.
It was starting to look like the Bruins would escape Toronto with a regulation win, but Matthews had other plans. With just 5.7 seconds left, Mitch Marner found Matthews with chaos unfolding in front of the Boston net, and the latter fired a one-timer past Ullmark to even the score again.
It would have been a shame if this game was decided by a shootout, and it almost was until Bruins captain Brad Marchand ended it in dramatic fashion. With eight seconds left in OT, Pastrnak misfired on a breakaway but chipped the rebound to Marchand, who grabbed the puck out of mid-air and punched it home to win the game.
That win helped extend the Bruins’ Atlantic Division lead and kept the Leafs down in fourth place. It should also be noted that Marchand followed up his heroics with a hat trick Sunday against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Canucks acquire Zadorov from Flames
The NHL trade market has started to thaw a little bit now that the first couple months of the season have come and gone. The Vancouver Canucks have gotten off to a great start and needed to add some depth to their blue line, so they rang up the Calgary Flames to get a deal done.
On Thursday night, the Canucks sent a third-round pick and a fifth-round pick to the Flames in exchange for Nikita Zadorov. The veteran defenseman recently requested a trade out of Calgary, and the Flames granted his wish with this move. Now, Calgary gets some extra draft capital while the Canucks get some defensive help.
The 6-foot-6 Zadorov brings some physicality and mobility to the Canucks, especially with Carson Soucy on the shelf for quite some time.
Zadorov’s first game as a Canuck happened to be against Calgary, and he found a way to get on the scoresheet. It originally looked like Zadorov scored an empty-net goal, but it just caught a piece of Elias Pettersson’s stick before leaving the zone, so he was credited with an assist.
If Zadorov can stabilize Vancouver’s blue line a little bit more and the team’s underlying numbers continue to improve, it will be time to start taking them seriously as a true Stanley Cup contender.
Quinton Byfield helps Kings handle Avalanche
The Colorado Avalanche remain one of the top Stanley Cup contenders across the league, but the Los Angeles Kings were able to prove that they can go toe-to-toe with their Western Conference counterparts.
On Sunday, the Kings defeated the Avalanche 4-1 behind a pair of goals from winger Quinton Byfield.
The Avalanche were able to put the pressure on the Kings in the early going of Sunday’s contest. Defenseman Josh Manson got the scoring at the 12:28 mark of the first period as he scored off a terrific pass from teammate Nathan MacKinnon. It marked Manson’s first goal of the 2023-24 campaign.
Shockingly enough, that was only time the Avalanche would find the back of the net as Kings goaltender Cam Talbot stopped 20 of the 21 shots he faced on the night.
Midway through the second period, the Kings forced a turnover in their own zone and rushed the other way. Defenseman Mikey Anderson uncorked a huge slap shot off a pass from winger Adrian Kempe, and Byfield was right in front to redirect the puck past goalie Alexandar Georgiev to tie the game at 1-1.
Byfield continued his stellar evening at the 13:26 mark of the third period when he got into the scoring column once again. Much like his first goal, Byfield paid off some sensational puck movement from his teammates. Captain Anze Kopitar received a pass from Kempe on the side of the Avalanche net, and he then set up Byfield for an easy goal.
Forward Trevor Moore scored less than a minute later, and defenseman Drew Doughty added an empty-netter to ice the contest for the Kings.
This was just the second multi-goal game of Byfield’s young career. It continues an impressive stretch in which the 21-year-old has tallied four goals and eight assists over the last month.
It was a huge win for a Kings team that sits five points behind the Vegas Golden Knights for first place in the Pacific Division. It was also the sixth win over their last seven games as the Kings continue to try and establish themselves as one of the top teams in the West.
Appointment viewing this week
Red Wings at Sabres: Tuesday, Dec. 5: Sadly, Patrick Kane won’t make his Red Wings debut in Buffalo, but this is still an intriguing matchup. The Red Wings looked like a playoff team up to this point, while the Sabres have dropped four out of their last five games. This could definitely be a high-scoring affair.
Hurricanes at Oilers: Wednesday, Dec. 6: It’s been an underwhelming start to the year for the Oilers, to say the least. This is a team that sits in seventh place in the Pacific Division, but is currently riding a four-game winning streak. Meanwhile, the Hurricanes have looked like a Stanley Cup contender at times and hope to rise in the Eastern Conference standings.
Maple Leafs at Senators: Thursday, Dec. 7: The Senators were looking to take the next step and return to the postseason in 2023-24. However, this is a team that has struggled thus far with just 18 points. On the other hand, the Maple Leafs sit in the middle of the pack in the Atlantic Division as they continue to try and catch the Bruins.
Coyotes at Bruins: Saturday, Dec. 9: Speaking of the Bruins, they’re tied for the most points through the first quarter of the 2023-24 season, and that might be a bit of a surprise considering the offseason turnover. Meanwhile, the Coyotes have an abundance of youth, but that hasn’t stopped them from being competitive in the Central Division. This will be a true test for the Coyotes as they take on the league’s best.
Kings at Rangers: Sunday, Dec. 10: After being bounced from the opening round of the 2023 postseason, the Rangers have played with a chip on their shoulder this season. The Rangers have been one of the NHL’s top teams with Artemi Panarin playing out of his mind. On the contrary, the Kings are winners of six of their last seven games, and they will be looking to pull off a massive win on their East Coast road trip.
