Shortly after Auston Matthews scored for the second time Saturday night, nonchalantly bumping his 2021-22 goal tally to 58 through 67 games, veteran teammate Jason Spezza rotated his head on the Toronto Maple Leafs' bench.

Spezza, a former NHL star and noted hockey savant, then flashed Sheldon Keefe a dumbfounded look. At that moment, the Maple Leafs head coach later recalled, Spezza's eyes conveyed the equivalent of, "Wow, this is something special."

"I was surprised (Matthews) stopped at two, to be honest," Keefe, himself amazed, told reporters following Toronto's 3-2 win over Montreal. "With the way that he was playing, it felt like he was going to have a serious night."

Matthews' production has been so prolific of late that his performances are graded on a curve. A "serious night" for all but a handful of NHLers is a goal, maybe two. Matthews, who on Saturday became only the 13th player in history to score 50 over a 50-game stretch, has four hat tricks since Dec. 1.

On the year, Matthews is averaging 0.87 goals per game, which ties him with legends Phil Esposito (1971-72 and 1973-74) and Jari Kurri (1985-86) for the 20th-highest rate all time, minimum 50 games. The 24-year-old center is on pace for 67 tallies in 77 contests, which would be the greatest goal-scoring campaign since Mario Lemieux's preposterous 69 in 70 games in 1995-96.

With Matthews scorching hot and the Leafs' regular-season schedule winding down, there's no better time than now to dive into what makes the MVP favorite such an unstoppable force. To do so, we rewatched all 58 of his goals and assessed his statistical profile to find compelling trends and patterns.

Here's what stood out:

1. Attack mentality

Matthews' default setting is attack mode.

The 2016 first overall draft pick first showed this mode during his four-goal NHL debut six years ago, and he's certainly called upon it many times. But in 2021-22, Matthews seems extra hungry.

He'll march through the neutral zone with purposeful strides, blitzing the open ice with the puck glued to his stick and his jersey flapping in the air. He'll beat an opponent to a loose puck in the offensive zone thanks to his excellent skating ability and tireless motor. He'll welcome physical play and sometimes initiates contact if there's a decent chance he can gain possession.

The puck, in his mind, is Auston Matthews' puck - nobody else's.

This attack mode was definitely initiated on his 24th goal of the season:

Notice how Matthews doesn't settle for a scoring chance from the top of the circle or go wide on the defender. Instead, he skates into the opponent's orbit, manufacturing a screen on the goalie before firing a bullet into the top corner.

Not many NHLers have the audacity to do that. Matthews does it regularly.

Defensive players simply can't afford to play him loosely. And no matter the situation - whether he's on his forehand or backhand, square to the goalie or at a sharp angle - the chances of No. 34 going for it are very high.

Matthews ranks first in the NHL in shots on goal with 320 and trails only shot volume king Alex Ovechkin and David Pastrnak in attempts with 542.

What's most impressive about Matthews' attack mentality is how he deploys his energy and enthusiasm in a responsible manner. At 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds, he could be a wrecking ball on the ice. He prefers to pick his spots.

There's a grace and finesse to his playing style. He's in command of his body and the puck while skating downhill - a testament to his next-level agility, balance, and puck control - and he has soft hands and a cool head in traffic.

2. All-purpose sniper

Matthews' skill set is terrifying. From the size and strength, to the intelligence and skating, to the puck skills and finishing ability, he's truly the complete package.

Knowing which tool to pull out of his toolbox in any given scenario is a vitally important - and often overlooked - part of his genius as a goal-scorer.

Of Matthews' 320 shots on goal, 176 have been wrist shots - no surprise for the man armed with the NHL's quickest, most deceptive release. He's also recorded 43 slap shots, 41 snap shots, 31 backhands, 16 tips, nine wraparounds, and four deflections. He's scored on 27 wrist shots, eight snaps, eight backhands, seven tips, six slaps, and two wraparounds.

Matthews showcased his tipping talent on Goal No. 27:

The possibilities seem endless.

More than 400 games into his career, that patented catch-and-release shooting technique continues to baffle goaltenders. He can blast a puck just as well mid-crossover as standing still. He can one-time the puck top corner after a give-and-go, turn a change of possession into a goal in the blink of an eye, deke out the goalie in tight, score off one foot, and so on and so on.

This versatility vaults Matthews from 40-goal territory to the 60-goal sphere.

Matthews has outperformed MoneyPuck's expected goals model by 20 goals this season. That's a stunning gap, and the distribution of his offense reveals even more: Matthews' 38.1 expected goals are split fairly evenly, with 14.1 in the high-danger area, 13.5 medium danger, and 10.4 low danger.

As illustrated below, Matthews prioritizes the high-percentage areas of the offensive zone yet generates offense from basically everywhere. (Green dots represent shots on goal, the red are missed attempts, and the yellow are goals.)

Watching his goals, it was mildly surprising to see Matthews bury so many pucks in and around the crease. Given how deadly he is from range, it's easy to forget he also consistently puts himself in position to tap in the 2-foot putt.

In other words, the understated moments, when he's lurking in the shadows, balance out the wow moments, when the degree of difficulty is off the charts.

3. The Marner effect

Matthews' goals are rarely fluky, as he beats goalies cleanly almost every time.

The vast majority can be attributed to his brilliance as a sniper. The rest can mostly be linked back to the ace playmaking of Mitch Marner.

Marner, who's been on the ice for 896 of Matthews' 1,374 minutes this season, leads all Leafs with 24 assists on Matthews' goals. (Michael Bunting, the third member of Toronto's elite top line, has 17 assists in 844 minutes together, while defenseman Morgan Rielly is third with 13 assists in 714.)

Half of Marner's 24 helpers are primary assists, including this nifty centering pass against the Colorado Avalanche for Matthews' 11th goal:

The Avs' defensive-zone coverage leaves plenty to be desired in that clip. However, without Marner's deft work below the dots, Matthews doesn't get a prime scoring chance. It takes a cerebral and crafty player like Marner to quickly identify the opportunity and then deliver the puck.

When Marner weaves through the offensive zone with the puck, defenses tend to shift some of their focus off Matthews. This allows him to creep into open pockets of ice. And, since Marner is one of the best in the world at threading the needle, Matthews often ends up with the puck on his stick, unguarded, and geared up to whip home a pretty goal.

Given his size and resume, it seems laughable that opponents would ever "lose" Matthews. Yet they do all the time. His chemistry with the wizardly Marner - along with the rookie Bunting and Rielly - is a primary reason why.

4. Pocket-picker

The NHL, unfortunately, doesn't officially track the wingspans of its players. If it did, Matthews would surely rank highly among the top goal scorers.

His reach is a huge asset in keeping opponents at bay on the offensive side of the puck, and it's equally crucial to his contributions as a Selke Trophy-caliber defensive player. Every once in a while those two worlds collide as Matthews picks the pocket of an opponent and then scores. Exhibit A:

That puck-stripping element of his game has become another signature over the past three years. A ferocious backchecker and sneaky stick-lifter, he's already accumulated a career-high 82 takeaways this season. He's the only forward in the league's top five.

Of course, not every steal leads to a goal. But a takeaway gives the Leafs possession of the puck, and Toronto's underlying numbers are superb when Matthews is on the ice. Mix in 53 blocked shots and a 56.3% faceoff success rate and Matthews is in the conversation for best two-way forward.

Matthews' steady defensive improvements underline one final trend from the tape review and statistical deep dive: He earns most of his goals. Only 15 of 58 have come on the power play, with the remaining 43 at even strength against shutdown lines. He has nine game-winners, five more than his empty-net tally.

Matthews is in a class of his own right now as a goal-scorer. And, with 10 games remaining, he's not done yet.

John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

Copyright © 2022 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Some nights, when Connor McDavid's really dialed in, his highlight reel resembles a Cirque du Soleil show. A generational talent with an entertainer's skill set, McDavid is a high-flying circus act in the absolute best possible way.

Conversely, seeing Patrice Bergeron do his thing for a full NHL game is akin to watching a woodworker construct and assemble a custom table from scratch.

You won't gasp in awe as Bergeron stretches out to eliminate a passing lane on the penalty kill. You won't jump out of your seat as the Boston Bruins captain applies back pressure on the power play. You won't bat an eye as the perennial Selke Trophy candidate wins a neutral-zone faceoff at even strength.

By the end of the game, though, you will appreciate Bergeron and his craftsmanship. Like the woodworker drilling perfect holes for the table legs or sanding the tabletop flawlessly smooth, Bergeron is meticulous and efficient. His superpower isn't speed or puck skills; it's his attention to detail.

There's been plenty of digital ink spilled this season on the individual accomplishments of McDavid, Jonathan Huberdeau, Leon Draisaitl, Auston Matthews, and Roman Josi. The hype is warranted, too; these offensive dynamos have raised the league-wide scoring rate to a 25-year high.

With less fanfare, Bergeron has put on a show of his own. At 36 years old, the Bruins' longest-tenured player and first-line center is the clear front-runner for the Selke Trophy, which is awarded annually to the forward who "best excels in the defensive aspects of the game." If Bergeron receives a finalist nod, it'll be the 11th straight year (!) he's finished in the top three in voting. If he wins, he'll break away from Bob Gainey and stand alone in hockey history with five Selke honors.

As usual, what makes Bergeron's case compelling is the strong correlation between the eye test and his underlying numbers. His unrelenting motor, exemplary positioning, ability to force turnovers, and prowess in the faceoff circle - smaller details that frustrate opponents - also show up in the data.

With Bergeron on the ice at five-on-five, the 2021-22 Bruins have suppressed shot attempts, shots on goal, goals, and expected goals at elite levels. So elite, in fact, that Bergeron's on-ice defensive metrics tower over the 239 other forwards who've logged 700 minutes or more at five-on-five this season.

Seriously, Bergeron's in the 96th-to-100th percentile in all four categories:

There's no doubt Bergeron benefits from skating alongside stars. Brad Marchand has been on his wing for 621 of 771 five-on-five minutes. His next most common wingers - David Pastrnak, 362 minutes; Craig Smith, 192 - are no slouches. Yet the degree to which the ice tilts in Boston's favor when Bergeron's between the boards, no matter his linemates, is staggering.

Case in point: Bergeron ranks first among all NHLers - minimum 700 five-on-five minutes - in Corsi For Percentage Relative, according to Natural Stat Trick. It's a metric that aims to measure the gap in shot share when a player's on the ice versus when he's off it. The Bruins, generally an above-average possession team, see their share of attempts jump by a whopping 15.1% when Bergeron is patrolling all three zones. (For context, McDavid's at 6.4%.)

The stats suggest offenses typically go from generating a decent amount of scoring chances against the Bruins to almost none once No. 37 steps onto the ice. Bergeron kills that many opportunities.

Talking strictly goals for and against, Boston has potted 41 and allowed 22 with Bergeron on the ice at five-on-five. That's a 65% goal share. (In all situations, they're even better: 86 for, 41 against, or a 68% share.) Bergeron, who averages 18:18 of ice a night, largely against the opposition's top players, is also a key contributor to the NHL's eighth-ranked penalty kill.

Of course, Bergeron's gaudy underlying numbers are old news. He's been a dominant NHLer for a decade. What's special about 2021-22 is that he's on pace to set new personal bests in several defensive metrics despite being in his mid-30s and while contributing 54 points in 62 games. To boot, he's plus-334 in the faceoff circle for a league-leading 62.4% success rate.

Bergeron, a second-round pick of the Bruins in 2003, has never been fleet of foot. His so-so skating is offset by his next-level intelligence, hand-eye coordination, and stamina. Nobody plays mistake-free hockey, but he's close.

Marchand has written that former Bruins coach Claude Julien once told him to "look at Patrice and do everything exactly like he does it. You're not going to be the best player on the ice every single night, because Patrice is going to be the best player on the ice every single night. So, I want you to be the second-best."

Watching Bergeron do his thing, with a Stanley Cup, four Selkes, and nearly 1,400 total NHL games to his name, you can't help but wonder if we're witnessing arguably the greatest defensive forward of all time play the best defensive hockey of his career. At 36. In what's possibly his final season.

The answer may be "yes." At worst, he's crafted a bulletproof Selke case.

John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

Copyright © 2022 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Goaltending can be a touchy subject for half of the NHL's franchises. It's such a vital yet volatile position that it can sometimes feel like high praise when a netminder earns the tepid "reliable starter" label.

The issue has ballooned in 2021-22 as the league-wide goal-scoring rate has reached a 25-year high, and elite goalies have become exceedingly rare.

Goaltending stability is a storyline to track over the regular season's final month - specifically with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers, and St. Louis Blues. Through Thursday's games, all three squads are in a playoff spot despite employing goalies who don't inspire much confidence.

In Toronto, the problem begins with availability. Starter Jack Campbell is still working his way back from a rib injury, and backup Petr Mrazek is out at least six weeks with a groin injury. When healthy, Campbell's play has ranged from excellent to terrible in a career-high 39 starts. Mrazek has posted subpar numbers in 18 starts. Plan C is Erik Kallgren, a virtual unknown with seven games of NHL experience. So, the pressure's on Campbell to rebound.

In Edmonton, the Oilers have been playing with fire all season. Mike Smith and Mikko Koskinen rank 42nd and 50th in save percentage among the 63 goalies who've logged 500 minutes. Both also place poorly in goals saved above average and goals saved above expected, underlining how the Oilers' team defense, while not world-beating, isn't the core concern. Could Connor McDavid and the skaters conceivably minimize the goaltending woes by winning games 6-5, 5-4, and 4-3? Sure, but that's a risky gamble.

In St. Louis, Jordan Binnington, the starter to begin 2021-22, has been up and down all campaign, never really settling into a groove. Meanwhile, his partner, Ville Husso, has crashed back to earth after an exceptional first half. The traditionally physical Blues now play an up-tempo brand of hockey, and they'll be in trouble come playoff time without solid goaltending.

Other major storylines to keep an eye on:

Finalizing MVP cases: Usually, the hockey world has homed in on the three likely finalists for the Hart Trophy by this point in the season. However, the field is as crowded as it is diverse this campaign, with 100-point man McDavid and 50-goal guy Auston Matthews leading the charge at forward. Roman Josi is also making a compelling Hart case on the back end, while Igor Shesterkin has staked his claim between the pipes. And it wouldn't be shocking if Leon Draisaitl, Jonathan Huberdeau, or Johnny Gaudreau squeezed into the conversation before games wrap on April 29.

Jockeying for position: The eight teams in a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference are safe. Nobody's catching them. Matchups still need to be determined, though, and the Atlantic Division is especially fluid. Out West, it's a three-horse race for the final wild-card spot. Dallas (79 points in 66 games) owns it right now, but Vegas (78 in 69) and Winnipeg (76 in 69) are on its heels. The heat is on the Golden Knights, whose season has featured countless injuries, the Jack Eichel acquisition, and that bungled deadline deal.

Kreider's crazy season

Matthews is on pace for 62 goals in 77 games. Draisaitl's on pace for 59 in 82. Chris Kreider, 56 in 82. Alex Ovechkin, 51 in 80. And Kyle Connor, 49 in 80.

The last time more than three players hit the 50-goal mark was in 2005-06. Connor being placed in COVID-19 protocol earlier this week greatly diminishes his chances, but the other four should reach the milestone.

Kreider, who has 46 goals in 68 contests, is the group's outlier when it comes to his resume.

According to the league's stats and information department, the speedy, net-crashing New York Rangers winger could become only the seventh player in history to record their first 50-goal season at age 30 or older (Kreider turns 31 on April 30). Incredibly, the Massachusetts native has never even registered a 30-goal season, falling short by two goals in 2016-17 and 2018-19.

Another interesting nugget: Kreider has scored 16 of his 46 goals off tipped shots. Heading into the season, nobody recorded more than 12 since the NHL started tracking shot types in 2009-10. (Note: a "tip" is a shot attempt off an offensive player's stick, while a "deflection" is an attempt off an extension of the player, such as a piece of equipment or body part.)

Kreider debuted in 2012-13. He's racked up 64 career goals via tip to lead all players in that span. Here are the rest of the top-five tippers:

Another layer to Kreider's story: He's scored 24 of his 46 goals on the power play. He leads the league in that category, too, and already surpassed Brayden Point's 20 in 2018-19, the last time the NHL played an 82-game season.

Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant's recent remarks on Kreider's 45th goal provided a concise breakdown of what he brings to the table offensively.

"Big power-play goal," Gallant told reporters Tuesday. "That's what Kreids does - shot from the point, (puck) missed the net, and he's right there for the garbage. He scores a lot of goals in the blue paint, and he's doing a great job."

Tampa Bay's School Bus Line

With the trade deadline in the rearview mirror and finally at full health, Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper has an embarrassment of riches up front.

Seriously, these are the four forward lines Cooper rolled out Tuesday:

• Steven Stamkos - Brayden Point - Nikita Kucherov
• Ondrej Palat - Anthony Cirelli - Alex Killorn
• Brandon Hagel - Ross Colton - Nick Paul
• Pat Maroon - Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - Corey Perry

That trio of Bellemare between Maroon and Perry has stayed together through injuries and roster moves. For good reason, too - the School Bus Line, as Maroon labeled it earlier this season, has been wildly impactful.

The nickname is a nod to how each member of the line takes their turn driving the metaphorical bus through lumbering yet effective two-way play. A battled-tested, north-south group, the School Bus Line has managed to outscore opponents 22-8 in 475 minutes together. In terms of goals-for percentage, they rank sixth in the NHL among the 56 lines to log 200 minutes. Not bad.

That impressive GF% is a little misleading because the School Bus Line tends to face other teams' bottom-six players. Still, owning roughly 75% of the goal share over such a large sample is quite the feat for three 30-somethings playing in a young man's league. (Bellemare's 37; Perry's 36; Maroon's 33.)

From afar, it's hard not to appreciate the mix of player types and personalities. Maroon, the American, is the resident chirper and three-time Stanley Cup winner. Perry, the Canadian, is the ultra-competitive scorer and former league MVP. Bellemare, from France, is the smart and defensively minded center.

All aboard the bus!

Parting thoughts

Alex Nedeljkovic: It's been a trying first season in Detroit for the young goalie. Nedeljkovic's save percentage sits at .900 after 50 appearances, and he allowed five or more goals in 10 of those games. As the image below shows, he recently wrote the phrases "JUST DO IT" and "HAVE FUN" on his blocker. I viewed it as a reminder that NHLers are human beings, and sometimes it's a challenge to get out of your own head and away from negative thought patterns.

Rick Jeanneret: The legendary Buffalo Sabres broadcaster will call his final game on April 29, and the club is holding a banner-raising ceremony Friday at KeyBank Center. It'll be a rare sellout, which says a lot about the state of the Sabres and also the fan base's love for "RJ," the NHL's longest-tenured announcer. Here are Jeanneret's best calls from 50 years (!) behind the mic:

Nathan MacKinnon: For a team that has underachieved in the playoffs, the last thing the Colorado Avalanche needed was another injury to a star player. MacKinnon looked as if he sustained a serious injury last weekend after fighting Minnesota Wild defenseman Matt Dumba. MacKinnon missed Tuesday's game but returned Thursday, skating for 22:38 in a 4-2 win. Phew, close call for the Avs, especially with the West wide-open this season.

Takes, Thoughts, and Trends is theScore's biweekly hockey grab bag.

John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

Copyright © 2022 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

New Jersey was down 4-2 with two minutes left in the third period on Saturday when Jack Hughes corralled a pass deep in the Devils' end.

Skating backward, Hughes turned his body 180 degrees in one smooth motion to maintain his speed and keep control of the puck. The Devils had an extra attacker on the ice and the Washington Capitals were sitting back, an ideal scenario for a burner like Hughes.

As he zoomed through the neutral zone, Hughes looked similar to Connor McDavid - the master of skating. Then, as he went inside-out on veteran defenseman Dmitry Orlov and entered the offensive zone, he looked like Patrick Kane - the one-on-one genius.

Hughes ultimately failed to get a shot on goal, his attempt negated by a stick check. Ten seconds later, he slammed his own stick in frustration after a teammate opted to shoot the puck instead of passing to him while he was wide-open.

"He's only 20 years old, and I like that at a young age he's got that kind of bravado," said Ken Daneyko, the longtime Devils defenseman turned TV analyst for MSG Networks.

Daneyko added: "It's not a selfish act. It's him saying, 'When we need a big play, just know where I am. I will get it done.'"

New Jersey eventually scored with the extra attacker and Hughes picked up the primary assist. But that tally was all they could muster in the 4-3 road loss.

Those final two minutes against the Capitals are representative of Hughes' current place in the NHL universe: he's a tantalizing, highly productive, and super-competitive center in his third season playing for a team mired in a lengthy rebuild.

Since Dec. 29, Hughes has accumulated 19 goals and 27 assists for 46 points in 33 games. It's easily the best three months of his career, with a points per game rate of 1.39, which ranks ninth in the league over that stretch. This type of breakout had been a long time coming for the 2019 first overall draft pick.

What should we make of Hughes' rise to stardom? Below, we dive into some statistics and identify areas of his game where he's leveled up.

The statistical profile

Heading into the 2019 draft, scouts peppered reports with the word "elite" as Hughes set a new points record at the U.S. National Team Development Program. He was literally skating circles around junior- and college-level competition; he was can't miss material, the no-brainer pick for first overall.

Fast forward a year and pockets of the hockey community had grown dismissive of the pre-draft hype. Hughes was underwhelming as an NHL rookie - a hotshot kid who looked out of place in all three zones on the ice.

Still only 18 years old, he collected just 21 points in 61 games, a rate of 0.34 points per game. Patrik Stefan, who went first overall in 1999 but failed to live up to lofty expectations, posted 0.35 points per game as a 19-year-old rookie.

The Stefan comparison was an easy reference point for fans and pundits, although perhaps not entirely fair due to the management and personnel turnover in New Jersey. As Hughes told theScore recently: "I was just a young guy figuring it out."

It's safe to say Hughes has managed to reboot the narrative and recalibrate his ceiling. Thursday's Devils-Bruins game will be the 164th of his career - the equivalent of two full seasons - and the second 82-game block has been far more productive. This year, the confident, perhaps even cocky, playmaker-sniper hybrid is on pace for 32 goals and 40 assists in 62 games. (Hughes missed 17 games in the fall due to a dislocated shoulder, and another three in January after being placed in COVID-19 protocol.)

Only 11 players in the salary cap era have finished a season with a point per game or better before turning 21. At a 1.17 rate, Hughes currently ranks sixth, sandwiched between 2016-17 McDavid and 2009-10 Steven Stamkos.

Ty Smith, the young Devils defenseman who shares a New Jersey apartment with Hughes, believes his close friend is "going to be a 100-point guy" one day. Good luck crafting a compelling argument against that, as both the numbers and eye test indicate Hughes is one of the game's transition kings.

In fact, according to Sportlogiq data cited during a recent Devils-Rangers broadcast, nobody in the NHL generates more scoring chances off the rush per game than the fast and audacious Hughes. Nope, not even McDavid.

"He could be one-on-four. Most guys would just dump it in, but he tries to beat them," Smith said. "And he might do it."

The blue-liner added: "Sometimes he gets to a point where it kind of just looks like he's floating on the ice. It's just effortless, and he's flying around."

Focus on Hughes' busy feet here:

Hughes is the Devils' top facilitator at even strength and on the power play, where he helps quarterback the first unit from the right-point position.

This year, Hughes has skated at five-on-five with sharpshooter Yegor Sharangovich and either Jesper Bratt or Dawson Mercer. Hughes, Sharangovich, and Mercer - a rookie - have found their rhythm as a trio, leading to 12 goals for and 12 against despite unstable goaltending behind them.

Generally, when Hughes is on the ice, the Devils win the territorial battle. So far in 2021-22, the club has owned 52.8% of the shot attempts and 54.7% of the expected goals in Hughes' 711 five-on-five minutes, per Evolving Hockey.

As the HockeyViz heatmaps illustrate, Hughes' offensive-zone impact at even strength has intensified over his career. The Devils' offense has generated 14% more expected goals for per 60 minutes than the NHL average when he's on the ice this season, a significant jump over his rookie season.

Hughes' five-on-five minutes in 2019-20

Hughes' five-on-five minutes in 2021-22

Hughes has also excelled at avoiding the penalty box since Day 1 while putting the Devils on the power play fairly often.

As a rookie, Hughes finished with a plus-12 penalty differential (17 minors drawn, five minors taken). Last year, he was plus-16 (19-3). This year, he's making a strong case for the Lady Byng Trophy at a cool plus-15 (15-0).

"I feel like I have way more than 15? Is that it?" Hughes said. "There's nothing really to it. I just put my stick in the right place so I don't take penalties. And the other way, when you have the puck a lot, that's what's going to happen."

Areas of progress

Hughes was listed at 5-foot-10, 170 pounds ahead of the draft. He's now listed at 5-foot-11, 175. Despite growing an inch and (apparently) packing on only five pounds over three years of off-ice training, there's a noticeable difference in how Hughes handles himself along the boards and in the slot.

"He doesn't get pushed around as much as his first year, if at all," Devils assistant coach Alain Nasreddine said. "The thing with Jack is that he's so competitive. He doesn't shy away from the hard areas. He'll go into traffic, go into one-on-one battles, and every time he wants to get the puck back."

That "inner drive," as Daneyko calls it, has helped Hughes elevate his defensive game. To be competent defensively, awareness and timing are key.

"Look, he's not going to win a Selke Trophy because you want him to do what he does best and create offense," Daneyko said. "But he's gotten smarter. In his own zone, he's one of the most effective guys at stealing pucks."

Of course, it always comes back to skating with Hughes.

Dynamic, crossover-heavy skating has been his bread and butter for a decade, and the added muscle has made him an even better skater. Smith, for one, thinks Hughes' already elite skating is "at another level" right now.

It's a hard claim to confirm, but there's enough evidence to suggest Hughes is stronger on his skates, which in turn allows him to maintain a high rate of speed while fighting through stick and body checks.

Below is a sequence that seems innocuous but is actually instructive. Pay attention to how Hughes reacts to the defenseman trying to bump him:

Nick Quinn of Power Edge Pro, a skating and skills company with dozens of NHL clients, has worked with Hughes for seven years. He notes Hughes' ability to "give off false information" - or deceive opponents - has improved.

"That's what's made Jack so effective as he's gotten comfortable in the NHL," Quinn said. "He's not the biggest guy, but he puts defenders in bad positions when he moves pucks into open space and he moves his feet at the same time. Not many players can do that on a regular basis."

Based on the eight-year, $64-million contract extension Hughes inked in November - before he had truly broken out - the Devils weren't fretting the first two-plus seasons of his career. The team was banking on his awful shooting percentage (5.7% and 7.7% in his first two seasons, respectively) normalizing over time. They projected the franchise cornerstone would grow into an all-world passer and shooter. So far, so good in 2021-22 - 24 goals scored on 14.8% shooting.

"It's more accurate. It's got more velocity. He gets it off quicker," Daneyko said of Hughes' shot. Nasreddine believes "the game has slowed down for him - even though he plays at a high pace, extremely high pace."

If the game is slowing down for a burner like Hughes, look out.

John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

Copyright © 2022 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Live, quick-hit analysis of big-league trades completed Monday, March 21.

Coyotes reel in McBain

Arizona acquires: F Jack McBain
Minnesota acquires: 2nd-round pick (2022, originally Vancouver's)

Consider this a typical transaction in the Bill Armstrong era in Arizona. Deep in a rebuild and about to start playing in a 5,000-seat arena, the Coyotes are in desperate need of young, cheap talent to fill their roster. McBain, a 2018 third-round pick by the Wild who never signed with Minnesota, fits the bill. The 6-foot-4, 211-pound center recorded 33 points in 24 games for Boston College this past season. He also played for Team Canada at the Olympics, pitching in two points in five games. You can assume McBain will sign with Arizona soon.

Bruins extend DeBrusk

His name in the rumor mill for months, Jake DeBrusk inked a two-year, $8-million deal to stay in Boston - for the time being, at least. A league source confirms DeBrusk's long-held trade request has not been rescinded and the Bruins are still trying to find a trade partner prior to Monday's 3 p.m. ET deadline. While DeBrusk's production has dropped off the past couple of seasons, he has the physical tools to be an effective power forward. A change of scenery could help and he could help deepen a contender's middle-six.

Senators re-up Forsberg

Another bottom-feeding team extends its starting goalie, as Anton Forsberg and the Senators agree to a three-year deal with a $2.75 million average annual value. After stops in Columbus, Chicago, and Carolina, the 29-year-old Forsberg has found a long-term hockey home in Ottawa. He has a .918 save percentage through 31 games, saving 8.84 goals above average and 7.86 goals above expected, per Evolving Hockey. Pretty damn good. Most crucially, this deal brings stability to Ottawa's crease at a reasonable price tag.

Coyotes re-sign Vejmelka

Goalie Karel Vejmelka gets rewarded with a three-year contract extension that carries an AAV of $2.725 million. The right-catching, 25-year-old Czechia netminder has impressed in his first NHL season, posting a .906 save percentage in 36 games behind a woeful Coyotes squad. Arizona announced the extension a day after trading Vejmelka's partner, Scott Wedgewood, to the Dallas Stars for a fourth-round pick.

Jets add Beaulieu

Pittsburgh acquires: D Nathan Beaulieu
Winnipeg acquires: 7th-round pick (2022, conditional)

This is Penguins management adding injury insurance to its back end, nothing more. Beaulieu, a 29-year-old left-shot defenseman, averaged 10:46 of ice time in 24 games for the Jets this year. He contributed four assists and posted terrible underlying numbers. A pending unrestricted free agent, Beaulieu makes $1.25 million against the cap. He's now been traded three times over his career, having previously been sent from Montreal to Buffalo in 2017 and from Buffalo to Winnipeg in 2019.

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With Monday's trade deadline quickly approaching, Saturday was a hectic and stressful day for NHL front offices. Countless phone calls later, two blockbuster trades crossed the finish line. We break down both deals below.

Florida acquires Giroux

To FLA: F Claude Giroux, F Connor Bunnaman, F German Rubtsov, 5th-round pick (2024)
To PHI: 1st-round pick (2024), 3rd-round pick (2023), F Owen Tippett
(Philadelphia retains 50% of Giroux's $8.3M salary)

First, a fun and relevant fact: The 2021-22 Florida Panthers are the most prolific offensive team in recent memory. Seriously. Florida's 4.07 goals-per-game rate through 62 contests leads all 516 teams of the salary cap era.

Apparently leaving no stone unturned, Panthers general manager Bill Zito added to his attack Saturday by reeling in Giroux, the biggest name on the trade block.

The Panthers can now trot out Giroux alongside Jonathan Huberdeau or Aleksander Barkov on the top line. The 1B line can be Huberdeau or Barkov with Sam Reinhart. And from there, Sam Bennett, Carter Verhaeghe, Anthony Duclair, Mason Marchment, and Anton Lundell round out a laughably dangerous top-nine forward crew. Simply put, that's an overwhelming amount of speed, playmaking, and finishing ability to try to defend in a playoff series.

Giroux, who leaves the Philadelphia Flyers with 900 points in 1,000 games, isn't in his prime anymore. However, the 34-year-old is still an impact player at both ends of the ice. He's a crafty, pass-first center/wing who should help the Panthers in the faceoff circle (60.9 FO% this season) and on the power play.

Zito also beefed up the blue line earlier this week, picking up Ben Chiarot from the Montreal Canadiens. These two swaps solidify the Panthers' all-in mentality and, suddenly, the roster's lone question mark - goaltending - is less of a concern with Giroux and Chiarot deepening the skater pool. Sergei Bobrovsky only needs to be decent for Florida to go on a deep playoff run.

The Panthers don't own a first-round pick until 2025. But, given how long they've been stuck in mediocrity, who cares? They're finally chasing a Stanley Cup.

As for the Flyers, GM Chuck Fletcher did alright - he didn't hit it out of the park with this deal, nor did he give away Giroux for pennies on the dollar. Giroux is a pending unrestricted free agent with a no-movement clause, so Fletcher didn't have a ton of leverage. Only a few teams were really in the mix.

While a first-round pick is immensely valuable regardless of year, it's not ideal for the Flyers to wait until 2024. They want to retool quickly, and the player chosen in 2024 won't crack the NHL lineup until 2026 at the earliest. That said, the fact the third-rounder is for 2023 rather than 2022 is a win considering the hype surrounding the '23 draft crop.

Tippett's a bit of a boom-or-bust pickup for Philly. A change of scenery could jump-start the 23-year-old's career. On the other hand, it's possible the trade proves he's just not the player he was projected to be coming out of junior.

The 6-foot-1, 207-pound right-handed winger possesses a missile of a shot and has collected 14 goals in 94 games. Stuck behind so many talented forwards, he averaged a measly 11:56 of ice a night in a Panthers uniform. He'll be offered a clean slate and (presumably) larger role on the offense-deprived Flyers. It'll be interesting to see what he can do with the opportunity.

Panthers: A
Flyers: B-

Lindholm lands in Boston

To BOS: D Hampus Lindholm, D Kodie Curran
To ANA: 1st-round pick (2022), 2nd-round pick (2023, 2024), D Urho Vaakanainen, D John Moore
(Anaheim retains 50% of Lindholm's $5.2M salary)

Lindholm is a quality top-four defenseman, not a Norris Trophy contender, so on the surface, it seems like the Boston Bruins overpaid here.

However, context is key, especially around the deadline. For one, the market for rental defensemen was set quite high by the Chiarot deal, which saw a first-rounder, fourth-rounder, and promising prospect head the other way. Also, while Lindholm's technically a rental right now, the Bruins and Lindholm's camp are reportedly working toward a long-term extension.

With context, the deal is much more palatable from Boston's perspective.

Lindholm, a 28-year-old jack-of-all-trades type, can take some of the heavy lifting off Charlie McAvoy's shoulders down the stretch and into the playoffs. The career-long Anaheim Ducks rearguard is a strong skater who defends well and chips in offensively on occasion. He can play with virtually anyone and can be used on both special teams and in end-of-game situations. In a word, he's solid.

At the end of the day, the Bruins needed to bring in a defenseman and Lindholm was the best-case scenario among players believed to be available.

Since the Ducks and Lindholm didn't see eye to eye on an extension, it only made sense for them to start a bidding war for the pending UFA's services. To reel in a first and two seconds plus a prospect with NHL upside like Vaakanainen is a tidy piece of business by Ducks GM Pat Verbeek.

Unlike the Bruins, Lindholm's imminent extension shouldn't be a major factor in grading the Ducks' work. What happens after the trade isn't overly relevant to them and their plans to build around youngsters Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale through a retool of sorts. The player - who they couldn't re-sign themselves - is gone.

The Lindholm swap wasn't Verbeek's first trade and it won't be his last ahead of the deadline. He's flipped rugged defenseman Josh Manson to Colorado and depth forward Nicolas Deslauriers to Minnesota, and goal-scoring winger Rickard Rakell's on deck. Verbeek, hired in February to replace Ducks staple Bob Murray, is quickly putting his stamp on the franchise.

Bruins: B
Ducks: A

John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

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Mike Smith, Mikko Koskinen, and Stuart Skinner.

Those have been the Edmonton Oilers' goalies through 61 games and, unless general manager Ken Holland is pulling a fast one on reporters and fans, those are the club's netminders for the rest of the season; Holland has said or inferred it's unlikely the team upgrades its goaltending ahead of Monday's trade deadline. It's a stick to the crotch for Oilers fans given Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, the sport's best duo since Lemieux and Jagr, are in the prime of their careers but aren't being surrounded with enough talent.

But what if Holland acquires a defenseman or two? Would Edmonton be OK? Could they then go on a deep run in a relatively weak Western Conference?

The answer would have been, "Uh, no, you idiot," in the latter stages of Dave Tippett's time behind the Oilers' bench. The answer in the early stages of the Jay Woodcroft era has been upgraded to, "Hmm, maybe, yeah, just maybe."

Since Woodcroft took over as head coach, the Oilers are 11-5-1 for a .676 points percentage versus a 23-18-3 record and .557 PTS% under Tippett. The biggest strides have been made at five-on-five, where the Oilers' goals for percentage and expected goals for percentage have risen from middling to top 10 in the NHL. Here's the high-level breakdown:

(Advanced statistics source: Natural Stat Trick)

I asked Woodcroft on Thursday about the improvements and what kind of message he's been delivering to players with respect to playing at even strength. "I don't want to give away all of the trade secrets," he said initially.

"On our work back to our own end," he added prior to Edmonton's 6-1 beatdown of the Buffalo Sabres. "Understanding that to win down the stretch and to win in the playoffs, your five-on-five game comes down to how hard you're willing to work back to your net and how hard you're willing to defend."

Woodcroft then tacked on an interesting correlation: "There's a lot of side benefits to being organized and relentless ... A lot of the best offense in the NHL comes off of that." You saw the Oilers turn defense into offense countless times against the lowly Sabres. Devin Shore's shorthanded goal in the third period is a prime example:

Seventeen games is a small sample so it's important not to get carried away. However, the Oilers, winners of four in a row heading into a meeting with the New Jersey Devils on Saturday, are humming under Woodcroft. And, to steal Woodcroft's terms, they look "organized" and "relentless" at even strength. With McDavid and Draisaitl back to terrorizing the league after a midseason swoon, I'd add "terrifying" with one or both of their superstars on the ice.

Sounds like a tough draw in the playoffs. If only Holland could find a goalie ...

Dahlin's maturity

After being spoiled by megastars like McDavid and Auston Matthews, we've recently been reminded that development is not always linear for No. 1 picks. There are, in fact, ups and downs. Nico Hischier, Rasmus Dahlin, and Jack Hughes have all needed multiple seasons to reach stardom, while Alexis Lafreniere is still trying to find his groove and Owen Power's still in college.

Dahlin, for one, burst onto the scene in 2018-19, mixing marvelous skating ability and puck skills with a firm handle on the position's subtleties. "He's been as advertised. He's been tremendous," former Sabres teammate Jack Eichel told theScore a month into Dahlin's NHL career. "If he's not one of the best defensemen in the NHL in a few years, I'd be extremely surprised."

Dahlin, then 18, went on to finish third in Calder Trophy voting. Now 21, he has yet to reach those lofty (and widespread) expectations Eichel mentioned. He didn't stumble through the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons but didn't take a gigantic step forward either. One contributing factor was poor defense partners. Another was former bench boss Ralph Krueger asking Dahlin to play too defensive. A third was the league adjusting to Dahlin and his tendencies.

This season, under head coach Don Granato, the smooth-skating Swede is inching closer to that elite-level status, maturing as a person and player as the Sabres continue to build around him and a handful of other under-25 pieces.

"We want our guys to play a competitive game - feisty, competitive, whatever you want to say - but with an element of being relaxed, being able to be themselves and not fearing a mistake or not fearing repercussions of a mistake," Granato said Thursday morning in Edmonton, characterizing Dahlin as a particularly "fearless" player at his disposal. "We wanted to make sure that became part of our culture. I think the guys have embraced that."

Dahlin, who skates for a team-high 23:45 per contest, is carrying Buffalo's defense corps night after night. And despite taking extra reps on the penalty kill this year, he's on pace to set new career bests in all offensive categories.

Forward Alex Tuch, whom the Sabres acquired from the Vegas Golden Knights in February, has been impressed by Dahlin's "unmatched" work ethic. "He really tries to hone in on his craft, and he also expects a lot from himself. He really takes everything he does out there to heart," Tuch said.

Dahlin might not be at the level of Cale Makar, Victor Hedman, and Adam Fox - the truly elite of the elite - but he's muscling his way into that second tier.

"Sky's the limit for a guy like that," Tuch said.

Coyotes pick haul

A lot of digital ink has been spilled over the dysfunctional Arizona Coyotes, and rightfully so. For starters, an NHL team playing in a 5,000-seat college facility for several years is downright embarrassing on several levels.

Amid the soap opera, general manager Bill Armstrong has been quietly hoarding picks for the upcoming draft. A few days shy of the trade deadline, the Coyotes own 12 picks in 2022, including three in the first round and five in the second.

Let that sink in for a moment: Arizona owns 12.5% of the first 64 picks.

The haul should swell soon, too, with Jakob Chychrun, Phil Kessel, and Lawson Crouse among Coyotes players on the trade block. Arizona, a club $6.3 million clear of the $81.5-million salary cap, can also reel in picks by retaining salary on its own players or acting as a third-party broker in deals involving other teams. The club could easily have 15 picks by Monday afternoon.

How does this stack up historically? The NHL contracted its draft from nine rounds to seven in 2005, and in the 17 events since, the most players a team has chosen in a single draft is 13. It's happened four times, with the Florida Panthers' 2010 haul - including three first-rounders and three second-rounders - bearing the closest resemblance to the Coyotes in 2022.

Interestingly, the Montreal Canadiens already have 13 picks for the upcoming draft. Arizona trumps Montreal in quality, however. The Habs - also sellers at the deadline - are currently up to "only" two first-rounders and one second.

Parting thoughts

San Jose Sharks: I totally understand the Tomas Hertl extension ($8.14 million annually for eight years, starting next season). The Sharks want to lock up impact players, and Hertl certainly qualifies. It makes sense in a vacuum. But another big-ticket contract on San Jose's books? Really? For 2022-23, the Sharks currently have $68.5 million devoted to 13 players, eight of which are 27 or older. That's insane. They're just spinning their wheels.

Alex Ovechkin: Among the many factoids shared over the past week as Ovechkin surpassed Jaromir Jagr for third on the all-time goals list (he's now at 768), this one from the NHL PR team takes the cake: "Alex Ovechkin is the only player in NHL history who has played 1,000-plus career regular-season games without ever having a goal drought longer than 10 games." Amazing.

Defenseman market: Ben Chiarot is a No. 4 defenseman on a contending team, but the Panthers acquired him (and 50% of his salary) for a 2023 first-rounder, a 2022 fourth-rounder, and prospect Ty Smilanic. While Florida is all-in on chasing a Cup this year, and you can't fault them for going for it, that's a steep price. It should set the market for rental defensemen, which is good news for sellers (Seattle, Anaheim) and bad news for buyers (Boston, Toronto).

Takes, Thoughts, and Trends is theScore's biweekly hockey grab bag.

John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

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HAMILTON, Ont. - The sky is dark gray. The temperature is hovering above freezing. Snow is falling in flakes the size of a nickel. An ice surfacer is doing laps while crew members shovel mounds of snow off the NHL-sized sheet.

It's shortly after 5 p.m. on Friday, and this is the scene at field level at Tim Hortons Field, the venue for Sunday's outdoor game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres. Snow removal is likely to continue past midnight.

"We've got snow until, I think, 1 a.m. The guys will just keep doing this," Derek King, one of the league's head ice makers, says as he surveys the commotion around him. "We started at 10 o'clock this morning and haven't stopped."

Technically a Sabres home game, the 2022 Heritage Classic is being staged 63 miles north of Buffalo's KeyBank Center and 43 miles south of Toronto's Scotiabank Arena. The pro football stadium, situated in a residential area in the east end of Hamilton, will welcome roughly 25,000 people through its gates on Sunday. Smokestacks from nearby steel factories fill the skyline, and the original Tim Hortons restaurant - whose co-founder and namesake played for the Leafs and Sabres during a Hall of Fame career - is a short walk away.

Two Mondays ago, a 53-foot, 300-ton capacity mobile refrigeration unit and rink system was parked outside the stadium to signal the start of the build-out process. By week's end, boards were standing and ice-making had officially begun. On Wednesday, lines and logos were painted, and on Thursday, the glass was installed while the ice got topped up with its last quarter of an inch.

This is the NHL's third and final outdoor game of the season and 35th since 2003. Each passing event serves as an education for future events. And up until recently, only one man had been at the controls. Known for 24 years as the league's leading "ice man," Dan Craig retired - or "graduated," as he put it - this past November. His legacy on the sport will be on full display Sunday.

"These events, and the success of these events, and the quality of the ice in our 32 rinks, have Dan's prints all over them. And they will as long as we're doing them," says Kris King, senior VP of hockey operations for the NHL.

Mike Craig (Dan's son) and Derek King (no relation to Kris) have taken over as head ice men. Engineers by trade, both are longtime league employees who go by the title of senior manager of facilities ops and hockey ops. Mike Craig, who's based out of Kelowna, B.C., has worked in chilly hockey arenas his entire adult life, while Derek King, of Winnipeg, entered the workforce as a paramedic before switching to ice making in the early 2000s.

"Dan was always a hands-on guy, and we tried hard to get him to spread the wealth," Kris King says. "'Dan, you don't have to be here for 24 hours a day. Trust the guys. You've taught them well.' Near the end, he finally figured it out."

While their mentor is a phone call away, the Heritage Classic is Mike Craig and Derek King's show, and the objective is to produce the finest ice possible for the players. They lead a veteran crew of workers that's encountered basically everything imaginable over the years, from freezing rain, high winds, and dense fog to warm temperatures, high humidity, and bright sunshine.

According to The Weather Network forecast, the temperature at 4 p.m. puck drop should be 30 F, with a cloudy sky, 16 miles-per-hour wind, and a 40% chance of snow. Relatively speaking, those are decent conditions for an outdoor game.

"There's no such thing as a perfect event," Mike Craig says, reciting a common joke among the group. Mother Nature always finds a way to alter best-laid plans, which isn't particularly enjoyable in the moment, but it results in a sense of great satisfaction when the event's nearing the finish line. "They all have their challenges," he adds, "and they all have their pretty cool moments."

Aside from one rainy day, the weather gods have largely cooperated with the league's itinerary for Hamilton. Rain can be a killer, especially in warmer climates. Just a couple of weeks ago, ahead of the Stadium Series game in Tennessee, stress levels rose when a lengthy storm ran through Nashville.

"We had 73-degree weather with 16 hours of straight rain," Kris King says. "We couldn't freeze the water fast enough." The rink lost an inch and a quarter of ice, and it's supposed to be two inches thick on game day. However, since the crew had anticipated the ugly stretch of weather and started the build-out a few days earlier than normal, the ice was salvageable.

The league had learned its lesson from the 2020 Winter Classic in Dallas, where crap really hit the fan thanks to a cocktail of relentless rainfall, warm temperatures, and high humidity. It got so bad they had to temporarily remove a section of the end boards so workers could squeegee water more efficiently.

"We lost everything in Dallas. We lost the lines and logos. We lost the white paint ... everything," Derek King says. Once the storm passed and the refrigeration unit started stabilizing the rink temperature again, the build was back on track. "We had three days to get the sheet back, thankfully," he adds.

The head ice men have multiple weather apps on their smartphones, as well as a special ice monitoring app called Eye On The Ice. This 24/7 surveillance of the venue is crucial no matter the air temperature. For instance, during the build-out for the 2011 Heritage Classic, the temperature in Calgary hit minus-31 F, yet "our ice is melting because it was so sunny out," Kris King laments.

At ice level Friday evening, Derek King, dressed for the elements with a thick winter jacket and a baseball cap emblazoned with the NHL crest, brings up the 2018 Stadium Series game between the Leafs and Washington Capitals at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. That windy experience in Annapolis, Maryland, will inform how he and Mike Craig handle this weekend in Hamilton.

"We had to remove all of the glass the day before game day," Derek King recalls of the 2018 adventure. "The whole site got shut down because of how strong the winds were. We're looking at something similar for tomorrow."

If the wind is having a material impact on the game, Kris King says, the Leafs and Sabres will switch sides halfway through the third period. Both teams will spend 10 minutes each with the wind at their backs and in their faces.

On top of the outdoor events, the head ice men are responsible for ice standards across the league, as well as rinks used for special programming like showcase games in Europe and the Hockeyville exhibition series. They're on the road for long stretches, with Derek King, for example, leaving Winnipeg on Feb. 12 to head the Nashville event and returning home on March 20.

"It's a work family, for sure," he says. On cue, Kris King enters his field of view and starts poking the bottom of the sideboards with an ice-chipping tool. "We even have the boss working," Derek King says, letting out a hearty laugh.

Mike Craig, son of the original ice man, knows it's important to soak up the uniqueness of the gig. "At some point, even just during the game or on the practice day, whatever it is, just to take a few minutes to realize how special it is and how cool of an opportunity it is to do these kinds of events," he says.

John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

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Nikita Kucherov is once again doing Kucherovian things - a development that should petrify opponents of the healthy and engaged Tampa Bay Lightning.

While the Lightning were embarrassed Thursday night in a 5-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, Kucherov put on an absolute clinic two days earlier during a 5-2 comeback win over the Ottawa Senators. Both scoring plays he initiated - the Lightning's opening goal and the eventual game-winner - were highlight-reel worthy and a reminder of how extraordinarily dangerous Kucherov can be with the puck.

On the first, the highly entertaining two-time Stanley Cup champion forced a turnover on the half-wall, corralled a pass, and then, identifying free ice, made a beeline to the crease area where he backhanded the puck top corner.

A period later, the right-winger flashed his signature sly playmaking ability by executing a no-look pass to Steven Stamkos. Again using his backhand, Kucherov shoveled the puck from the right corner to the heart of the left circle where Stamkos was waiting to hammer in a one-timer and break a 2-2 tie.

Sports fans who don't know much about Kucherov might opine that the 2019-20 Hart Trophy winner guessed and got lucky on the pass to Stamkos. But he didn't. Part of what makes Kucherov special is his quickness of mind. He makes hard things look easy - to the point of looking fluky.

"We've seen him do it a few times in practice lately," Brayden Point, Kucherov's center, told reporters when asked about the pass to Stamkos. "That's just unreal skill (to) pick up the puck off the boards like that and find a guy right away. He's just so talented, one of the most talented guys in the league. His skill is off the charts, and his vision is off the charts."

The 28-year-old has only appeared in 18 games this season, recording 10 goals and 16 assists to average 1.44 points per contest. In the third game of the season, he sustained an unspecified lower-body injury, which required surgery and kept him out of the lineup for three months. Then, in late January, COVID-19 protocol sidelined Kucherov for an additional three games.

Similar to when he burst onto the scene in the first round of last year's playoffs after missing the entire regular season, Kucherov has hit the ground running. Only Mitch Marner, Jonathan Huberdeau, and Auston Matthews have been more productive on a per-game basis since Jan. 6, and Tampa has been just as effective as its top winger, owning a 13-4-1 record in that span.

If Kucherov remains healthy, he can play a maximum of 47 games. He won't take home an individual award. A third Cup ring, though? Maybe.

Revisiting young Crosby

Sidney Crosby is about as private as an all-time pro athlete can be. Relative to his talent and impact on the sport, we don't really know a ton about the guy personally.

The vault opened up ever so slightly this week with Audible's release of an eight-part audio documentary called "Sidney Crosby: The Rookie Year." As actor and narrator Joe Manganiello put it in an interview with theScore, the documentary is an "insider's view and an insider's experience of one of the great athletes of our time."

Manganiello, a Pittsburgh native and huge Penguins fan, said he gained a greater appreciation for Crosby's mental makeup and his journey from Nova Scotian prodigy to 102-point NHL rookie through the narration process.

"He was a child star, and most child stars don't handle that pressure well in my industry, in the entertainment industry," Manganiello said. "It's a little different with athletes, but still, there are no guarantees in life, and especially in sports. So, to watch him have the kind of success he's had but also be the person that he is, and kind of weather the storm (is impressive)."

I've listened to the entire show. It's quite good, although not deeply enlightening.

Here are two anecdotes I found particularly amusing:

Grandma pays up: You probably know about the Crosby family's famous beat-up dryer. You probably know about the Montreal Canadiens drafting his dad Troy. You might even know his cousin Forbes MacPherson played in the AHL.

But it's unlikely you know Crosby's grandma once promised him $1 for every goal he could score in the upcoming minor-hockey season. And, when Crosby racked up 159 goals, grandma yelped with pride.

"I felt so bad for her," Crosby says with a slight laugh in the documentary.

"She had no idea," he adds. "She thought, 'I don't know, he's maybe going to get 20 goals this year. It'll be a nice little gift for him at the end of the year.'"

Mario's dog duty: For a brief period during his rookie year, Crosby played on a line alongside Mario Lemieux, who also doubled as co-owner of the Penguins franchise.

The generational stars were housemates, too, after Lemieux invited then 18-year-old Crosby to move into the family home. Naturally, Crosby's teammates poked fun at the odd arrangement. "They're going to give it to you," Crosby says. "But the next question is going to be, 'How is it? What's it like? Can I come over?'"

At some point, Crosby adopted a puppy, and one night after a game - with Lemieux's wife and kids already sleeping - he walked into the house and immediately smelled feces. Uh oh.

"I came around the corner, and there's Mario," Crosby says of the stoic legend, with the sleeves of his white dress shirt rolled up and necktie undone.

"He's there cleaning up this mess," Crosby adds, "and I'm thinking to myself, 'This cannot be happening …'"

West Conference race

Heading into Friday's slate of matchups, there are four Western Conference teams comfortably in a postseason spot based on points percentage.

The Colorado Avalanche (.764), St. Louis Blues (.660), and Minnesota Wild (.644) are all well on their way to securing playoff berths in the Central Division. Meanwhile, it'll take a wild turn of events over the final third of the regular season for the Calgary Flames (.670) to lose their comfy spot in the Pacific.

That leaves the Los Angeles Kings (.591), Edmonton Oilers (.582), and Vegas Golden Knights (.582) to jockey for the other guaranteed division spots. The Pacific team that falls off the pace will then vie with the Dallas Stars (.594), Nashville Predators (.593), and Anaheim Ducks (.545) for the two wild cards.

So which of these six teams chasing a playoff spot is facing the stiffest test? It's the 30-20-4 Predators, current occupants of the first wild card.

Nashville's not only in the middle of a rough patch, having gone 3-6-1 in its last 10 games, but the club also ties the Kings and Stars for most back-to-back sets down the stretch with five. (The Golden Knights, Ducks, and Oilers have four, three, and two, respectively.) Two of the Preds' back-to-backs are in late April, giving them five games in their campaign's final seven days.

Nashville is also facing the highest quality of competition. The team's scheduled to meet a top-10 side in the NHL (based on current points percentage) in a whopping 13 of its final 28 games. At the other end of the spectrum, Vegas will meet just five top-10 teams in their final 28 games while L.A. has only six in 27.

The Predators play 16 of their final 28 contests on home ice. Perhaps that can be their saving grace - though they're a pedestrian 15-10-0 at Bridgestone Arena.

The kicker: Nashville has an exceedingly difficult stretch to close out the season. Six of the squad's final seven games are against the Flames (twice), Blues, Wild, Avalanche, and Lightning - all top-10 clubs.

Even though HockeyViz shows they have a 78.4% probability of making the playoffs, it's still going to be an uphill battle for the Preds.

Parting thoughts

Jack Johnson: On Tuesday, the 35-year-old defenseman became the 363rd player to appear in 1,000 NHL games. Johnson, a plodding, mistake-prone blue-liner with iffy underlying numbers, has been a punching bag for multiple fan bases over his career. Yet it's not hard to root for a guy who's lasted this long, who is by all accounts loved by his teammates, and who has endured economic hardships thanks to his own greedy parents. Johnson, now with the juggernaut Avalanche, deserves that commemorative silver stick just as much as the 362 others who have reached 1,000. Enjoy the spotlight, Jack.

Kyle Davidson: The Chicago Blackhawks officially named Davidson general manager earlier this week. The young executive immediately used the word "rebuild," which smartly removed any guesswork from the public discourse. Overall, his top priority is figuring out if Patrick Kane and/or Jonathan Toews should be part of the team's long-term future. However, those conversations can wait until the offseason. The more pressing situation is Marc-Andre Fleury. The goalie will be an unrestricted free agent this summer and was promised by the previous regime that he would be involved in any trade-related discussions. So Davidson must slide on his salesman hat. Chicago's in desperate need of draft picks and prospects, and a few playoff-bound teams could use an upgrade in goal. Convincing Fleury to move on would be a huge first win for Davidson.

Isabelle Khurshudyan: I wanted to echo some of my colleagues by praising Khurshudyan, the terrific Washington Post foreign correspondent who previously covered the Washington Capitals. She's in Ukraine reporting on something far more important than sports. Here's to Khurshudyan, fellow journalists, aid workers, and, of course, innocent Ukrainians staying safe.

Takes, Thoughts, and Trends is theScore's biweekly hockey grab bag.

John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

Copyright © 2022 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Hart Trophy has been handed out 16 times in the salary-cap era. Eleven of those winners also won the Art Ross in the same year.

It may seem elementary, but it's true: The player who collects the most points is often crowned the most valuable player in the NHL. Connor McDavid putting up an absurd 105 points in 56 games last season is a prime example.

All of that said, the 2021-22 Hart race feels … different. The list of legitimate contenders is long and diverse enough that the current leader in points - McDavid, who else - is certainly in the conversation but, if ballots were cast this week, he wouldn't be a shoo-in to win his third MVP award.

On Friday, theScore will publish its monthly Hart power rankings.

Here, we're focusing on one player from each position who's enjoying a Hart-caliber season and laying out the cases for and against them winning MVP.

Auston Matthews

Case for: Where to start? Matthews, the sport's best pure goal-scorer, is tied for the NHL lead in goals with 37 in 50 games for the Toronto Maple Leafs. No one has bagged more than 53 in a single season since 2011-12, and Matthews is on pace for 58, which would smash his career high of 47.

Goal-scoring is undeniably the most important and difficult offensive skill in hockey. Super sniper Alex Ovechkin has claimed the Hart three times for this reason, and right now it's the foundation of Matthews' MVP case.

Thanks to 31 assists - 18 primary, 13 secondary - Matthews also ranks in the top five in points; his 68 trail only McDavid (77), Leon Draisaitl (76), and Jonathan Huberdeau (75). Those primary helpers are key, as nobody collects primary points at a rate higher than Matthews' 1.10 per game. (Johnny Gaudreau and Draisaitl, at 1.08 and 1.07 per game, aren't far behind.)

Remarkably, Matthews' oversized value in the offensive zone is being paired with prowess in less glamorous areas of the ice. His two-way dominance - a relatively new development for the 24-year-old center - has vaulted him to the top of Evolving Hockey's Goals Above Replacement leaderboard.

GAR is a catch-all metric "that attempts to assign a total value to each player" by factoring a variety of offensive and defensive inputs. This year, Matthews (21.3), Mikko Rantanen (21.0), Nazem Kadri (18.8), Gaudreau (18.7), McDavid (18.6), and Michael Bunting (18.0), Matthews' linemate, are top of the class.

Additionally, the case for Matthews features six game-winning goals, 59 takeaways, a faceoff win percentage of 58.2, and a five-on-five on-ice expected goals for percentage of 62.0. He currently ranks in the top 10 in all four categories. Also of note, Toronto has rung up a 92-48 advantage in goals when Matthews is on the ice, which translates to a 65% share.

Matthews, to lay it out in simpler fashion, is a game-breaking talent enjoying both a viscerally and intellectually impressive season. And the fact that he logs 20 minutes a night for a Maple Leafs team that boasts the best points percentage in franchise history only strengthens his case for MVP.

Case against: There are a couple of important points to relay here. The first is admittedly a glass-half-empty look ahead, while the second is relevant today.

If Matthews doesn't win the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy (Draisaitl, Chris Kreider, Kyle Connor, and Ovechkin are also already 30-goal men), his candidacy takes a hit - even if he manages to finish in the neighborhood of 50 goals. Because - fair or not - leading the league in something is important to voters.

Matthews' candidacy also takes a hit if his assist rate sags and he ends up sliding down the points leaderboard. (Currently, he's tied with Kadri, one up on Gaudreau, and three up on Rantanen.) Excluding goalie Carey Price, Taylor Hall's 2017-18 Hart is the only instance in the salary-cap era of a player claiming the award despite finishing outside the top five in points.

Of course, it's possible Matthews' elite two-way game makes the above points moot. After all, Hall won the Hart largely due to an otherworldly performance down the stretch, where he willed the New Jersey Devils to a playoff berth. A sensational personal narrative can seduce voters, too.

As for the second important point … well, as detailed below, Igor Shesterkin has arguably been more valuable to the Rangers than Matthews to the Leafs.

Igor Shesterkin

Case for: Generally speaking, the New York Rangers are trending in the right direction on the ice. However, as a middling defensive team that doesn't generate a ton of goals, New York isn't quite ready to contend for a Stanley Cup.

That's a quick summary of the Rangers - if Shesterkin were excluded from the conversation. The reality is, Shesterkin's supreme goaltending has steered New York into a Metropolitan Division playoff spot. The Rangers aren't holding on for dear life, either - their .670 points percentage ranks ninth in the NHL.

Shesterkin, a world-class goalie at just 26, has a fairly comfortable lead in all-situations save percentage (.941), even-strength save percentage (.942), and quality starts percentage (.818). Some context: A goalie has finished with an all-situations save percentage of .940 or higher only three times since the league began tracking the stat in 1955 - Jacques Plante in 1968-69 and 1970-71 and Brian Elliott in 2011-12.

Amazingly, Shesterkin has consistently papered over the Rangers' suspect defense. Evolving Hockey lists Shesterkin as having already saved 34.6 goals above average and 31.0 goals above expected - which is a numerical way of expressing how regularly he's been able to turn should-be goals into saves.

Shesterkin's traditional stats are also noteworthy. He has an outstanding 25-6-3 record and a laughably low 1.95 goals-against average.

While Ville Husso has been a nice story out of St. Louis, the Vezina Trophy is Shesterkin's to lose, and his eye-popping numbers are fueling a compelling Hart case. The trophy's supposed to reward the season's "most valuable" player, and Shesterkin's been immensely valuable to the Rangers.

Case against: 2014-15 Hart winner Price is the lone goalie to win the award in the cap era, and Jose Theodore's 2001-02 run - also in a Montreal Canadiens uniform - is the only other time it happened this century.

The Vezina is considered by many in the hockey world to be the position's MVP award, so goalies rarely garner legitimate Hart buzz, let alone finalist nods. It's ironic, given how integral solid goaltending is to winning hockey games at any level of the sport.

Shesterkin's getting plenty of buzz this time around. If it's a coin-flip scenario between him and a skater, though, most voters would probably be biased toward the skater.

Crease time could also affect Shesterkin's case. He's appeared in 34 of 53 Rangers games thus far, starting 33. That isn't a light workload, but labeling Shesterkin a workhorse would be a stretch when 10 of his peers have played between 250 and 670 minutes more in 2021-22.

To be clear, this isn't a Shesterkin issue - the starter workload has been in decline across the league for several years - but it's a variable in the "most valuable" discussion. He provides no value sitting on the bench for full games.

Cale Makar

Case for: Stacked up against stunning seasons from Matthews and Shesterkin, Makar may seem out of place. The force-of-nature defenseman is a long shot for the Hart, not a frontrunner. Heck, even his candidacy for the Norris Trophy - while strong - isn't bulletproof (see: Hedman, Victor).

Yet there are two unique angles to consider with Makar and the Hart.

First, the Colorado Avalanche blue-liner leads all defensemen in goals (18, on pace for 28). If he keeps this rate, he would have a chance to join an exclusive club - only 17 times in history has a defenseman scored 30 (Mike Green in 2008-09 was the last). He also leads all defensemen in points (58, on pace for 90). At that pace, he could join another exclusive club - only 26 times has a D-man put up 90 (Ray Bourque in 1993-94 was the last).

Voters love rewarding players who hit rare milestones, and what an accomplishment 30 goals or 90 points - or both - would be for the 23-year-old. (As an aside, the Avs have outscored their opposition 109-47 with Makar on the ice. The shot attempt share is almost as lopsided: 1,530-960.)

The second angle is tied to the Avs being Stanley Cup favorites. Do voters gravitate to the best player on the NHL's best team? The Avs, owners of a .778 points percentage, aren't showing any sign of slowing down. If Colorado wins the Presidents' Trophy in convincing fashion, surely its best regular-season performer will get a bump in Hart votes. Makar could be that guy.

Case against: While Makar currently has the strongest Hart case among NHL defensemen, he's climbing an uphill battle versus a handful of forwards (Matthews, McDavid, and Huberdeau to start) and Shesterkin.

Similar to the Vezina and goalies, the Norris is seen as the de facto MVP for defensemen. The most recent Hart winner was Chris Pronger in 1999-00.

The biggest challenge for Makar might be internal competition - Rantanen and Kadri have been equally as impressive in 2021-22. All three could conceivably receive votes for the Hart, splitting the vote.

John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

Copyright © 2022 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.