No pressure, Connor McDavid.
With the Edmonton Oilers in San Jose for a date with the Sharks on Thursday night, The Hockey News' David Pollack spotted one fan who's absolutely not putting the fate of the Oilers' franchise on McDavid's shoulders.
Obviously they take all this "savior" talk very seriously in EDM. #SJSharks vs. #Oilers pic.twitter.com/xgZMZJ97PZ
— David Pollak (@PollakOnSharks) March 25, 2016
What's amazing is that McDavid is hardly playing like he's under any pressure. The 19-year-old entered Thursday's game with 42 points in 39 games, averaging 18:38 of ice time. Even more impressive: McDavid ranks third behind Patrick Kane and Evgeny Kuznetsov in points per 60 minutes, at 3.47.
As for the gentleman above, he probably has an Auston Matthews Oilers jersey, too.
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The Boston Bruins thought they tied Thursday's game against the Florida Panthers, until an apparent goal by Patrice Bergeron was ruled to have not conclusively crossed the goal line.
After the eventual 4-1 Bruins loss, head coach Claude Julien was confounded as to how the initial no-goal call wasn't overturned upon review.
"I'm as baffled as you are," he told reporters. "It looks like it's in. It looks very conclusive."
Judge for yourself:
“No conclusive evidence of the puck crossing the goal line" pic.twitter.com/tlktefKt3d
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) March 25, 2016
Julien even received a text message from a fellow coach who was also shaking his head.
"I got another coach that texted me, and (it) was 'WTF. How can that not be a goal?'" Julien said, according to DJ Bean of WEEI. "That’s coming from somebody who’s neutral."
The call, and ultimately the loss, proved to be costly for the Bruins, who have lost five straight in regulation and maintain a slim one-point advantage over Detroit with one more game played.
"To me, it looked like it was in - but I don't know exactly what the rule is and what they were not sure about," Bergeron said. "And bottom line, they made a call and we had to respond, and we didn't.
"You've got to be at your best and right now (that's) all we can really control, and we're not playing well, so we've got to be better."
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It was never in doubt.
Okay, fine, it was in doubt for the first half of the season, and much of Thursday night, but the Anaheim Ducks clinched a postseason berth despite losing to the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-5 in overtime.
It's Anaheim's fourth straight postseason berth and the 12th in club history.
Anaheim has rode a resurgent second half to the playoffs, winning 12 in a row from Feb. 13 through March 5. The team isn't playing its best hockey right now, though, having lost six of nine.
On Thursday, the Maple Leafs were up 4-1 with three minutes to play in the second period. That's when the Ducks began to fly: Anaheim scored twice in nine seconds to cut the lead to 4-3, and took a 5-4 lead in the third period before Maple Leafs forward Connor Brown tied it up with his first NHL goal. Nazem Kadri scored the overtime winner, tying a career-high with four points.
The Ducks' top-ranked penalty-killing unit had a night to forget, allowing three power-play goals to Toronto's 30th-ranked man advantage unit.
The Ducks have 90 points, good for second in the Pacific Division. They're within striking distance of the Los Angeles Kings, who lost to the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday. The Kings have 93 points, and the Ducks have a game in hand.
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This is how Scott Wedgewood always believed it would go down.
The New Jersey Devils rookie goaltender made his second-career start Thursday and made sure it was a memorable one, recording the first shutout of his career. He stopped all 39 shots he faced against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
In his debut Sunday against the Columbus Blue Jackets, a 2-1 win, Wedgewood stopped 27 of 28 shots. He's allowed only one goal on 67 shots.
The 23-year-old was a third-round draft pick of the Devils in 2010, and hasn't exactly torn up the AHL. But he's in the NHL now, and even though his stay may be brief - the Devils' net belongs to Cory Schneider - there's a chance he challenges Keith Kinkaid for the backup job.
Kinkaid has an .899 save percentage on the season, and hasn't been great in relief of Schneider, posting an .879 in seven starts in March.
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