* Auston Matthews recorded the 13th four-point game of his NHL career and became the League’s first 20-goal scorer this season, while Brock Boeser also eclipsed the mark later Tuesday via another natural hat trick. With every hat trick this season, AstraZeneca will donate $5,000 to the Hockey Fights Cancer Fund of the V Foundation up to $500,000. Click here for more information.
* The 2023-24 season marked the second in League history where each of the first two 20-goal scorers were U.S.-born players, following 1998-99 (Tony Amonte & John LeClair).
* The NHL announced details for the 2024 NHL All-Star Skills presented by DraftKings Sportsbook, which will take place at 7 p.m. ET on Friday, Feb. 2. Click here to read more.
* Wednesday’s five-game slate is highlighted by an NHL on TNT doubleheader featuring the Bruins-Devils and Sabres-Avalanche.
Kukla's Korner Hockey
NHL Short Notes
MAPLE LEAFS’ MATTHEWS FIRST TO 20 GOALS IN 2023-24 . . .
Auston Matthews (2-2—4) erupted for four points to push his season totals to 21-11—32 (26 GP) and became the NHL’s first 20-goal scorer of the 2023-24 campaign. It marked the second time Matthews has been the first in a season to 20 goals (also 2020-21 in 24 GP), one of three active players to do so multiple times alongside Steven Stamkos (3x) and Alex Ovechkin (2x).
* Matthews recorded his seventh multi-goal outing of 2023-24, tied with Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov for the highest total of any player this season. It stood as his 13th career four-point game – only five other Maple Leafs players have as many: Darryl Sittler (26), Mitchell Marner (15), Frank Mahovlich (15), Borje Salming (13) and Lanny McDonald (13).
* Matthews has reached the 20-goal mark in all eight seasons of his career and joins Patrick Kane (13 from 2007-08 to 2019-20) as the second U.S.-born player to begin his career with eight or more consecutive 20-goal campaigns.
. . . WHILE BOESER BECOMES SECOND PLAYER TO HIT 20 GOALS IN 2023-24
Fellow U.S.-born player, Brock Boeser, netted a natural hat trick Tuesday and became the second player to reach the 20-goal mark this season following Auston Matthews as the Canucks defeated the Lightning at Rogers Arena. Boeser’s third goal of the game also tied him with Matthews (21) for the League lead in goals.
McDAVID, BEDARD EXTEND LENGTHY POINT STREAKS IN FIRST HEAD-TO-HEAD GAME
Connor McDavid (6-19—25 in 10 GP) and Connor Bedard (9-5—14 in 10 GP) found the score sheet in their first head-to-head NHL contest to extend their overall and road point streak to 10 games, respectively. McDavid became the fifth player in League history with 13 or more double-digit point streaks, while Bedard became the NHL’s 11th rookie with a road run of at least 10 contests.
* McDavid’s point streak is the third-longest active run in the NHL behind Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon (6-13—19 in 12 GP) and teammate Evan Bouchard (5-13—18 in 12 GP), while the Oilers’ eight-game winning streak is the lengthiest by a team at any point this season and one back of the franchise record. Bouchard now owns sole possession of the second-longest point streak by a defenseman in club history behind Paul Coffey’s League-record 28-game run in 1985-86.
STONE, GUENTZEL, CARTER, AHO, HAYES ALSO HAVE MULTI-GOAL GAMES
Auston Matthews and Brock Boeser weren’t the only players with notable multi-goal games Tuesday:
* Mark Stone (2-2—4) tallied a tying goal in the third period and scored the overtime winner as the League-leading Golden Knights (20-5-5, 45 points) became the first team to reach 20 victories this season. The 2023-24 campaign marked the first where a reigning Stanley Cup champion was the first NHL team to reach the 20-win mark since 2013-14, when Chicago achieved the feat.
* Jake Guentzel and Jeff Carter collected two goals apiece as the Penguins snapped a four-game slide (0-2-2). Carter (38 years, 345 days) became the oldest Pittsburgh player with a multi-goal game since Matt Cullen (39 years, 157 days on April 7, 2016).
* Sebastian Aho (2-1—3) factored on three of his team’s four goals as the Hurricanes defeated the Senators at Canadian Tire Centre. All three of Aho’s points came in the second frame, marking his fifth career three-point period – tied with Kevin Dineen, Blaine Stoughton and Sylvain Turgeon for the fourth most in franchise history behind only Ron Francis (17), Eric Staal (12) and Pat Verbeek (7).
* Kevin Hayes had both of his goals 31 seconds apart, marking the fastest two tallies by a Blues player in over 23 years and the fourth quickest by a skater this season behind Pierre-Luc Dubois (0:12 on Oct. 19), Michael Rasmussen (0:13 on Dec. 7) and Bo Horvat (0:20 on Dec. 7). St. Louis hosted its Hockey Fights Cancer Night, which saw the team show its support for former forward Kelly Chase and launch a new collaboration with the V Foundation for Cancer Research to fund a $200,000 grant for Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.
Photo via @StLouisBlues
CROSBY CLIMBING ALL-TIME ASSISTS LIST FEATURED IN #NHLSTATS: LIVE UPDATESTuesday’s edition of Live Updates featured more notes from the 10-game slate, including Penguins captain Sidney Crosby collecting the 965th assist of his NHL career to pass Doug Gilmour (964) for sole possession of 14th place on the League’s all-time list. Crosby lined up for the opening faceoff in a full-circle moment across from Coyotes rookie and Pittsburgh native Logan Cooley, who is an alumnus of Crosby’s Little Penguins Learn to Play Program.
NOT ONE PATH: JEFF SKINNER
Jeff Skinner is the most recent player to be featured in the Not One Path series, highlighting unconventional roads to the NHL. For Skinner, his sporting career always featured an ice rink and a pair of skates, but before he decided on hockey, he was winning medals at national figure skating competitions. He’ll be a part of the second game of the TNT Wednesday night doubleheader when his Sabres visit the Avalanche.
QUICK CLICKS
* Filip Forsberg scores franchise-record 10th overtime goal of NHL career
* Craig Berube fired as Blues coach, replaced by Drew Bannister
* Kenny Albert discusses motivation to write 1st book in Q&A with NHL.com
* Jeff Jackson discusses Oilers turnaround, coaching change in Q&A with NHL.com
* New NHL All-Star Skills format to feature $1 million winner-take-all prize
PASTRNAK, HUGHES, THOMPSON, MacKINNON ALL ON TNT TONIGHT
The latest NHL on TNT Wednesday night doubleheader will open with David Pastrnak and the Bruins visiting Jack Hughes and the Devils at Prudential Center and closes with Tage Thompson and the Sabres traveling to Ball Arena to face Nathan MacKinnon and the Avalanche in a game that will also be broadcast on Sportsnet in Canada.
* Hughes (97 G in 265 GP) enters the contest three shy of the 100-goal milestone, a mark his opponent, David Pastrnak reached in 259 games. Among players to begin their career with the franchise, Hughes is tracking towards becoming the second-fastest to 100 goals behind Wilf Paiement (228 GP). Pastrnak, meanwhile, is averaging 1.50 points per game this season (16-23—39 in 26 GP) after a career-high 1.38 P/GP in 2022-23.
* Thompson, who has 1-2—3 in four games since returning from injury on Dec. 5, is averaging more than a point per game in his career against the Avalanche (5-4—9 in 8 GP). He’ll be facing one of the NHL’s hottest players in MacKinnon, who is looking to push his point streak to 13 games (6-13—19 in 12 GP) and his goal streak to five contests. Should MacKinnon extend tonight, he would match Peter Stastny (6x) for most point streaks of 13-plus games in franchise history.
TUNE-IN REMINDER: Prior to Wednesday’s doubleheader, TNT and MAX will air the debut episode of this season’s “Road To The NHL Winter Classic presented by Enterprise” at 6:30 p.m. ET. The critically-acclaimed series that chronicles teams in the lead up to the highly anticipated New Year’s Day outdoor game will feathre the Kraken and Golden Knights as they prepare to meet in the 2024 Discover NHL Winter Classic on Jan. 1 at T-Mobile Park, home of the Seattle Mariners. Click here for more information and a video preview.
Thanks to the NHL PR department for the information above.
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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.
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