Welcome to the NHL Star Power Index: A weekly gauge of the players who are controlling substantial buzz around the league. When a player is included on this list it may not be a good thing — it means that they are capturing a large amount of the hockey world’s attention.
These players are in no particular order when it comes to the amount of buzz that they’re creating. We’ll revisit the Star Power Index every week throughout the regular season.
Auston Matthews was banged up to begin the season, but finally appears to be hitting his stride coming down the home stretch.
Matthews has tallied four goals and an assist over his last four games, including having an impressive St. Patrick’s Day performance in a 6-2 win against the Calgary Flames.
In Monday’s contest, Matthews racked up all three of his points in the second period, which was his 11th career three-point period. Additionally, it was his recorded his 36th multi-goal period, putting him atop the Maple Leafs all-time list in that category.
At the 15:41 mark of the second period, the Maple Leafs found themselves on the power-play, and displayed terrific patience. Forward William Nylander uncorked a shot that was blocked, but the puck ricocheted back out to him.
Upon getting the puck back on his stick, Nylander found Matthews camped out in the face-off circle. Matthews surveyed the landscape before sending a rocket of a shot right over the shoulder of Flames goaltender Dustin Wolf.
Just over three minutes later, Mitch Marner was able to make a diving play to keep the puck in the offensive zone while the Maple Leafs were on the power-play. Matthews ended up with the puck near the face-off circle before passing it off to Nylander. After waiting for a passing lane to open up, Nylander dumped the puck to Matthew Knies behind the net, who found Matthews in the face-off circle for a scorching one-timer.
Matthews has now scored four goals in his last four games as he followed up Monday’s contest with a goal in a 2-1 win against the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday.
Matthews is definitely getting hot at the right time considering that the Maple Leafs are deadlocked with the Florida Panthers for the top playoff spot in the Atlantic Division. If Matthews can continue to be the goal-scoring savant that the NHL has grown accustomed to seeing, perhaps the Maple Leafs can finally go on a Stanley Cup run this spring.
The New Jersey Devils are a tad shorthanded without star forward Jack Hughes as the Stanley Cup Playoffs draw closer. As a result, winger Jesper Bratt has shouldered even more of the offensive load lately, and is producing at an elite level.
Bratt recently put together a four-game point streak in which he racked up multi-point performances three times.
Bratt recently became the sixth player in Devils history to record at least three points in three consecutive games. He also became just the third player to accomplish the feat in the past 30 years as he joined Jack Hughes and Ilya Kovalchuk.
In a 2-1 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday, Bratt found the back of the net for the third time in four games, which ended up being the difference.
At the 14:14 mark of the second period, Blue Jackets goaltender Jet Greaves was attempting to play the puck from behind his own net, but it bounced off the back of the net. That’s where Bratt was able to capitalize as he scooped up the loose puck and flipped it into the net before Greaves was able to completely get back into position.
Bratt leads the Devils in points (80) and assists (60) as he continues to be one of the more dynamic playmakers in the Eastern Conference. He also paces New Jersey when it comes to power-play assists (26).
Being without Hughes was a devastating blow for the Devils, but this is a team that still could be the second seed in the Metropolitan Division come playoff time. If Bratt is able to continue to be the facilitator that he has all season, this will be a very dangerous group in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Cale Makar is off to a tremendous start in March, and has the Colorado Avalanche looking like a threat in the Western Conference.
Makar has tallied three goals and 10 assists in nine games this month, including a goal and four assists across his last three games. Recently, the Avalanche defenseman recorded a goal and two assists in a 4-3 overtime win against the Dallas Stars on Sunday.
Makar racked up three or more points for the seventh time this season, and became one of only nine defensemen in league history to achieve that feat in three different seasons. He became the first defenseman to do so since former New York Rangers star Brian Leetch.
The Avalanche star is also averaging 1.08 points-per-game in his career, and became one of only four defensemen to average at least one point per contest in his career (minimum of 100 games). Only Bobby Orr (1.39), Harry Cameron (1.10) and Paul Coffey (1.09) averaged such a clip as a blue-liner.
Makar provided some theatrics in Sunday’s game as he scored the game-winning goal in overtime.
Just 34 seconds into the extra session, the Avalanche won a neutral zone face-off, and Makar did the rest. After gaining possession of the puck off the draw, Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon brought it up the ice before dropping it off to Makar in front of the blue line. Once Makar received the puck, he stick-handled his way through the Stars defense and swept a shot under goaltender Jake Oettinger’s blocker for the game winner.
Makar could be in line to win the second Norris Trophy of his career. The Avalanche blue-liner currently leads all NHL defensemen in points (79), goals (25), and assists (55) with Columbus Blue Jackets star Zach Werenski and Vancouver Canucks standout Quinn Hughes likely being his biggest competition.
Minnesota Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson continued his very strong recent run this week with one of his more impressive performances of the season.
Gustavsson turned aside all 34 shots that he faced in a 2-0 win against the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday. The spectacular showcase was his fifth shutout this season, and tied him for second among all NHL goaltenders in shutouts (5).
In doing so, Gustavsson tallied the second-most shutouts in a single season in team history. According to NHL EDGE data, The 26-year old netminder also posted his 31st game in which he had a .900 save percentage or higher, which is tied for third among NHL goalies behind only Connor Hellebuyck (38) and Andrei Vasilevsky (33).
Gustavsson has tallied a 5-2-0 record, a 1.73 goals-against-average, and a .940 save percentage in seven games this month. In addition to Wednesday’s outing, Gustavsson also stopped 28 of 29 shots in a 3-1 win against the Los Angeles Kings.
If Gustavsson can continue to play anywhere near this level, the Wild certainly should be playoff bound later this season.
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