First Star, Worst Star: January 10th, 2016

We’re in the second week of January and I’ve somehow already managed to break NEXT YEARS resolutions as well. The moral of the story is never make resolutions, and always read First Star, Worst Star!

Has there been a more exciting player in this era than Alexander Ovechkin? The answer is no, and if you disagree with can take it to the kumite pit. 

He’s one goal away from number 500 on his career, and on Saturday he potted 499 in a way only Ovi could. 

This is just classic Ovechkin: streaking down the wing at ridiculous speed, using his giant frame to shield the puck and ward off a defender before snapping a lighting quick shot through the five hole of one of the greatest goalies of this same era. AND to top it all of it was an OT winner. 

And literally as I’m writing this Alex Ovechkin has just scored his 500th career goal. Once again it’s classic Ovi; disappear into open ice, fire a quick wrister under the cross bar, and get mobbed by your entire team. 

Ovi is now the fifth fastest player to reach 500 goals, behind only Gretzky, Lemieux, Bossy and Hull. That’s some damn elite company if you ask me. 

When Ovechkin retires they’re probably going to release a greatest goals compilation, and it will be about 58 minutes long and will include like 445 of his goals. 

In an era that has seen record low scoring, Alex Ovechkin still seems to be operating in the late 80s/early 90s. He’s fun as all hell to watch and I hope he plays until he’s 50, just like Jagr. 

This could easily have been the first star as well, just because of how damn impressive it was. Has any team in NHL history blown a two goal lead in the third period by scoring three straight goals ON THEMSELVES?

Just when we think things are starting to look up again; A two game win streak, Connor McDavid (and Nail Yakupov) closer and closer to coming back, and Cam Talbot playing like a man possessed. Everything was obviously going a little TOO well, so the Oilers decided to even things out. GOTTA KEEP THE FANS HUMBLE!

That is just unfathomably bad luck. You had better odds to win that $900 Million Power Ball jackpot than you did predicting the Oilers would score THREE GOALS ON THEMSELVES! 

We GET IT Taylor, you’re an All-Star! You can score from anywhere on the ice, in to ANY net on the ice at any given time. No need to embarrass your own goalie in the process.

Are they just trying to up the difficulty in terms of making the playoffs, so that when Connor comes back the rest of the division still has a fighting chance to stay in the race? This was a circa 13-14 Oilers style loss in the worst way possible, and frankly I have to tip my hat to you Edmonton: just when we think we’ve seen every horrible way to lose a game you somehow find a way to reinvent yourselves!