Quick Hits Islanders @ Oilers: Hot Streaks

I’m a massive fan of offence. I’m much more entertained by a game that involves multiple lead changes and goals in bunches, and New York Islanders games are never short on entertainment. Their games have produced the most goals in the NHL with 452. They are sixth in goals scored, 213, and they’ve allowed the most goals at 239. Only five other teams have had 400+ goals scored during their games: Pittsburgh (425), Tampa Bay (424), Toronto (410), Vegas (406) and Edmonton (402).

The Oilers and Islanders can score, but they’ve allowed too many goals and that’s why, unlike the other four teams, they will miss the playoffs. But if I was a betting man, I’d take the over in tonight’s tilt between the Oilers and Islanders. The average NHL game has 5.92 goals, but Islanders games average 6.85 goals/game.

1. The Islanders have scored four or more goals in 27 games, and they’ve allowed four or more goals in 34 games. They’ve had 13 games where they’ve scored and allowed four or more goals. The Oilers have allowed 4+ goals 29 times, have scored 4+ goals 20 times and have had six games where both teams scored four or more. Tonight will feature five of the league’s top-30 scorers in Connor McDavid (80 points), Matt Barzal (69), John Tavares (67), Josh Bailey (65) and Leon Draisaitl (60).  McDavid leads the NHL in EV points, while Draisaitl is seventh and Barzal is ninth.

These two teams have produced and allowed a lot of offence this year, but recently we’ve seen some individual players producing some big numbers.

2. Evgeni Malkin has 24 goals and 48 points in 28 games in 2018, while Taylor Hall and Sidney Crosby have 38 points and Connor McDavid has 35. Malkin’s 28-game pace would have him scoring 140 points over 82 games. Very few have mentioned him for the Hart Trophy, but he should be in the conversation.

3. Taylor Hall has a point in 26-consecutive games. He is only the eighth player in NHL history to have a point in 26-consecutive games.

Wayne Gretzky did it four times, with streaks of 51, 39, 30 and 28 games. Mario Lemieux did it three times — 46 games once and 28 games twice. Mats Sundin had a 30-game streak. Guy Lafleur, Paul Coffey and Steve Yzerman scored in 28 consecutive games, while Patrick Kane had a 26-game streak. If Hall registers a point tonight he’ll have the longest streak since Lemieux in 1996.

4. Patrik Laine has nine goals and 12 points in his last five games. He has 13 goals and 19 points in his last 12 games. He suddenly has 38-goals and has an outside chance to score 50. He has scored the most goals in the NHL over the past two seasons, 74, one ahead of Alex Ovechkin and Nikita Kucherov. Malkin is fourth with 71, while Auston Matthews has 68. Brad Marchand is the top Canadian with 67 goals.

5. Eric Staal has 17 goals and 26 points in 18 games. He has 36 goals and has a good chance to match his career-high of 45 goals, set in 2006 when he had 45-55-100. He also scored 40 goals in 2009. Staal is a $3.5 million cap hit for one more season. He’s been a rare bargain free agent signing.

6. Aleksander Barkov has 14 goals and 34 points in his past 26 games. The Panthers are 12-3-1 in their last 16 games and Barkov has 10-14-24 as the Panthers are suddenly two points behind Columbus for the second wildcard spot with three games in hand.

7. Nathan MacKinnon has 17 goals and 38 points in his last 22 games. He’s missed eight of Colorado’s last 30 games due to injuries, and when he was in the lineup they were 14-4-4, but only 4-4-0 without him. He’s the main reason the Avalanche are in a playoff race — currently tied with LA for the second wildcard spot — and if they make the playoffs he’s a legit Hart Trophy contender.

8. Marchand has 13 goals and 34 points in his 22 games in 2018. Marchand is fourth in the NHL at 1.29 points-per-game (PPG), trailing MacKinnon (1.34), Kucherov (1.32), Malkin (1.31) and ahead of McDavid (1.22) and Hall (1.21). Marchand’s last two seasons have been a massive uptick in offence for him. He has averaged 1.15 PPG over that time, fifth best in the NHL, and has produced 151 points in his last 131 games. In his previous five seasons at ages 23-27, Marchand produced 247 points in 357 games (0.69 PPG). You rarely see a player become an elite scorer at age 28, but Marchand has become that. He is proving that last year wasn’t just a one-off.

9. On Tuesday night Marchand became the 20th player to score five points in a game this season. Barzal has done it three times. Last season only five players had a five-point game, but Marchand did it twice, so he and Barzal have each had a five-point night three times over the past two seasons, while 22 other players have done it once. Pretty impressive.

10. Islanders winger Anders Lee has 65 goals the past two seasons, which is eighth in the NHL, and is tied with Tavares for the team lead in goals with 31. He’s an excellent value contract at $3.75 million and he has one year remaining on his deal. Throw in Jordan Eberle’s 23 goals and the Islanders’ top-five scorers are very dangerous, but their shoddy team defence will likely cost them a playoff spot.

11. Of the 30 goalies who have made 34+ starts, Cam Talbot is tied with Brayden Holtby for 25th in even strength SV% at .914. Matt Murray is 27th at .913, Carey Price is 28th at .910, James Reimer is 29th at .907 and Craig Anderson is 30th at .903. Anderson is 30th overall in total sv% as well at .901, while Talbot, Price and Jake Allen are tied for 27th at .904. Jaroslav Halak has a .908sv (.916 at EV) which has him 22nd among starters.