The NHL is too vast of a league to keep up with everything all at once. With what is probably more than 40 games a week, plus practices, press conferences, and other general goings on, it can be tough to sort out the interesting from the noise, the important stories from the trivial. Hockey’s landscape changes from week to week, and while it’s impossible to watch every game unfold in its entirety over the course of a week, you can certainly read the most important narratives all in one place.
Trending the net: Women’s hockey at the Winter Classic, Rangers and Pens struggle
All-Star voting amuses while World Junior announcement disappoints.
Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
These are not your typical power rankings, but more of a trend of who’s rising and who’s falling, from players and teams to storylines and statistics. To get you ready for the week ahead, we’ll catch you up on the week prior. What are the biggest narratives? Which teams are taking the league by storm, or falling out of favor? Which players are breaking out and which ones are slowing down? What is the league doing that you should pay attention to?
All this, and more, below in what’s trending in the NHL this week.
Trending Up
All-Star Game shenanigans reach peak in less than 48 hours
If you haven't heard, the NHL has changed their All-Star Game format, going from the normal set of players on the ice to the 3-on-3 format used in overtime. It's a change that's pleasing some and drawing skepticism and doubt from others. What might be the most important story from the All-Star Game changes is the recent fan voting polls. Last season, the fan voting got unknown Sabres youngster Zemgus Girgensons from Latvia in as the top-voted player thanks to huge support from his home country.
Now, we have Girgensons telling fans to give their votes to someone more deserving, who is now apparently Arizona Coyotes enforcer John Scott. Fans have taken to Scott as this year’s troll vote, who is still on top of the leaderboard as of Sunday afternoon. Like Girgensons, Scott wants no part of the All-Star voting on the merits of deserving the honor.
The best All-Star voting story, however, comes from 43-year-old Jaromir Jagr, who wants fans to stop voting for him because the 3-on-3 would "kill [him]."
Fans-I appreciate your votes for All-Star game, but 3 on 3 would kill me,and i don't want to die yet:)Thank you for understanding. Too old:)
— Jaromir Jagr (@68Jagr) December 2, 2015 All of this happened within the first 48 hours of fan voting time, which opened on Dec. 1. Bless you, All-Star voting, no matter how gimmicky you may be.
Rookie goaltenders take center stage
Why does this year feel as if we've got more first-time goaltenders than ever before? There's Mike Condon in Montreal, taking over for the injured Carey Price until sometime mid-January. Condon took the league by storm when Price was injured earlier in the season, but by the end of that run, cracks started to show on the rookie's young facade. With Price down, Condon has the helm in Montreal, still leading the NHL's rookie netminders with a 2.22 GAA despite losing his last two starts.
Then this week the rising star of Maple Leafs goaltender Garret Sparks swept the league with his story. From his throwback pads to his emotional reaction to winning his NHL debut with a shutout, Sparks became a fan favorite overnight. There's still work to be done, even in the rotating carousel of Toronto, thanks to giving up six to the Jets two days after, but he's just another rookie netminder making waves in the NHL.
The Oilers have Anders Nilsson leading the league's rookies in save percentage at .921, while 22-year-old Linus Ullmark is backstopping a transition year for the Sabres, Connor Hellebuyck has taken the reins in Winnipeg due to injuries and poor starts, and John Gibson seems to be the Ducks only reliable netminder. It's certainly a good year for exposure for the the young goaltenders of the NHL.
Florida rides historic road record to longest win streak of the season
By the time you read this, the Panthers may have already conceded a loss to the Devils the night before. Regardless, coming into the game, Florida had tied a franchise record for consecutive road wins, starting back on Nov. 14 in a shootout win against the Lightning through their four game road streak they held prior to Sunday's match.
#FlaPanthers match a franchise record for consecutive road wins tonight (5). This last occurred on Nov. 30 - Dec. 12 2008.
— Florida Panthers PR (@FlaPanthersPR) December 5, 2015 The Panthers also gathered one win at home before the road trip, bringing their total streak up to five games, their longest winning tear of the year. With superb goaltending by Roberto Luongo -- who has let in one goal in all but one of their games in the streak -- the Panthers have jumped last year's Eastern Conference Champions in the Lightning in the Atlantic standings at 30 points.
Hockey parents take cheering up to 11
Twice last week we had parents of players show exactly why hockey parents are the best parents. First, dads of a few Devils players engaged in an awkward, yet adorable, high-five circle after New Jersey scored the game-tying goal against the Flyers in the last few moments of regulation.
Then Montreal rookie Daniel Carr scored on his opening shift of his NHL debut with his parents in attendance, and his mom allowed the biggest, happiest smile we've seen out of anyone this season.
Carr's family was in attendance for his first NHL game and therefore first NHL goal pic.twitter.com/EomHmphr2X
— Stephanie (@myregularface) December 6, 2015 Women’s hockey takes huge step with outdoor match at Winter Classic
In news that broke late Saturday evening, reports surfaced that the Canadian Women’s Hockey League and the National Women’s Hockey League would send teams to play before the Winter Classic in first inter-league match between the two professional women’s hockey leagues. The news came at the tail end of a segment from SportsNet’s Elliotte Friedman, who basically buried the lede in the last 20 seconds of the clip that the Les Canadiennes de Montreal of the CWHL and the Boston Pride of the NWHL were selected for the first outdoor game of either league.
The news is a historic move for growing the game of women’s hockey, with the game reportedly to be televised on Dec. 31, before the Alumni Game of the Winter Classic festivities. While national players on Team USA are said to be on the last day of a training camp and therefore not able to make the match, the exposure of any women’s hockey at all on such a large stage backed by the NHL is huge in gaining support for both leagues and is seemingly the biggest stepping stone the sport has had so far in gaining ground on the men’s side.
Trending Down
Rangers falter after miserable Thanksgiving weekend
It's not like people hadn't predicted this. Over the last week, New York conceded the top of the league and slid to second place in the Metropolitan Division after losing five of their last six coming into Sunday. It's not a surprise, given their unsustainable PDO of over 106 over the last month of hockey. Their offensive scoring abilities have disappeared while Henrik Lundqvist has looked more human over the last four weeks than over the last four years.
It was only a matter of time before their puck luck ran out after a comfortable month of November. Though the Rangers have hit their worst losing patch of the season, it’s hard to see an Eastern Conference contender struggle for this long. New York is not as good as their month of November suggested, but they aren’t as bad as their recent run has indicated.
Pittsburgh continues to confuse in roller coaster season
Speaking of recent bad runs, the Penguins haven't had the best time either, even through much of this year so far. With a few offensive pickups that were sure to kickstart the Penguins this season, it hasn't quite all gone to plan. Sidney Crosby's scoring has been down across the board, while rumors of locker room problems swirled -- though they were dismissed as quickly as they came about. The team has criticized itself for a lack of effort in an unsatisfactory and surprising start to a year many thought they'd dominate.
While Pittsburgh bounced back to a 5-1 win in San Jose on Tuesday, after a break the Penguins came out flat against the Kings Saturday, with just three shots in the entire 20 minutes alone. The 5-3 loss looked closer than it actually was, with the Penguins yet again unable to match the effort of their competitors.
#HereComeThePenguins pic.twitter.com/ZMuGqY4nas
— Ian McLaren (@iancmclaren) December 5, 2015 World Junior news disappoints with head-scratching announcements
The recent announcement of Buffalo winning the bid to host the 2018 World Junior Hockey Championship fell flat this week on two fronts. First, the criticisms of taking the safer choice host, as both Pittsburgh and St. Louis were up for contention with Buffalo. While Buffalo’s proximity to Canada makes sense as a host city, it’s an unrewarding venue for the growth of the game, as the tournament held in one of the other bid cities -- especially St. Louis -- would present a better opportunity to showcase youth hockey.
The other is the addition of an outdoor game to the mix, putting the reported US and Canada pool play match in Ralph Wilson Stadium where the Penguins battled the Sabres in the first Winter Classic all the way back in 2008. To put an essentially meaningless game during the middle of the NHL season outside is one thing, but to brave the elements and the unpredictability of the outdoors in a key match of a tournament is another. I can already hear the complaints from 2018 from the loser of this game.
Coach’s challenge runs into criticism
The new coach's challenge rule has run into some detractors this past week, as both the Capitals and Maple Leafs were on the wrong side of calls, with the former taking over eight minutes to decide upon. First, Toronto had a crucial goal taken away that would have cut their lead against the Jets to two at the start of the third period. A ticky-tacky goaltender interference call was slapped onto the play, despite a clear push to Daniel Winnik that sent him into the Jets netminder. Winnipeg would score minutes later after the call, effectively ending any hope for a Toronto comeback.
Then again Winnipeg was at the center of a coach's challenge blunder two days later. Mark Scheifele scored the game winner for the Jets in overtime, but Washington head coach Barry Trotz wanted the play taken a look at for an offside call. After nearly nine minutes, the refs decided there was not enough evidence, almost blundering the call after a restless Winnipeg crowd chanted their boredom.
After the game, Trotz called out the small tablets the officials use to make the calls, among other things.
Journalists mourn the loss of the Dougie Hamilton narrative
It was almost perfect. Ex-Bruin Dougie Hamilton almost cost the Flames the game against the Bruins on Friday, hooking Brad Marchand and setting up a penalty shot to untie a late 3-3 tied game. Marchand scored, putting the game on Hamilton's shoulders, a cruel trick of fate for the underperforming defenseman to continue his struggles against a team that sold him away. Alas, the comeback kids in Calgary tied the game with 1.2 seconds to play and squeaked out a win in overtime on a goal which Hamilton assisted on. Another perfect story ruined by the randomness of the sport of hockey.
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