NHL scores 2016: Blackhawks penalty kill continues to erode in Columbus

We’re going to change up the format this morning, because the

Stat of the Night

... is truly the story of Friday night. And here it is:

If you’re more the visual type, here’s this:

Chicago is the 18th team in the last 30 years to give up at least 10 power play goals in their first five games. The last to do it? The 2010-11 Dallas Stars. Trust me. You don’t want to be them. Take my word for it.

We’ll have a full system analysis soon to figure out why Chicago’s penalty kill is so abhorrent, but we can already point to its effects.

The simple fact is the Blackhawks do not have the forward depth right now to rebound from an avalanche of failed penalty kills. Tyler Motte (a rookie) and Richard Panik (five goals in seven games, a unsustainable pace) shared the top line with Jonathan Toews on Friday. Their bottom six, which once harbored the likes of Brandon Saad and Andrew Shaw, was made up of unproven youth like Ryan Hartman and Dennis Rasmussen and one-dimensional face-puncher Jordin Tootoo. Panik is the only Blackhawk with more than two goals on the season; Toews hasn’t scored yet and Patrick Kane has one tally on 17 shots.

None of that indicates Chicago is prepared to mount a comeback against the Blue Jackets right now, much less against the playoff teams they began their season against.

There is hope on the way: Marian Hossa will get healthy. Chicago will add a forward soon via trade. And the next week holds matchups with the Maple Leafs, Flames, Devils and Kings, all of whom are struggling early on.

But unless that penalty kill finds a way to stop bleeding goals, Chicago will remain mincemeat even to those less superior teams.

The Predators cashed in on three of their four power play opportunities in Detroit, providing us with a remarkable stat: eight of the ten goals they’ve scored this year have come on the man advantage.

The additions they’ve made over the last year are the difference: Ryan Johansen has three assists, and Subban scored his third power play marker of the year on Friday. New captain Mike Fisher scored his team-leading fourth.

Of course, that leads to a dubious stat: Nashville’s two goals at even strength are the worst in the NHL, and probably part of the reason they’re simply 1-3-0 despite their special teams prowess. They were over-matched at 5-on-5 again on Friday, meaning this is a problem that needs to be fixed quickly.

Nick Leddy got dinged up this week, leading the Islanders to call up youngster Ryan Pulock. Pulock promptly got hurt on Friday. Adam Pelech will likely get the call up from the AHL. He will get hurt soon. We all will. Death is inevitable, an infinite darkness growing closer with every waking second.

But hey, Andrew Ladd is surely going to score soon. Things are #great.

What a showdown! Brother against brother, for the first time in the NHL and not in juniors or the backyard or on GameCube.

Naturally, Ryan Strome immediately scored and his younger rookie brother Dylan was directly responsible. This led to a very conflicted mother.

The Strome parents: not nearly as excited as Auston Matthews’ mom.

Okay, this didn’t really have an impact moment. There’s no reason for me to put this here. It’s just a damn good goal.

I know I bent the rules of this HIGHLY RIGID format. Time to over-compensate!

Sorry. A lot of things happened in that Preds-Wings game. Tensions bubbled for two periods before really boiling over in the final minutes. After two goals, P.K. Subban almost made a terrible pair of decisions with the Predators pushing to tie the game.

But he pulled up! I’m no fan of needless fighting, but hey: if you shove a guy in the back while he’s down, you should probably be prepared to fight. However, as I’ll touch on in just a second, it made a certain bit of sense not to fight. Subban got under Abdelkader’s skin and still stayed on the ice to aid his team’s comeback. Fine.

Impact Moment III

Despite those antics, nothing really crossed the line at that point. Nashville scored on the power play a moment later to make it a one-goal game.

And then James Neal threw it all away.

Darren Helm scored immediately to put the game permanently out of Nashville’s reach. It was a stupid, selfish penalty. The fact that Subban turned down a free trip to the penalty box with the game on the line a minute later just highlighted how bad Neal’s decision was.