NHL scores 2017: Patrik Laine is making rookie of the year race extremely difficult

Listen Toronto, I love you. I do! Your crop of young talent excites me like no other. It was on display once again on Tuesday, but I’ll get to that later.

At the expense of my email and Twitter mentions, I’m going to make the case for Patrik Laine — and not Auston Matthews or Mitch Marner — for the Calder Trophy. I just ask of you, Toronto, to hear me out, and know that one of your rookies are likely going to win anyway, so this article is meaningless to hate on.

So, Laine scored his third hat trick of the season Tuesday night in the Winnipeg Jets’ 5-2 win over the Dallas Stars. If that seems like a lot, especially considering Laine has played 51 games this year, yes it is! Laine is averaging a hat trick every 17 games! It took Sidney Crosby four seasons to net his third regular season hat trick, and Alex Ovechkin two.

In fact, no rookie has hit three hat tricks in his first NHL season since the 1992-93 season.

OK, his last goal of the night was an empty netter, fine. However, in four less games played, Laine has one more point than Matthews and one less than Marner. His points-per-game metric of 0.88 leads all NHL rookies, and he’s doing it with the sixth-most shots by a rookie this year.

The Calder Trophy race is going to be extremely tough this year. The crop of rookies this season is the strongest the NHL has seen in ages. There’s a reason the Toronto Maple Leafs’ rookies are getting so much attention, but Laine deserves to be right there with them at the end of the day.

Devils 3, Avalanche 2
Penguins 4, Canucks 0
Maple Leafs 7, Islanders 1
Sabres 3, Senators 2
Ducks 1, Wild 0
Jets 5, Stars 2
Oilers 5, Coyotes 2

1. Sidney Crosby came oh-so-close to point No. 1,000

The Pittsburgh Penguins wanted to get Crosby his 1,000th point on Tuesday so badly. They succeeded in getting him one point away, thanks to this perfect assist right from his red line office on Jake Guentzel’s third-period goal.

Pittsburgh had 25 shot attempts for when Crosby was on the ice, according to hockeystats.ca, the second-highest for the Penguins all game. Crosby had glorious chances, including one in the final moments that was saved by Ryan Miller, and was tied with Nick Bonino for a team-leading six shots.

However, it wasn’t to be. Crosby will have a chance to hit the 1,000-point threshold on Thursday against the Jets.

2. The Maple Leafs rookies are at it again

Thanks to two goals from Matthews in the Maple Leafs’ 7-1 drubbing of the New York Islanders, Toronto is keeping pace with the Philadelphia Flyers for the final wild card spot in the East. Philadelphia was idle on Tuesday, but the win was needed after losing five of its last seven.

The Maple Leafs threw 41 shots on goal, and not once did their grip on the game slip away like they’ve done in the past. With Matthews’ pair, which has him three behind Crosby for the league lead, the goal-share between the Maple Leafs rookies and veterans is sitting at a solid 50 percent, fifth-best in the NHL since 1945.

3. The Ducks owe John Gibson a steak dinner

Besides putting 23 total shots on Devan Dubnyk through the course of their game against the Minnesota Wild, with just 12 in the first two periods, the Anaheim Ducks allowed Minnesota to take 37 shots. A Randy Carlyle-coached team isn’t a stranger to such shot disparities, but the reason the Ducks were able to pull out a squeaker was thanks to the play of Gibson.

Anaheim’s starter saved all 37 shots in the 1-0 win, helping the Ducks right the ship after losing four of their last five coming into Tuesday. The win keeps them two points ahead of the Edmonton Oilers, who also won their game by a convincing 5-2 score, in the Pacific. Not a bad time for clutch goaltending.

The Ottawa Senators had another two points in their grasp after two periods, but a pair of goals from the Buffalo Sabres in the third period kept Ottawa from gaining ground on the now-Michel Therrien-less Montreal Canadiens in the Atlantic.

See, Toronto, I’m not biased against you guys. Your rookies are fantastic too, trust me.