Milestone Monday: A Historic Week in the NHL

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Milestone Monday is our weekly look through the best stats, record and NHL milestones set over the last week of play.

Ja Am Legend

43-year-old Jaromir Jagr continues to cement his place in the record books as one of the top handful of players to ever lace up skates.

On Sunday he scored career goal number 732, moving him past Marcel Dionne and into fourth place all-time.

By season’s end he could quite easily move into third. He’s currently nine goals back from Brett Hull in third place.

Here are the top five scorers of all-time.
1. Wayne Gretzky: 894
2. Gordie Howe: 801
3. Brett Hull: 741
4. Jaromir Jagr: 732
5. Marcel Dionne: 731

Behind Jagr in active goal scorers are Jarome Iginla at 598, Alex Ovechkin at 492, Marian Hossa at 491 and Patrick Marleau at 469.

26 and Not Counting

Patrick Kane’s record-breaking 26-game point streak came to an end this week. It’s likely to be one of the major individual accomplishments of the season and certainly aids a Hart case if he doesn’t fall off the face of the earth going forward.

This was a pretty incredible record, but we’ve covered it pretty thoroughly in past weeks. It’s the longest streak since Mats Sundin’s 30-game point streak in 1992-93. It’s the longest in Blackhawks history. It’s the longest point streak by an American.

It’s… impressive.

In addition to his record-setting streak coming to an end, Kane hit 20 goals this week. He’s the first American player to score at least 20 goals in each of his first nine NHL seasons, according to Elias.

800 at the Joe

On Sunday, the Detroit Red Wings won their 800th game at Joe Louis Arena.

Capital Season

The Washington Capitals are off to the best start in franchise history with a 24-6-2 record.

That’s a stark contrast to how they started the season 40 years ago, when they were 2-24-4 through the first 30 games of the season.

Sutter Climbs Over Crawford

Los Angeles Kings coach Darryl Sutter coached his 1,152nd game this week. That was the game that bumped him ahead of Marc Crawford for the 15th most games coached all-time.

He’s 80 games back from the next person on the list, but he’s not likely to be catching him any time soon, as it’s Winnipeg’s Paul Maurice. The next non-active coach is Bryan Murray, whose 1,239 games ranks 13th all-time.

Big Shutout

On Thursday, Buffalo Sabres goaltender Chad Johnson put up an impressive 44-save shutout against the last place Anaheim Ducks.

44 saves is the most saves a Sabres goaltender has ever made in a shutout.

Speaking of Shutouts

Jonathan Quick registered career shutout number 39 with a 45-save performance against the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.

39 shutouts moves him past Tom Barrasso for the third most shutouts by an American in NHL history.

It also sees him climb into 37th most in NHL history. He’s tied with Jocelyn Thibault.

Back at 38th he leaves Barrasso, Sean Burke, Jean-Sebastien Giguere, Pekka Rinne and Jaroslav Halak, who are all tied with 38 shutouts.

More Shutouts!

Roberto Luongo grabbed a shutout this week as well, his 70th career shutout. Only four goaltenders have posted more shutouts than Luongo since 1967-68, according to Elias. Martin Brodeur with 125, Dominik Hasek with 81, Ed Belfour with 76 and Tony Esposito with 76.

Luongo is one shutout from moving into 11th all-time, tied with Lorne Chabot and Hall of Famer Harry Lumley.

Shayne the Friendly Ghost

Flyers rookie defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere potted his third overtime goal of the season this week, giving him six goals in his first 17 games of the season.

According to Elias, he’s just the fourth player (player, not just defenseman) to score at least three overtime goals in a rookie season since the introduction of the five-minute overtime format in the 1983-84 season. The others were Edmonton’s Andrew Cogliano in the 2007-08 season, Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby in the 2005-06 season and Pittsburgh’s Ryan Malone in the 2003-04 season.

Other Overtime Milestones

Jonathan Toews grabbed his third overtime marker of the season. That ties a franchise record for most overtime goals in a single season. Kyle Calder (2005-06) and Marian Hossa (2012-13) have also put in three OT winners.

Principal Skinner

Jeff Skinner came alive this week, scoring two hat tricks over the span of three games.

It’s the first time a player has done that in Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes franchise history.

Thorburn Notice

Chris Thorburn played in his 595th career game with the Jets this week. That has him passing Ilya Kovalchuk for the most games played in the team’s short history.

He scored his fifth goal of the season in his 594th game, the one that tied him with Kovalchuk.

Breaking Bean

The Edmonton Oilers beat the Boston Bruins in Boston on Monday. It was their sixth straight win, but more impressively is was the first time they’d grabbed a win in Boston in nearly 20 years.

They last won a game in Boston on Nov. 7, 1996. They went 0-8-2 since that win in 1996.

The Class of 2007

Jamie Benn hit 400 career points this week. He’s the second member of the 2007 draft class to hit 400 points despite being drafted in the 5th round, 129th overall.

The first to hit that mark was Kane, who has 607 points.

Up next? Seventh overall pick Jakub Voracek (393 points), sixth overall pick Sam Gagner (341 points), 26th overall pick David Perron (307 points), 22nd overall pick Max Pacioretty (306 points) and 61st overall pick Wayne Simmonds (301 points).

The Class of 2006

Nicklas Backstrom hit 600 career points, moving into fourth place all-time for among players with the Capitals.

The fourth overall pick also became the first player from the 2006 NHL draft to hit 600 points.

Up next? Fifth overall pick Phil Kessel (538 points), third overall pick of Jonathan Toews (527 points), 22nd overall pick Claude Giroux (478 points) and 12th overall pick Bryan Little (370 points).

Serious Minutes

In Sunday’s game, Erik Karlsson logged 36:34 of ice time due to Mark Borowiecki getting ejected from the game and Cody Ceci getting injured.

That’s the first time a player has logged that many minutes in a game that didn’t go to overtime since Dan Boyle played 37:03 on February 23, 2008 while playing with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Hey! Blue Jackets Did a Good Thing

It seems that every good thing that happens in Columbus is immediately overshadowed by something negative.

Thursday’s game is remembered as the game where John Tortorella made Ryan Johansen a healthy scratch. But while it was a bit of a gong show, the Blue Jackets scored seven goals for a 7-5 win over Arizona. It was the first time in franchise history that the team had seven different players score a goal. Worth noting in a season where there haven’t been many bright spots.

Stone’s Rise

Ottawa’s Mark Stone hit 100 career points this week in his 132nd career game. That’s the fourth fewest games played a Senator has taken to get to 100 points in team history.

Alexei Yashin did it in 107 games, Daniel Alfredsson in 123 games and Jason Spezza in 124 games.

Games Played Milestones

700 — Phil Kessel hit career game number 700 in the same game that teammate Ben Lovejoy played in career game number 300. Kessel is the first member of the 2006 draft class to hit 700 games. As you saw above, he’s second in scoring in his draft class.

600 — Jonathan Toews played his 600th career game. All in a Chicago Blackhawks sweater.

Alex Edler played his 600th career game. Like Toews, he’s played all of them with the same team, the Vancouver Canucks. He’s the sixth defenseman in Canucks history to hit that mark. The others to hit that mark? Garth Butcher (610 games), Doug Lidster (666 games), Dennis Kearns (677 games), Mattias Ohlund (770 games) and Harold Snepsts (781 games)

400 — However you pronounce his name, P.K. Subban hit 400 games this week.

Jamie McGinn also career game number 400 this week.

All-Time Goals and Points Climbing

GOALS: Alex Ovechkin moved into 44th all-time in goals this week, passing Hall of Famers Jean Ratelle (491) and Norm Ullman (490). He also moved ahead of Marian Hossa, who is tied with Ratelle at 491.

Patrick Marleau moved into 54th all-time with 469 career goals, passing Pat Lafontaine who has 468.

POINTS: Marleau also climbed in the all-time points rank, putting up three points to move to 1,013 career points. That sees him passing Steve Larmer (who should be in the Hall of Fame) and tying Lafontaine for 79th all-time.

Ovechkin moved up to 97th all-time with five points this week, passing Neal Broten at 98th.

Daniel Sedin climbed up to 99th all-time with 946 points, passing Bobby Orr on his way.

Outside the NHL

In the Finnish Liiga, defenseman Juha Leimu scored a hat trick in just 44 seconds, setting a league record for the fastest three goals by a single player. It breaks a 54-year-old record of 50 seconds.

It doesn’t quite measure up to the NHL record though. In 1952 Bill Mosienko scored a hat trick in just 21 seconds. Good luck breaking that one.

Though, to be fair, Leimu cleared the fastest hat trick by a NHL defenseman by a good sight. That record goes to Hall of Famer Denis Potvin in 1978, when he scored a hat trick in three minutes and 21 seconds.