NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
games in 1999-00. And it’s time we put Kucherov in that class of scorer. Since he became a full-timer in 2014-15, only Sidney Crosby (400 points) and Patrick Kane (391 points) have scored as much as Kucherov (387 points) … Does the league need to do a better job of protecting its stars? Well, yes. But the league has to do a better job of protecting all of its players. And the Oilers have to tell Connor McDavid that digging pucks out of the corner are someone else’s job … The Islanders sent Josh Ho-Sang down to the minors because of a lack of production. In 10 games, he had one goal and one assist. If he were a Leaf, he would have been promoted to the top line … Four teams (Chicago, Florida, Anaheim and the New York Rangers) gave up on Brandon Pirri before Vegas signed the 27-year-old journeyman to a $650,000 contract. After a season in the minors, where he scored 47 goals in 86 games, he has rewarded the Golden Knights with seven goals and 10 points in eight games.
HERE’S ONE FOR YOU
It turns out Erik Karlsson is still good at hockey. After starting the season with a pedestrian 13 points in his first 26 games — including no goals in October — the
Sharks defenceman has finally found a comfort level with his new team. Since December, Karlsson has 26 points in 17 games, including a 14-game point streak, which has put him in the top three amongst defencemen in scoring … You’ve got to hand it to IIHF president Rene Fasel. The man sure knows how to paint Gary Bettman as the bad guy. With NHL participation at the Olympics still up in the air, Fasel’s suggestion that all international games should be played on NHL-sized ice was nothing more than a jab in the ribs of Bettman, who will look even more like a Grinch if he keeps NHLers from participating in Beijing in 2020 … The worst part about this year’s world juniors wasn’t that Canada failed to medal; it was that the tournament failed to produce any kind of drama or star performance. I can’t remember another tournament where there wasn’t at least one prospect who put himself on the map … Nashville defenceman Roman Josi is ranked 10th in the league with 161 shots on net. That’s eight more than Toronto’s John Tavares has taken, though Tavares has 20 more goals thanks to a 17.2 shooting percentage. “You could say it’s puck luck,” said Josi, who has a 4.3 shooting percentage. “Or that I need a better shot.”