Around the rinks: Avs’ duo dynamic … McDavid’s plight
The Colorado Avalanche’s top line of Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog combined for 148 points, the most by an NHL unit through 33 games since Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr and Ron Francis amassed 203 for the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1995-96. Rantanen (56 points) and MacKinnon (52) were the first NHLers to reach 50 points this season, the fifth set of teammates since 1981-82 to manage that trick — joining Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin (2009-10), Lemieux and Jagr (1995-96), Wayne Gretzky and Glenn Anderson (1985-86) and Gretzky and Jari Kurri (198384). “It’s not like we’re just hot,” MacKinnon told the Denver Post. “We’re just good players who have good chemistry.”
CALL IT! New Oilers coach Ken Hitchcock thinks it’s absurd that Connor McDavid was credited with just 36 penalties drawn over 82 games last season. He thinks the number should have been much higher. He wasn’t blaming his captain, but sees it as a problem with officials not calling interference. “When you look at players like Connor, it’s where they are stopping him,” Hitchcock told the Edmonton Journal. “They can’t stop him around the net, so they try and stop him before he gets into the play and that bothers me. I just want this to be a fair fight.”
STATS AND FACTS: The Ottawa Senators are the only Eastern Conference team with a win over the Nashville Predators … After racking up nine goals and seven assists over his first 14 games, Senators rookie Brady Tkachuk was held without a
goal over his next nine games, with one assist in the span. He finally scored on Monday … Flyers sophomore centre Nolan Patrick, drafted second overall in 2017, has one point in his last 14 games.
FROM THE CWHL: The Markham Thunder returned from a three-game trip to Shenzhen, China with five points and a lot of memories — including a visit to the oil-painting village of Dafen and dining on local fare. “It was so much fun to experience hot pot with everyone,” forward Kelly Gribbons told thechwl.com. “It was a great end to the trip to watch some teammates struggle with the spicy side of the pot.” ... With a 13-2-1 record, the Calgary Inferno head into the holiday break atop the CWHL standings. FROM THE KHL: Two of Russia’s biggest teams, SKA and CSKA, will meet Saturday in St. Petersburg at Gazprom Arena, built for soccer with a retractable roof. The game should break the league attendance record of 17,645. Russia beat Finland 5-0 in an international game at Gazprom on Sunday before 71,000 fans – the most to take in a hockey game in Russian history. FROM THE OHL: Windsor Spitfires head coach Trevor Letowski earned his 100th win on Sunday, a 4-3 overtime victory over the Saginaw Spirit at the WFCU Centre.