Six takeaways from Calgary's bounce-back victory over Detroit:
1) Last night's game was yet another reminder that Johnny Gaudreau is truly one of the most skilled, and dominant, players in the league.
From start to finish he was a force and the Red Wings had absolutely no answer for him. Gaudreau was dancing around defenders with ease and seemingly had the puck on a string throughout. Simply put, everything he touched turned to gold.
He scored a nice goal in the first period, assisted on Jaromir Jagr's first as a Flame, and buried an empty-netter for good measure.
For those counting at home, Gaudreau now has 10 points during his six-game point streak. He is playing fantastic hockey.
2) Speaking of fantastic hockey, Ferland is playing as well as I've ever seen him play. He showed nice finishing ability beating Petr Mrazek in tight and finished with a game-high five chances, all of which were high-danger, at 5v5. He now has seven points and 25 chances in that game state over the last eight games.
For perspective, he has more 5v5 chances in that span than Jonathan Huberdeau (24), Nathan MacKinnon (24), Mark Scheifele (23), Evgeny Kuznetsov (22), Wayne Simmonds (22) and Jack Eichel (20), among many others, has all season.
He's playing with great players, sure, but he's certainly making the most of the opportunity.
3) The Brett Kulak - Rasmus Andersson pairing passed its first test with flying colors. They moved the puck effectively and (very) good things consistently happened while they were out there. At 5v5, that pairing posted a plus-6 scoring chance differential and they were on for a couple goals for. They were excellent.
4) It was really nice to see Sam Bennett find the scoresheet and get the monkey off his back. He started the season slowly but has been consistently generating scoring opportunities of late and coming up empty. I know he didn't score, but it must feel so good to finally get rewarded with a point. He's almost certainly never gone through a stretch like that in his entire life so you know it had to be eating at him.
5) It turns out Jaromir Jagr is still pretty good at this hockey thing. If you take out the Minnesota game, which he left early due to injury, he has four points and seven chances in his last four games. That's good production to get from a player outside of the top-6. He's not the fleetest of foot, obviously, but he's really smart and always knows what to do with and without the puck.
6) Mark Jankowski, like Bennett, has played pretty well over the last few weeks but, night after night, came up empty-handed on the score sheet. That changed last night when he banged in a rebound to pot his first NHL goal. Given how many looks he's creating right now — he has 14 chances in his last five — I don't think the wait for his second goal/point will be as long.
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