Patrick Sharp must be feeling a bit slighted right now. He goes out and tallies his first hat trick of the season and Jonathan Toews decided that he wanted to play a game of "anything you can do, I can do better." After just five goals and nine points in his first 15 games, Toews has exploded for seven goals and 15 points in his last eight.
1 Jonathan Toews, Chicago Blackhawks – It’s not easy to overshadow a hat trick, but Toews managed to overshadow Patrick Sharp’s quite nicely with his five-point venture against the Anaheim Ducks. Along with Sharp’s three goals, Toews tallied two of his own and assisted on each of Sharp’s to lead the ‘Hawks to a 6-5 win over the Anaheim Ducks. Dave Bolland had Chicago’s other goal, while Corey Crawford stopped 23 of 28 shots for the win.
2 Jimmy Howard, Detroit Red Wings – Howard was spectacular in NBC’s Turkey Day game, stopping 41 of 43 shots through regulation and overtime and two of three more in the shootout to give the Wings a thrilling 3-2 shootout victory over the Boston Bruins. Valtteri Filppula and Pavel Datsyuk scored in regulation for the Wings and Todd Bertuzzi tallied the game-winning shootout goal.
3 Eric Nystrom, Dallas Stars – Dallas may have lost the game, but Nystrom again was spectacular for the Stars, tallying two goals and firing six shots on net to lead the Stars in their 4-3 shootout loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. In 17 games this season, Nystrom has almost doubled his goal output from last season and is now just four goals away from tying a career high.
Play of the Night
I'm always a sucker for beautiful passes that set up unbelievably easy goals, so Jeff Carter’s pass to Rick Nash on Friday was music to my ears:
Save of the Night
Howard put forth a tremendous effort on Saturday afternoon, but none were as big as these:
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