A couple of Russians with hat tricks, a rookie goaltender with a shutout on the road, an embarrassing effort from the Buffalo Sabres, a pile of injuries, lineup news and more in Scott Cullen’s Statistically Speaking. Blue Jays Jerseys 2019 . HEROES Vladimir Tarasenko – The sturdy and skilled Blues winger notched three goals, including the overtime winner, to go with an assist in a 4-3 overtime win at Dallas. He and C Jori Lehtera, who had a goal and two assists, carried the day for the Blues. The third-year forward has had a major spike in shots on goal, from 2.13 per game last season to 4.50 per game this year. According to Puckalytics, among players with at least 75 minutes of 5-on-5 play, Tarasenko ranks second in shots per 60 minutes. SHOOTERS PLAYER TEAM POS. EV SHOTS/60 Nick Bjugstad Florida C 14.90 Vladimir Tarasenko St. Louis RW 14.78 Marcus Kruger Chicago C 14.12 Rick Nash N.Y. Rangers LW 13.56 Brendan Gallagher Montreal RW 13.50 Zach Parise Minnesota LW 13.26 James Neal Nashville RW 13.01 Mike Cammalleri New Jersey LW 12.58 Jason Pominville Minnesota RW 12.41 Max Pacioretty Montreal LW 12.38 Lightning Sophs – Nikita Kucherov registered his first career hat trick, giving him seven points in the past three games, and C Tyler Johnson put up four assists, leaving him with 12 points in the first 10 games of the season. Between them, they also sent 15 shots towards the Arizona goal and were Tampa Bays top two possession forwards in the game. As little as Kucherov has played (12:25 per game), his recent run has thrust him among the top point-per-minute scorers in the league: EFFICIENT POINT PRODUCERS PLAYER TEAM POS. EV PTS/60 Rick Nash N.Y. Rangers LW 6.22 Tyler Toffoli Los Angeles RW 4.90 Jeff Carter Los Angeles C 4.82 Tanner Pearson Los Angeles LW 4.80 Jakub Voracek Philadelphia RW 4.76 Nikita Kucherov Tampa Bay RW 4.64 Brock Nelson N.Y. Islanders LW 4.37 Ryan Strome N.Y. Islanders RW 4.36 Jamie Benn Dallas LW 4.29 Tyler Johnson Tampa Bay C 4.20 John Gibson – The Ducks rookie goaltender posted a 38-save shutout in Chicago. Whether the Blackhawks have been going through some offensive troubles or not – and they have – a 38-save shutout at the United Centre is an accomplishment. ZEROES Buffalo Sabres – There will be many nights over the course of the season that the Sabres could qualify for this dubious honour, but 10 shots on goal against a Maple Leafs team that was allowing 33.9 shots per game previously is an extra special level of mailing it in. Mike Smith – The Coyotes goaltender surrendered six goals on 33 shots, in 49 minutes, against his former team, the Tampa Bay Lightning. Its early, of course, but Smiths .858 save percentage in six games could start opening the door for backup Devan Dubnyk to earn more playing time. Cory Schneider – Gave up five goals on 23 shots and was pulled after the second period in an 8-3 loss to Pittsburgh. Over the previous four seasons, Schneider has the best save percentage (.928) among goaltenders to play in at least 100 games. This season, hes sitting at .901. SHORT SHIFTS Bruins rookie RW Seth Griffith scored two goals and added an assist in a 4-3 loss to Minnesota…Jets LW Andrew Ladd scored a pair of goals and C Bryan Little added three assists at the Islanders…Islanders LW Brock Nelson had a goal and an assist and D Johnny Boychuk had a pair of assists against the Jets…Senators LW Clarke MacArthur scored two goals and added an assist in a 5-2 win at Columbus, while D Erik Karlsson had a goal and an assist and C Kyle Turris chipped in two assists…Penguins C Sidney Crosby had a couple of goals and nine shot attempts (6 SOG) against New Jersey, while wingers Blake Comeau, Pascal Dupuis, Patric Hornqvist and Steve Downie each contributed a goal and an assist…The line of Crosby, Hornqvist and Chris Kunitz was on for better than 82% of the even-strength shot attempts. Maple Leafs C Tyler Bozak and RW Phil Kessel both had a goal and an assist against Buffalo…Avalanche G Semyon Varlamov stopped 49 of 51 shots in a 3-2 shootout loss to San Jose…Canucks C Brad Richardson scored a pair of goals in a 4-1 win over Carolina…Canadiens G Carey Price turned aside 37 of 38 shots in a 2-1 shootout win at Calgary…Bruins D Zach Trotman led the team with eight shot attempts (3 SOG) in 11:16 of ice time vs. Minnesota…Kings RW Justin Williams was up to his old possession tricks (29 shot attempts for, 12 against, 70.7%) at Philadelphia…Blue Jackets enforcer Jared Boll had nice possession stats (14 shot attempts for, 2 against, 87.5%)in the 5-2 loss to Ottawa…Senators enforcer Chris Neil was on the other end (2 for, 12 against, 14.3%)…Stars RW Tyler Seguin had a goal and an assist, with a dozen shot attempts (6 SOG) in a 4-3 overtime loss to St. Louis. Seguin now leads the league with 15 points in nine games…Sharks D Brent Burns had a goal on 11 shot attempts (5 SOG), with dominant possession stats (27 for, 5 against, 84.4%) and RW Joe Pavelski recorded 10 shots on goal at Colorado…Colorados fourth line – Cody McLeod, Daniel Briere and Marc-Andre Cliche – started two-thirds of their shifts in the offensive zone, yet had fewer than 10% of the shot attempts at even strength…Flames rookie LW Johnny Gaudreau had an assist and a career-high six shots on goal, with the Flames best possession stats (18 for, 6 against, 75.0%) against Montreal. LINEUP NEED TO KNOW Blues C David Backes left Tuesdays game against Dallas with an upper-body injury. Its a good thing the Blues have such depth down the middle if theyre going to be missing both Backes and Paul Stastny. Jets D Zach Bogosian missed Tuesdays game at the Islanders with an upper-body injury. With Bogosian out, Paul Postma played a season-high 19:23 and scored a goal. Wild D Jonas Brodin sat out against the Bruins, one night after being sent into the boards hard by Rangers LW Chris Kreider, so Mathew Dumba ended up playing a career-high 16:43 for Minnesota. Islanders LW Nikolay Kulemin was ejected after hitting Jets D Mark Stuart from behind. Blue Jackets C Artem Anisimov is going through concussion protocol, and likely out at least a week, after getting flattened by Senators D Eric Gryba. Blue Jackets D James Wisniewski joins the growing Columbus injured list, out one-to-two weeks with a broken finger. With Wisniewski out, David Savard should be the likely candidate to move up to Columbus first power play unit. G Curtis McElhinney started for the Blue Jackets, with Sergei Bobrovsky out for the next one-to-two weeks with his own broken finger. Thats a notable downgrade, as McElhinney has a career .901 save percentage. A little bit of good news for Columbus. Blue Jackets RW Cam Atkinson returned to the lineup, joining C Ryan Johansen and LW Scott Hartnell on the top line. With Kings C Anze Kopitar out, Mike Richards moved up the depth chart to play between Dwight King and Dustin Brown at Philadelphia. Richards played 17:51 and scored his first goal of the year. Lightning LW Alex Killorn returned to the lineup, recording an assist in 18:13 of ice time. As a result, LW Jonathan Drouin ended up playing 11:50, second-lowest among Tampa Bay skaters. With Corey Crawford out, Scott Darling made another start for the Chicago Blackhawks, and stopped 24 of 25 shots in a 1-0 loss. Canadiens C Lars Eller was benched, playing just 5:46 for Montreal at Calgary, not taking another shift after a roughing penalty at 16:01 of the second period. Flames centres Joe Colborne and Matt Stajan were hurt against Montreal. Colborne left with an upper-body injury and Stajan took a knee-on-knee hit from Canadiens D Jarred Tinordi. Senators D Mark Borowiecki had an excellent possession game (15 for, 3 against, 83.3%) against Columbus before leaving with an upper-body injury. D Carl Gunnarsson played in his first game for the Blues, logging a modest 12:53 of ice time, at Dallas. Hurricanes C Eric Staal returned to the lineup after missing two-and-a-half weeks. He played 19:50 against Vancouver, picking up an assist and five shots on goal. FANTASY FOCUS A couple of players to have an eye on in a light night on the NHL schedule: With Washington at Detroit, keep tabs on the Red Wings Darren Helm, who has recently been skating on the left side with very skilled linemates, Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Tatar. Nashville is in Edmonton and Predators D Ryan Ellis has been playing a much bigger role. More minutes leads to more points for a puck-mover like Ellis. Much of the data included comes from www.war-on-ice.com, www.puckalytics.com, www.hockeystats.ca and www.naturalstattrick.com Scott Cullen can be reached at scott.cullen@bellmedia.ca Wholesale Blue Jays Jerseys .5 million, four-year contract with the Texas Rangers that could be worth $32. Toronto Blue Jays Gear . Thats exactly what happened. And they enjoyed every moment. Durant remained sizzling with 33 points, Serge Ibaka added 22 and the Thunder roared back from an abysmal start -- they trailed 22-4 early -- to embarrass the Miami Heat 112-95 on Wednesday night, erasing that big deficit out of the gate by outscoring the two-time defending champions by 43 points over a 33-minute span. https://www.cheapbluejays.com/ . Traditional contenders Brazil, Greece and Turkey drew the other three spots to complete the 24-team field for this summers tournament in Spain, basketball governing body FIBA announced Saturday at its meeting in Barcelona.BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Buffalo Sabres sent defenceman Mark Pysyk to Rochester of the American Hockey League, a move that will allow the rookie to play during the NHLs Olympic break. The Sabres made the move before a deadline Friday that would have prevented Pysyk from playing in the minors during the 16-dday break that begins Feb. Custom Toronto Blue Jays Jerseys. 9. Pysyk missed Buffalos past two games with an undisclosed injury. He has a goal and five assists in 42 games this season. To fill his spot, the Sabres recalled defenceman Chad Ruhwedel from Rochester. Buffalo plays at Columbus on Saturday night. ' ' '