Gaudreau’s tradition survives, Fleury kept in mind in psychological Pittsburgh ending, Matthews fulfills his Leafs doppelgänger

Every week, we’ll upgrade you on all the essential happenings in the hockey globe over the previous 7 days– from the NHL and past.

There were lots of viral happenings around the video game recently, consisting of a triad ofNo 13s increasing to the top of the NHL racking up race, Fleury’s last video game in Pittsburgh, Auston Matthews satisfying his doppelgänger, Alex Ovechkin warming up in search of Gretzky’s evasive document, a cheeseburger run for the ages, prominent battles, glossy passes, a previous gamer suing his representative and even more.

Here’s the leading views, appears and information you could have missed out on in hockey recently.

Three gamers linked for goal-scoring lead all wearJohnny Gaudreau’s No 13

We’ll begin today off with a little bit of a heartfelt stat.

As of Monday, 3 of the gamers presently linked for the NHL’s goal scoring lead with 10 each– Sam Reinhart of the Florida Panthers, New Jersey Devils captain Nico Hischier and Montreal Canadiens sniper Cole Caufield– each wearNo 13 on the back of their corresponding jackets.

It’s the exact same number the late Johnny Gaudreau put on throughout his 10-plus year NHL profession with both the Calgary Flames andColumbus Blue Jackets Gaudreau, together with his bro Matthew, were eliminated on the eve of their sibling Katie’s wedding celebration in late August while riding bikes near their home town in New Jersey.

While Hischier and Reinhart have actually put onNo 13 for fairly a long time, Caufield really changed his number right prior to the period to honour Gaudreau.

Caufield discussed his choice and thorough simply just how much “Johnny Hockey” indicated to him, particularly as a smaller sized gamer that rose to super star standing throughout his profession, in an Instagram post in very early September.

Marc-Andre Fleury’s final game in Pittsburgh brings all the feels

Unless the Wild and Penguins miraculously find themselves facing each other in this season’s Stanley Cup final, future Hall-of-Fame goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury played his final game in Pittsburgh last Tuesday, and the night was as emotional as you’d expect.

Fleury, now in his 21st NHL campaign, turns 40 next month and has indicated the 2024-25 season would be his last. The Penguins icon went out with a bang, making 26 saves as the Wild beat Fleury’s former club 5-3 in in PPG Paints Arena.

Ahead of the highly-anticipated contest, the Penguins social team posted a video montage of Fleury’s career highlights — but not the on-ice kind.

It was a shenanigans highlight reel for the ages.

After the game, Fleury couldn’t hold back his emotions as he detailed how amazing his time in Pittsburgh was and how much it meant to him to have the send-off he did in his finale.

And, in true Fleury fashion, the Wild goaltender took some time after his final practice in Pittsburgh last Monday to spend a few minutes stopping pucks from some teenagers at a hockey camp.

Fleury is widely known as one of the nicest, most generous players and beloved teammates in the NHL, but his on-ice success over his days with the Penguins obviously can’t be overlooked, either.

After being drafted No. 1 overall — a rarity for a goaltender — by Pittsburgh in 2003, Fleury won three Stanley Cups (2009, 2016, 2017) in 13 seasons with the Pens before being poached by the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2017 Expansion Draft, where he led Vegas to the Stanley Cup final in its very first season.

Fan who dressed up as Auston Matthews for Halloween has a week to remember

Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews has a young doppelgänger, or is it the other way around?

After going viral for dressing up as the Leafs captain’s hockey card for Halloween, Grayson Joseph, a young Leafs and Matthews fan, got to meet his idol for the first time.

“You look like me,” Grayson claimed to Matthews in an Instagram video clip published by the group.

“Yeah, I do look like you. Your moustache is better, though,” responded Matthews.

In the video clip published by the group, young Grayson obtains a front row seat to the group’s early morning skate group prior to reaching fulfill– and test to a battle– Maple Leafs enforcer Ryan Reaves.

Grayson after that reached enjoy Toronto beat Seattle 4-1 in your home later on that evening, and the group made his experience additional unique by revealing him in his Matthews outfit on the jumbotron near completion of the 2nd duration.

“What an ovation he received by the arena!” Grayson’s papa Grant penciled in an Instagram blog post.

With his most significant follower in the structure, Matthews racked up an empty-netter to secure the win, in addition to an aid earlier in the evening for a two-point initiative.

Alex Ovechkin maintains food preparation as search of Gretzky’s objective document warms up

In a period where a document when believed to be solid might collapse, the guy chasing background is not reducing one little bit.

Entering the period, maturing super star Alex Ovechkin– that stays among the premier goal-scorers worldwide at the age of 39– located himself 42 objectives far from damaging Wayne Gretzky’s all-time objectives document of 894.

Last Tuesday versus the New York Rangers, Ovi potted 2 objectives early in the very first duration to place his uber-productive week moving.

After scoring his 858th profession objective versus Montreal on Halloween evening and hiding his 859th tally on Saturday versus the Blue Jackets, Ovechkin remained scorching-hot with objectiveNo 860– in traditional Ovechkin style with a single blast from the left circle– versus the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday.

Ovechkin’s beast five-goal week has him simply 34 tallies far from linking Gretzky’s evasive all-time objective mark.

If he remains warm, we might quite possibly see “The Great One’s” document loss at some point this period.

Oilers evade a bullet after Connor McDavid injury scare

After an injury scare to the very best gamer in the video game had Oilers followers holding their cumulative breath, the group got the very best feasible information concerning its captain days after Connor McDavid flew home to Edmonton to be examined after he suffered a serious-looking injury versus the Nashville Predators last Monday.

Miraculously, the Oilers captain was back on the ice skating last Thursday, simply someday after he was provided a two-to-three week timeline for his ankle joint injury.

According to TSN’s Chris Johnston, there’s a sensation that McDavid might return also faster than the preliminary timeline.

“On Thursday morning, Connor McDavid did put on the skates just to test things out with that ankle injury,” Johnston discussed on Insider Trading.

“I had a chance to speak to his agent, Judd Moldaver from Wasserman. He basically said, ‘Look, things are pretty encouraging here.’ I mean, there was some real concern, obviously, when McDavid left the game earlier this week, flew home, went through the battery of tests he did. And you get that two-to-three week timeline. But you know, at this point they’re going to have to take things day-by-day, make sure he has no setbacks.

“But this is a gamer that’s returned in advance of timetable prior to and I will not provide any kind of forecasts now– however absolutely all indications are indicating him rising and running right here once more asap.”

An all-time hamburger run thanks to Brent Burns

Hurricanes defenseman Brent Burns has actually constantly been precious by his colleagues and NHL followers alike, and currently we understand specifically why.

The thread below from Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy information an impressive McDonald’s run from Burns, that supposedly purchased over 100 cheeseburgers for colleagues prior to asking an unfamiliar person to jump in the traveler seat of their vehicle so he might strike the drive thru to get his huge order.

Legend

Scraps of the week

There were some big-time tilts across the league this week, featuring some of the game’s premier heavyweights and a couple of guys you wouldn’t necessarily think of as top-tier fist-throwers.

First, we have Flames forward Ryan Lomberg absolutely manhandling Nathan Bastian of the Devils.

Good lord:

Capitals tough guy Dylan McIlrath and Rangers enforcer Matt Rempe square off in the heavyweight everybody wanted to see.

It did not disappoint:

This was less of a fight and more of a pure beatdown via Oilers forward Vasily Podkolzin.

You might need an Advil yourself after watching this one:

Dishes of the week

Some incredible, behind-the back assists took centre stage this past week, including three gems via Aleksander Barkov, Nikita Kucherov and Kyle Connor.

The former absolutely threads the needle here with a slick, spinning feed to Sam Reinhart who finishes it off.

Lightning star Nikita Kucherov, meanwhile, did this:

And Winnipeg Jets star Kyle Connor may have had the prettiest feed of them all:

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Ex caas-jump-link-headingOttawa Senators dishes-of-the-weekAlex Formenton caas-jump-link-headingCanadian World Junior embattled-alex-formenton-files-205-million-against-former-agent” > awaiting trial on sexual assault charges submits$ 20.5-million versus previous representative” href=”https://www.tsn.ca/formenton-files-20-5-million-lawsuit-against-newport-sports-agent-wade-arnott-1.2198850″-“nofollow noopener” onward ” data-ylk=”, that is presently among the 5 previous ” class=” gamers “>reportedly filed a $20.5 million lawsuit against player agency Newport Sports Management Inc., and his former agent Wade Arnott, per TSN’s Rick Westhead.

The suit alleged negligence, breach of contract, and breach of fiduciary duty.

Formenton, who is now 25, alleges that he suffered income loss for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 NHL seasons, along with future income arising from lost playing time in the NHL, because of Arnott and Newport’s ” coming from a 2018 occurrence, has

As Westhead noted, Formenton’s allegations have not yet been tested in court. Newport, the largest hockey agency in the NHL, features plenty of big-name clients including Blackhawks star Connor Bedard, Penguins blueliner Erik Karlsson, Bruins captain Brad Marchand, and superstar siblings Brady (Senators) and Matthew (Panthers) Tkachuk.