Consistency thy name is not attached to the National Hockey League. A sweep of the Saturday schedule in the NHL demonstrates the inability of many clubs in the league to put a consistent product on the ice and this ahead of the trade deadline on Monday.
In San Jose, the Sharks are the first example as they were unable to hold off the surging the Ottawa Senators in a 4-2 loss.
Rookie Andrew Hammond may have had his shutout streak ended but he still backstopped the Sens to the win.
“At the end of the day, shutouts are cool, but winning is obviously more fun,” Hammond said. “If that means giving up the shutout streak to win, I’ll take it any day of the week.”
He has won all five starts since his recall from Binghamton in the American Hockey League.
Mike Hoffman scored twice for the Sens and Erik Karlsson and Mark Stone each added a marker in the win.
“I think we showed everyone around our dressing room that we can play and we’re a good team in this League when we want to be,” Hoffman said. “Beating these three teams here is never something easy to do. So we’re making a good push here. We’re going strong and we just got to keep it going.”
Tommy Wingels and Patrick Marleau scored for San Jose who lost their eight straight at home.
“I don’t know if it’s a killer instinct we lack,” Wingels said. “We don’t know how to play with the lead right now, I don’t know what it is. But it’s frustrating.
“It [stinks] losing. The way you lose doesn’t affect me. Time’s ticking away here. Every game we lose is two points down the drain. These are games we should win, these are games we had the opportunity with the lead and we can’t find a way to win. It’s frustrating.”
Maybe just a lack of concern for the position they find themselves in the west.
“This is a tough stretch,” Sharks defenseman Scott Hannan said. “It seems like everything that can go wrong is going to go wrong. Two power-play goals go off the end boards and in. We’ve just got to push a little harder, we’ve got to work, get pucks out, get pucks in, just battle. Everybody knows what position we’re in. We’ve just got to get the job done. It comes with preparation. Everybody has to figure out what they need to do and bring it every night.”
In Uniondale, the Islanders hosted the Carolina Hurricanes in what must have appeared to be an easy mark for the Isles. But no, the Canes walked away from the Island with a solid 5-3 win over New York.
“We had a good week obviously and a good back-to-back,” coach Bill Peters said. “I liked our effort in the back-to-back. It seems like we’re more comfortable playing in that environment.”
The Canes had beaten the Washington Capitals, 3-0.
Michael Grabner, Nikolay Kulemin and John Tavares each scored for the Islanders.
“[Carolina] traveled and played [Friday] night, so there’s no excuse,” Tavares said. “As professionals, you’ve got to make sure you’re ready to play and find a way to get the job done. We weren’t even close tonight.”
Chad Johnson took the loss on 36 saves.
Jay McClement scored twice for the Canes and Justin Faulk, Brad Malone and Michal Jordan added single markers in the win.
“For whatever reason, certain guys didn’t have some jump tonight,” Islanders coach Jack Capuano said. “Even though we didn’t have that, as bad as we were, it’s 3-2. It’s right there. That Kulemin goal was huge for us. We had it going there, we had some chances. Two or three guys hit skates right in front on empty-netters in the second period to tie the game. It was just one of those nights.”
In Denver, the Avalanche have had anything but consistent play all season but had found some rhythm of late until Saturday when the Minnesota Wild’s Devan Dubnyk closed the door on the Avs in a 3-1 Wild win.
And “wild” is the operative word as these two teams ramped up the physical play and nasty play.
“It was an intense, physical game, as it should be,” Avalanche right wing Jarome Iginla said. “It definitely hurts not to win it. No one’s quitting in here. We’re going to keep pushing until the end. This one is a setback, but the effort was strong. There’s a lot of points left to be had.”
Fights, late hits and hard checks were the order the evening.
“It feels good,” Dubnyk said. “That had to be a playoff atmosphere, for sure. It was loud and lots of hits. When you get that emotionally involved in a game for 60 minutes and it comes down to the end, it feels that much better when the buzzer goes. We deserved that one tonight.”
It was Dubnyk’s 20th straight start in net for the Minnesota, tying Niklas Backstrom‘s record.
“It’s been the story of our season,” Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said. “Five-on-five we’re doing a decent job scoring goals, but tonight our power play had a chance to come through for us. We had our chances. We thought we moved the puck fairly well. Right now it’s not about having scoring chances or moving the puck fairly well, it’s about putting the puck in the net. We just don’t do it.”
The Avs went 0-for-7 on the power play.
“The penalty kill was huge,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said. “I feel bad for [Dubnyk], thought he was great from the start. It’s a shame, didn’t feel their goal should’ve counted. Felt clearly pushed into the net. It would’ve been nice for him to get the shutout. I thought he played a really strong game.”
And so Minnesota is the only consistent team in the NHL right now.
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