Recap of NHL from 2 Movember 2025

Monday’s slate begins on Prime Monday Night Hockey when Sidney Crosby and the Penguins visit Auston Matthews and the Maple Leafs. * Matthew Schaefer made NHL history as the youngest defenseman with a multi-goal game and powered the Islanders to a late comeback win.

* The League-wide trend of close games continued Sunday, with three of five contests tied at any point in the third period. Overall, 52 percent of games this season have featured an even score at some point in the final frame.

Prime Monday Night Hockey headS back to Scotiabank Arena in Toronto

An #NHLStats primer before tonight’s Penguins–Maple Leafs game on Prime Monday Night Hockey (7:30 p.m. ET):

* Sidney Crosby and Auston Matthews continue to approach major franchise scoring records, with Crosby needing 21 points to leapfrog Mario Lemieux (1,723) for the highest total in Penguins history and Matthews requiring 14 goals to surpass Mats Sundin (420) for the Maple Leafs benchmark. Crosby (7-14—21 in 19 GP; 8-8-3 record) and Matthews (7-12—19 in 19 GP; 11-8-0 record) have similar stat lines across 19 career head-to-head games, with Matthews having the edge in wins.

* Crosby and Matthews are on pace to top their franchise lists before heading to the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, which is set to take place one year after the two squared off as captains at the 4 Nations Face-Off and nearly 10 years after both played in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey in Toronto. Crosby captained Canada to a tournament championship at both events, with Matthews skating with Team North America at the latter – just days after his 19th birthday (and only three weeks before his historic four-goal NHL debut).

* Crosby has tallied 306 of his 1,703 career points against Canadian teams, including 30-43—73 against the Maple Leafs (56 GP; 1.30 P/GP) – his highest goal and point totals against clubs from his home country. The only Canadian team he has more assists against is Montreal (25-44—69 in 52 GP; 1.33 P/GP). While Crosby is averaging more than point-per-game in Toronto during his career, it has been nearly seven years since his last goal at Scotiabank Arena (Feb. 2, 2019).

NATIONAL GAMES ON THE RADAR THIS WEEK

Five #NHLStats and storylines you need to know about other national broadcasts this week:

1. Lightning at Avalanche on TNT and HBO Max (Tuesday): Nikita Kucherov and Nathan MacKinnon will play their 27th career head-to-head game (regular season & playoffs, including 6 GP in 2022 SCF) and first as 1,000-point scorers. Kucherov has edged MacKinnon for the Art Ross Trophy in each of the past two seasons, marking the first time since the late 1980s that a repeat winner won with the same player finishing in second place (Mario Lemieux edged Wayne Gretzky to win in 1987-88 and 1988-89). The only time in the history of the Art Ross Trophy (introduced in 1947-48) that the same players finished top two in scoring in three straight seasons, regardless of order, was a three-season stretch from 1969-70 to 1971-72 (Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito).

2. Mammoth at Maple Leafs on Sportsnet and TVA Sports (Wednesday): This will be a clash between friends, former teammates and top 10 picks from the 2016 NHL Draft as captains Clayton Keller and Auston Matthews go head-to-head for the 13th time (Matthews: 6-0—6, 5-6-1 record; Keller: 1-7—8, 7-3-2 record). Both players rank among the top five from their draft class in goals, assists and points.

3. Capitals at Penguins on ESPN+, Hulu and Sportsnet (Thursday): Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby are set to meet for the 99th time in their NHL careers (including playoffs), by far the most head-to-head games between No. 1 picks in NHL history – well ahead of Gilbert Perreault and Guy Lafleur (71x). Crosby (46-79—125; 55-39-4 record) has the edge for points and wins through his 98 previous meetings with Ovechkin (53-48—101; 43-45-10 record).

4. Bruins at Maple Leafs on Sportsnet (Saturday): Entering the week two goals shy of 400 and 10 back of tying Patrik Elias for the second most by a Czech player in NHL history, David Pastrnak will look to continue his history of success against Toronto during the first Bruins-Maple Leafs meeting of the season. Pastrnak has 34 career goals against the Maple Leafs (including playoffs), with 13 scored at Scotiabank Arena – second among visiting players at the building since 2014-15 when Pastrnak made his League debut (Brad Marchand: 17).

5. Avalanche at Oilers on Sportsnet and TVA Sports (Saturday): Connor McDavid enters the week needing one point to reach 1,100 in his career and is set to play two contests before concluding a four-game Hockey Night in Canada against soon-to-be Team Canada teammate Nathan MacKinnon. McDavid is set to become the fourth-fastest player in NHL history to hit the milestone behind Wayne Gretzky (464 GP), Mario Lemieux (550 GP) and Mike Bossy (725 GP) – slotting in ahead of current fourth-place holder Peter Stastny (793 GP). MacKinnon also is on pace to hit the milestone in 2025-26 (currently projected to hit in 940 GP).

HOCKEY FIGHTS CANCER TAKES NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT ON PRIME

The national spotlight will shine on Hockey Fights Cancer twice this week, starting on Prime Monday Night Hockey (also Tuesday during NHL on TNT’s coverage in the U.S.). The Maple Leafs will host both the MNH game as well as their Hockey Fights Cancer awareness night. Click here to visit the HFC hub on NHL.com.

SCHAEFER MAKES NHL HISTORY IN LATE ISLANDERS COMEBACK WIN. . .

Matthew Schaefer (2-0—2) opened the scoring for New York with his third career power-play goal, but found his team trailing in the third period. That was before he scored again for his first career multi-goal game that came 29 seconds before Simon Holmstrom’s go-ahead marker to give the Islanders their latest comeback win in regulation in franchise history.

* The Islanders earned a comeback win after trailing with just 1:07 remaining in the third period (58:53 elapsed time). Their only other regulation comeback victory in the final two minutes of the third stanza occurred on March 28, 2019 (58:14).

* Schaefer (5-5—10 in 12 GP) became the fastest defenseman that was selected first overall to reach 10 career points, besting Aaron Ekblad (15 GP). He also joined Phil Housley (7 GP in 1982-83) as the only 18-year-old blueliners in NHL history to reach the 10-point mark through 12 games of a season.

* Schaefer became the 10th-youngest player in League history with a regular-season multi-goal game and is now the first blueliner with five goals in 2025-26. Among all defensemen in League history to be the first to five goals in a season among their position, Schaefer is now the youngest (18 years, 58 days).

. . .WHILE OTHER YOUNG STARS HAVE STANDOUT PERFORMANCES IN LIVE UPDATES
The rest of Sunday’s slate saw more young skaters achieve notable feats for their clubs in winning efforts while continuing a trend of late tied games in 2025-26. Click here for every note from the Nov. 2 edition of #NHLStats: Live Updates.

* Leo Carlsson (0-1—1) extended his point streak to a career-high six games and became the third Ducks skater to post a run of that length before age 21, following Paul Kariya (8 GP in 1994-95) and Mason McTavish (7 GP in 2023-24). With the victory, Anaheim (7-3-1, 15 points) moved into first place in the Pacific Division for the first time since Dec. 18, 2021.

* Sam Dickinson (19 years, 148 days) became the second-youngest defenseman in Sharks history at the time of his first NHL goal (behind only Vlastimil Kroupa: 18 years, 166 days on Oct. 10, 1993) when he scored the late tying tally in San Jose’s eventual shootout loss against Detroit. It marked the 102nd game this season to feature a tied score at any point in the third period.