Toronto is in full swing

Toronto and Auston Matthews in great shape, cracking Winnipeg and Alex Ovechkin more and more in history, look back at what happened this past week in NHL.

It slips for Toronto Maple Leafs

Qualification in playoffs validated for the Maple Leafs. Comfortable leader of the northern division, the Ontario franchise has secured its place in the postseason this week by defeating the Canadiens and the Canucks on two consecutive occasions. Thanks to these three victories, Toronto currently remains on five consecutive victories and has the fifth best record in the league, positioning itself as a strong candidate to recover a Stanley Cup which has been shirking Canada since 1993 and Toronto since 1967.

2 minutes for Winnipeg Jets

Black series for the Jets who never stop losing. Losing twice to the Oilers under Connor McDavid and then to the Canadiens, Winnipeg extended its losing streak to six, leaving Edmonton to soar and Montreal to come closer in the North Division. With just six games to go before the regular season ends, the Manitoba franchise will have to hang in there to hope to see the postseason.

Player of the week: Auston matthews

It’s a catchphrase in this season: Toronto wins and Auston Matthews has a series of achievements. By scoring four new goals this week, the Maple Leafs center extended his lead for the Maurice Richard Trophy (38 goals currently) rewarding the player who scored the most goals this season. With an average of 0.80 goals per game, Matthews is having a historically prolific season, being on higher bases than Alex Ovechkin in 2007/2008 when the Russian scored 65 times. If the Californian will never reach this mark due to the season shortened to 56 games this year, he still carries out a campaign that will surely be remembered.

The stat of the week: 730

Alex Ovechkin, in fact, is on the way to inscribe his name a little more deeply in the legend. With 730 career goals, the Muscovite is only one goal away from entering the top 5 players who have scored the most in their NHL career. With six games still to be played for the Capitals this season, Ovechkin is expected to overtake Marcel Dionne in the days to come, with the Russian currently averaging goals per game the highest of all players who have played at least 1,000 career matches (0.61 GPG).

French Corner

As a reminder, here are the French who are currently playing in NHL:

• Alexandre Texier (C, Columbus Blue Jackets)
• Antoine Roussel (LW, Vancouver Canucks)
• Pierre-Édouard Bellemare (C, Colorado Avalanche)

Three games and three overtime for the Alexandre Texier Blue Jackets this week, with one victory and two losses. No point and a ± negative (-3) for the Frenchman who has not been decisive since April 11.

Difficult times for the Canucks, who have just chained four losses and are currently bottom of the North Division. Still injured, Antoine Roussel did not participate in any of these meetings.

Colorado is still fighting for first place in the Western Division with the Golden Knights, and Pierre-Édouard Bellemare has a front row seat to attend. If he did not register a single point, he participated in the two victories and two defeats of his team this week.

The landmark action

Jakub Vrana doing Jakub Vrana things #LGRW pic.twitter.com/qVwKeofE0W

– nolan bianchi (@nolanbianchi) May 1, 2021

Classification

The Central Division standings (Credit: NHL.com)

The Eastern Division standings (Credit: NHL.com)

The North Division standings (Credit: NHL.com)

The West Division standings (Credit: NHL.com)

Statistical leaders

Skaters

Points

1. Connor McDavid (C, Edmonton Oilers) → 87 points
2. Leon Draisaitl (C, Edmonton Oilers) → 71 points
3. Mitchell Marner (RF, Toronto Maple Leafs) → 64 points
4. Nathan MacKinnon (C, Colorado Avalanche) → 63 points
5. Auston Matthews (C, Toronto Maple Leafs) & Patrick Kane (RW, Chicago Blackhawks) → 62 points

Goals

1. Auston Matthews (C, Toronto Maple Leafs) → 38 goals
2. Connor McDavid (C, Edmonton Oilers) → 29 goals
3. Mikko Rantanen (RW, Colorado Avalanche) → 28 goals
4. Brad Marchand (LW, Boston Bruins) → 27 goals
5. Tyler Toffoli (C, Montreal Canadiens) → 27 goals

Assistance

1. Connor McDavid (C, Edmonton Oilers) → 58 assists
2. Patrick Kane (RW, Chicago Blackhawks) → 47 assists
3. Leon Draisaitl (C, Edmonton Oilers) → 47 assists
4. Mitchell Marner (RF, Toronto Maple Leafs) → 46 assists
5. Nathan MacKinnon (C, Colorado Avalanche) → 43 assists

Goalies

Goals Against Average (GAA)

1. Petr Mrázek (G, Carolina Hurricanes) → 1.60 GAA
2. Jeremy Swayman (G, Boston Bruins) → 1.62 GAA
3. Alex Nedeljkovic (G, Carolina Hurricanes) → 1.89 GAA
4. Philipp Grubauer (G, Colorado Avalanche) → 1.94 GAA
5. Semyon Varlamov (G, New York Islanders) → 1.99 GAA

Save Percentage

1. Jeremy Swayman (G, Boston Bruins) → .942%
2. Filip Gustavsson (G, Ottawa Senators) → .940%
3. Petr Mrázek (G, Carolina Hurricanes) → .939%
4. Alex Nedeljkovic (G, Carolina Hurricanes) → .934%
5. Semyon Varlamov (G, New York Islanders) → .930%

Image credit on top: Claus Andersen | Getty Images