Here’s NHL comic captions – Week 16 of the 2017/18 season
"Who is this guy Nick Cousins, anyway? Oh yeah, the guy who just collected three points against us and got the game-winning goal in overtime." Doug Weight, head coach - New York Islanders
Perhaps not many follow the career of Arizona Coyotes forward Nick Cousins. Head coach Doug Weight of the New York Islanders may know about him now that he watched him almost single-handedly defeat his club on January 22, 2018, at Gila River Arena in Glendale, AZ.
Cousins collected two goals, including the game-winning goal in overtime to sink the Islanders. He also threw in an assist on Brendan Perlini's goal to be included in ALL his team's three tallies.
Cousins is the type of player who quietly does his job and he did a job on the Islanders' in this game.
It marked the seventh point in their last five games for the Coyotes who are finally starting to put things together and gain some points in the standings.
Players like Cousins who show grit and net presence are exactly what they need to rebound from a terrible first half of the 2017/18 season.
On the winning goal, Christian Fischer threaded a perfect pass to the breaking Cousins' stick and he pulled the Islanders' goalie Jaroslav Halek way out of position which enabled him to score easily.
Brighter days may be ahead for the Desert Dogs.
"This is for all the dirty plays you've made in your NHL career Jordan... how does that feel?" Ryan Strome, right-wing - Edmonton Oilers
The story of this game is the story of two teams going in opposite directions. The Edmonton Oilers lost handily 5-0 to the Buffalo Sabres at home.
The Oilers had righted the ship briefly winning three straight after losing three straight only be dumped by the Sabres, who are on a roll of late.
The upstart Sabres have won four of six and really dominated in the Oilers' game. Jack Eichel went crazy gathering four points including a goal to make the Oilers' night miserable.
As of this writing, Eichel has 20 goals and 29 assists in 49 games, giving him a point a game.
Whenever you can shut down a player like Connor McDavid you know you're playing well. After this game, McDavid went on to score five points in his next three games.
The Sabres are now just two points behind the sagging Ottawa Senators to get out of the Atlantic Division's cellar.
If they continue their surge will they still try to trade Evander Kane?
"Oh no... it's not going to be one THOSE nights again, is it?" Devan Dubnyk, goalie - Minnesota Wild
The Pittsburgh Penguins may be coming out of their deep freeze after winning seven of ten games recently. In this game (well... it wasn't much of a game) the Penguins scored SIX straight goals before the Wild woke up from their trance.
Losing 6-3 to the Cup defending champs wasn't bad enough, but they also chased the Wild starting goalie Devan Dubnyk after he allowed four goals on 21 shots in the middle stanza.
The turbulent trio of Sidney Crosby (3-A), Phil Kessel (3-A) and Evgeni Malkin (1G, 2A) each collected three points to send the Wild down hard.
It just shows you can't hold good players down for long, and the Penguins may be back on the straight and narrow path to the playoffs at this juncture.
It's not easy to suppress the Penguins, and they may be making their move towards attempting to defend their Cup from the last two seasons.
It's not out of the question for this proven team of champions. They have found their way to playing better hockey lately, and that has Penguins' fans hoping they are back to normal again... as in three-peat normal.
"That's all I need... three players trying to grab a floating puck towards my net." Ondrej Pavelec, goalie - New York Rangers
In this back and forth game, the New York Rangers came out on top of the San Jose Sharks 6-5.
After a first period where both teams scored twice, the Sharks grabbed a 3-2 lead off of a Logan Couture goal, his 20th of the season.
The Rangers rallied back with three straight goals to take a 5-3 lead in the second period on the strength of two Ryan McDonagh goals, his first tallies of the season.
It wasn't enough to make the Sharks give up as they scored at 10:51 of the third period to cut the Rangers' lead in half.
Then, J.T. Miller of the Rangers scored at 18:10 to pretty much ice the game for the visiting New York club.
The Sharks scored one final goal after pulling their netminder Aaron Dell with 1:39 left in the final stanza. It paid off as Tomas Hertl narrowed the lead to 6-5 when he scored with just 50 seconds remaining.
It wasn't enough to pull the Sharks from the jaws of defeat, and the Rangers took the two points with the win. It snapped a three-game losing streak for them and kept them close in the tight Metro Division, just eight points from the leading Washington Capitals.