Here’s NHL comic captions – Week 24 of the 2017/18 season
"Oh great... a natural hat-trick for Karlsson. Is there anything stopping this Vegas team?" Mike Smith, goalie - Calgary Flames
William Karlsson continued his magical season as he personally took care of the Calgary Flames in this March 18, 2018, contest.
The Vegas Golden Knights scored all four of their goals in the middle frame and Karlsson got the natural hat-trick firing three straight past the beleaguered Mike Smith.
They were all pretty goals accented by Karlsson's excellent speed and shot. That gives the Swede 39 for the season, and you can bet that the Columbus Blue Jackets are kicking themselves for giving him up in the expansion draft.
Marc-Andre Fleury pitched a shutout with 42 saves to pace the Golden Knights. It marked his 26th win in just 40 games played at the time. You can be assured that with Fleury's outstanding play in the net, the Vegas team will be one to reckon with in the playoffs.
Then again with an offensive dynamo like Karlsson, it makes your goalie's job that much easier.
For the doused Calgary Flames their playoff picture became worse after this loss as they plunged further into the abyss with losses to the Arizona Coyotes, Anaheim Ducks, and San Jose Sharks being outscored in the process 18-3 in the four games.
To make matters worse... they lost their star scorer Sean Monahan for the remainder of the season due to a wrist injury requiring surgery.
"Geez... I'm getting way too old for this stuff. Better watch it, Matt, Henrik is coming in for a landing." Henrik Lundqvist, goalie - New York Rangers
After Henrik Lundqvist finished his acrobatics, he couldn't do anything to stop Artemi Panarin from gathering a hat-trick and an assist to help the streaking Columbus Blue Jackets gain their ninth consecutive win at the time.
The Blue Jackets just have a knack for going on a winning streak at the right time and are putting themselves square in the playoff hunt battling the Philadelphia Flyers for third in the Metropolitan Division. The winner of that battle will avoid being the wild-card team, but at this point making the playoffs is more important.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 29 saves to assist the Columbus effort.
The Chicago Blackhawks may have regrets trading Panarin away for Brandon Saad. Panarin now has 25 goals and 69 points to Saad's 17 goals, 33 points. How do you spell one-sided trade?
The Blackhawks painted themselves into that corner by being way out of whack with their salary cap and couldn't afford to pay Panarin.
The results of which show when you see that the Blue Jackets are on their way to the playoffs and the Blackhawks will be playing golf instead of competing for another Cup.
"Roman, I'm supposed to stop the puck, NOT you!" Pekka Rinne, goalie - Nashville Predators
After missing a month and 10 games from a shoulder injury Auston Matthews didn't miss a beat as he scored in his first game back.
"I felt fine out there," Matthews said. "I got engaged early, got the puck, able to make a couple of plays and that kind of builds your confidence for the rest of the game."
And if Matthews is able to stay healthy that confidence will bode well for the Toronto Maples Leafs' playoff plight.
The win brought the Maple Leafs' record in their last 10 games to 5-3-2 after this win. They're firmly placed in third position in the Atlantic Division with no real threat coming from the Florida Panthers to overtake them.
The win was important in that it shows the Maple Leafs are a Cup contender against another who had gone 14-0-1 in their last 15 games.
A Nashville/Toronto Cup Final is a possibility and would mark the second consecutive year the Preds went to the Finals.
James van Riemsdyk netted his 34th tally in this 5-2 win by the Leafs on March 22, 2018. Mitch Marner also gathered his 20th of the season.
"Hey Adrian... this is NOT Star Wars dude! Tone it down a few notches. You're not Luke Skywalker!" Adam Larsson, defenseman - Edmonton Oilers
The Edmonton Oilers may not have Luke Skywalker on their team, but they do have the highest scorer in Connor McDavid. It may have taken him a while to catch Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning, but he now has 96 points, one ahead of Kucherov who has played two fewer games.
He has added 23 goals in his last 26 games to show his scoring prowess is alive and well.
Kucherov has played two fewer games, so it may go down to the wire for the Art Ross Trophy given to the NHL leading scorer. McDavid can become the first player to win the scoring race in back-to-back seasons since Jaromir Jagr won four in a row from 1997/98 to 2000/01.
To illustrate what kind of statistics McDavid is throwing up, he was 10th in scoring at the All-Star break and has really turned the afterburners on since then to forge ahead of the pack.
In this contest, McDavid scored twice to pace the Oilers' win over the Los Angeles Kings, who were bumped out of the playoff picture with the loss... for now. The St. Louis Blues surpassed them into the last wildcard spot with their 2-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets last night.
The Edmonton Oilers may not be in the playoffs this season, but Connor McDavid is STILL the best scorer in the NHL and starting next season will be paid $12.5 million a year for the next eight years.
Is he worth it?
You tell me.