- Brady Tkachuk, Connor McDavid and Kirill Kaprizov are the NHL’s Three Stars for the week ending Oct. 18
- Tkachuk led the league with 10 points in four games, including back-to-back natural hat tricks
- Read below for what McDavid and Kaprizov did to earn their spots
Brady Tkachuk is the NHL’s first star of the week. The league announced its Three Stars for the week ending Oct. 18 on Monday, with Tkachuk joined by Connor McDavid of the Oilers and Kirill Kaprizov of the Wild.
Tkachuk led the league with six goals and four assists for 10 points in four games. His Panthers went 3-0-1 in those contests.
He earned his first point with Florida on Oct. 12 with an assist in a 5-3 loss to Buffalo. The goals came in bunches after that.
Tkachuk had a natural hat trick and an assist in a 7-3 win over Columbus on Oct. 13. Two nights later he did it again against Vancouver, scoring three times in a 3-2 comeback win, including the tying goal with 12.8 seconds left in regulation and the overtime winner.
Check out the NHL’s note on the streak:
That made Tkachuk the third player in league history, and the first in 40 years, to record a natural hat trick in back-to-back games. He is also the third Panther to post a hat trick in consecutive appearances, joining Noel Acciari and Pavel Bure.
Florida then beat Seattle 8-3 on Oct. 17 with Tkachuk adding two assists. The Panthers became the first team in league history to have a natural hat trick in three straight games. You can read more about Tkachuk’s upcoming return to Ottawa here.
McDavid took second star with three goals and seven assists for 10 points in three games. He had four points in a 4-1 win over Los Angeles on Oct. 13, which was his 800th career game and his 50th career four-point night.
He closed the week with two goals and three assists in a 6-2 win over Utah on Oct. 17. Here’s the NHL on that performance:
It was his 16th career five-point game, which moves him into fourth place on the all-time list. McDavid has a point in all eight of Edmonton’s games this season and leads the league with 23 points, the most through eight games since Mario Lemieux in 1995-96. We covered his five-point night earlier this week.
Kaprizov rounds out the group with four goals and three assists in four games. The Wild went 3-1-0 and moved into first place in the Central Division.
He scored twice against Winnipeg, had a goal and two assists in a 5-4 win over St. Louis, and scored the game-winner in a 2-1 victory over Columbus on Oct. 18. Kaprizov leads the NHL with 10 goals through nine games, and he is the first Wild player to hold the league lead in goals at double digits. Our story on his record-setting 10th goal has more.
