NHL Best and Worst: William Nylander riding high, Canucks keep cruising

Welcome back to the NHL Best and Worst. This week, we’ve got a boatload of unbelievable saves, a cargo load of hilarious moments, and even a gravy boat for a few lucky fans. Let’s jump right into things.

Goal of the week

Evgeni Malkin may be 37 years old, but he’s playing like he found the fountain of youth of late, once again scoring at over a point per game pace. The NHL’s 101st-best player saw his latest exploits come against the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night on this ridiculous snipe from behind the goal line on Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. Talk about picking your spot.

Save of the week

Flying Pokecheck! Pulling out his best Dominator impression, Antti Raanta comes flying out to cut down a potential breakaway for Casey Mittelstadt, then makes an even more ridiculous paddle stop on the follow-up. Tough week to be on the wrong end of both of this week’s best in Buffalo, but when you’re pulling out the stops like Raanta here, it’s hard to pick anything else.

Player of the week: William Nylander

William Nylander is putting himself in a very nice position for a big payday this summer, as the Toronto Maple Leafs star has come out of the gates with a vengeance, notching 22 points to start the season in just 15 games and sitting tied for third in league scoring. Even more impressive is Nylander’s hilariously nonchalant demeanor, which we’ve heard plenty about over the years, but perhaps is best exemplified by the “zero f's given” attitude of taking the TTC to gameday.

Highway robbery

We’ve only got room for one save of the week, but this remarkable effort from New Jersey Devils netminder Vitek Vanacek deserves its flowers as well. Check out the insane acrobatics here, as the Czech netminder drops his stick and miraculously gets across to rob Tyler Johnson.

Hands of the week

Most of the time, the hands of the week are a slick mitts move that leads to a goal or a wild assist, but this crazy lacrosse-adjacent play from T.J. Oshie is on a different level. It’s been an up-and-down year in Washington for the most part, but if Oshie can bring this kind of creativity to the mix, and Ovechkin can start finding the back of the net with some more regularity, perhaps the suddenly streaking Capitals could turn some heads.

Worst of the week

It has been exactly that kind of season in San Jose, and while they did pick up their first win of the season, it’s been a lot more thematically in line with this crazy goal from Radko Gudas than anything resembling an enjoyable-to-watch hockey team.

Dish of the week

Rasmus Dahlin earns honors for our dish of the week with this beautiful pass he makes… to himself. The 2018 first-overall selection decided that he'd simply do it himself and makes light work of a stout Hurricanes defense before notching the tying goal in an eventual 3-2 OT loss.

Wanted that smoke

Dakota Joshua is no slouch when it comes to dropping the gloves, having fought 13 times in his NHL career — a relatively high number given the lack of enforcers around the NHL these days. Squaring off against the much smaller Mark Giordano, however, it’s safe to say he would have liked this one to go a little bit differently, especially after he completely ate a right hook from the NHL’s oldest player after telling the refs to let the pair continue dancing.

Hit of the week

Andreas Englund isn’t known for his physical play, but we’re sure Penguins forward Radim Zohorna will have his head up next time he sees No. 5 in black. Englund lays the boom on this one with a clean, heavy hit that rattles Zohorna pretty nicely.

Knockout blow

At long last, our national nightmare is over — the San Jose Sharks have won a hockey game. The Philadelphia Flyers were ultimately the victims at the hands of a 2-1 game last Tuesday, but that isn’t the only L the Flyers took that night. This hilarious video captured from in the arena shows S.J. Sharkie giving Gritty, or at least his closely resembling cousin, the ‘ol one-two in a hilarious foreshadowing of that night.

Phone call for Mr. Jagr

Despite the fact that Jaromir Jagr is still remarkably going in the Czech pro leagues at age 51, the Penguins finally felt it was time to pay their respects to the franchise legend. In tandem with the future Hockey Hall of Famer, the duo announced the special event with this cheeky and hilarious video.

Brick Woll

Joseph Woll has been a revelation for the Maple Leafs this year after Ilya Samsonov struggled out of the gate. Now having seemingly taken over the duties as the team’s No. 1 goalie, the fans are clearly loving what they’re seeing from the 25-year-old, including one fan at an autograph signing who figured they’d get creative with their memorabilia.

NHL still baffling

The NHL’s stance on themed jerseys and Pride tape has been nothing short of perplexing, and their latest self-inflicted wound is no more clear. With Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Logan Thompson hoping to show support for Hockey Fights Cancer night, the NHL hit the kibosh button in yet another frustrating misstep.

Sorry

The vibe change in Vancouver has been extraordinary this season, and a big part of that has been the play of Elias Pettersson, who leads the league in scoring roughly six weeks in. Despite the Swede’s outright dominance, it seems as though he expects the absolute most of himself, best demonstrated when he felt the need to go into coach Rick Tocchet’s office to apologize, despite literally being in the conversation for the Hart Trophy.

Quote of the week

Look, if somebody gave out a bobblehead of me, I’d also probably be a little bit sad if somebody decided to huck my detached plastic likeness onto the ice. That doesn’t, however, make the image of a sad Aleksander Barkov standing in his locker looking longingly seeking revenge at the unknown figure responsible for the heinous act any less hilarious.

Gravy Train

Things have been all gravy in Detroit to start the season for the Red Wings, who currently sit third in the Atlantic Division standings and look like they’re ready to make the leap. As such, it’s perhaps fitting that later this month, the Red Wings will be celebrating Thanksgiving by having the rest of their fanbase get in on some of that action by giving away Zamboni-themed gravy boats in time for the holidays.

Stat of the week

Oh to be a Golden Knights fan. What a life they must be living, not only as reigning Stanley Cup champions, but with their club also off to yet another roaring start to the season. In fact, as NHL PR put it, life as a Vegas Golden Knights fan has been pretty unprecedented as far as winning goes. Check out this ridiculous stat shared last week, as nearly half of Vegas’s existence has been spent with "1" beside their name.

Trending Up: Vancouver Canucks, 8-1-1, W1

As mentioned, the vibes out west are glorious, and save for a lone blemish against the Maple Leafs on Saturday night, there’s been nothing but good news out of Canada’s Pacific Coast.

The underlying numbers may be shaky, but don’t tell that to Canucks fans, who currently boast both the leading scorer amongst forwards and defensemen with Pettersson and Quinn Hughes leading the charge. There’s some real team of destiny energy coming from Vancouver at the moment, and backstopped by the eternally sturdy play of Thatcher Demko, this could finally be the year the Canucks make some noise.

Trending down: Columbus Blue Jackets, 1-5-4, L5

Losers of five straight, and with one win in their last 10 games, nowhere have things gone as sideways as in Ohio’s capital city.

From Johnny Gaudreau’s horrific start to the year, to the rest of the team’s inability to score, things just aren’t going well for the Blue Jackets under head coach Pascal Vincent. It sure looks like another top pick is in the cards, while we may as well consider this karma for their bizarre Babcock decision earlier this month.