Welcome to Just the Stats with TSN Stats guy Kevin Gibson. Be sure to check back every Wednesday to find out who’s hot and who’s cold to help you set your fantasy lineup.

Trivia question: Patrik Laine has six career hat tricks. How many times has the third goal been into an empty net?

 

Hot

- How important is it to be hot going into American Thanksgiving? Well, if you hope to make the playoffs, it’s very important. Teams that are in a playoff spot (based on points percentage) after games concluded on the Wednesday before U.S. turkey day have made the postseason 80 per cent of the time, dating back to 2010-11. So who’s hot and in a playoff spot as we head into a 14-game slate on Wednesday? The Sabres have won six in a row and the Leafs are winners of four straight. No other team in the NHL currently has a three-game win streak. The 2013-14 Dallas Stars hold the record for largest gap made up when sitting outside the postseason at U.S. Thanksgiving. The Stars were eight points out on Thanksgiving eve that season but managed to get in at the expense of the Coyotes, who were the lone Western Conference team not to hold onto a playoff spot that season.

Embedded Image- The Leafs are 9-1-0 on the road this season, filling the net at a 4.50 goals per game clip away from home. That’s almost two goals more than they’ve allowed per game on the road (2.70). The Leafs’ big guns have been carrying the offensive load. Mitch Marner’s 18 road points (three goals, 15 assists) are third most in the league. John Tavares has 10 goals in 10 road games, which is tied with Buffalo’s Jeff Skinner and Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog for most on the road this season. Tavares looks like a good bet to keep the road goals coming with the Leafs visiting the Hurricanes on Wednesday night. Tavares has scored in four straight games (five goals total) in Carolina and has 10 goals in his last 11 games in Raleigh.

- Mike Hoffman’s scoring streak is now at 16 games. The Florida Panthers forward had nine goals and 10 assists in those 16 games, and the team has an 8-6-2 record over that span. As impressive as the 16-game streak is, Hoffman is only tied for 47th in the scoring race. The longest point streak in 2017-18 was 19 games by New Jersey Devils winger Taylor Hall. This is the second-longest point streak since the start of last season and it’s tied for the fifth-longest point streak ever by a player in the first year with a new team.

 

Cold

- Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos has no goals over his past five games and just two assists over that span. Stamkos has also managed just one shot on net in each of his past two games. Six times this season, the sniper has fired just a single shot on net. Stamkos was the league leader in points with 36 (10 goals, 26 assists) last year at American Thanksgiving but cooled off after that. Back to last regular season, Stamkos had six goals in his last 33 games. In 15 of those games he had two or fewer shots on goal.

Embedded Image- Mike Yeo lost his job in St. Louis on Monday night. Blues were already having a tough year before getting blanked in three of their past four games. The Blues did score four goals in that one game they managed to find the back of the net, including two by Ryan O’Reilly. St. Louis is 0-for-14 on the power play over their past six games, with a record of 2-4-0 in that span. The Blues only allowed 11 goals in those six games, but this team can’t score. Perhaps the first order of business for the new bench boss in St. Louis will be trying to introduce his forwards to the other team’s net.

- The Senators head into Minnesota on Wednesday night with just one win in their past seven road games. Part of the problem with getting victories on the road is the fact they’re giving up 5.25 goals against per game away from home this season. In fact, Ottawa has three goaltenders in the league’s bottom four in terms of individual goals-against average on the road. The Washington Capitals hold the record for the highest goals against per game average on the road over an entire season in the shootout era, giving up 3.90 in the 2005-06 season. It’s early, but the Sens are on pace to shatter that mark. Getting things moving in the right direction starts with the Sens finding a goalie who can stop the puck in their 33 remaining road games.

Answer: Four times

Kevin Gibson has been TSN’s Stats Guy for more than a decade. He has also written many non-leather-bound books. Follow him on Twitter @TSNResearch.