EDMONTON — Insult, meet injury.
On a night when the Edmonton Oilers played tremendous hockey but couldn’t seal the deal, some former Oilers made an impact in their games or set a personal record.
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For Taylor Hall, he recorded the 700th point of his storied career. He scored his second goal of the year to bring the Chicago Blackhawks within one against the Vancouver Canucks.
And while we are at it, do you remember that Ryan McLeod guy? He seems to be fitting into the Buffalo Sabres lineup just fine.
He scored his fourth goal of the season last night to give the Sabres a 2-0 lead over the Dallas Stars. They would go on to win 4-2. He is on a five-game point streak, with goals in four straight.
McLeod played a season-high 18:35 last night, second among Sabres forwards behind Jordan Greenway. He’s averaged 16:04 of time on ice this year, nearly two minutes more than his previous high of 14:15 last season.
Despite this spike in ice time, none of it comes with the man advantage. McLeod is third among Sabres forwards in average shorthanded time on ice with 1:58 per game. He has the fourth most even-strength ice time of all Sabres forwards, behind only Tage Thompson, Alex Tuch, and JJ Peterka.
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He is the team’s new second-line center in many respects. And primarily a shut-down role to boot. According to MoneyPuck, McLeod has the highest percentage of defensive zone starts for all Sabres players, with 20 percent.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least mention that McLeod is shooting an absolutely mind-boggling 40 percent. This will not continue and McLeod will have to up his shot totals to maintain his torrid goal-scoring pace.
The Oilers don’t play the Sabres until the end of January. So, until then, keep an eye out for McLeod in the nightly scoresheet.
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