NHL Rink Wrap: 40 for Matthews, 20 for Makar

It’s a testament to Roman Josi (59 points), Victor Hedman (56), and Adam Fox (55) that there’s at least some chance Cale Makar won’t score the most points of any defenseman this season. But that possibility looks slimmer and slimmer with each outstanding Cale Makar performance.

During the Avalanche’s narrow win over the Islanders, Cale Makar scored two goals and one assist. In the process, Makar reached a rare level for defensemen: 20 goals in a season. Makar’s at 20 goals and a whopping 63 points, and he’s played just 53 games. (Makar missed some time with an injury, so the Avalanche as a team are at 57 games played.)

Few defensemen would scoff at a 63-point season, period.

In the salary cap era (since 2005-06), we’ve only defensemen reach 63+ points on 38 occasions. Point-per-game seasons are especially rare, so Makar’s 1.19 point-per-game pace is really something to behold. The most points since 2005-06: Brent Burns‘ 83 from 2018-19. There’ve only been three 80+ point seasons during that frame, with Erik Karlsson (82 in 2015-16) and Nicklas Lidstrom (80 in 2005-06) making the cut.

Mike Green (31 goals in 2008-09 despite being limited to 68 games) was the only defenseman to reach 30+ goals since 2005-06, although Burns reached 29 and 27. Could Makar reach 30+ goals? Either way, there’s only been 22 seasons of 20+ goals for defensemen since a full season lockout, so this is already a remarkable run.

Speaking of remarkable runs, Cale Makar’s also on a 12-game point streak. Wow.

As far as Monday’s NHL action goes, Nathan MacKinnon (1G, 2A) and Aleksander Barkov (1G, 2A) also posed strong player of the night arguments.

Andreas Athanasiou scored the overtime game-winner as the Kings got the best of the Bruins:

A goal fit