Last week in the NHL: McDavid’s magic milestone, NHL comes down on Reaves, Ovechkin can’t stop scoring

Every week, we’ll update you on all the important musings in the hockey world over the past seven days — from the NHL and beyond.

There were plenty of viral happenings around the game last week, including Connor McDavid hitting 1000 points in hyperspeed, the NHL tossing the book at Ryan Reaves, Dakota Joshua’s triumphant return, Kenzie Lalonde making history behind the mic, Alex Ovechkin not slowing down, some big-boy scraps, and an unforgettable practice for a 65-year-old beer-leaguer.

Here’s the top sights, sounds and news you might have missed in hockey last week.

Connor McDavid hits elusive 1,000-point milestone — fast

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Connor McDavid did something special last week.

With this one-time tally versus the Nashville Predators on Thursday (fittingly set-up by good friend Leon Draisaitl), the Oilers captain became the fourth-fastest player in NHL history to reach the elusive 1,000-point mark for his career — needing only 659 games to hit the milestone.

Aside from McDavid becoming the fourth-fastest to reach 1,000 points, he’s also just the 99th player in NHL history to hit to mark and is the fourth-youngest player to do it at 27 years and 306 days.

The only players to reach 1,000 before McDavid are three Hall of Famers and all-time greats. Wayne Gretzky hit the mark in just 424, while Penguins legend Mario Lemieux did it in 513 games, and New York Islanders great Mike Bossy just edged out McDavid, putting up 1,000 points in 656 contests.

And, as far as active players go, McDavid is simply in a league of his own:

Leafs’ Ryan Reaves handed five-game suspension for vicious hit on Darnell Nurse

It wasn’t all positive last week for the Oilers, however, as the team lost one of its most important defensemen on Saturday.

During a 4-3 overtime loss in Toronto on Saturday, Edmonton blueliner Darnell Nurse got absolutely wall-papered by Maple Leafs enforcer Ryan Reaves. Nurse was sent spiralling to the ice and had a noticeable gash on his head as the team’s training staff was attending to him.

Nurse skated off the ice under his own power before the team announced that the 29-year-old would not return to the game due to an upper-body injury. His status remains up in the air.

Reaves, meanwhile, had a phone hearing with the NHL Department of Players Safety on Sunday before being handed a five-game suspension. Reaves, who has posted one point and 23 penalty minutes in 16 games so far this season, will miss Toronto’s upcoming contests against Vegas, Utah, Florida, Tampa Bay and Chicago.

Dakota Joshua returns to Canucks lineup after cancer diagnosis

Dakota Joshua made his triumphant return to the Vancouver Canucks lineup against the New York Islanders on Thursday following a testicular cancer diagnosis last summer.

The 28-year-old centre had surgery in September, forcing him to miss training camp and nearly the first quarter of the 2024-25 NHL season. Joshua, however, has been around the Canucks throughout his recovery time and had been practicing as a full participant the past two weeks, according to NHL.com.

“It’s been a long time coming, and yeah, it’ll be fun,” Joshua said prior to Thursday’s return. “It’s just nice to be back in the room with the guys and get back to work.”

On Sunday, ahead of his third game back in the lineup, Joshua got to be front-and-centre during one of the most important nights on the NHL calendar for many players:

It was just the second time Joshua has spoken publicly since releasing a statement prior to training camp revealing his cancer diagnosis, which came after he felt a lump and took it upon himself to see a doctor. He was asked if he has a new sense of gratitude and perspective as he returns.

“For sure. That was a scary time,” Joshua said. “But I’m very thankful and just happy to be in this position still and be able to go out there and play.”

Joshua, who signed a four-year, $13 million deal ($3.25M per season) in June, set NHL career highs in goals (18), assists (14) and points (32) in 63 games for the Canucks last season. He also added four goals and four assists in 13 games during the Stanley Cup Playoffs last spring.

Kenzie Lalonde makes history with call of Leafs-Senators game

Sackville, New Brunswick native Kenzie Lalonde made hockey history last week, becoming the first woman to call play-by-play for a Canadian NHL team.

Lalonde called the game between the Ottawa Senators and the Toronto Maple Leafs as the lead commentator for TSN last Tuesday. Senators centre Josh Norris scored the first goal of the night in a 3-0 Ottawa win, giving Lalonde her first “goal call” as an NHL play-by-play broadcaster.

Special stuff.

“I think when I look at Tuesday night’s game, it was a full circle moment for me,” Lalonde, who grew up a Senators fan, said after the game.

Lalonde, who was also the first woman to do play-by-play for the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), will continue calling “select regional games” for the Senators this season after her national debut last week.

‘Old man’ Ovechkin inches closer to Gretzky’s all-time mark

Amid his pursuit of arguably hockey’s greatest record, goal-scoring savant Alex Ovechkin is aging like fine wine.

At 39 years old, Ovechkin is now tied for the NHL lead with 13 goals after he secured his first hat-trick since 2022 — tallying three times in Washington’s win over Vegas on Sunday night.

Ovechkin, who currently sits second in career NHL goals with 866, is now just 28 snipes away from tying (29 from beating) Gretzky’s all-time goalscoring mark of 894, a record once thought to be one of the most unbreakable in all of sports.

If Ovechkin keeps his scorching goal pace going for the rest of the season, the Russian could take hold of the NHL’s all-time goalscoring crown before the end of the regular season. Bananas.

Sexual assault trial set for 2018 Canadian world junior players

The trial for five players on the Canadian 2018 world junior hockey team charged with sexual assault is finally set to begin on April 22, 2025, a judge ruled on Tuesday.

The Superior Court jury trial is reportedly set for London, Ont., and is expected to last about eight weeks. It will begin immediately following the selection of the jury, per Judge Bruce Thomas, who has overseen most of the pre-trial hearings related to the case.

Former NHLers Dillon Dube, Cal Foote, Carter Hart and Alex Formenton are charged with one count each of sexual assault, while Michael McLeod has been charged with two counts of sexual assault, including one “relating to aiding someone else in the offence.”

A report revealed in May 2022 that Hockey Canada had settled a civil lawsuit with a woman in London after she was allegedly sexually assaulted by eight men, including members of the 2018 Canadian world junior team, following an event honouring the team’s gold-medal win in June 2018. London police reopened its investigation in July 2022 after heavy scrutiny of the police’s and Hockey Canada’s handling of the situation before laying charges.

None of the aforementioned players were re-signed by their respective NHL teams over the summer with the trial looming, making them unrestricted free agents.

Scraps of the week

Fear not, we won’t let you get to the end of this article before giving you your fight fix.

Among the notable scraps this week was Boston Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov absolutely pummelling Dallas Stars captain Jamie Been with some heavy right hands:

Not a bad go, but this full-on street fight between Panthers winger Jonah Gadjovich and Brenden Dillon takes the cake this week as these two monsters throw about 700 punches at each other.

And no, this video has not been sped up.

Need some icepacks just from watching that slugfest. Sheesh.

Sharks invite beer-league goalie to practice

Our feel-good story of the week comes via the San Jose Sharks, who turned a routine road practice into an amazing memory for a 65-year-old beer league goalie.

While skating at Chelsea Piers arena in New York City ahead of a game against the Rangers, the Sharks invited the amateur netminder onto the ice after he asked to take some shots from the big boys.

These NHL snipers did not take it easy on this guy, either.

According to Sports Illustrated, this special moment when down because there are no private locker rooms for NHL team practicing at Chelsea Piers in NYC, so the Sharks were forced to share the dressing-room area with adult beer-league players.

This retirement-aged goalie just straight up asked if he could take the net for a few NHL shots, and the Sharks agreed to let him.

Never stop chasing your dreams, kids.