NHL Weekly: Goaltending nightmare in New York as empty seats make headlines in Vegas

Most Productive Player

Auston Matthews is back! After an injury-hit season in which he posted career lows in goals (27) and points (53) across 60 games, the American goal-scoring machine for Toronto is clearly back in form.

He recorded four points in two of his three games and finished the week with a 3+6 record. That works out to an average of three points per game. Against Nashville, he decided the 5-4 overtime win and added a team-best plus-three rating.

Goaltender of the Week

American Olympian Jake Oettinger of Dallas conceded just one goal at even strength in three games and shut out the ambitious San Jose and Buffalo teams. Before Connor Dewar of Pittsburgh beat him, he had gone 166 minutes and 54 seconds without conceding. It was a new career best.

He stopped 58 of 59 shots in total for a 98.3% save percentage. He recorded four shutouts over the entire previous season; now he is halfway to that mark after less than two weeks.

Highlight of the Week

Last week, Igor Sestorkin was the main protagonist after scoring to seal a 5-1 win over Tampa Bay. He became the first goaltender in New York Rangers history to score a goal.

A few days later, he helped beat Utah 4-2 with an assist. He currently has two more points than forward Brady Tkachuk, Florida's major summer signing. The NHL also named the Russian goaltender its Player of the Week for the opening week of the season.

Then disaster struck. He was injured in Friday's game against Washington, and tests showed that an injured knee would sideline the star goaltender for the entire season. It is a catastrophic scenario for the New York team.

Joonas Korpisalo was expected to serve as the Rangers' backup this season, but he is also injured and is expected to miss another four weeks. So what now?

Speculation immediately began that the club could be rescued by disgruntled Connor Hellebuyck, who, incidentally, now has a newly created website showing how many dollars he is losing every second. It is probably amusing to everyone except the Winnipeg Jets' long-time cornerstone.

But what would happen to Hellebuyck next season, after Sestorkin returns? Both have lucrative contracts through 2031. For now, the starting role has gone to inexperienced but talented 24-year-old Dylan Garand, who made his NHL debut at the end of last season, appearing in three games. He is backed up by Callum Tung, whose experience has mostly come in the ECHL.

Within two weeks, Garand passed through waivers, found accommodation in Hartford, where New York has its farm team, slept there once, was recalled to the big club and then recorded his first NHL shutout in his first start against Detroit (2-0). There is a decent chance the Rangers will take that risk with Garand until Korpisalo returns.

But anything could happen. Petr Mrazek is still available on the free-agent market. There is also speculation that Jonathan Quick, the club's backup over the last three seasons, could come out of retirement. Meanwhile, Vitek Vanecek is playing only in the AHL despite belonging to the New York Islanders, while David Rittich has no place in New Jersey. That makes two capable goaltenders who could help out the Rangers.

Stat of the Week

Thursday's game between Vegas and Toronto, which the home team won 4-3 in overtime, drew 15,977 fans. For the first time in the Golden Knights' nine-year NHL history, T-Mobile Arena was not sold out. That ended a run of 354 regular-season games and 66 playoff games.

Many fans commented on the situation on social media. "I had season tickets for the first seven years, but in recent years I've only been to about three games. It's expensive, and getting in and out is difficult. But maybe I'm just old now," a fan using the nickname Tommy Vegas wrote on X.

Many other Golden Knights fans blamed the high cost of tickets and the cost of living in America in general.

From social media

Veteran goaltender Cam Talbot was ready to call it a career after last season, and it is hard to blame him at 39. Then Columbus made him an offer, and the Canadian decided to play another year. But then... "I thought I was retiring, so we got a dog. And now we have a three-month-old dog sitting in a hotel room. It's chaos. I think my wife is going to kill me soon," the goaltender told the Columbus Dispatch.

Talbot first saw action in the Blue Jackets' 3-2 shootout win over Pittsburgh and became the first goaltender in history to appear in and win a game for nine different clubs. Talbot has played for the New York Rangers, Edmonton, Philadelphia, Calgary, Minnesota, Ottawa, Los Angeles, Detroit and now Columbus.

Photo of the Week

During a commercial break in the third period of Saturday's game between Montreal and Detroit (1-0 after a shootout), the home fans tried to fit a giant inflatable sausage into a giant bun. It ended with part of the rubber bread falling onto the ice and hitting several players.

"It was crazy. I had to cover my mouth because I was probably the only person on the team laughing about it. Just me. I've never seen anything like it, but the fans enjoyed it, and that's the main thing," home defenseman Kaiden Guhle, playing in his first game of the season, told The Athletic.