A couple of Russians with hat tricks, a rookie goaltender with a shutout on the road, an embarrassing effort from the Buffalo Sabres, a pile of injuries, lineup news and more in Scott Cullen’s Statistically Speaking. HEROES Vladimir Tarasenko – The sturdy and skilled Blues winger notched three goals, including the overtime winner, to go with an assist in a 4-3 overtime win at Dallas. He and C Jori Lehtera, who had a goal and two assists, carried the day for the Blues. The third-year forward has had a major spike in shots on goal, from 2.13 per game last season to 4.50 per game this year. According to Puckalytics, among players with at least 75 minutes of 5-on-5 play, Tarasenko ranks second in shots per 60 minutes. SHOOTERS PLAYER TEAM POS. EV SHOTS/60 Nick Bjugstad Florida C 14.90 Vladimir Tarasenko St. Louis RW 14.78 Marcus Kruger Chicago C 14.12 Rick Nash N.Y. Rangers LW 13.56 Brendan Gallagher Montreal RW 13.50 Zach Parise Minnesota LW 13.26 James Neal Nashville RW 13.01 Mike Cammalleri New Jersey LW 12.58 Jason Pominville Minnesota RW 12.41 Max Pacioretty Montreal LW 12.38 Lightning Sophs – Nikita Kucherov registered his first career hat trick, giving him seven points in the past three games, and C Tyler Johnson put up four assists, leaving him with 12 points in the first 10 games of the season. Between them, they also sent 15 shots towards the Arizona goal and were Tampa Bays top two possession forwards in the game. As little as Kucherov has played (12:25 per game), his recent run has thrust him among the top point-per-minute scorers in the league: EFFICIENT POINT PRODUCERS PLAYER TEAM POS. EV PTS/60 Rick Nash N.Y. Rangers LW 6.22 Tyler Toffoli Los Angeles RW 4.90 Jeff Carter Los Angeles C 4.82 Tanner Pearson Los Angeles LW 4.80 Jakub Voracek Philadelphia RW 4.76 Nikita Kucherov Tampa Bay RW 4.64 Brock Nelson N.Y. Islanders LW 4.37 Ryan Strome N.Y. Islanders RW 4.36 Jamie Benn Dallas LW 4.29 Tyler Johnson Tampa Bay C 4.20 John Gibson – The Ducks rookie goaltender posted a 38-save shutout in Chicago. Whether the Blackhawks have been going through some offensive troubles or not – and they have – a 38-save shutout at the United Centre is an accomplishment. ZEROES Buffalo Sabres – There will be many nights over the course of the season that the Sabres could qualify for this dubious honour, but 10 shots on goal against a Maple Leafs team that was allowing 33.9 shots per game previously is an extra special level of mailing it in. Mike Smith – The Coyotes goaltender surrendered six goals on 33 shots, in 49 minutes, against his former team, the Tampa Bay Lightning. Its early, of course, but Smiths .858 save percentage in six games could start opening the door for backup Devan Dubnyk to earn more playing time. Cory Schneider – Gave up five goals on 23 shots and was pulled after the second period in an 8-3 loss to Pittsburgh. Over the previous four seasons, Schneider has the best save percentage (.928) among goaltenders to play in at least 100 games. This season, hes sitting at .901. SHORT SHIFTS Bruins rookie RW Seth Griffith scored two goals and added an assist in a 4-3 loss to Minnesota…Jets LW Andrew Ladd scored a pair of goals and C Bryan Little added three assists at the Islanders…Islanders LW Brock Nelson had a goal and an assist and D Johnny Boychuk had a pair of assists against the Jets…Senators LW Clarke MacArthur scored two goals and added an assist in a 5-2 win at Columbus, while D Erik Karlsson had a goal and an assist and C Kyle Turris chipped in two assists…Penguins C Sidney Crosby had a couple of goals and nine shot attempts (6 SOG) against New Jersey, while wingers Blake Comeau, Pascal Dupuis, Patric Hornqvist and Steve Downie each contributed a goal and an assist…The line of Crosby, Hornqvist and Chris Kunitz was on for better than 82% of the even-strength shot attempts. Maple Leafs C Tyler Bozak and RW Phil Kessel both had a goal and an assist against Buffalo…Avalanche G Semyon Varlamov stopped 49 of 51 shots in a 3-2 shootout loss to San Jose…Canucks C Brad Richardson scored a pair of goals in a 4-1 win over Carolina…Canadiens G Carey Price turned aside 37 of 38 shots in a 2-1 shootout win at Calgary…Bruins D Zach Trotman led the team with eight shot attempts (3 SOG) in 11:16 of ice time vs. Minnesota…Kings RW Justin Williams was up to his old possession tricks (29 shot attempts for, 12 against, 70.7%) at Philadelphia…Blue Jackets enforcer Jared Boll had nice possession stats (14 shot attempts for, 2 against, 87.5%)in the 5-2 loss to Ottawa…Senators enforcer Chris Neil was on the other end (2 for, 12 against, 14.3%)…Stars RW Tyler Seguin had a goal and an assist, with a dozen shot attempts (6 SOG) in a 4-3 overtime loss to St. Louis. Seguin now leads the league with 15 points in nine games…Sharks D Brent Burns had a goal on 11 shot attempts (5 SOG), with dominant possession stats (27 for, 5 against, 84.4%) and RW Joe Pavelski recorded 10 shots on goal at Colorado…Colorados fourth line – Cody McLeod, Daniel Briere and Marc-Andre Cliche – started two-thirds of their shifts in the offensive zone, yet had fewer than 10% of the shot attempts at even strength…Flames rookie LW Johnny Gaudreau had an assist and a career-high six shots on goal, with the Flames best possession stats (18 for, 6 against, 75.0%) against Montreal. LINEUP NEED TO KNOW Blues C David Backes left Tuesdays game against Dallas with an upper-body injury. Its a good thing the Blues have such depth down the middle if theyre going to be missing both Backes and Paul Stastny. Jets D Zach Bogosian missed Tuesdays game at the Islanders with an upper-body injury. With Bogosian out, Paul Postma played a season-high 19:23 and scored a goal. Wild D Jonas Brodin sat out against the Bruins, one night after being sent into the boards hard by Rangers LW Chris Kreider, so Mathew Dumba ended up playing a career-high 16:43 for Minnesota. Islanders LW Nikolay Kulemin was ejected after hitting Jets D Mark Stuart from behind. Blue Jackets C Artem Anisimov is going through concussion protocol, and likely out at least a week, after getting flattened by Senators D Eric Gryba. Blue Jackets D James Wisniewski joins the growing Columbus injured list, out one-to-two weeks with a broken finger. With Wisniewski out, David Savard should be the likely candidate to move up to Columbus first power play unit. G Curtis McElhinney started for the Blue Jackets, with Sergei Bobrovsky out for the next one-to-two weeks with his own broken finger. Thats a notable downgrade, as McElhinney has a career .901 save percentage. A little bit of good news for Columbus. Blue Jackets RW Cam Atkinson returned to the lineup, joining C Ryan Johansen and LW Scott Hartnell on the top line. With Kings C Anze Kopitar out, Mike Richards moved up the depth chart to play between Dwight King and Dustin Brown at Philadelphia. Richards played 17:51 and scored his first goal of the year. Lightning LW Alex Killorn returned to the lineup, recording an assist in 18:13 of ice time. As a result, LW Jonathan Drouin ended up playing 11:50, second-lowest among Tampa Bay skaters. With Corey Crawford out, Scott Darling made another start for the Chicago Blackhawks, and stopped 24 of 25 shots in a 1-0 loss. Canadiens C Lars Eller was benched, playing just 5:46 for Montreal at Calgary, not taking another shift after a roughing penalty at 16:01 of the second period. Flames centres Joe Colborne and Matt Stajan were hurt against Montreal. Colborne left with an upper-body injury and Stajan took a knee-on-knee hit from Canadiens D Jarred Tinordi. Senators D Mark Borowiecki had an excellent possession game (15 for, 3 against, 83.3%) against Columbus before leaving with an upper-body injury. D Carl Gunnarsson played in his first game for the Blues, logging a modest 12:53 of ice time, at Dallas. Hurricanes C Eric Staal returned to the lineup after missing two-and-a-half weeks. He played 19:50 against Vancouver, picking up an assist and five shots on goal. FANTASY FOCUS A couple of players to have an eye on in a light night on the NHL schedule: With Washington at Detroit, keep tabs on the Red Wings Darren Helm, who has recently been skating on the left side with very skilled linemates, Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Tatar. Nashville is in Edmonton and Predators D Ryan Ellis has been playing a much bigger role. More minutes leads to more points for a puck-mover like Ellis. Much of the data included comes from www.war-on-ice.com, www.puckalytics.com, www.hockeystats.ca and www.naturalstattrick.com Scott Cullen can be reached at scott.cullen@bellmedia.ca Air Force 1 Low Sale Australia .C. -- The Bobcats announced theyve signed centre Justin Hamilton to a 10-day contract. Vapormax Australia .Y. -- As if the worst start in franchise history isnt bad enough, Buffalo Sabres President Ted Black braced his teams win-starved fans for potentially more tough times. http://www.salenikeshoesaustralia.com/nmd-clearance.html. Summers has seen scant playing time with the Coyotes since being selected 29th overall by the club in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, having played in 47 career NHL games. Air Max 90 Australia . "We were left with the overall impression that the team wasnt trending toward being able to compete for a Stanley Cup," Capitals owner Ted Leonsis said in a news conference at the clubs arena. "And that was just a clear signal and why it was time to make those changes. Air Jordan 1 Australia . In a matchup of teams battling head-to-head for the final playoff spot in Major League Soccers Western Conference, the Whitecaps run to the post-season took a hard hit when FC Dallas blew open a tie game with two goals in the final minutes for a 3-1 victory Saturday night.Earlier in the season, I thought there was no way the Blue Jays would or should trade Jose Bautista in the off-season. After all, hes an established slugger, a face of the franchise and though he may have slipped a bit in this department, is still a team leader. I may have to take a mulligan now on that line of thinking. I took a look at nine of the most prominent Blue Jays outfielders and how their careers diminished with age, and the stats were pretty sobering. Six of the nine were finished with baseball at 34 years of age or younger, one is still playing at 34 as a shadow of what he once was, and the other two stuck around until they were 38 years old. Well get to those players in a moment, but first Bautista. Jose is going to be 33 years old in October. This season and last, hes had to shut it down due to injuries and has missed September in 2012 and 2013. While his power numbers are still more than respectable, theyre nowhere close to the 54 he smacked in his club record-setting season. "Joey Bats" still has a very team-friendly contract, paying him $14 million for each of the next two seasons with a club option of $14 million for 2016. That would also make him attractive to other teams. This week, Argos CEO Chris Rudge confirmed on TSN Drive with Dave Naylor that the "Double Blue" basically had a new five-year lease agreement in place with Rogers Centre. That effectively means there will be no installation of natural grass over the duration of that agreement. Continuing to play on artificial turf isnt going to help Bautista either, considering the career longevity of some of the best outfielders ever to play for the Jays. Through the 80s the Blue Jays sported the "Million Dollar Outfield" of George Bell, Lloyd Moseby and Jesse Barfield. Bell finished his career in 1993 with the Chicago White Sox; a wonky knee effectively forcing him out of the game. Moseby played his last major league game with Detroit and was done at 31, while Barfield - he of the "Golden Arm" and power bat - was finished at 32. It doesnt end there. Dial ahead two generations of Blue Jays outfielders after the World Series glory years. Shawn Green, who starred with the Blue Jays, was dealt to the Dodgers and bounced around to a couple of more clubs before seeing his career end at 34. Jose Crruz Jr.dddddddddddd run in the majors also ended at 34, as did that of speedy left fielder Shannon Stewart. Do you see a trend here? Vernon Wells is still playing in basically a platoon role now with the Yankees at 34. However, hes not anywhere near the player he was in his Blue Jays prime. There are two exceptions as far as long-time Blue Jays are concerned. Joe Carter left the Blue Jays after the 97 season at age 37, signing with Baltimore as a free agent. 1997 was his last 100 RBI season. He played one more season split between the Os and the Giants, batting a combined .260 with 18 homers and 63 runs batted in. The other who stretched his career out to 38 was speed flyhawk Devon White. He parted company with the Jays after the 95 season at age 32. He went to Florida and won a World Series with the Marlins in 1997 - his second year with the club - then moved around from Arizona to the L.A Dodgers and finally Milwaukee where he played his final season at 38 and batted .277 with 14 homers, 47 RBIs and stole 18 bases. Im not saying Jose Bautista cant bounce back but based on this unscientific study, the odds are better that his numbers will remain static or diminish further and he will continue to have physical issues. The Blue Jays need to upgrade their starting pitching. Bautista still has enough sock and caché to bring back a decent return. The old cliché in sports is that its better to trade a player a year too soon rather than a year too late. Regrettably, I think Jose Bautistas time has come. During his brief stint in Toronto, Eric Thames was one of my favourites. He was an engaging personality who seemed to have a lot of skills. He had his ups and down defensively in left field, but I always thought he was going to make it. On Thursday of this week, he was claimed on waivers by Houston from Baltimore. So in just over a year, Thames has been part of four organizations - the Blue Jays, Seattle (Steve Delabar trade), Baltimore and now the Astros. Heres hoping he finds a home in Houston. An unusual waiver pick-up the same day was Washington claiming long-time minor league slugger Mauro Gomez from the Blue Jays. Gomez had a solid year at Buffalo but seems more likely to wind up with the Nationals Syracuse farm club next year than with the big club. ' ' '