No. 1 Star: Evgeny Kuznetsov, Washington Capitals
It was a big night for the young Russian forward. In the Caps 7-4 drubbing of the Edmonton Oilers, Kuznetsov scored the first hat trick of his career in addition to the two assists he picked up.

No. 2 Star: Mark Giordano, Calgary Flames
Giordano scored a goal to tie the game midway through the first period. Shortly thereafter, the Detroit Red Wings regained the lead and held on to it until 1:12 left in the game. As they had done many times the previous season, the Flames came back, this time on a Joe Colborne goal assisted by Giordano. It would be Giordano who would come up huge in overtime with the game winning goal:

No. 3 Star: Andrei Markov, Montreal Canadiens
Isn't P.K. Subban the offensive-defenseman in this pairing? Markov recorded 5 points (1 goal, 4 assists) and was a plus-4 in the Canadiens 7-2 steamrolling of the Buffalo Sabres. Subban had a pretty good game, too. He, along with Tomas Plekanec, had 3 assists each.*
Honorable Mention: Montreal's power play was 2 for 3. Dale Weise and Brendan Gallagher scored two goals a piece. Mike Condon (WHO?!) improved to 2-0-0 as a backup for Carey Price ... Congrats to Bruins rookie Joonas Kemppainen on netting his first NHL goal and first NHL multipoint game in the 5-2 win over the New York Islanders ... Blake Wheeler extended his scoring streak to 7 games with an unassisted short-handed goal in the Winnipeg Jets overtime loss. Victor Hedman was credited with 3 assists, including this one on the overtime game winner by Ondrej Palat:

... Detroit's power play was 2 for 4 on goals by Gustav Nyquist and and Brendan Smith. Jonas Hiller and Jimmy Howard had strong games for their respective teams. Hiller made 27 saves and Howard had 37 in the loss ... John Carlson played a team high 25:34 and added 3 assists for the Caps ... Jonathan Quick made 40 saves to shut out the Carolina Hurricanes, 3-0. Tyler Toffoli extended his career high goal scoring streak to four games. Both Toffoli goals were assisted by Milan Lucic as seen on this pretty passing play to ice the game for the Los Angeles Kings:

Did You Know? At 8-0-0, the Montreal Canadiens are off to their best start in franchise history.
Dishonorable Mention: Sabres netminder Chad Johnson allowed 7 goals on 26 shots ... Cal Clutterbuck boarded Zdeno Chara and made him very, very mad ... The Islanders put up 18 shots on goal in the first period and managed only 8 the rest of the game. Travis Hamonic was a minus-4 ... Brad Richards was scratched for the Red Wings due to a back injury. Mike Green was limited to 6:03 TOI due to leaving the game with an upper-body injury following a hit by Calgary's Josh Jooris ... Ryan Nugent-Hopkins took a skate to the ear (don't watch if you're squeamish); he returned to the ice after minor repairs. Anders Nilsson gave up 6 goals on 17 shots before being relieved of duty by Cam Talbot ... Andrej Nestrasil played only 5:18 for Carolina before taking a shot off his left knee. He could barely put any weight on his leg as he was helped off the ice.

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Jen Neale is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter! Follow @MsJenNeale_PD.
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