Jared McCann is a man of many hats.
After the unlikely events of Tuesday night, he might want to consider opening a haberdashery.
The Seattle Kraken forward received hundreds of pieces of headwear from a hat trick that wasn’t in a 5-1 victory against the Washington Capitals.
The Kraken are set to conclude a six-game homestand (3-2-0) against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night, and if there are fans who need a new lid, check the team store.
McCann, the franchise leader in career goals after being selected from Toronto in the 2021 NHL expansion draft, scored twice in the second period vs. Washington and appeared to complete his second-ever hat trick on a breakaway early in the third.
However, after Seattle fans rained hats down on the ice, the on-ice officials announced they were reviewing a potential double-minor penalty for high-sticking against linemate Matty Beniers. Because it was a linesman who noticed the infraction, neither referee raised his arm nor blew the play dead when McCann corralled the puck and skated down the right wing before beating Capitals goaltender Logan Thompson.
After a lengthy check of the video, Beniers was sent to the penalty box — Alex Ovechkin extended his NHL record with his 919th career goal on the man advantage — and McCann was left with a two-goal, two-assist outing.
“Sorry, everyone might wanna get a new hat, eh?” McCann joked while sitting on the bench during a postgame interview on the Kraken Hockey Network.
McCann missed much of training camp with a lower-body issue before scoring in each of the first three games of the regular season. He aggravated the injury in a 4-3 overtime victory at Toronto on Oct. 18 and missed the next six weeks.
He missed three more weeks after a lower-body injury suffered in mid-December and was put on the third line when he returned.
Coach Lane Lambert reunited McCann with Beniers and Jordan Eberle on the No. 1 line last week, and McCann has four goals and three assists in four games since.
McCann’s 14 goals are second on the team to Eberle’s 19, although McCann has played 22 fewer games.
“I feel like we’ve had chances in the past couple of games here that haven’t really gone for us,” McCann said. “We’ve had some good opportunities, especially coming out of our D-zone. We’re playing good defensively — breaking up a lot of plays and going the other way. That’s what makes us successful.
“I’m playing with two guys that create off of nothing. I’m definitely lucky to play with those guys.”
The Maple Leafs couldn’t get out of town soon enough after a 7-4 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday completed an 0-4-1 homestand and dropped them eight points back in the chase for an Eastern Conference playoff spot. The Maple Leafs have a four-game Western swing left before the Olympic break.
“We look at scoring as everything, and it’s not everything,” Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube said. “You are not going to consistently win in this league by focusing on just scoring goals, you have to play the full rink, and right now we are not doing a good enough job without the puck, that’s it.”
Auston Matthews and Max Domi each had a goal and two assists in the loss to Buffalo.
The Maple Leafs trailed 4-3 entering the final period, then allowed a goal 16 seconds after the intermission.
“That can’t happen. Going into the third, we’re in a good position here, good spot down one goal, we just have to have more sense of urgency,” Matthews said. “We have to be a more desperate team than the opponent each night, especially with where we are at (in the standings).”
–Field Level Media
