Nearly a month into the season, Rick Nash managed to obtain his 700th career point. It was basically magic. The puck didn’t go through the crease, never touched the net – hell, it didn’t even wind up in the trapezoid behind the net (reference: “a few luck breaks.”)
Having not yet scored a goal in the then-young 2015-16 season, Nash took it upon himself (with the Rangers struggling not-at-all to maintain a late 2-goal lead against a non-playoff team) to surge bravely, minotaur-like, over the blue line. Exposing himself to a life-threatening (to a housefly) hook from Arizona’s Mikkel Boedker, the Nasher recorded his first goal of the season. What a cagey play…
A month-ish later, he had a highlight night for any goal scorer. He recorded a hat trick against the Florida Panthers. He did score the OT winner, but between that and the magical empty-netter, you’re talking about a quarter of the guy’s goals on the year.
And then… well, that’s about it. I won’t show you the brutal attack that the fiberglass in Raleigh subjected him to. That might be too much for some folks. It put him out of action for 18 games with what was termed a “deep bone bruise.”
Apparently, those were the 18 games wherein he was going to score the remaining 25 goals that would have made him a 40 goal scorer this year. That’s too bad.
