Facts and Figures: Pettersson excelling for Canucks

Elias Pettersson continues to be an offensive force for the Vancouver Canucks.

The 19-year-old forward, who made his NHL debut Oct. 3, scored a highlight-reel goal in
Vancouver's 3-2 shootout loss
at the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday and leads all rookies in goals (10) and points (16). He became the fifth NHL player after the inaugural season of 1917-18 to score at least 10 goals in the first 10 games of his career. Odie Cleghorn of the 1918-19 Montreal Canadiens had 12, Don Murdoch of the New York Rangers had 11 in 1976-77, and in 1992-93, Dimitri Kvartalnov of the Boston Bruins and Robert Gaudreau of the San Jose Sharks each scored 10.
Pettersson is also the 17th player to have at least 16 points in his first 10 NHL games. He is the first since 1992-93, when Kvartalnov (17 points; 10 goals, seven assists) and Nikolai Borschevsky of the Toronto Maple Leafs (16 points; eight goals, eight assists) did it.

Thornton approaching milestones

Joe Thornton skated in his 1,499th NHL game Tuesday to tie Mike Modano for 19th place on the all-time list. The 39-year-old San Jose Sharks forward also scored his 399th NHL goal during
a 4-3 win
against the Minnesota Wild at SAP Center.
Thornton can become the 19th player and the first No. 1 pick in the 55-year history of the NHL Draft to reach the 1,500-game milestone when the Sharks visit the Dallas Stars on Thursday (8:30 p.m.; FS-SW, NBCSCA, NHL.TV). He's also one goal away from becoming the 11th player in NHL history to have at least 400 goals and 1,000 assists.

Home teams have historic night

Home teams went 9-0-0 on Tuesday and are 121-75-27 through 223 games this season (.603).
It's the fifth day in NHL history that saw home teams sweep a schedule of at least nine games. The others: March 17, 1996 (9-0-0), Oct. 9, 2003 (9-0-0), Nov. 20, 2003 (9-0-0) and Feb. 28, 2004 (9-0-0). Home teams have never swept a schedule of more than nine games.

Big games, hat tricks, fast starts

Ottawa Senators forward Mark Stone had the fourth five-point game by a player this season and the second of his NHL career when he scored two goals and had three assists in
a 7-3 win
against the New Jersey Devils at Canadian Tire Centre. It's the most five-point performances in the first 223 games of a season since 2009-10, when there were also four. Stone joined Daniel Alfredsson (four), Marian Hossa (three), Alexei Yashin (three) and Jason Spezza (two) as the only Senators with multiple five-point games.

St. Louis Blues center Ryan O'Reilly had the 16th hat trick of the season in
a 4-1 win
against the visiting Carolina Hurricanes. There have been four hat tricks this month, including one in each of the past three days. The only time in the past 20 seasons that there were more hat tricks through the first 223 games was 2006-07 (17).

There have been 21 goals scored in the opening minute of games in 2018-19, the highest such total through the first 223 games of a season since 1992-93 (21). Three seasons in NHL history have featured more opening-minute goals through 223 games: 1981-82 (35), 1984-85 (26) and 1985-86 (23).