St. Louis Blues center Robert Thomas was named the NHL’s third star of the week for the ween ending April 6.
Thomas had two goals and seven assists in three games, each a game-winning goal helping the Blues (43-28-7), who are on a franchise-record 12-game winning streak, go 3-0-0 last week with wins over the Detroit Red Wings (2-1 in overtime), Pittsburgh Penguins (5-4 in overtime) and Colorado Avalanche (5-4).
“I can’t say enough good things about Robert Thomas’s game since 4 Nations,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said after the win against the Avalanche. “He must be one of the top three scorers in the NHL in that time.
“I think what people aren’t recognizing is how good he’s been defensively. We’re using him against [Nathan] MacKinnon’s line all night [Saturday] and he just does a good job. His brain is high-end offensively and defensively.”
Since Feb. 1, Thomas is No. 1 in the league with 39 points (nine goals, 30 assists) in 26 games, two points ahead of Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov and three ahead of MacKinnon and Boston Bruins forward David Pastrnak.
Thomas follows in the footsteps of goalie Jordan Binnington, who was named the NHL’s third star of the month for March after going 8-2-0 with a 2.21 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage.
Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin, who broke Wayne Gretzky’s record for goals in NHL history with 895, was the first star and Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki (four goals, three assists in four games) was named second star.
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