Whether it's the Edmonton Oilers' pulling off a crazy turnaround or the Sharks getting stomped back-to-back, these four stats are making history in their own ways. Sam Gagner [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjAzOTc1NzYzNTMwMTYzNzA3/usatsi_22130193.jpg] Sam Gagner The NHL all-star break is fast approaching as players, coaches and media get ready to either head to Toronto or their vacation destinations. The end of the unofficial first half of the current NHL season gave us stats that have us asking ourselves, "Did that actually happen?" San Jose Sharks Became First Team Since 1965-66 to Allow 10 Goals Back-to-Back Even though the Sharks are firmly in contention for the first overall draft pick, it doesn't take away how rough they began the 2023-24 season. In fact, it was one of the roughest in NHL history. The season began with the Sharks going 0-10-1, losing their first 11 games while recording at most three goals in a game until Nov. 16. But if you thought those losses were bad enough, they made it worse with something no team suffered since the 1965-66 Boston Bruins. On Nov. 2, the Vancouver Canucks defeated San Jose 10-1 with eight goals coming in the first two periods of play. Two days later, the Pittsburgh Penguins extended a weekend to forget for the Sharks with a 10-2 beatdown. While San Jose has been able to string together a few wins since then, not many fans will want to reflect on how the start of the 2023-24 season began. The Edmonton Oilers' Turnaround Goes Beyond Hockey The Edmonton Oilers became just the third team in NHL history to record 16 straight wins on Jan. 27 by defeating the Nashville Predators [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/edmonton-oilers/latest-news/its-been-everybody-connor-mcdavid-gives-his-teammates-credit-for-edmonton-oilers-monumental-win-streak]. The streak is the talk of the hockey world, but it's a mid-season change that has no equal inside the hockey world when it comes to where the Oilers were earlier this season. Being under the .500 mark 15 games into a season and then winning 15 games in a row in the same campaign has reportedly only been done in the past 80 years by one other team in North America's big four sports leagues, according to OptaStats [https://x.com/OptaSTATS/status/1750738383557595164?s=20]. The 1991 Minnesota Twins also pulled it off [https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/MIN/1991-schedule-scores.shtml] and even won the MLB's World Series that year. It's too early to know what the post-season fate of the Oilers will be, but it's a turnaround we may never see again. Sam Gagner Becomes First NHL Player to Be Part of Two 14-Game Win Streaks Being a part of one win streak of 14 or more wins is amazing, but being on the roster for two? It's a club with only one member, and it may be long before another one is added to join Sam Gagner. On Jan. 23, the man dubbed 'Papa Clutch' in Edmonton's locker room became the first player to have been on a team that's won 14 games in a row twice. Fittingly, the 14th win came against the Columbus Blue Jackets, the team that Gagner was a part of during their 16-game win streak in 2016-17. Nathan MacKinnon Can't Stop Putting Up the Points in Denver, Colorado Some players do their best work in front of their home fans, and that couldn't be more true than what Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon has been doing since the start of the season. MacKinnon's 25-game home point streak from the start of the season puts him in a tie for the second-longest in NHL history [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/colorado-avalanche/news/avalanche-dominate-kings-in-5-1-win#:%7e:text=Nathan%20MacKinnon%20extended%20his%20home%20point%20scoring%20streak%20to%2025%20with%20a%20goal%20at%2018%3A30.] with his 31st goal of the season on Jan. 26. MacKinnon is now tied with Bobby Orr for second place. The one player above them is Wayne Gretzky, who had a point in 40 straight home games for Los Angeles in 1988-89. Safe to say, the man known as 'Nate the Great' is having a season putting him among some of the sport's legends.
