After eight games, Mercer is still searching for his first point of the NHL season.

Dawson Mercer is in his third NHL season. The Bay Roberts native has appeared in 172 straight games, which is the new franchise record for the most consecutive games played to start an NHL career after he passed Scott Gomez (140 games). He is sitting on 44 goals, 54 assists, and two points shy of hitting the 100 milestone.

He had a strong training camp, collecting five points in four games, but has been offensively snake-bitten since the season officially opened on Oct. 12. Through eight games, he has zero points, six shots on goal, four blocked shots, one hit, and a faceoff win percentage of 72.7.

After the team's practice on Nov. 1, I found Mercer sitting at his stall, preparing for the upcoming road trip. For the next few minutes, we sat together and talked about his start to the season.

"I (have to) make sure I stay positive," he said. "Do the little things, work hard, and still enjoy coming to the rink every day."

Some will say it is a cliche, but when things aren't perfect on the ice, it is good for a player to focus on the things that are in their control, like attitude and work ethic.

Mercer has previously never gone a calendar month with zero points. Before this season, his lowest point total occurred in December 2021, when he collected four points (three goals, one assist).

The 22-year-old is not the first player to go through a pointless streak, and certainly won't be the last.

"A lot of times, players go through stretches where they don't get points, but you have to focus on what you can bring to the team," said head coach Lindy Ruff. "Sometimes you get great opportunities, and you just don't finish."

When the assists and goals are not coming, what are some of the other ways a player can make a positive impact on his team?

"A lot of ways," said Ruff. There are penalty-killing roles for everybody. There's five on five roles in key situations."

During my chat with Mercer, he mentioned the penalty kill, saying that he felt it was going really well. With Tomas Nosek out of the lineup, Mercer and Erik Haula have been the two forwards relied upon most when the team is shorthanded. He has an improved role as a penalty killer, and in the team's last game versus the Minnesota Wild, he led all forwards with 5:21 of shorthanded ice time.

While it has not happened yet, the versatile forward knows it is only a matter of time before he will be surrounded by his teammates celebrating his first goal of the 2023-24 season.

"You can see I want to get that goal. I'm working at it," Mercer said with a smile. "I know it will come at some point."

He has been happy with his skating the last few games and feels like he has been moving his feet better lately. One area he wants to improve is getting more shots on goal. Since Oct. 16, he's had two shots.

While there are still things Mercer needs to work on, including scoring that first goal, he still has that same smile on his face and knows how lucky he is to be making a career out of hockey.

"This is the dream, you know? It's nice to play in every game early on in my career, third season already," he said. "I'm really excited for that, and I'm really happy to be doing this. This is what I love to do."