Against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Duncan Keith finally had his first three-point game of the 2015-16 season: three assists. They were all secondary assists, and they all came on the power play, but if it was so easy to get three assists, wouldn’t everyone be doing it all the time?
Via the Elias Sports Bureau, there’s a nice little quirk to Keith’s rather helpful night:
Keith had three or more assists in a game for the 12th time in his NHL career. That ties him with Andrei Markov for the most such games among active NHL defensemen.
Through his 816 NHL games to date, Keith has had 14 games in which he’s scored three or more points. Eleven of them were three assist games; one was a four assist game, his career best thus far. He’s also had a one-goal, two-assist three point game; and a two-goal, one-assist three point game to round things out.
But what’s particularly impressive about this is, well, Keith is a leader among active players, albeit tied with Andrei Markov. Markov is five years older, though, and has played 87 more games than Keith.
Think Keith has another three-assist game in him over the next season? He could take over the lead as the most helpful player in the NHL soon enough.