5 takeaways from Saturday's busy schedule

Saturday nights mean lots of hockey, and subsequently plenty to discuss.

With that being said, here's five immediate takeaways from a busy night in the NHL.

Rangers making up for slow start

After a dreadful start to the season, the New York Rangers seem to be slowly pulling things together.

Kevin Shattenkirk's overtime marker against the Florida Panthers gave the Blueshirts their third win in a row, and fourth in five games. Perhaps more encouraging, though, is the Rangers have out-chanced opponents in each of those wins, and are one victory away from reaching a .500 mark that seemed unattainable a short time ago.

Pacioretty finally breaks through

(Photo courtesy: Action Images)

Max Pacioretty hadn't recorded a point on the power play since February 28 - an absurd 36-game span.

The Montreal Canadiens captain snapped out of his funk in a big way versus the Winnipeg Jets, recording an assist on the man advantage in regulation, then icing the game in overtime with a power-play conversion from the slot.

He also achieved some history in the process:

Goals, and lots of them

If goals are your thing, then Saturday was your night, as four different games ended with a 5-4 final, along with 6-4 and 5-1 finishes.

After the day's lone afternoon contest between the Ottawa Senators and Vegas Golden Knights, NHL Public Relations revealed that after 200 matches played this season, there's been an average of 6.2 goals scored per game. That's the league's highest mark since 2005-06 (6.4).

Duchene has big night

(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)

If Matt Duchene wants to use Friday's reportedly kiboshed trade as motivation to expedite his departure from Colorado, he did a good job Saturday, snapping a three-game pointless drought with a goal and an assist in a win over the Philadelphia Flyers.

Duchene also eclipsed 20 minutes in ice-time for the second time this season, and set a season high with 30 shifts.

East's best put on show

The contest between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Columbus Blue Jackets - both leading their respective divisions - lived up to its game-of-the-night potential, with the Bolts ultimately earning a highly entertaining 5-4 shootout win.

Despite the high goal count, both Sergei Bobrovsky and Andrei Vasilevskiy traded big-time saves, while the offensive star power between both teams was on full display, with Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, Zach Werenski, and Seth Jones each scoring goals.

It's a long, long way away, but if these two teams end up meeting in a playoff series, it would be quite a spectacle.