Super Sam: Reinhart named 1st Star of the Week

Super Sam: Reinhart named 1st Star of the Week

Panthers forward led the NHL with 9 points (4G, 5A) last week

SUNRISE, Fla. — It was certainly a week worthy of some extra recognition.

After accumulating four goals and five assists in four games, Sam Reinhart was named the NHL’s First Star of the Week for the week ending Oct. 20, the league announced on Monday.

“You just don’t really realize the small parts of the game that he’s good at until you’re actually on the ice with him every day,” said defenseman Nate Schmidt, who’s in his first season with the Florida Panthers. “You know he can score and you can know he can make good plays, but it’s the defensive side of his game. … He plays hard minutes against tough matchups.”

Helping the Panthers to a 3-0-1 record last week, Reinhart was on a roll.

Cracking the scoresheet in all four games, he had three multi-point performances.

After scoring a pair of goals in a 4-3 at Boston to kick off his very productive week, Reinhart racked up three points (one goal, two assists) in a 4-3 win at Columbus on Tuesday.

On Thursday, he dished out an assist in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Canucks.

Closing out the week with a bang, Reinhart produced three points (one goal, two assists) in a 4-3 overtime win over the Golden Knights on Saturday, including assisting on the game-winning goal.

Sam Reinhart connects on a heavy slap shot to make it a 1-1 game against the Knights.

Stepping up during the early-season absences of Aleksander Barkov (upper body) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness), Reinhart has gotten off to one of the best starts of his career.

Tied for first in the NHL in scoring, he’s logged 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in seven games. He also leads the league in shorthanded goals (2) and is tied for ninth among forwards in plus/minus (+5).

“He’s a player,” said forward Anton Lundell, Reinhart’s current linemate. “He just competes so hard. He demands a lot from himself and his linemates, but mostly himself. If he doesn’t give you the one pass on the tape – which doesn’t happen a lot – he’ll be hard on himself. You just see that he wants to win so bad. Every decision he does on the ice, it just comes so natural.”

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