Greatest Moments of NHL season … So Far: first round, matchup 19

The 2019-20 NHL season had many incredible moments before it paused on March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus, and now fans can decide which one was the best.

The Greatest Moments of the NHL season … So Far have been placed into a 64-field bracket, and fans will vote on one matchup per day, ultimately deciding the greatest moment to this point.

Fans can vote on Twitter and Instagram each day from noon until 10 a.m. ET the next day. Each day, the winner of that matchup will be revealed, and a new set of moments will go head-to-head.

Though fans will have the ultimate say, two NHL.com staffers will weigh in on the matchup each day to give his or her opinion on which one should advance to the next round.

In the matchup on Friday, Jack Eichel's 17-game point streak for the Buffalo Sabres defeated the Florida Panthers twice rallying from four goals down to win games.

The matchup Saturday pits Carolina Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov scoring a lacrosse-style goal Oct. 29 against the Montreal Canadiens' pregame ceremony for the late Henri Richard on March 10.

Dave Stubbs, columnist

I'm going with the tribute to Henri Richard, a legend in his time and any other. The Canadiens know perhaps better than any team how to pay tribute to their greatest players, whether celebrating them while they're still with us or, sadly, after they've died. On March 10, before their game against the Nashville Predators at Bell Centre, the Canadiens saluted Richard, their former captain and 11-time Stanley Cup champion who had died four days earlier. With 19 members of his family in an arena suite, including his wife and the couple's five children, Richard's life and career were packaged in a scoreboard video with images of him projected on the ice. The brief, poignant ceremony, soundtracked by "Le Temps Qu'il Nous Reste" (The Time We Have Left) by Quebec singer Fernand Gignac, one of Richard's favorites, concluded with a moment of silence -- symbolically, 16 seconds to match his jersey number retired by Montreal in 1975. It was a perfect farewell to the icon who has won more Stanley Cup championships than any NHL player and whose 1,258 games in a Canadiens uniform are the most of anyone for the League's oldest franchise.

David Satriano, staff writer

There's no denying it was a touching moment in Montreal when Richard, one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players, was honored. But it's hard to argue against Svechnikov here after he did something we had never seen in the NHL. With the Hurricanes trailing the Calgary Flames 1-0 in the third period on Oct. 29, the center scored a huge goal to tie the game, but it was the way he scored it -- getting the puck on his stick blade and tucking it over the shoulder of Flames goalie David Rittich. The goal took social media by storm, but Svechnikov wasn't done. He scored another lacrosse-style goal in a 6-3 win against the Winnipeg Jets on Dec. 17. Svechnikov said he worked on the move during every practice and it paid off. Seeing it actually work in the NHL was one thing, but to see it now three times this season (Nashville Predators forward Filip Forsberg also did so on Jan. 14) and being the first to accomplish it gives the nod to Svechnikov in this matchup.