Columbus Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella will not be behind the bench Thursday when his team takes on the Nashville Predators, nor will he head to Los Angeles as part of the NHL's All-Star festivities.

The Blue Jackets announced Thursday that Tortorella has temporarily left the club to deal with a family matter.

"Regrettably, there is a personal matter that requires my immediate attention that will force me to leave the team temporarily and miss the All-Star Game in Los Angeles," Tortorella said in a statement.

Columbus assistants Brad Larsen and Brad Shaw will run the bench in Tortorella's absence. His replacement for the All-Star Game has not yet been announced.

The Blue Jackets have had an impressive run under Tortorella, as the club sits second place in the East with a 32-11-4 record on the season.

Earlier this season, Tortorella became the first American-born coach to win 500 games.

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Columbus Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella will not be behind the bench Thursday when his team takes on the Nashville Predators, nor will he head to Los Angeles as part of the NHL's All-Star festivities.

The Blue Jackets announced Thursday that Tortorella has temporarily left the club to deal with a family matter.

"Regrettably, there is a personal matter that requires my immediate attention that will force me to leave the team temporarily and miss the All-Star Game in Los Angeles," Tortorella said in a statement.

Columbus assistants Brad Larsen and Brad Shaw will run the bench in Tortorella's absence. His replacement for the All-Star Game has not yet been announced.

The Blue Jackets have had an impressive run under Tortorella, as the club sits second place in the East with a 32-11-4 record on the season.

Earlier this season, Tortorella became the first American-born coach to win 500 games.

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Even those who want the shootout banished from hockey might enjoy this one.

Toronto Marlies forward Colin Smith ended Wednesday's AHL matchup with the Rochester Americans in bizarre fashion, as his backhander plunked the crossbar and the goalie's head before deflecting over the line.

Style points, indeed.

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Sleep was the last thing on this two-year-old's mind after his parents put him down to bed.

As the boy's father, a New York Rangers fan, explained on Twitter, he heard noises coming from his son's bedroom about an hour after tucking him in for the night. The dad then turned his attention to the baby monitor in the boy's bedroom and realized he was chanting "Let's go Rangers!"

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Johnny Gaudreau realizes there's no time to waste.

His Calgary Flames have dropped four in a row and find themselves out of the Western Conference playoff picture heading into Wednesday's game in Ottawa.

"We've got to find a way to get out of this hole really quickly," Gaudreau told reporters Thursday. "There's not many games left in the season and we know how important the remainder of our schedule is."

Personally, Gaudreau has chipped in only one goal and three assists across 12 games this month, and is on pace to fall well short of his career highs set least season.

As such, he's preaching the basics to help himself and his teammates get back on track.

"Every player needs to step up, look at ourselves in the mirror," Gadreau said. "It's a little cliche to say that, but that's what we need to do right now. We've got to play our roles, play simple, come together as a team here and try to get out of this little funk and go on from there."

The Flames sit tied for the most games played to date with 51, making it even more difficult to catch other teams looking to keep Calgary on the outside looking in.

A nice run for Gaudreau - Calgary's top forward - would go a long way toward ensuring the Flames indeed climb out of that hole.

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Toronto Maple Leafs have plenty to be excited about right now, but not everyone shares their enthusiasm.

During the Maple Leafs' 4-0 win Wednesday at Joe Louis Arena, cameras showed a Detroit Red Wings fan tearing down a "Leafs: Make the playoffs great again! 2016-17" banner being held by two Toronto fans sitting in front of him.

The banner was blocking his view, though it looks like it was all in good fun.

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Tyler Seguin appears willing to stick his neck out to ensure a Dallas Stars win.

Prior to Thursday's game against Buffalo, the club will hand out 10,000 Seguin bobbleheads, made extra bouncy by an unusually long neck.

Seguin will look to stretch his goal total past 17 in the final game before the All-Star break.

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The Washington Capitals have a good thing going.

The Metro-leading Caps are 8-1-1 in their last 10 games, have four balanced lines, and are on pace to best their Presidents' Trophy winning season from a year ago. And general manager Brian MacLellan doesn't want to alter his club's momentum as the trade deadline inches closer.

"We've got good chemistry, which is important," MacLellan told ESPN's Pierre LeBrun. "It seems like our lines are all settled in here. Everyone is comfortable with their roles, the coaches are comfortable. So it has more the feel right now of something you don't want to mess with ... at all, in my mind, because it's running smooth right now. So I'd be more inclined to do nothing.

"But it doesn't mean that we're not going to go through the process of, 'Can we upgrade on guys.'"

Of course, things can change. Injuries occur, and with a division as tight as the Metropolitan, a slump of any sort can change playoff seeding. Still, with the way Washington is rolling, MacLellan staying the course might be his best bet.

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Boston Bruins winger Brad Marchand has avoided suspension, as the NHL instead fined him for an incident involving Detroit's Niklas Kronwall.

The trip occured Tuesday, and can be seen here:

That Marchand won't miss any games is significant, as the Bruins are fighting to stay in the playoff picture. The All-Star sits tied for the sixth-highest points total among all NHL players (47).

Marchand, therefore, will be in the lineup for Thursday's game against Pittsburgh, but with a slightly lighter wallet.

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The Toronto Maple Leafs are providing a new challenge for one of hockey's most experienced front office executives.

The rapid emergence of rookie forwards Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander - all of whom rank within the top five in team scoring - has put the club in playoff contention perhaps a year or two earlier than expected.

Teams being carried by first-year players is a phenomenon that has emerged late in Lamoriello's 30-year career.

"I don’t think your rookies would have been better than the players you had," Lamoriello told Craig Custance of ESPN, referring to the state of the NHL during his tenure with the New Jersey Devils. "That’s the difference. I don’t think 10 years ago, 12 years ago, rookies came in and were able to take the jobs the way they are right now. The young player is so much better as far as quantity than it’s been in the past. It’s just the way the development of the game and the programs, and the focus of 12 months of training.

"It’s a different game today. It’s a different philosophy, it’s a different approach," he added. "I have certainly not experienced it."

The question, then, becomes where to go from here. Do the Maple Leafs continue with a patient, build-from-within approach, or do they take advantage of the fact three of their best players are on entry-level contracts and try to surround them with veteran talent in order to become legitimate Stanley Cup contenders in the near future?

It's a conversation that will no doubt be had more than once prior to the NHL's March 1 trade deadline, as well as through the offseason.

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