CAHOKIA, Ill. - A plane carrying the Dallas Stars hockey team was forced to return to a St. Louis-area airport because of smoke in the cockpit.
The Belleville News-Democrat reports the Boeing 737 took off at 11:52 a.m. from the St. Louis Downtown Airport in Cahokia, Ill., but turned around within five minutes.
Mike Mavrogeorge, airport fire chief, says the smoke might have come from an electrical malfunction. He says there was no fire.
The plane was carrying 50 passengers including team members and staff.
The Stars were in St. Louis on Saturday night for a game against the Blues. A backup plane was summoned to take the team to Los Angeles to face the Kings on Monday night.
"It's an awfully hard hit," head coach Paul Maurice said Sunday, per Tim Campbell of NHL.com. "Those happen in the games. It wasn't dirty.
"I don't have a problem with the hit," he continued. "When two big men get together at that pace, there's going to be some collateral damage. The hits they're talking about getting out of the game are blind-side hits, elbows to the head, people coming off their feet to drive into it. It's a very unfortunate result and we're hoping to get (Laine) back healthy here but there's no issues with it."
The Jets reacted differently in the moment, of course, with a line brawl being sparked by the open-ice hit.
Laine was able to watch practice Sunday, but there's no timetable for his return to the lineup.
Carter Hutton appears to be ready for spring training.
The St. Louis Blues goaltender, who was recently part of the Winter Classic at Busch Stadium against the Chicago Blackhawks, took part in an interesting experiment, too.
Hutton had baseballs fired at him from a pitching machine, and if there is any doubt about how hard they were being hurled, the crack of the balls hitting the backstop's pads is certainly an indicator.
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And it was all going so well. After getting demolished on an open ice hit, following a ill-timed pass, Laine has been ruled out indefinitely as he is treated for a concussion. Laine has been the fantasy steal of the season despite the hype surrounding him. Neither he nor Toronto Maple Leafs rookie Auston Matthews figured into the top 100 in preseason rankings.
Only Pittsburgh Penguins C Sidney Crosby (26) and Los Angeles Kings C Jeff Carter (22) have more goals than Laine and Matthews, who are tied for third in the NHL with 21 goals apiece. Pair that with a healthy dose of assists, and Laine is a top-15 producer.
Until he's officially placed on injured reserve, owners are stuck holding onto him unless they have an IR+ spot. Without a concrete timetable, hands are tied. There is obviously no situation where Laine should be dropped. This kind of production is rare, not only among rookies but all players. How well he plays when he is healthy, or when that even is, is mere speculation.
Perhaps an unsung element of his production has been his physicality. While not a heavy-hitter of Wayne Simmonds proportions, Laine has 50 hits credited to him, which is enough to clearly propel his value above Matthews' in banger leagues.
Don't be surprised if LW Kyle Connor gets recalled for an extended look on the wing. It will depend wholly on who he skates with, however, if he's to be worth a waiver wire pickup. In-house, RW Drew Stafford could see his role expanded. There is no rush to pick him up, however.
Waiver Wire Options
LW Matthew Tkachuk, Calgary Flames: Laine's fellow rookie, Tkachuk is riding a nine-game point-streak and has gotten a fair share of time on the Flames' power play. In leagues that reward penalty minutes, Tkachuk has added value as he finds his way to the sin bin with regularity. Expect his profile to keep growing, especially as Calgary's second line continues to flourish.
LW/RW Viktor Arvidsson, Nashville Predators: Arvidsson is nursing an upper-body injury that kept him out of Friday's game and is expected to sideline him Sunday evening. His return is within reach, however, since he was skating on Sunday morning. Arvidsson has been an effective option on either wing with 25 points in 38 games.
C Bryan Little, Winnipeg Jets: Another in-house option to replace Laine, Little has been a solid producer since his return from injury, even if he has cooled a bit in three January games. He's best suited to standard-scoring leagues, but he is readily available and should be relied upon more in Laine's absence.
No timetable has been set for Laine's return to the lineup.
The hit, seen below, occurred in open ice and sparked a line brawl between the Jets and Sabres.
The 2016 second overall draft pick leads all rookies with 37 points through 42 games, and is tied with Auston Matthews in rookie goals with 21 - the third-highest total among all players this season.
The Jets, meanwhile, sit three points back of a Western Conference playoff spot, with four games on the schedule in the coming week.
The reason for Bobby Ryan's absence from Saturday's lineup will remain undisclosed.
After confirming the winger would play Sunday against Edmonton, Ottawa Senators head coach Guy Boucher wouldn't explain why Ryan watched the previous day's 1-0 loss to Washington from the press box.
"We had an issue that we dealt with and it's dealt with," Boucher told reporters after an optional morning skate that Ryan attended, according to Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia.
When asked to expand, Boucher managed to make things less clear.
"There's complex issues that don't need to be said out here," says Boucher on Ryan when asked if there was a discipline issue. #Sens
In 32 games this season, Ryan - who carries a $7.25-million cap hit through to the end of 2021-22 - has recorded seven goals and seven assists, putting him on pace for his least productive season in Ottawa.
Ryan was also benched for a period for being late to a team meeting back in the preseason.
That's what was reported Saturday by Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman, who said the club recently refused to include the young defenseman in a potential deal with the Avalanche.
"There was talk this week between Colorado and Boston about (Gabriel) Landeskog, and for the second time this year, Boston has told teams 'we're not trading that guy,'" Friedman said during Saturday's "Headlines" segment on Hockey Night in Canada.
The first time, Friedman added, revolved around discussions between Boston and Winnipeg in regards to Jacob Trouba.
Carlo, 20, has proven to be a revelation for the Bruins this season. The 2015 second-round pick is averaging 21:41 of ice time a night on the team's top pair alongside Zdeno Chara, and has recorded two goals, six assists, and a 5-on-5 Corsi rating of 52.3.
Defense has been an issue for the Bruins in recent years, and clearly Carlo is seen as part of the solution moving forward.
While the spotlight has shone brightest on Auston Matthews, Patrik Laine, and Mitch Marner this season (and for good reason), two other rookies are placing their names among those first-year forward stars as of late.
A Mantha among boys
Since Dec. 1, Detroit Red Wings winger Anthony Mantha sits in a tie for second in goals among rookies, sandwiched between the two Calder Trophy front-runners.
Player
Games
Goals
Auston Matthews
16
11
Anthony Mantha
17
8
Patrik Laine
17
8
Seven of those goals, it should be noted, have come in his past eight games.
Mantha is no stranger to goal-scoring, and expectations were high after he scored 81 in 81 games for the QMJHL's Val d'Or Foreurs during the 2013-14 season (regular season and playoffs combined).
As is the Red Wings way, he's been brought along slowly with extended time in the AHL, but after recording eight goals in 10 games to start the season with Grand Rapids, he's finally getting an opportunity to prove himself at the NHL level, and clearly succeeding.
Overall, he's tied with Jimmy Vesey for third in rookie goal scoring with 11, 10 back of Matthews and Laine, but in far fewer games played.
Streaking Tkachuk
With an assist in Saturday's win over Vancouver, Calgary Flames winger Matthew Tkachuk extended his personal point streak to nine games, recording one goal and 10 assists in that time.
Dating back to Dec. 1, Tkachuk ranks third in total points by a rookie, behind only a pair of familiar names:
Player
Games
Points
Patrik Laine
17
18
Auston Matthews
16
17
Matthew Tkachuk
16
15
Tkachuk was selected sixth overall at the 2016 NHL Draft, and is proving to have been well worth keeping around instead of sending back to the OHL, where he recorded 107 points in 57 games for the London Knights last season.
With the streak still going, Tkachuk has risen to a tie with Columbus defenseman Zach Werenski for fifth in rookie points with 25.
So while Matthews, Laine, and Marner garner most of the attention as Calder-worthy forwards, this year's class is proving to be exceptionally deep.
Jon Cooper's club entered the season with high expectations, but sits outside the NHL playoff picture after 41 games. Losers of three straight after picking up points in five of six games around the holiday break, the head coach knows the Lightning can ill afford to let opportunities to climb the standings go to waste.
"We’re scrambling to find our way back into the mix, which we did over the break," Cooper said Saturday, per Erik Erlendsson of Lightning Insider. "And now in one short week, we’re right back where we started with a back-to-back coming tomorrow and then a six-gamer on the road. The time is now, that’s it."
The Lightning miss Steven Stamkos and Ben Bishop, but possess an enviable level of depth to withstand injuries to star players. Cooper, then, lamented not what's missing in terms of personnel, but rather a lack of passion following Saturday's loss to Philadelphia.
After Sunday's game against Pittsburgh, who Tampa Bay pushed to seven games in the 2016 Eastern Conference Finals, the Lightning host Columbus and Buffalo on consecutive nights before heading on a lengthy road trip, both in terms of time and mileage.
The six-game excursion includes stops in Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Jose, Arizona, Chicago, and Florida.
Failing to pick up some points over that stretch could put a supposed Cup contender on the outside looking in come playoff time.
