The Pittsburgh Penguins will be without Bryan Rust for the immediate future as the forward has been diagnosed with a concussion, head coach Mike Sullivan announced Friday.
Rust left Wednesday's game against the Philadelphia Flyers after being boarded by Robert Hagg in the first period. While he had gone five games without a point, he's already topped his career high in points with 33 in 57 games.
Sullivan also noted that forward Dominik Simon - who was forced from Wednesday's game against the Flyers as well - is week to week with a lower-body injury.
Dallas Stars forward Martin Hanzal will undergo season-ending back surgery in the coming days, and his recovery is expected to take six-to-seven months, the team announced Friday.
Hanzal last played Feb. 21 against the Anaheim Ducks. He signed a three-year, $14.2-million contract with the club on July 1, 2017.
Prior to the injury, his first season in Dallas was a bit of a letdown. In 38 games, he had five goals, five assists, and a minus-14 rating.
Given the projected recovery time, it's possible Hanzal could return for the start of next season.
The NHL is dipping their toes into the esports world.
On Friday, the league unveiled the NHL Gaming World Championship where gamers from Canada, the United States, and Europe will compete to be the best at EA SPORTS NHL 18.
Players can register starting Friday with the first set of qualifiers going March 24. The top eight teams from Canada, U.S., and Europe will compete in the Regional Finals with the winner and runner-up from each moving on to the World Finals in Las Vegas during the NHL Awards weekend, where they will battle head-to-head to win their share of $100,000.
The rambunctious fans in Nashville might soon get to take their shenanigans outside.
Last season, the NHL was put on notice about the passion Predators fans have for their team during their Cinderella playoff run. That, coupled with Nashville's success at hosting NHL events, has the league considering a potential outdoor game in the Music City.
"We could see an outdoor game," Bettman said Thursday, according to Adam Vingan of the Tennessean. "I mean, there's scheduling issues, logistical issues. You have a college bowl game (Music City Bowl) that could interfere with a Winter Classic. We have to look at a lot of permutations, but Nashville has done an outstanding job any time we've held an event here, not the least of which was the All-Star Game.
"This has really become a destination city in a whole host of ways. I could envision us doing an outdoor game here. I can't give you a timetable and I can't exactly give you the specifics because there's a lot of things logistically we would have to work out. But it's something we have our eye on."
As Vingan notes, the Predators are one of eight teams yet to play in an outdoor game. Meanwhile, the Chicago Blackhawks will play in their seventh outdoor game next season.
Such an event would present a new challenge to Predators fans: throwing a catfish onto stadium ice.
"There's too much poke-and-hope on a lot of players," Zetterberg told Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press. "If you want to be a solid player in this league, and if you want to win something, you have to learn to play the right way.
"Poke-and-hope might get you 25-30 goals, but you will never win anything."
When Zetterberg first came up with the Red Wings, some of the best two-way players to ever lace up a pair of skates were the team's leaders, such as Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov, Nicklas Lidstrom, and Chris Chelios. He learned from the best, and now he's trying to set an example of the right way to play for his own younger teammates.
"You have to play defense first," he said. "We have guys in here who have enough skill to create chances and get enough chances. You can't force and gamble all the time. You have to do it right and eventually you will get chances. It's not often you get chances when you cheat. Sometimes you will get rewarded, but not in the long run."
The Wings had 12 giveaways in the game - five more than the Golden Knights - including a blatant one by Anthony Mantha that directly led to a shorthanded goal.
Head coach Jeff Blashill, who unsurprisingly also wasn't pleased with the team's effort, provided further detail as to what poke-and-hope hockey is, and why it's unacceptable.
"Poke-and-hope hockey is called 50-50 hockey," Blashill said. "It’s a way to lose tons of games. To me it's a young mistake and we had enough young guys do it for sure. You basically poke and you hope that you get it and if you don't get it they're going to get a chance. Well, that's not the way you win. You want to create chances without giving up chances. When you play poke-and-hope hockey you’re done."
The Red Wings will get right back at it on Friday when they take on the Columbus Blue Jackets.
In the last 10 games, the Jets have gone 8-2-0, while the Blues have gone 1-7-2. What's more startling is that Patrik Laine has been on a complete tear, scoring 14 goals during that stretch, while the Blues as a team have scored, you guessed it, just 14 goals.
Laine's blistering streak has him now just one goal back of Alex Ovechkin's league-leading 40, while the Blues' offensive struggles have them tied with the Ottawa Senators for the fifth-fewest goals this season (180).
The two respective streaks have the Jets slotted comfortably in the second spot in the Central Division, while the Blues sit 11th in the West, four points back of the final wild-card spot.
This year a coin flip will decide the winner of the Hart Trophy.
OK, not really, but given how tight the race for arguably the biggest individual award in hockey has been this season, it appears to be as good a system as any as we head into the final weeks of the season.
As it stands, a serious case could be made for nearly a dozen potential candidates. However, we'll try to narrow that down as we look at the five most-likely candidates and a few honorable mentions to bring home MVP honors.
1. Nikita Kucherov
Throughout the season several players have entered and exited the MVP conversation, but Nikita Kucherov has remained a constant.
The Tampa Bay Lightning forward sits atop the NHL's points list with 87 in 66 games and has not conceded his throne since Dec. 13.
Kucherov has had one three-game pointless streak and another of two games, and outside of those has not gone consecutive games without a point.
The 24-year-old been the pinnacle of consistency while tormenting goaltenders, and is poised to lead the Lightning to what stands to be a franchise-best in points and the team's first-ever Presidents' Trophy.
2. Nathan MacKinnon
One year removed from the worst season in the salary cap era, the Colorado Avalanche are knocking on the door of the playoffs and they have Nathan MacKinnon to thank for it.
MacKinnon has 32 goals and 79 points in just 59 games this season, demolishing his previous career highs (24 goals, 63 points) set during his rookie campaign. In fact, he currently leads the league with 1.34 points per game.
If it wasn't clear how valuable he's been, it should be noted that only Calgary's Sean Monahan has more than MacKinnon's 10 game-winning goals.
Prior to Thursday, the New Jersey Devils forward had strung together a point streak of 26 games. That run helped Hall set a career high in goals, and leaves him just six points shy of his career best (80).
Besides being in the top 10 in scoring, he's also put up an astounding 33 more points than the next closest Devil. He also leads the team in power-play points, game-winning goals, shots, and overtime goals.
Meanwhile, his performance has the Devils sitting in a playoff spot, which would halt a streak of five seasons without postseason hockey.
4. Evgeni Malkin
It's not outlandish to think that if Malkin had been able to stay healthy over the last eight seasons he may very well have captured a few more Hart Trophies.
Malkin has played more than 70 games in a season just once since the 2009-10 season when he dressed in 75 in 2012. Last season he tallied 72 points in 62 games - a 95-point pace. And this season he's on pace for 107.
Malkin is just two goals off Alex Ovechkin's league-leading 40 and just two points back of Kucherov with a game in hand. If he keeps this up he could soon lead both categories and subsequently lead this list.
5. Alex Ovechkin
Patrik Laine, Eric Staal, and Malkin are making late-season pushes for the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy. But let's face it, Ovechkin is still the favorite to capture the award for the seventh time in his career.
Ovechkin paces the league as the only 40-goal scorer this season. The 32-year-old has already surpassed last year's output of 33 goals and 69 points with 40 and 72, respectively.
His bounce back in offense has the Capitals within a point of top spot in the Metropolitan Division with a game in hand on the Penguins and him in pursuit of his fourth Hart Trophy.
Honorable Mentions
Connor McDavid
Historically the Hart Trophy is usually awarded to players on playoff-bound clubs, but if McDavid keeps producing as he has, it will be hard to deny him his second straight Hart Trophy.
While playing on the fifth-worst team in the league, the Edmonton Oilers captain has still managed to put up 31 goals (a career high) and 81 points. In fact, he's factored in on over 42 percent of all Oilers goals this season.
The Hart Trophy is summarized as "the player most valuable to his team" and it would be hard to argue that any team relies more on one player than the Oilers do on McDavid.
Steven Stamkos
Before Kucherov grabbed the scoring race by the horns, it looked as though Stamkos was going to run away with it.
The Lightning captain has since slowed down a bit, but still remains in the top 10 in scoring.
After being limited to just 17 games last season, it's quite clear that Stamkos has returned to being one of the elite producers in the game.
Claude Giroux
The Philadelphia Flyers appear playoff bound after missing last year's postseason, and that's thanks in large to the play of Giroux.
The captain sits fourth in league scoring with 80 points in 68 games. He's already posted his highest point total since the 2013-14 season and has been instrumental in linemate Sean Couturier shattering his previous career highs in goals and points.
The goaltender was acquired from the Blackhawks and signed a four-year contract with Carolina last summer, but posted a record of 10-16-7 with an .889 save percentage heading into Thursday's game in Chicago.
Darling stopped 22 of 24 shots in a 3-2 win, his first since Feb. 9. Needless to say the positive result against his old team was a big relief.
"Any win right now is good," he said after the game, according to NHL.com's Charlie Roumeliotis. "I feel like I've been playing well but I haven't been getting the results. Tonight it was a good time to get it."
The win came a day after new team owner Tom Dundon relieved general manager Ron Francis of his duties. It was Francis, of course, who made the call to install Darling as the supposed starter for the foreseeable future, a decision that has not paid off to date.
With the win, the Hurricanes pulled to within four points of a wild-card playoff spot, and more strong play from Darling would certainly help the cause.
