Welcome to the eighth edition of "Looking North," our weekly Friday dive into the all-Canadian division. This installment dates back to March 5.

The rundown

The Oilers rebounded nicely from last week's disaster, collecting two tight wins over the Flames and Senators before blowing Ottawa out 7-1 on Wednesday. How Edmonton would respond to the first-place Maple Leafs smothering them was a big talking point, and Dave Tippett's club delivered.

Conversely, Toronto hit the skids following its sweep of the Oilers. The Leafs lost three games in regulation for the first time during the Sheldon Keefe era, giving up considerable ground as the division leaders. However, they did earn a crucial extra point with an overtime win over Winnipeg on Thursday. The Jets have won seven of their last 10 contests, and they're six points back of the Leafs with two games in hand. The two clubs meet again Saturday.

The Canadiens appear to have adjusted to Dominique Ducharme's systems, earning a pair of convincing wins to inject life into a season that seemingly reached its breaking point long ago. The Habs weren't perfect, but they were also dealing with a terrible schedule that sent them from Vancouver to Calgary on back-to-back nights.

The Flames lost their first two games after firing Geoff Ward, but they bounced back with a victory in Darryl Sutter's return behind the bench. It's too early to project how Calgary will finish after its surprise head coach hire, but the club will surely be intriguing to watch.

Finally, the Senators pulled off a promising shootout win in Calgary, but they followed it up with a pair of defeats in Edmonton. The Sens sit 30th in the NHL with a .328 points percentage.

The stars

Forward: Connor McDavid was held off the scoresheet during an important three-game set against the Maple Leafs last week, but he rebounded significantly. The NHL's leading scorer padded his cushion in the Art Ross race with two goals and six assists to help the Oilers get back on track.

Defenseman: Jeff Petry continued his excellent campaign this past week, sniping three goals to move into second among defensemen with 24 points. His underlying numbers this season are also phenomenal. Montreal is outscoring opponents 25-12 and owns 57% of the expected goals with Petry on the ice at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Goalie: Carey Price put an eventful week in Montreal on the back burner while playing brilliantly after the dismissal of Claude Julien and longtime goalie coach Stephane Waite. The netminder won two of his three starts, and he posted a .963 save percentage and 0.98 goals-against average.

Canadian of the week

McDavid gets the nod here, too. Not only did his eight points lead the league, but no other Canadian playing on home soil registered more than four points over the same span.

The Oilers captain remains on a separate planet from his peers.

The moments

Draisaitl dazzles vs. Senators 🤩

Draisaitl had already produced a six-point game versus the Senators this season. But he didn't feel like resting on his laurels in their latest clash, burying a hat trick and adding two assists. The dynamic superstar also appeared on the highlight reel, flying coast to coast for one tally, and then converting after an otherworldly no-look pass from McDavid to complete the hatty.

Matthews' overtime showstopper 🤩

Connor Hellebuyck was moments away from stonewalling the Leafs for a second consecutive game. But Matthews - bad wrist be damned - sealed the victory in overtime for Toronto with this silky smooth top-shelf backhand.

Gaudette drops the hammer 🔨

Is there a hockey highlight more satisfying than a player unleashing an on-the-fly slapshot off the post and in? Adam Gaudette delivered this glorious blast during the final minute of the third period versus Montreal, sparking the Canucks to a comeback shootout victory.

The question

There's no denying Calgary's core has underachieved over the last few seasons. But can Sutter be the voice the Flames need?

The two-time Cup winner's straightforward style and fixation on team discipline could be the right jolt for this group to wake up and meet expectations. But if his approach doesn't click and Calgary misses the playoffs, hiring a coach who retired to become a full-time rancher in 2018 could result in serious repercussions.

Right away, one thing is abundantly clear: Sutter's work is cut out for him. It was anticipated the Flames would compete for the top spot in the North Division, yet they sit 22nd in goals for per game and 18th in goals against.

Quote of the week

Canadiens forward Phillip Danault was mired in a goal drought that extended more than a calendar year. He finally got off the schneid late in Wednesday's blowout win over the Canucks, and Danault wasn't shy about expressing his relief afterward.

"Yeah, I think there was more than one monkey. I threw a bunch of monkeys off my back," Danault said, according to The Athletic's Arpon Basu.

Games to watch

The Leafs and Jets will play the rubber match of their high-octane three-game set Saturday night. Looking ahead to next week, the always-entertaining Battle of Alberta is featured on Monday and Wednesday.

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From the sky-box suite where he sleeps at the Westerner Park Centrium arena, Josh Tarzwell can look upon the expanse of his life as a 21-year-old junior hockey player.

Below him are the Red Deer Rebels' primary net and home bench. At the far end of the rink is the Rebels' meal room, where heaps of eggs and toast are devoured daily at 8:30 a.m. One recent morning, Tarzwell answered a phone call, peered down to the concourse level, and saw most of his team clustered around two ping-pong tables - one donated by his family, the other freshly purchased to satisfy demand.

"I can count probably 15 guys on two tables waiting to play," Tarzwell said.

Tarzwell was born and raised in Red Deer, the Alberta oil hub that's equidistant from Edmonton and Calgary. Normally, he resides 15 minutes from the Centrium, where the Rebels have hosted Western Hockey League games for close to three decades. COVID-19 has no regard for norms. Since mid-February, Tarzwell - an alternate captain and one of three overage players on the roster - and his Rebels teammates have bunked in suites with ice views, choosing to go to unique lengths to be able to participate in a 2021 season.

For exactly a year now, the pandemic has roiled Canada's major junior hockey scene. The Ontario Hockey League has yet to get government permission to drop the puck this season. The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League opened play last October, pressed pause from Nov. 29 to Jan. 22, then resumed by sending clubs into a series of protected hubs; teams have played as few as 14 games and as many as 34.

Out west, the WHL imitated the NHL's regional format to split into U.S., British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan-Manitoba divisions. Starting soon in B.C. and Saskatchewan, games will be played out of hubs for a couple of months. In Alberta, some teams are staying in hotels and postsecondary dorms as they shuttle between their home rink and those of their opponents. Red Deer alone is holed up in a hockey facility.

The Rebels' setup at the Centrium isn't, strictly speaking, a bubble. Team staff members move in and out, though solely between the rink and their homes. Cognizant that mental health matters, the club has made a point of getting the players outside each day - to walk, play catch, or toboggan at the ranch of Brent Sutter, the retired NHL center who is Red Deer's head coach, general manager, president, and owner.

Mostly, though, the players are confined to the 7,000-seat barn where Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Matt Dumba, and Darcy Kuemper once starred, separated from outside society but united in the experience. The Centrium has enough suites to house the 26-man squad. Parents, suite holders, arena management, Red Deer bureaucrats, and fire officials all approved the plan to hunker there for several months. Billet families loaned beds, sharing the consensus that this living arrangement was the Rebels' best option this season.

"It's not a normal situation. But the normalcy is (the players) playing," Sutter said. "Them putting themselves out there for scouts to watch, for teams to see, for their development."

Sutter's Rebels have a record of nurturing junior talent. Jake DeBrusk, Haydn Fleury, and Sutter's son, Brandon, are among the team's active NHL alumni. Martin Hanzal, Dion Phaneuf, Kris Versteeg, and Cam Ward all springboarded from Red Deer into solid pro careers. Brent Sutter, whose tenures with the New York Islanders and Chicago Blackhawks netted him two Stanley Cups and 829 points in 1,111 games, has owned the Rebels since 1999 and coached them to WHL and Memorial Cup titles in 2001.

Recent seasons haven't gone so well. The Rebels haven't won a playoff series since 2016 when they hosted the Memorial Cup and reached the tournament semis. They were on pace to finish 2019-20 well below .500 when COVID-19 nixed their final five games. But last year's team skewed young, and when most of the players finally returned to Red Deer in February, they did so invigorated. On top of canceling hockey for a year, hometown quarantines kept teammates from hanging out in the summer and catching up at training camp on time in the fall.

"These guys are all my best friends. We spend eight months of the year together normally," Tarzwell said. "Being able to (live at the rink) together, it's been a huge weight off my shoulders."

Protocols and routine govern life inside the Centrium. Apart from the Rebels, only Westerner Park complex staff can access the rink, plus select scouts, off-ice officials, and media members on game days. Masks are ubiquitous even in this protected environment, and the Rebels, like all WHL teams, are tested for the coronavirus each Wednesday. Cooks from a local senior-care home prepare three hearty meals daily, but the players - four or five at a time on four-day rotations - serve the food and clean up after the group.

The players' schedule is consistent, Tarzwell said: breakfast first, workouts and study sessions at 10 a.m., lunch at noon, and a 2 p.m. practice that runs for up to two hours. Since this season's 24 games are limited to Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, college-style, free time abounds in the interim. A basketball hoop was installed in the Centrium concourse. Meeting rooms have been equipped with couches, TVs, and gaming consoles. Tarzwell brought his ping-pong table from home, and that pastime regularly gets heated.

"In the afternoons, it gets pretty serious," defenseman Kyle Masters said. "If you're losing, you're not a very happy camper during dinner."

By night, before the Centrium lights go dark at 10:30, the players have staged friendly casino competitions and streamed Creed II, Happy Gilmore, and North Division NHL action on the arena jumbotron. These are necessary diversions from their own intense season. The Rebels are 1-2-1 entering this weekend's three-game slate against the Lethbridge Hurricanes, but one line of thinking holds that those first matchups were glorified exhibitions, results being less important than process as skaters tried to shed rust.

That said, only 20 games remain in the sprint to the playoffs, generating the urge to play up to potential ASAP. This impetus is inescapable when you sleep at the workplace. On Feb. 26, at home against the Medicine Hat Tigers in Red Deer's season opener, the Rebels blew a 4-1 lead late in the third period and lost in overtime.

"Definitely not ideal," Tarzwell said. "You come back to your room and you're looking out at the ice. There's really a switch that I've been trying to (flick) where I'm not constantly thinking about hockey. But it can be difficult, I know, for some guys, because you're constantly looking at the ice, thinking about what could have happened."

Obsessing over what-ifs does beat the alternative that might await OHL teams: having to sit out a season that could make, break, or otherwise shape a player's future. Tarzwell, like every twentysomething player in the Canadian Hockey League, will be too old for junior at season's end and in need of a contract to further his pro and NHL ambitions. Masters, who's 17 and eligible for the 2021 NHL draft, is aiming to maximize his stock after a broken ankle sidelined him for all but 24 games as a WHL rookie. Every shift is an audition for the next level.

"Personally, I'm very grateful for this opportunity," Masters said. "But with the shortened season, it just means you've got to come out that much faster. You don't have the time that (prospective draft picks) had in previous years to get it going in the first few games."

The team has sought to preserve or mimic normalcy on other fronts. Staff converted the Centrium's media and scout lounge into a remote classroom for the Rebels' high-school students. Sutter's friends lent him a barbecue, on which the squad has cooked steaks. The Rebels have maintained their standard, pro-casual dress code for home games, the difference being the players don't leave the building afterward to drive into the Prairie night.

Like scores of Canadian communities, Red Deer has suffered from COVID-19. About 500 cases and four deaths have been linked to an outbreak at a local pork processing plant. Proprietor company Olymel closed the plant for a little while in mid-February, months after the outbreak was declared and, incidentally, around the time Rebels camp started. Inside the Centrium, the players stay healthy by respecting the protocols - and by sticking together.

"When you're locked away in a room, which might have been the case if we (weren't at the rink), it could have been a long 90 days. Having this opportunity, we're around the guys lots and we're able to communicate on and off the ice," Masters said.

"For the new guys coming in, this might be the first time they've lived away from home. Us older guys, we made sure they knew that we're always here if they need to talk about more serious stuff. This is a different experience for everyone. We're all just trying to take care of each other."

Beyond the Lethbridge series and three dates with the Edmonton Oil Kings next weekend, the Rebels' schedule has yet to be finalized. Their home games will go down in a building that's seen some hockey history. In 2016, Matthew Tkachuk potted the OT goal there that won the London Knights their latest Memorial Cup. Assuming no bubble is required again, Red Deer and Edmonton will co-host the next world juniors, the tournament where Sutter led Team Canada to gold medals in 2005 and 2006.

Sutter's NHL career spanned 18 seasons, plus five more manning the bench for the New Jersey Devils and Calgary Flames. Famously, five of his brothers, including newly returned Flames coach Darryl, played at the highest level, too. Yet in 2020 and 2021, even this hockey lifer was bound to witness something new. His team's current digs certainly qualify.

"These kids, 30 years from now, they're going to be looking back saying, 'During COVID, to get back playing, we had to stay in the rink,'" Sutter said. "I told them: There's 26 players in the world who are doing this right now."

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

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Columbus Blue Jackets sniper Patrik Laine isn't quite sure why he was stuck to the bench during the late stages of the club's 5-4 overtime loss to the Florida Panthers on Thursday.

The 22-year-old logged just 2:20 of ice time in the third period and didn't play in the final seven minutes of regulation or overtime despite having what he believed to be a strong game.

"Yeah we got scored on a couple of times but I think the first two, if you take out the one play where the puck was bouncing a little bit and I couldn't get it out and they ended up scoring, I thought I was playing good, but I guess I thought wrong," Laine told reporters following the loss.

Laine, who said earlier Thursday his confidence was "closer to zero" amid a seven-game point slump, tallied one goal and one assist to help Columbus open a 4-1 lead after two periods. However, his line was out for a pair of Panthers' third-period tallies, which could have led to his benching.

Head coach John Tortorella didn't offer much when asked about his decision to shorten the bench as the game progressed.

"At that point in time that's just the way it worked out," Tortorella said.

The Blue Jackets acquired Laine from the Winnipeg Jets in January. The Finnish forward was benched in just his fourth game with the club in February for reportedly verbally disrespecting a member of the coaching staff.

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The St. Louis Blues have signed goaltender Jordan Binnington to a six-year contract extension worth $36 million, the team announced Thursday.

Binnington was scheduled for unrestricted free agency following the 2021 season.

More to come.

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Vegas Golden Knights netminder Marc-Andre Fleury was added to the NHL's COVID-19 protocol list Thursday, according to Stephen Whyno of The Associated Press.

The 36-year-old was in goal Wednesday for the Golden Knights' 4-3 loss against the Minnesota Wild.

Fleury is arguably the favorite for the Vezina Trophy this season. He leads all netminders (minimum five starts) in save percentage (.938) and goals-against average (1.73) through 17 appearances.

Puck-stopper Robin Lehner has been sidelined with an upper-body injury since Feb. 8, and was sent to the AHL on a conditioning loan Wednesday.

The Golden Knights had multiple players and members of their coaching staff added to the COVID-19 protocol list at the end of January.

Vegas hits the road for a two-game set with the St. Louis Blues on Friday and Saturday. Netminder Oscar Dansk will likely take over starting duties until Lehner or Fleury are available.

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After a solid start to his stint with the Columbus Blue Jackets, sniper Patrik Laine seems to have hit a wall both mentally and on the ice.

"Probably closer to zero," Laine said Thursday when asked where his confidence is at right now, according to The Athletic's Aaron Portzline.

Laine amassed six goals and four assists in his first 10 games with the club. However, he's gone pointless in his last seven contests, matching the longest drought of his career.

Starting with a new club midseason is never an easy task, but the 22-year-old has nothing but good things to say about Columbus.

"Haven't been here for a very long time, but it starts to feel like home, Laine said, according to Portzline.

"Can't thank the guys in the organization enough for making this as easy as possible for me," he continued. "Everybody's been great. My teammates are awesome. Everybody who works here is awesome. It's been an easy transition to come here, and I've enjoyed every minute of it.

The Blue Jackets acquired Laine and forward Jack Roslovic from the Winnipeg Jets for Pierre-Luc Dubois in late January. Laine has eight goals and five assists in 18 games this season.

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With the NHL looking to make some tweaks to its draft lottery system, commissioner Gary Bettman doesn't believe teams have intentionally played poorly to obtain better picks in the past.

"There are some clubs who recently think it's important that the teams that are struggling the most get the most help. There are other teams ... that think there is nothing wrong with the present system at all," Bettman said to media via Zoom Thursday. "I don't believe there's tanking in the game. I think our players, and our organizations, our coaches, are too professional."

The NHL recently proposed to the league's board of governors some changes to its lottery system. The reported alterations include limiting teams to no more than two lottery wins in a five-year period, allowing clubs to jump up only 10 spots, and reducing picks in the lottery from three to two.

Deputy commissioner Bill Daly said Thursday that it's "more likely than not" the upcoming 2021 NHL Draft will be held in July, according to The Associated Press' Stephen Whyno. The NHL's general managers were reportedly in favor of postponing the draft.

The league last altered its lottery format in 2016, making the top three picks available in the lottery for non-playoff teams instead of just the No. 1 selection. Bettman said he thinks the current system doesn't need a complete overhaul, just a few minor adjustments.

"Yes there's been an anomaly or two here and there, but the system wasn't necessarily crying out for major change," Bettman said. "I think these adjustments are more in the form of tweaks than anything else."

The NHL's last-place team has picked first overall just twice in the past nine years.

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Our streak of eight overtime losses in a row - including six in four days!! - came to an end Tuesday thanks to the Hurricanes. Hopefully, that Jordan Staal goal will trigger a 180 in the luck department.

We're sitting at 77-63 (+13.71 units) on the season heading into Thursday night. Here's what I've got so far, but as always, pay attention to Twitter for any adds.

Capitals (-110) @ Flyers (-110)

Winners of six of their last seven, the Capitals are coming in hot, while the Flyers are reeling a bit after losing three of their previous five, with just one regulation win. But Philadelphia has played much better despite the results not going its way, controlling a terrific 57.89% of the expected goal share at five-on-five over the last seven contests.

A big part of the Flyers' struggles has been the play of Carter Hart, who simply can't find his game. The difference between him and Brian Elliott has been massive for this team, and we're getting an Elliott start tonight, which is a big part of the reasoning behind this play. Hart started the 3-1 loss to the Capitals on Sunday, and Washington feels a bit overvalued here because of it, especially with Tom Wilson still suspended.

Pick: Flyers (-110)

Panthers (-140) @ Blue Jackets (+120)

It's hard to find many positives surrounding the Blue Jackets right now, who have lost seven of their last nine and have scored just 11 goals in their previous seven games. However, much like the Flyers, they've been playing a lot better. They're top 10 in expected goal share at five-on-five over their last seven contests and owned a 53% or greater share in five of those games.

A big part of the issue for Columbus has been in net. Since Elvis Merzlikins got hurt, Joonas Korpisalo has started eight straight games. Over that span, the Blue Jackets allowed just 2.31 xGA/60, the fifth-best mark in the league, but are allowing 3.03 GA/60. Korpisalo has struggled, with his minus-7.7 GSAA and minus-11.67 GSAx, ranking 66th and 68th out of 71 goalies this season. Merzlikins is a significant upgrade in both regards.

As for the Panthers, their goaltending situation is much shakier. Chris Driedger is cooling a bit after his hot start, and while Sergei Bobrovsky has been a bit better of late, he still hardly inspires confidence. The underlying numbers have been strong for this team, but I'm reluctant to buy in. There's a lot to like up-front when you look at this roster, but their blue line really isn't all that good. I have a hard time believing this defense can sustain the level they're playing at, and that's especially concerning with a shaky goaltending situation backing them up. The Blue Jackets are good value here in a revenge spot on home ice in Merzlikins' return to the crease.

Pick: Blue Jackets (+120)

(Odds source: theScore Bet)

Alex Moretto is theScore's supervising editor of sports betting. A journalism graduate from Guelph-Humber University, he has worked in sports media for over a decade. He will bet on anything from the Super Bowl to amateur soccer, despises how the NHL handles starting goalie announcements, and will never trust a kicker. Find him on Twitter @alexjmoretto.

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