Florida Panthers veterans Eric and Marc Staal didn't participate in warmups Thursday as the team donned a Pride-themed jersey.
The brothers said they didn't wear the jersey due to their Christian beliefs.
"After many thoughts, prayers, and discussions, we have chosen not to wear a Pride jersey tonight," the duo said in a joint statement, according to The Associated Press' Tim Reynolds. "We carry no judgment on how people choose to live their lives and believe that all people should be welcome in all aspects of the game of hockey.
"Having said that, we feel that by us wearing a Pride jersey, it goes against our Christian beliefs," the statement continues. "We hope you can respect this statement, we will not be speaking any further on this matter and would like to continue to focus on the game and helping the Florida Panthers win the Stanley Cup."
The Staal brothers' decision comes days after San Jose Sharks goaltender James Reimerdeclined to wear his team's Pride-themed warmup jersey.
Eric is the NHL's active games-played leader with 1,354 contests. The 38-year-old has 13 goals and 25 points this season.
Marc has played in all 71 of the Panthers' games this campaign, tallying 12 points.
Boston Bruins superstar Brad Marchand recently deleted his Twitter account, and he explained why Thursday.
"It's strictly because I'm not paying for Twitter," he said, according to Boston.com's Conor Ryan.
"They took my two-step verification, so I was like, you know what - I'm going to get out now while I can," Marchand continued.
"I'm sure I'll be back on at some point - if I'm bored and want to make fun of someone," he said.
Marchand has long been one of the most active NHLers on social media. He's made waves numerous times responding to criticism and even got into feuds with rival clubs.
Twitter recently removed two-factor authentication via text message for users who aren't signed up for its Twitter Blue subscription service - one of the company's relatively new policy decisions - which costs $8 per month.
Marchand's Bruins have been the NHL's best team by a wide margin this season. Boston entered Thursday at 54-11-5 and with a 20-point lead on the second-place Toronto Maple Leafs in the Atlantic Division.
The Washington Capitals are getting a big boost to their blue line Thursday as No. 1 defenseman John Carlson is expected to return against the Chicago Blackhawks, the team announced.
Carlson missed the past 36 games. He suffered a skull fracture and a severed temporal artery after taking a slap shot to the head against the Winnipeg Jets on Dec. 23. Carlson said Sunday that it felt like he got "struck by lightning."
The Capitals are six points out of a playoff spot with 10 games left in the campaign. MoneyPuck gives them a 0.3% chance of reaching the postseason.
Carlson has recorded eight goals and 13 assists in 30 games this season. Washington's blue line will look much different than the last time he suited up, as Dmitry Orlov and Erik Gustafsson were shipped off at the deadline while Rasmus Sandin was acquired.
Head coach Peter Laviolette announced that the Capitals will also get goaltender Darcy Kuemper and defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk back against the Blackhawks, per NBC's Matt Weyrich. Kuemper missed two contests with an upper-body injury, while van Riemsdyk was absent for one game due to the birth of his child.
The Ottawa Senators agreed to a three-year, entry-level pact with defenseman Tyler Kleven, the club announced Thursday.
Kleven is expected to join the Senators on Friday. The 21-year-old posted eight goals and 10 assists over 35 games in his recently concluded junior season with North Dakota.
Ottawa drafted Kleven 44th overall in 2020. The Fargo-born blue-liner represented the United States at the World Junior Championship in 2021 and 2022, helping the Americans win gold alongside current Senators rearguard Jake Sanderson in the first of those two years.
Kleven produced 20 goals and 15 assists across 95 career college contests. He tied the Fighting Hawks' all-time record among defensemen with eight game-winning goals.
North Dakota didn't qualify for the NCAA Tournament this year. The school went 18-15-6 and lost 3-2 to St. Cloud State in the semifinals of the NCHC Frozen Faceoff tourney last Friday.
Getting a tough puck sucks. Back in the 1990s, when heat-seeking missiles Scott Stevens and Darius Kasparaitis roamed NHL rinks, a tough puck usually preceded a thunderous body check in the unclaimed ice of the neutral zone.
One glance down to corral a poorly placed pass and ... boom! Clobbered.
Getting a tough puck in open ice remains dangerous, even in an offense-first era. But it's a rare occurrence. In today's game, there's another, more common scenario where a winger is tasked with taming a fast, wobbly pass along the boards before attempting to exit the defensive zone.
Icon Sportswire / Getty Images
"The difficulty is in getting the puck off the wall," Buffalo Sabres captain Kyle Okposo said earlier this season, describing a nightly challenge for all wingers.
"Getting a tough puck off a rimmed pass - as a winger, when the opposing defenseman is coming down at you, and you have to separate yourself and make a play to the middle of the ice, that can be really hard," he said. "But it's also nearly impossible for the other team to defend. So, if you can do it consistently as a winger, that quick breakout off the wall can be very useful."
Okposo, a 15-year veteran, was talking about tough pucks inside the Sabres' KeyBank Center dressing room following a morning skate. I had asked him a simple yet loaded question: What's the hardest skill to master, the most difficult thing for you to do on the ice, as a professional hockey player?
"Geez ... there's a lot," Okposo started. "Every year there's something new."
That was a popular reply when I asked six of Okposo's peers the same question as a follow-up to a 2020 article about skill mastery. But, like Okposo, all six managed to identify at least one especially hard skill, move, or trick.
Here are their answers and explanations.
Ditching long-held defensive tick
Richard Lautens / Getty Images
Matt Grzelcyk is a 5-foot-10, 176-pound defenseman who simply can't outmuscle most opponents. So he's been hardwired to issue cross-checks. At least you'll slow him down, he reasons. At least he'll know you're there.
Grzelcyk's trying to change his habits, however. There's a more effective and efficient way for him to defend.
"If I have a bigger guy in the corner, I want to steer him out of danger," said Grzelcyk, who's in his sixth season with the Boston Bruins. "I can put my stick on the ice, in a specific spot, and encourage him to move away from the net."
He's right. Every time Grzelcyk raises his stick to deliver a cross-check - one that's barely disrupting the opponent's flow - he's leaving himself exposed. The opponent can easily scoot the puck through or around Grzelcyk's legs.
John Tavares is one rival Grzelcyk's seen plenty of this year. The Toronto Maple Leafs center is listed as three inches taller and 40 pounds heavier.
"It's a natural habit to want to be physical in the corners and around the net," Grzelcyck said. "But when the guy's throwing his weight around, if he has 40 pounds on me, he can spin one way or another and I lose control. Countering that with the stick angling is something I always talk about with the coaches."
Turning slap shot into weapon
Len Redkoles / Getty Images
It's been well-documented that slap-shot usage is on a steep decline.
Yet one-timers are still relied upon in one particular game situation: the power play, where extra time and space facilitate clappers. For this reason, Kevin Hayes is motivated to do whatever he can to turn his into a legitimate weapon.
Building muscle memory through practice reps are important, the Philadelphia Flyers forward said. Developing chemistry with the right passer is, too, with John Carlson's influence on Alex Ovechkin's goal total being a prime example. Expanding one's wheelhouse and learning how to fire equally lethal slap shots from one's front foot and back foot are other pillars. Hayes has thought about tinkering with his stick specs, but it's complicated.
"I've been using a 95 flex since late high school," Hayes said in February. "And I made it to the NHL with a 95, right? So why am I even trying to change it? I don't really see myself changing anytime soon, so I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to make it work with what I'm using now."
Could Hayes, who's used his slap shot to score 12 of 154 career goals, grab a 95-flex stick for even-strength shifts and a whippier stick - say, one with a 75 flex rating - for power-play time?
"You could," he replied. "But what if you have a grade-A chance that calls for a wrist shot? Know what I mean? So it's hard to figure that out. I haven't really asked too many players about it, but it is something I'm trying to dig into."
Keeping opponents guessing
Jared Silber / Getty Images
Adam Fox knows exactly what kind of player he is - one of the smartest and most agile defensemen in the world - and exactly what kind of player he isn't.
"I'm not going to kill people with speed or strength," Fox said with a smile.
This self-awareness gives Fox the agency to double down on the attributes that powered him to the 2021 Norris Trophy. The New York Rangers blue-liner is focused on refining the subtleties in his game - which can be a difficult undertaking.
Example 1: Improving edge work in tight spaces to open up his hips and mess with the forechecker's timing and positioning. "If it works, you're turning your feet one way and the forward coming at you is turning the same way," Fox explained. "Then, when he sets into a track, you quickly go the other way."
Example 2: Improving his capacity to act casually when slipping a puck to a Rangers center after curling deep in the defensive zone. He's working on this because the last thing he wants to do is telegraph breakout passes. In this case, deception flows from Fox's elusiveness and quick hands.
Icon Sportswire / Getty Images
Example 3: Improving his blue-line trickery by incorporating more jukes, shakes, and head fakes. "It's all about working on deceptive plays," Fox said.
Fox, once again a candidate for the Norris, knows he must pick his spots.
"Feeling everything out, being in the league for a few years to see what works, is super important," he said. "There's a lot of smart guys in the league that you're just not going to fake out. Some guys might outsmart you, so holding that puck an extra second works sometimes and other times it doesn't. It's about feeling things out. In the end, there's a time and place for everything."
Finding faceoff-circle groove
Tage Thompson has followed up last season's 38-goal outburst with 43 in 70 contests this season. A highlight-reel regular, he's a bonafide NHL superstar.
It can be easy to forget that Thompson's in the middle of just his second season at center. However, his faceoff win rate of 43.1% is a giveaway that he's still learning the position.
Ben Jackson / Getty Images
"Right now, I'm trying to find one thing that works, something I can fall back on," Thompson said of overcoming his woes in the faceoff circle.
He later added, "A lot of people from the outside, those watching, think it's meat and potatoes, hack and whack. But there is an art form to it. Certain guys have made a living off it. There are little nuances to the process, lots of detail."
Thompson is being proactive. In the offseason, he worked with former NHLer Marty Reasoner, a 52.9% faceoff guy in his day, and during the season he's been leaning on Sabres assistant coach and resident faceoff guru Jason Christie.
"If I can dial that in, get good at it, that gives our team such an advantage, starting with the puck," said Thompson, who usually shares the ice with Jeff Skinner and Alex Tuch. "We won't have to chase it around for half of the shift."
He's been picking his teammates' brains about technique, watching video of the best active faceoff men, and studying linesmen to tease out tendencies.
"Linesmen have a certain routine," he said. "Some of them are quicker on the drop. Some of them make you really square up. Some let you cheat a little. You've got to know who you're working with in that respect, too."
Outdueling while under pressure
Justin Edmonds / Getty Images
Sean Durzi didn't know what to make of the question when it was posed. He's learning loads "every single day," so the list of skills to master is long. Durzi's only appeared in 126 NHL games, after all.
A beat later, though, an answer came to the Los Angeles Kings defenseman.
The most difficult thing for Durzi is to shoot the puck while under pressure and at full speed. No, wait, he continued, honing his thought - it's shooting the puck to a specific spot while under pressure and at full speed.
"I can pick a spot from the point, no problem," Durzi said of outdueling goalies. "But when it's one-on-one with the goalie, can you be deceptive enough to beat him? Whether you turn your blade over or do something else. That's what I'm learning and, from what I've seen, you gain with experience."
Durzi knows he's capable of carrying the puck down the wall in the offensive zone, then, with defenders swarming, cut to the middle of the ice and beat the goalie cleanly. He's done it in practice. But the stakes are significantly higher in games, the intensity ratcheted way up. Nothing truly matches game action.
"Especially with all of the defenders on you," he said. "It's just a lot different."
Developing better puck poise
Icon Sportswire / Getty Images
Cole Sillinger, the 12th overall pick in the 2021 NHL draft, turned heads last season as the league's youngest player. Conversely, Year 2 has been a bumpy ride. The 19-year-old has recorded just 11 points in 64 games.
Sillinger is still confident he can blossom into an impact, 200-foot center for the Columbus Blue Jackets. And one of the ways he'll come to earn that label, he insists, is by becoming fully comfortable operating below the hash marks in both end zones. Developing better poise with the puck is his top priority.
"Ultimately, you want to create more puck possession and O-zone time," Sillinger said. "It's the same mentality in the D-zone, as far as retrieving the puck and moving it out of the zone through possession and protection. You don't want to force anything."
He's trying to learn to be less predictable in those areas. Holding onto the puck a second or two longer can give him, as the puck carrier, more influence over the play. Defenders have no choice but to swarm, opening up teammates for a pass.
Right now, Sillinger's predictability makes him easier to shut down.
"If I can keep improving on the possession aspect, and then add it to my game permanently," Sillinger said, "I'll see myself have more opportunities and also whomever I play with will have more opportunities as well. Win-win."
John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).
Although their recent record (5-4-1) might not suggest as much, the Blues are playing some truly terrible hockey right now.
They've lost the expected goal - aka weighted shots - battle in eight of the last 10 games and seven in a row. That would perhaps be justifiable if their schedule was difficult, but it hasn't been.
During this stretch, the Blues have faced off against the Red Wings, Sharks (twice), Coyotes, Blue Jackets, and a Capitals team that saw their GM pull the plug on the season at the deadline. If the Blues can't hang at five-on-five with those teams, there's real cause for concern.
I don't have a long list of great things about the Red Wings, but there are a couple. For all their faults, they've defended very well of late. Only five teams have done a better job at suppressing expected goals since the deadline.
They've fared especially well against bad teams, allowing next to nothing at five-on-five to the Blues (1.52 xG), Predators (0.79 xG), and Blackhawks (0.73 xG).
Beyond three or four forwards at the top of the roster, the Blues are paper-thin up front. If they couldn't muster up much against Detroit while controlling matchups at home, I don't see a reason to expect any different on the road.
The Red Wings have played decent hockey in Detroit this calendar year, owning a .500 record at home.
Look for them to take care of business against a Blues side that has won just six times and posted a 41 xGF% away from home in 2023.
Death, taxes, and targeting the Predators. I've gone at them a handful of times since the trade deadline, and I'm going back to the well tonight with the Kraken.
Yes, the Predators have done a good job of staying afloat after depleting their roster at the beginning of the month. That being said, their recent wins have come against the Blackhawks, Kings (in a shootout), Ducks, Red Wings, and a Sabres team that's conceded what feels like 500 goals this month.
The Preds scored one goal at home to Chicago. They generated 20 shots at home to the Jets. They generated 22 shots and lost by seven to the Rangers. There isn't a whole lot to be impressed with.
If they're struggling to create against the Blackhawks and Jets (in their current form), I certainly don't have faith in their ability to facilitate offense against the Kraken.
Although there's always the possibility an egg is laid in goal for Seattle, that's about the only way the Preds are going to score against them. The Kraken are very stout defensively and give opponents next to no room to breathe.
They've conceded just 26 shots on goal per game over the last 10, ranking third in the league. The Kraken also sit near the top in terms of suppressing expected goals and chances.
It'll be very difficult for this watered-down Predators lineup to create opportunities with any sort of regularity. If Seattle's goaltending is remotely decent, it should be able to pick up two big points.
Bet: Kraken (-125)
Todd Cordell is a sports betting writer at theScore. Be sure to follow him on Twitter @ToddCordell.
We have 12 games to look forward to on Thursday's meaty slate. Let's look at three props that stand out from the pack as we seek to build on our 6-0 start to the week.
Ryan Hartman over 2.5 shots (-132)
Similar to Martin Necas, Hartman is a much more efficient shot generator away from home. He has gone over his total in 17 of his 27 road affairs (63%), compared to just eight of 22 at home (36%).
There's every reason to expect Hartman's road success to continue against the Flyers. For one, he's playing a much larger role with Kirill Kaprizov out of the lineup. Hartman is skating on the top power-play unit and routinely sees 19-plus minutes of ice time.
That extra opportunity has led to more shots. Hartman's gone over in four of six games sans Kaprizov while recording more shots than all Wild forwards except Matt Boldy.
Lastly, the positional matchup is very enticing. The Flyers rank 29th in shots against per game versus centers over the last 10.
Jared McCann over 3.5 shots (+135)
McCann has seen his total bump from 2.5 to 3.5, and for good reason. The Kraken's top sniper has recorded four shots or more in seven of the past 10 games, falling one shot shy in two of the three occasions he failed to go over the number.
The uptick in shots we have seen from McCann is no coincidence. He's averaged nearly 19 minutes per night during this stretch, which is well above the 16 he's averaged over the course of the season.
Those extra shifts have been put to good use: McCann has averaged 7.4 attempts over the past 10 games, well above his season output of 4.8 per night.
McCann is playing more minutes, shooting the puck more frequently, and garnering extremely strong results; he's scored seven times in this span.
With the Kraken in the thick of a heated playoff race, I see no reason why they'll ease off the gas and get away from what's working so well for McCann.
Miro Heiskanen over 2.5 shots (-145)
Heiskanen is a monster on home soil. He's registered three shots on goal or more in 70% of his games in Dallas this season, a remarkably impressive rate.
The numbers beneath the hood are much better in Dallas, as you'd expect. He's averaged 5.2 shot attempts on the road this season and 6.8 at home. That's a sizeable gap.
What I love about Heiskanen is he continues to improve upon an already strong process in Dallas. His numbers have increased of late, with Heiskanen registering a team-best 76 attempts over his last 10 in Dallas.
Yes, he's even ahead of Jason Robertson - one of the best volume-shooting wingers in the NHL who's gone over his shot total (3.5, by the way) in 66% of his home affairs.
Heiskanen should be able to stay hot in a sneaky-good matchup Thursday night. The Penguins rank bottom-five in shots against per game versus defensemen and are in the latter half of a road back-to-back, having played at altitude in Colorado.
Expect Heiskanen's home cooking to continue.
Todd Cordell is a sports betting writer at theScore. Be sure to follow him on Twitter @ToddCordell.
Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid scored twice against the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday night to reach the 60-goal mark for the first time in his illustrious career.
The milestone tally came on a beautiful overtime winner, which he converted on his second breakaway of the shift.
"Not very happy I missed the first one," McDavid joked after the game. "Leo (Draisaitl) made two unbelievable plays there."
He added: "60 is a nice number. A lot of great players have scored 60 goals before, and it's cool to join that list."
McDavid is the 22nd player in league history to reach the benchmark and only the fourth to do so since 1995-96, joining Auston Matthews (2022), Steven Stamkos (2012), and Alex Ovechkin (2008). The two-time Hart Trophy winner reached the 60-goal plateau in only his 72nd game of the season, the fastest mark among the four active players in the club.
Before Wednesday, Wayne Gretzky (five times) and Jarri Kurri (twice) were the only Oilers to ever score 60 or more goals in a season.
McDavid's previous career high in goals was 44. The 26-year-old is on track to capture his first Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy as the league's top sniper as well as his fifth Art Ross through eight seasons.
