Andre Tourigny thinks his scrappy Arizona Coyotes showed their worth during an inspired 2-0 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights in Sin City on Saturday night.

"It was pretty close to a Picasso (painting) for a coach," the bench boss told reporters postgame. "We were urgent, focused all night long. ... It's a Stanley Cup champion team on the other side. The way we played defensively, the way we managed the puck, the way we managed our game, that's what we were begging for for a while."

"That's what we're capable of," Tourigny added. "I'm not saying we'll play 82 like that, but with the mindset we had, we need to copy and paste."

The goaltenders - Connor Ingram for Arizona and Logan Thompson for Vegas - were the main storyline of the contest through the first two periods. The tilt remained scoreless until the midway mark of the final frame when Coyotes star Clayton Keller broke the deadlock with his eighth tally of the season. Keller's goal would be the only one that beat a netminder in the game, as Lawson Crouse iced the outing with an empty-netter.

Ingram was undoubtedly Arizona's MVP after turning aside all 34 shots he faced for his second career shutout. He saved 3.37 goals above expected to help the Coyotes end a three-game losing streak that saw them tumble two places in the Central Division standings.

"We've had some long meetings there the past couple of days just trying to get things back on track, so I think that was a great response from everybody," Ingram said. "That's a good win to learn from and to build on."

The victory didn't come easy for the Coyotes, who were outshot 34-18. Arizona's lineup was also heavily depleted: In addition to still being without centers Barrett Hayton and Jack McBain, as well as rearguard Travis Dermott, key blue-liner Matt Dumba missed the contest with a lower-body injury.

The Coyotes played half the game with five defensemen after Vladislav Kolyachonok went down with a lower-body ailment in the middle stanza. Troy Stecher led the team in ice time after playing for a season-high 26:49 minutes.

"The way our guys responded on the back end, really proud of them," Tourigny said.

The Coyotes are attempting to move into the next phase of their rebuild this season and currently sit six points behind the Dallas Stars for third place in their division.

Next up for Arizona is a clash against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.

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New York Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba dodged a suspension Saturday despite committing an objectively questionable act.

The NHL instead fined Trouba for hitting Boston Bruins forward Trent Frederic in the head with his stick after a whistle early in the second period of the Rangers' 7-4 win.

Here's a closer look at the incident:

Trouba wasn't penalized for his actions during the game. Frederic played four more shifts in the second period and ultimately logged 19 of them in the Bruins' defeat.

The Rangers blue-liner has been suspended once in his NHL career. He sat out two games in February 2017 for hitting then-Ottawa Senators forward Mark Stone in the head.

The league also fined Trouba $5,000 for slashing then-St. Louis Blues rearguard Vince Dunn in January 2020.

New York took over the top spot in the NHL with Saturday's victory over Boston.

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Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe doesn't think star winger Mitch Marner has consistently looked like himself this season.

"Just not executing at the level that you'd expect from Mitch," Keefe said Saturday, per TSN. "At times he's had it. ... But, no doubt, Mitch hasn't found his groove here yet."

Marner has already been held without a point six times this season, including in four of his last six games. For comparison, he was only held off the scoresheet 14 times in 2022-23, when he racked up a team-leading 99 points (30 goals, 69 assists) in 80 outings.

By no stretch has the 26-year-old been a non-factor offensively this season, though. Marner showed flashes of his usual self while posting back-to-back four-point games against the Buffalo Sabres and Tampa Bay Lightning in early November. Heading into Saturday's action, Marner ranked third on the Maple Leafs with 20 points in 18 games, while his 15 assists are tied with William Nylander for the most on the team.

Nine of his helpers have come on Auston Matthews goals, but Marner's sniping centerman has struggled to score as of late with just one tally in his last six games. Marner has also had a hard time finding the back of the net, with his last goal coming Nov. 6 against the Bolts, good for a six-game drought.

Keefe wasn't ecstatic with his top line - consisting of Matthews, Marner, and rookie Matthew Knies - after Friday's 4-3 overtime loss to the Chicago Blackhawks in which the Maple Leafs surrendered a two-goal lead. That unit was on the ice for two goals against at five-on-five and generated just two shots on net, per Natural Stat Trick.

"They're not making plays; plays are just dying on their sticks," the bench boss said. "That's a big part of it. However, we're one game away from them carrying us offensively against Minnesota in Sweden. They scored two five-on-five goals, they were our best line in that game. So I have to be mindful of that and not just overreact to a game such as last night.

"It certainly has my attention because it's happening more than I'd like and not positive enough. They've been challenged before, they've responded."

Marner and his linemates will have a chance to rebound Saturday against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

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The New York Islanders claimed veteran defenseman Mike Reilly off waivers from the Florida Panthers, the team announced Saturday.

The move comes after the Islanders announced they'd placed rearguard Adam Pelech on long-term injured reserve with an upper-body ailment. Pelech exited the first period of Friday's 5-3 victory over Ottawa after absorbing a hit from Senators forward Drake Batherson.

A vital piece of the Islanders' blue line, Pelech has logged three assists in 16 games so far this season while averaging 19:37 minutes of ice time. The 29-year-old missed three games earlier this campaign with a lower-body issue.

New York also lost defenseman Sebastian Aho to injury against the Senators. Shortly after Pelech went to the dressing room, Aho left the game in the opening frame following a check into the boards by center Rourke Chartier.

Reilly, meanwhile, appeared in two games with the Panthers this season and averaged just over 14 minutes while failing to register a point.

The 30-year-old has also suited up for the Minnesota Wild, Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, and Boston Bruins. Florida signed him to a one-year, $1-million deal in July after Boston bought out the final year of his contract.

Reilly has amassed 98 points in 341 games across nine NHL seasons.

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Chicago Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson said Corey Perry will be away from the team "for the foreseeable future," adding that his absence is a team decision rather than Perry's decision, according to the Chicago Sun-Times' Ben Pope.

The executive wouldn't provide any more details about what's causing Perry's unavailability.

"To start ruling anything out is irresponsible," Davidson said, per NBC Sports Chicago's Charlie Roumeliotis. "So I'm just going to not comment on any possible outcome of this."

Perry's agent, Pat Morris, said Saturday that his client has stepped away from the team "to attend to personal matters," according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.

Chicago made Perry a healthy scratch against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday due to what head coach Luke Richardson described as "organizational" reasons.

Similar to Davidson, the bench boss said Thursday that the Blackhawks would keep the reason for Perry's absence "internal" for now.

The Blackhawks acquired Perry's negotiation rights from the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for a 2024 seventh-round pick in June. Chicago subsequently inked the 38-year-old to a one-year, $4-million deal.

Perry was performing well in his 19th NHL season prior to his mysterious departure. He racked up four goals and nine points in 16 contests.

Chicago is also playing without Taylor Hall, who is expected to miss the rest of the 2023-24 campaign with a knee injury and will undergo surgery to address the issue on Monday.

Despite two major holes up front without Hall and Perry, Davidson said he isn't in a position to make moves to add to his rebuilding team.

"It's not an easy thing to do, to add on the fly, especially this early in the season," he explained, per Pope. "There are probably other teams that would be far more aggressive than us in trying to add talent. It's not something I'm looking at right now."

Chicago currently sits in last place of the Central Division with a 6-12-0 record. The Blackhawks rallied to beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 in overtime on Friday.

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Kyle Okposo scored the game-tying goal during the Sabres' come-from-behind win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night, but the captain's intermission speech was equally vital to Buffalo's comeback.

"(Okposo) said some things (before the third period) - I think everyone in here wanted to run through a brick wall after he spoke," winger Alex Tuch revealed after Buffalo's 3-2 victory. "He's the type of guy that, it doesn't matter what he says, everyone in here is going to listen."

The shots and scoring chances were nearly even through the game's first 40 minutes - 22-20 in favour of the Penguins and 20-19 in favour of the Sabres during the first and second period, respectively - but Buffalo had nothing to show for it and headed into the locker room for the second intermission down 2-0.

Okposo knew his team needed to be desperate during the final stanza, and his rallying cry set the table for what he viewed as the Sabres' "best period of the year."

"Just go," Okposo said of his message to his young team. "Quit worrying about making so many mistakes and worrying about giving up chances. We didn't have that for a long period of stretches last year. We just haven't quite been there this year."

He added, "We just wanted to play our game. I've talked about it before, we just haven't played our game. It's just pressure, pressure, pressure, go, go, go. A lot of times when we do that, we stop thinking, and a lot of goals end up on the highlight film."

Jeff Skinner kicked off the comeback with a power-play goal just five minutes into the third period, and Okposo followed suit with his first goal of the season soon after. Tuch netted the game-winner in the final minutes of regulation, while Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen turned aside all 11 shots he faced.

Sabres head coach Don Granato said he gave the floor to Okposo after their exciting win.

"I thought he did a great job between the second and third, and postgame we went right back to him for further comments because it was a great job," he said. "It was a leadership move but a collective effort. We have lots and lots of leaders in the room that took lots of initiative."

The Sabres are now in sixth place in the Atlantic Division in terms of points percentage with a 9-9-2 record. Okposo hopes Buffalo can use Friday's inspiring victory as a stepping stone to keep its dreams of ending a 12-year playoff drought alive.

"There's no time like the present. We're almost 20 games in, we're almost a quarter of the way through," he said. "We're .500 here and we haven't played our best hockey. I think that bodes well for us if we can just get back to using our legs because there's not a lot of teams in this league that can keep up with us if we're playing like that."

Next up for the Sabres is a clash against the New Jersey Devils on Saturday.

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