Winnipeg Jets forward Mark Scheifele rode pine for a significant portion of Saturday's game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Scheifele went straight off the ice after a Kyle Connor turnover instead of backchecking on Toronto's third goal. He didn't see the ice for 17 straight minutes after that shift, per ShiftChart.com.

Head coach Paul Maurice didn't divulge the specifics behind Scheifele's benching.

"We have some things that we value as a group," Maurice said postgame, according to The Athletic's Murat Ates. "Mark's a real competitive guy, and that gets the best of him sometimes, I think. We just need to adhere to our core values."

Scheifele ended up logging 17:11 of ice time in the game - his second-lowest total of the season. He was minus-2 with no points in the contest.

Jets captain Blake Wheeler said Scheifele responded well to the benching.

"We need him out there to have success," Wheeler said. "I thought he did a good job with it."

Scheifele leads the Jets with 54 points in 47 games.

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Zdeno Chara joined some elite company on Saturday.

The Washington Capitals blue-liner became the fifth defenseman in NHL history to reach the 1,600-game mark.

Chelios, Stevens, Murphy, and Bourque are all enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

The veteran signed a one-year deal with the Capitals in the offseason after spending 14 campaigns with the Boston Bruins, with whom he won a Stanley Cup, Norris Trophy, and Mark Messier Leadership Award. Before his run with the Bruins, he spent four years apiece with the Ottawa Senators and New York Islanders.

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Florida Panthers defenseman Keith Yandle played his 915th consecutive game Saturday night when he suited up against the Carolina Hurricanes. In doing so, he now stands alone with the second-longest ironman streak in NHL history.

Yandle eclipsed Garry Unger's mark of 914, which the Panthers blueliner tied Thursday. Doug Jarvis holds the record at 964.

More to come.

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Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby joined some historic company in the NHL record books during Saturday's 4-2 win over the New Jersey Devils.

Crosby notched his 55th point of the 2020-21 campaign with an empty net goal, officially clinching his 16th straight point per game season. Only Gordie Howe and Wayne Gretzky have managed more seasons with a point per game pace, with 17 and 19, respectively, the team announced.

Crosby also joins Gretzky as the only players in NHL history to start their careers with 16-plus consecutive point per game campaigns.

Crosby currently ranks fifth in points per game among players who have played at least 700 contests.

With the goal during Saturday's contest, Crosby also broke a tie with Lemieux and teammate Evgeni Malkin to become the first player in Penguins history to record 20-plus goals in 13 different seasons, according to NHL PR.

"He's a generational talent ... he’s in such elite company," head coach Mike Sullivan said. "He’s building a real compelling argument for being one of the greatest players of all time. We believe he is, but with each milestone he reaches it just provides hard evidence."

The 33-year-old has recorded 20 goals and 35 assists in 47 games this season. In 1,031 career games, he's amassed 482 goals and 836 assists while capturing three Stanley Cup victories, two Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophies, and two Hart Trophies.

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Edmonton Oilers forward Zack Kassian will be out week-to-week with a lower-body injury, head coach Dave Tippett announced Saturday.

The bruising right wing suffered the injury early during Wednesday's contest against the Montreal Canadiens when he went to lay a hit on defenseman Shea Weber. Kassian previously missed 17 games earlier in the season due to an upper-body injury.

Kassian has amassed two goals and three assists in 27 games this campaign. The 30-year-old ranks third on the Oilers with 13.68 hits per 60 minutes while averaging 11:51 minutes of ice time per game.

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American women's hockey stars Hilary Knight and Kendall Coyne Schofield aren't impressed with the IIHF's failure to implement a contingency plan following the cancellation of the 2021 world championship.

The IIHF and the Nova Scotia government nixed the tournament Wednesday due to COVID-19 concerns, just weeks before it was scheduled to take place May 6-16 in Halifax and Truro.

"The cancellation of the women's world championship at the last minute this week was just another reminder that women's hockey continues to be treated as an afterthought," Knight wrote in a statement Friday.

She continued: "The health and safety of the people of Nova Scotia is, and must be, the top priority. However, to cancel this critical event so close to its start - with some teams en route to the site to begin an eight-day quarantine process - and provide no other option is incredibly disappointing."

Coyne Schofield shared similar sentiments.

"To learn that there was no contingency plan and the IIHF is letting 250 of the best players in the world return to their homes today with, 'We are seeking new dates,' is simply unacceptable," she stated Thursday.

The IIHF and Hockey Canada said in a joint statement after the cancelation that they aim to stage the event "in the summer of 2021." The possibility of moving the event from Nova Scotia is on the table.

IIHF president Rene Fasel said the organization didn't have a safety net in place because there didn't appear to be a need for one.

"As both the IIHF and Hockey Canada had assurances that this event was going to proceed a few days before the cancellation announcement, this news was completely unexpected," Fasel said, per The Canadian Press.

The 2020 women's world championship was also canceled due to the pandemic.

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