THREE HARD LAPS * Patrick Kane found the score sheet to register his second 10-game point streak of the season and become the 90th player in NHL history to collect 1,000 regular-season points. * Sidney Crosby factored on two of four unanswered Penguins goals to lead Pittsburgh to its third three-goal comeback win of 2019-20 (also Nov. 7, 2019 at NYI and Nov. 27, 2019 vs. VAN). * In his first game back with the Hurricanes after signing a one-year contract with the club on Jan. 7, Justin Williams helped Carolina climb back into the Eastern Conference playoff picture.

Patrick Kane (31 years, 61 days) became the youngest U.S. player to reach 1,000 career regular-season points, eclipsing Jeremy Roenick (32 years, 13 days) who spent eight seasons with the @NHLBlackhawks from 1988-89 to 1995-96. #NHLStats pic.twitter.com/Mne1TH6bvF — NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) January 20, 2020   Video below.

Bob Wojnowski of the Detroit News on all the losing with the Detroit teams but I am just going to try to highlight the Wings. We knew it’d be bad. We signed up for bad. But at some point, a pointed question: How long before it’s bad enough to do something about it? The Red Wings, Tigers and Pistons have been in various stages of rebuilds for about four years.... If you happen to coach in Detroit right now, you can’t win. Also, you can’t lose. Because the Wings and Tigers are in full teardowns, Jeff Blashill and Ron Gardenhire get some slack, despite historically awful records.... The Wings have the worst record in the NHL, by far, and will have the best shot at the No. 1 pick. Blashill is 148-178-51 in five seasons, incredibly the third-longest-tenured coach in the ax-happy NHL. He’s on the thinnest ice, pun intended, although Steve Yzerman has strongly supported him. It’s not just that the Wings’ well-compensated veterans — Frans Nielsen, Jimmy Howard, Mike Green, Justin Abdelkader, etc. — have failed, it’s that the touted young players — Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha, Tyler Bertuzzi, Andreas Athanasiou — have either been hurt or stagnant. Gerard Gallant, recently fired by Las Vegas, could be the next guy in charge, whenever that is.... The lack of urgency to fire coaches here is not about management being lazy, detached or cheap (although we can revisit those charges). It’s about owners — Chris Ilitch, Tom Gores, Martha Ford — who have mapped out plans of patience and aren’t ready to blow their covers with showy firings.... Would Scotty Bowman or Mike Babcock win more games with these Wings, who have lots of injuries, no defensemen and no goaltending? Not before their heads exploded (literally!).... ’m not letting the coaches off the hook. (Yes you are!) (No I’m not!) I’m suggesting talent acquisition is a much larger issue than talent development.... That’s where Blashill, 46, has to show more, and you wonder if a few young players have stopped getting the message. It wouldn’t be a surprise, considering they’ve heard his voice since he coached some of them in Grand Rapids. more

from Mike Chambers of the Denver Post, Jared Bednar is sympathetic toward coach Jeff Blashill and the Detroit Red Wings — by far the NHL’s worst team. It wasn’t that long ago when Bednar coached “that” team. In 2016-17, Bednar’s first season behind the Avalanche’s bench, Colorado finished with league/franchise lows in victories (22) and points (48). It was the league’s worst season since the Atlanta Thrashers won just 14 games in 1999-2000. The Red Wings take a league-low 12 wins and 28 points in Monday’s matinee against Colorado at the Pepsi Center and are on pace for just 47 points. “It’s horrible. Pure misery,” Bednar of coaching the NHL’s worst team. “The morale in your room, you’re trying to get guys back in the right mental state to go win your next game, and there’s a lot of nights where you play hard, do everything you can, (but) you maybe just don’t have the horses to win the games.” continued

from Ryan Dixon of Sportsnet, Dan Hamhuis is seated on the baseline of a slightly busted semi-circle. The 16-year NHLer is one of seven Nashville Predators defencemen participating in a group chat about all aspects of the position they play. It’s early December, post-practice, and backwards hats, hoodies and athleisure rule the day. The sweaty jerseys and socks have been whisked away, equipment staff are busy toiling in other areas of the team facility and the dressing room has pretty much cleared out apart from the blue-liners when Hamhuis, speaking to the idea that defencemen belong to their own little tribe, suggests that if he walked into a room full of hockey players he didn’t know, he’d eventually be able to sort out who else is part of the brotherhood without having to ask. “I think there’s a personality thing,” Hamhuis says. “I don’t want to blanket it, but I think you kind of can.” He opens it up to the room: “What do you guys think?” Ryan Ellis, plunked on a chair facing Hamhuis, senses his opportunity. “It’s like we’re more win-oriented,” he says, igniting a round of chuckles. That’s not exactly how Hamhuis was framing things, but you can see why the joke plays well. Whether it’s a bunch of blueliners skating in today’s green-light game or retired guys from more staid eras past, you don’t have to probe very hard to discover a common pride. “You’re not out to get goals and points as much as forwards,” says Hamhuis. “We’re more under-the-radar kind of guys, doing things that maybe don’t get the glory.” continued

A little over 6 minutes to watch.   Coach Blashill looks ahead to tomorrow's matchup against the Colorado Avalanche following today's practice at the BELFOR Training Center inside Little Caesars Arena. #RedWings pic.twitter.com/YFd8le8Kk0 — Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) January 19, 2020

from Ansar Khan of Mlive, If you’re going to lose, don’t go down without a battle. That has been the message from Detroit Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill. His team lost again Saturday, 4-1 to the Florida Panthers at Little Caesars Arena, but Blashill was glad players competed and scrapped in a chippy, physical, penalty-filled game. “It was physical and lots of jawing and lots of stuff behind the play and a lot of emotion,” Blashill said. “I’m 100 percent good with that. We could have had ourselves a line brawl and it would have been even better. “I’m just kidding.” The problem, nothing new, was the Red Wings’ failure to capitalize on the power play, going 0 for 7, wasting more than 12 minutes on the man-advantage. They squandered Jimmy Howard’s second solid outing in as many nights, a 34-save performance. continued from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,

from Jeff Svoboda of BlueJackets.com, The Blue Jackets ran their hot streak to 14-2-4 in the last 20 games with a 5-0 win against New Jersey on Saturday night in Nationwide Arena.... Quote of the Game Head coach John Tortorella: "That score at the end of the second period could have been lopsided the other way. We had one guy play. As a team, we played the first six minutes and then we watched Elvis play for the rest of the first period and the rest of the second period. We played better in the third ... but don't kid ourselves on how this team played. We were not good, and Elvis deserves a tremendous amount of credit as far as finding our way tonight." CBJ Notables - Merzlikins was superb yet again, finishing with a career-high 41 saves -- including 21 in the first period -- on the way to his fourth straight win and eighth in 10 games. - Atkinson continued to be on fire, notching his second and third goals in two games since returning from injury while adding an assist. He has eight goals in his last 10 games, 40 career game-winning goals and 16 games of at least three points in his CBJ tenure. - Wennberg had a goal and an assist to extend his point streak to four games (3-2-5). He has a 3-6-9 line in his last 10 contests.  more

HREE HARD LAPS * Alex Ovechkin scored his second hat trick in as many games to move ahead of Mario Lemieux (690) and into a tie with Steve Yzerman (692) for ninth place on the NHL’s all-time goals list. * Elvis Merzlikins became the seventh rookie goaltender in the NHL’s modern era (since 1943-44) to register three shutouts in a span of four starts. * Blackhawks forward Dominik Kubalik became the first rookie to 20 goals in 2019-20, while his 14 tallies since Dec. 1 trail only Toronto’s Auston Matthews (18) among all players in that span.

Paul Stastny picking at his chicklets.  

via Ansar Khan tweet, RedWings rare practice after back-to-back nights, due to early game Mon. at @Avalanche (3 ET). Lines: Bertuzzi-Larkin-Zadina Erne-Glendening-Fabbri Abdelkader-Ehn-Smith Helm-Perlini Filppula, injured, and Nielsen not skating. Nemeth-Green Ericsson-Hronek Biega-Bowey No Daley

Alex Stalock on Corey Perry incident late with the #mnwild up 6 goals pic.twitter.com/KknfhgX9r5 — Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) January 19, 2020   Watch the play below in two versions, one edited for langiage, the other one raw.

from Jason Simmons of the Journal Pioneer, Gerard (Turk) Gallant admits he never saw the Vegas Golden Knights’ coaching change coming... “I was quite surprised actually when it happened,” Gallant told the Journal Pioneer on Saturday night. “You don’t see something coming like that when you have 2 ½ years in. “I was disappointed and surprised, but I understand the hockey business and things have to change sometimes. They made a tough decision and I’m sure it was tough on them, but that’s the way hockey is.”... “I’m far from done,” said Gallant, 56. “I enjoy coaching. “If an opportunity comes up I will definitely look at it – myself and Mike. Mike is a big part of what I do too and sometimes people forget about the assistant coaches.  read on

from Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet, It has been a jaw-dropping news week in British Columbia. Harry (the Royal formerly known as Prince) could move to the West Coast with his wife, rare snowfall ended rain’s winning streak, the Vancouver Canucks moved atop the Pacific Division, and the Supreme Court ruled the provincial government can’t restrict what flows here by pipeline from Alberta. Shocking but true: the Canucks lead the Pacific Division heading into their National Hockey League bye week. The Canucks! And it’s not fake news. The Canucks, who have lost more games over the last four years than anyone other than the Buffalo Sabres, beat the San Jose Sharks 4-1 Saturday to move alone atop the tightest division in hockey. Actually, they didn’t just beat the Sharks but dominated them. Shots were 27-7 after 40 minutes. continued Catch the game highlights below.