“There was no f—ng slow start. We played as good in the first as we did in the second as we did in the third. That team played its asses off tonight. “Listen, I haven’t liked some of the games we played but that team played as hard as it could. I got no beef on the effort, the other team played well too.” -Paul Maurice, head coach of the Winnipeg Jets after a 4-1 loss to Carolina.  Ted Wyman of the Winnipeg Sun has more on the Jets, who have lost 5 of their last 6 games.

Two games tonight, Winnipeg at Columbus and Detroit at Minnesota. Then no NHL games until Monday.  So a simple question as we head into the All-Star break. Who is your favorite to win the Stanley Cup? Mine, the Blues repeat. Extra credit if you pick the other team in the SCF.  Mine is Washington.

DETROIT - The Detroit Red Wings today recalled defenseman Dennis Cholowski from the American Hockey League's Grand Rapids Griffins. Cholowski, 21, has split his second professional campaign between the Red Wings and Griffins, showing eight points (2-6-8) and four penalty minutes in 29 games with the Red Wings, including five points (1-4-5) on the power play to rank second among the team's defenseman in addition to his first overtime-winning goal in the NHL (Nov. 12 at Anaheim). Since joining the Griffins last month, Cholowski has notched five points (2-3-5) in 17 contests, including goals in two of his last four games with the team. Dating back to his pro debut at the end of the 2016-17 campaign, Cholowski has 17 points (2-15-17) and 14 penalty minutes in 43 regular-season games with the Griffins and two points (0-2-2) and two penalty minutes in six Calder Cup Playoff games. In his two NHL seasons, the 6-foot-2, 197-pound defenseman has recorded 24 points (9-15-24) and 20 penalty minutes in 81 games with the Red Wings.

from Michael Arace of the Columbus Dispatch, The Blue Jackets are 15-2-4 over their past 21 games. The numbers within are crazy, and we can count the ways. On Dec. 9, when this hot streak started, the Jackets were closer to last place in the conference (nine points ahead of Detroit) than they were to the second wild card (11 points behind Carolina). Heading into a game Wednesday night against the Winnipeg Jets in Nationwide Arena, the Jackets are holding the first wild card. Right now, they’re in. The Jackets are 26-18-6. They have 60 points, their second-best record through 50 games, trailing only the 2016-17 team, which had 71 points through 50 games and ended the regular season with 108. That was a healthy group touched by magic. This is something else. The past 21 games, by the numbers (and the goaltending stats are crazy): Nineteen players have combined to score 63 goals (3.0 a game). Twelve players have scored winning goals. continued

from Ken Campbell of The Hockey News, The Blackhawks should have a pretty good idea of their playoff chances by the time the trade deadline rolls around Feb. 24. They have a gruelling schedule in February, with all but three of their 14 games away from the United Center. But they’ve actually been a better team on the road than at home this season. Not including tonight’s game, they have 11 more games, eight of them on the road. So the picture should become a little clearer in the coming weeks. If the Blackhawks are still in playoff contention, there’s no way they even think of trading Lehner. They might not be able to trade him even if they want to make a deal because as enticing as a top-tier goaltender would be for the playoffs, there are precious few teams that are playoff bound that need a goaltender. The Edmonton Oilers, who are getting good, but not great goaltending, are one of those teams. The last time they made a deadline deal to get a goalie was 2006 and it worked out pretty well. They made a deal for Dwayne Roloson, who carried them to the Stanley Cup final and might have won it for them had he not gotten hurt in Game 1 of the final. Regardless of whether Lehner is dealt by the Blackhawks, it’s impossible to argue that he doesn’t deserve the long-term deal he was seeking from the New York Islanders over the summer. There have been a total of 37 goaltenders in the NHL who have played at least 60 games over the past two seasons and of those goalies, Lehner is second in save percentage to Ben Bishop. more

from Jeff Gordon of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Blues general manager Doug Armstrong has aggressively spent long-term assets while in win-now mode. He has the defending Stanley Cup champions atop the Western Conference as a result. Yet Armstrong can step back at the All-Star break and still see solid organizational depth supporting his roster. If he wants to make an upgrade before the NHL trade deadline, he still has chips to play. If he chooses to hang on to them instead, he will have a hedge against spring fatigue and future salary cap challenges. Either way, Armstrong is sitting more comfortably than most of his peers. Even with wingers Vladimir Tarasenko and Sammy Blais sidelined while recovering from surgical repairs, forwards Jordan Kyrou and Zach Sanford have had to alternate in the lineup and power forward Klim Kostin has remained in development in San Antonio. continued

THREE HARD LAPS * Frank Vatrano scored Florida’s fourth hat trick of the season to propel the Panthers to victory in Joel Quenneville’s return to Chicago. * Meanwhile, Mike Hoffman joined rare company with his second point streak of 10-plus games in as many seasons as the Panthers skated to their sixth straight win. * Teuvo Teravainen, one of three Finnish-born players to find the score sheet in the Hurricanes-Jets game, collected his fourth three-point game of 2019-20 and helped Carolina improve to 4-0-1 in its last five home games.

from Ansar Khan of Mlive, Givani Smith has scored two goals in 14 games with the Detroit Red Wings but hasn’t celebrated either, since they came late in one-sided losses. There will be more goals and many more games for the big, abrasive forward. Smith has made a good impression since being recalled from the Grand Rapids Griffins on Dec. 30. He forechecks hard, grinds down low, plays physical and doesn’t back down. General manager Steve Yzerman likes what he’s seen, telling people in the organization he’s pleased that Smith goes to the net aggressively. continued from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press, A little after noon Tuesday, a pair of goaltenders wanted to know where their Detroit Red Wings teammates were. Practice was supposed to be underway, but the only players on the ice were Jonathan Bernier and Calvin Pickard, who went through skating and shooting drills with goaltending coach Jeff Salajko. The question came up because they wanted to face shots. The answer: Detention. Practice was delayed about half an hour because coach Jeff Blashill was adamant players stick around until they understood the assignment regarding systematic play. The Wings, who lost to the Colorado Avalanche, 6-3, on Monday, take a five-game losing streak into Wednesday's game against the Minnesota Wild. “It was a meeting that I wasn’t going to leave until we had it straight,” Blashill said after an optional practice at Xcel Energy Center. “We have to get better at our d-zone coverage. So until everybody had a chance to make sure everybody understood, we weren’t leaving that meeting, and if it went a little long, it went a little long.” continued

from Terry Jones of the Edmonton Sun, George Parros is coming to the game. But he doesn’t want to talk about it? Meanwhile, just about everybody else seems to want to talk about nothing else but Game 787 of the NHL schedule Jan. 29 in Edmonton. It’s a game that has come to stand separately from all the others on the 2019-20 NHL schedule. The renewal of hostilities of the finally-on-again Battle of Alberta following the Oilers recent 4-3 loss in Calgary featuring heels Matthew Tkachuk and Zack Kassian has become the featured game of the entire regular season. Parros, the NHL Director of Player Safety, has decided his presence will be required in Rogers Place to read the riot act to both teams and particularly both players in order to prevent a riot. In all his years as a goon, playing 10 NHL seasons with career totals of 18 goals and 18 assists and 1,092 minutes in penalties, no NHL Director of Player Safety was ever required to show up for any jackpot Parros ever managed to get himself involved. continued

They still love Coach Q in Chicago. pic.twitter.com/pUG0hh4vKt — NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) January 22, 2020     Q’s moment. pic.twitter.com/a0wB2LDU6y — Tracey Myers (@Tramyers_NHL) January 22, 2020