from Peter J. Wallner of Mlve, Filip Zadina made the most of the first game in his very short farewell tour with the Grand Rapids Griffins. Zadina scored twice and assisted on Matthew Ford’s overtime goal in a 4-3 win Friday against San Diego as he picked up where he left off in Detroit. “With the boys, it’s great to be together with them and having fun,” he said. Zadina tied the game, 2-2, with a blast just above the right circle 10 seconds into a power play at 8:45 of the second period and tied it again at 3-3 with a tip-in off Brian Lashoff’s shot from the point at 9:45 in the third period.... Ford, the team captain, could see the difference in Zadina. “Everybody tonight is going to remember his goals but the thing I’m going to appreciate the most is he came down here to work hard for us,” he said. "That’s what we expect when they come down to help us for a little bit.” more

Some of the topics include puck technology (expected for the playoffs), Olympics, CBA talks and more. via Sportsnet's YouTube page,  

Feel free to comment on tonight's events. ST. LOUIS -- The National Hockey League today announced the participants in the 2020 NHL All-Star Skills presented by New Amsterdam Vodka that will showcase hockey's top talent on Friday at 8 p.m. ET at Enterprise Center, home of the 2019 Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues. Highlighting the 2020 NHL All-Star Skills presented by New Amsterdam Vodka are two new events: the Gatorade NHL Shooting Stars, and the Elite Women's 3-on-3 presented by adidas. Four events return for this year's edition of the NHL All-Star Skills: the Bridgestone NHL Fastest Skater, the Bud Light NHL Save Streak, Honda NHL Accuracy Shooting, and the Enterprise NHL Hardest Shot. The 2020 NHL All-Star Skills presented by New Amsterdam Vodka will be televised on NBCSN in the United States and on Sportsnet, CBC and TVA Sports in Canada. Sportsnet will be posting the results of each of the categories.

from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News, With their bye week tacked on to the end of the All-Star break, the Wings don’t gather for practice again until Thursday, when they’ll hit the ice at Madison Square Garden. This is the second year the NHL has attached the bye week to the All-Star break — one half going before the break, the other half afterward. Before, the bye would be at different parts of the schedule.... But don’t count coach Jeff Blashill as a huge fan of the extended bye week. The way the schedule is devised these days, because of the bye week, there’s precious little time for quality practices and travel is much more intense. “The season has been so condensed,” Blashill said. “You get no practice time and play every other day. The travel is crazy, you go back and forth and back and forth, especially in the East.” Blashill would rather have the bye week days sprinkled in during the regular season, to alleviate the logjams that were prevalent in November’s schedule, and upcoming in February. more

ST. LOUIS (Jan. 24, 2020) – The Florida Panthers will host the 2021 Honda NHL® All-Star Weekend at BB&T Center in Sunrise, Fla., the National Hockey League® announced today. The League’s midseason showcase will include the NHL All-Star Skills ™ on Friday, Jan. 29 and the Honda NHL® All-Star Game on Saturday, Jan. 30. “We are excited to bring the NHL’s midseason showcase for the best and brightest stars from around the League to the home of the Florida Panthers and South Florida hockey fans,” said NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. “Next year’s Honda NHL All-Star Weekend promises to be an incredible celebration of our game and everything South Florida has to offer.”

183 seconds to completion.  

Once upon a time, the All-Star Game, when it was still just one game, was a much bigger and anticipated event. Now, it almost feels like little more than an interruption in the schedule. -Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review where you can read more on this topic.

from Sam Masterson of KMOX, The great Laila Anderson was a hit during the NHL All-Star media session on Thursday night in St. Louis. Watch some of her hard-hitting questions like, which one of your teammates has the smelliest gloves, what's the last thing you watched on Netflix and is it true that Colton Parayko is the nicest person on the planet? continue to watch the video or view it below...

from Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, After speaking to sources around the NHL this week, we take a look at all 31 teams one month before the trade deadline: One thing to keep in mind with Steve Yzerman in his first year as GM in Detroit, we are far from seeing even the middle point of where this rebuild is headed, in my mind. If you look at Yzerman’s work in Tampa Bay and the massive overhaul there years ago, I think you can bank on something similar with the Wings. There is lots of work to be done. And I don’t know how much of it can be done at the trade deadline, to be quite honest. Sure Yzerman’s got pending UFAs he can flip for picks but goalie Jimmy Howard ($5.1 million cap hit) has struggled this season, veteran blueliner Mike Green ($5.375 million cap hit) has eight points in 41 games, and I don’t know how much Trevor Daley ($3.16 million cap hit) has left in the tank. So I’m really not convinced those UFAs, who carry sizeable cap hits, are going to generate much unless Howard gets going after the break and convinces contending teams looking for goalie insurance he’s back to form. The real question is whether other teams entice Yzerman in the type of hockey deal he might examine come the offseason. Can Yzerman more forcibly start re-shaping the roster in February instead of waiting until June? Would he listen on RFAs such as Andreas Athanasiou? I don’t have the answer to that. But Yzerman has got eight RFAs on his NHL roster right now and you have to ask the question whether it makes sense that all eight are back next year given how things have gone. Let’s not kid ourselves here, the best way to kickstart a rebuild is to finally pick in top three. They haven’t drafted top 3 since 1990 when they took Keith Primeau third overall; they haven’t picked first overall since Joe Murphy in 1986. It’s a franchise in need of it. 30 more (paid subscription) teams...

Prop betting is huge for the NFL's big game where you can place a bet on almost any scenario. But since this is a hockey website, let's see how prop bets for the NHL All-Star Weekend would compare to the NFL's big game. I am a traditionalist when it comes to our game but my view of the NHL All-Star game has changed.  Watch it if you wish and enjoy it, no need to complain about it.  After all, the game will be forgotten quickly with the regular season returning on Monday. Back to the prop bets.  Many places take sport bets online and you may find a place to meet your needs on the NHL All-Star game.

NHL’S BEST ARRIVE IN ST. LOUIS FOR ALL-STAR FESTIVITIES Forty-five All-Stars descended on St. Louis – home of the 2019 Stanley Cup champion Blues – for 2020 NHL All-Star Media Day presented by adidas. The Blues are the first team in more than 30 years to host the NHL All-Star Game as defending Stanley Cup champion – the last team to do so was the Oilers (Stanley Cup in 1988; All-Star host in 1989).

from Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News, What makes an elite athlete tick? And what sets apart the best in the world from those who are just pretty good? In hockey, we’re always putting superstars under the microscope in an attempt to figure out how Connor McDavid became Connor McDavid, or why Sidney Crosby is one of the greatest ever. But who do hockey’s best players admire? Specifically, which players do they like to watch in other sports? That’s the question I posed to a bunch of top NHLers at All-Star Weekend’s media day and in my small, random sample, tennis icon Roger Federer was the runaway winner. But before we get to ‘Feds,’ let’s start off with some of the other answers. NFL players got some love, starting with a certain New England Patriots quarterback. “Tom Brady,” said Dallas’ Tyler Seguin. “A champion through and through and he has that hunger to continuously do it. I’d like to hang around with him and see how he is so consistent and what makes him tick.” continued

Ha, punches thrown too.   Nothing like some old-time hockey. #stlblues #NHLAllStar pic.twitter.com/K9B5f3vSyI — St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) January 24, 2020

from Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star, It’s probably a good thing most Maple Leafs vacated the GTA during their ongoing bye week and all-star break. If they’d stayed, they might not have enjoyed the tone of the public discourse around their season. The “outside noise,” as the players have come to call it, has the Maple Leafs in a heap of trouble of their own making. And in some ways they are. In a matter of a couple of weeks, after they lost five of six games leading into their eight-day respite from the grind, they went from being relatively firmly ensconced in third place in the Atlantic Division to a much more precarious lot in life — four points back of the third-place Florida Panthers and three points out of the final wild-card slot. That’s nothing that can’t be easily made up in the remaining 33 games, but it’s a rough stretch, for sure. The playoff odds at MoneyPuck.com have Toronto as a 63% shot to make the playoffs. Which is to say: The season is getting uncomfortably close to coming down to a coin flip. continued

ST. LOUIS (Jan. 23, 2020) – The National Hockey League (NHL®) today announced the participants of the 2020 NHL All-Star Skills™ presented by New Amsterdam Vodka that will showcase hockey’s top talent on Friday, Jan. 24 at 7 p.m. CT at Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Mo., home of the 2019 Stanley Cup® champion St. Louis Blues. Highlighting the 2020 NHL All-Star Skills™ presented by New Amsterdam Vodka are two new events: the Gatorade NHL Shooting Stars™ and the Elite Women’s 3-on-3 presented by adidas™. Four events return for this year’s edition of the NHL All-Star Skills™: the Bridgestone NHL Fastest Skater™, the Bud Light NHL Save Streak™, Honda NHL Accuracy Shooting™, and the Enterprise NHL Hardest Shot™.

via the NHL PR department, 110 Coach’s Challenges | 48 upheld | 62 overturned · 37 for goalie interference | 21 upheld | 16 overturned (15 to “no goal” / 1 to “goal”) · 3 initiated by Situation Room for goalie interference | 3 upheld | 0 overturned · 58 for offside | 13 upheld | 45 overturned (all to “no goal”) · 5 initiated by Situation Room for offside | 4 upheld | 1 overturned (all to “no goal”) · 6 for stoppage | 6 upheld | 0 overturned (all to “no goal”) · 1 initiated by Situation Room for stoppage | 1 upheld | 0 overturned (all to “no goal”)

Tyler Bertuzzi of the @DetroitRedWings with @stevekouleas and @MattBarnaby3636 #NHLAllStar @SiriusXMNHL pic.twitter.com/AjfMiVIZTp — SiriusXM NHL Network Radio (@SiriusXMNHL) January 23, 2020

Sportsnet style.  

from TheStreet, Two of the most respected and venerable names in sports journalism are joining forces to launch a dynamic, multimedia experience for consumers across North America. Sports Illustrated and The Hockey News will launch their partnership this spring, bringing together the most respected journalists covering hockey on a national and local level, across print, digital, video and audio. The two venerable brands will create and deliver national and local team-focused content to consumers across platforms. Each will continue to publish their magazines, while producing a co-branded digital experience living within SI.com. The Hockey News’ premier journalists will continue to produce all the robust offerings as in the past, and now will gain exposure across Sports Illustrated and Maven’s more than 100 million monthly users. continued

from Larry Brooks of the New York Post, There is probably as good a chance that the team will continue to carry three goaltenders through the Feb. 24 trade deadline as there is that Alex Georgiev will be dealt. And while it is sensible not to rush to judgment simply to avoid an unwieldy situation, let’s not kid ourselves, this might represent the height of interest in Georgiev, who has turned in some excellent performances but has not exactly established himself as an untouchable over the last six weeks. If so, if general manager Jeff Gorton can stoke a bidding war for the 23-year-old pending restricted free agent with arbitration rights, if the Blueshirts could get a no-doubt top-nine winger with potential top-six upside, this would be the time to strike.... There is zero evidence that Lundqvist will ask to be moved. There is no indication that he would agree to waive his no-move clause if a Cup contender comes calling. There is no chance that management would approach him with that request absent legitimate interest from a third party. Perhaps the dynamics could change, but that seems quite unlikely. Absent further notice, then, expect Lundqvist to be here through at least the end of the season, if not through the remainder of his contract that expires after next year. read on

It's not often a Detroit beat writer gives us a view on the NHL, but Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News does. Teams such as Washington, St. Louis, Boston and Tampa looks capable of winning the Stanley Cup — but also face nagging questions that could derail their expected runs. There appears to be a growing number of sleepers that could be getting healthy, or hot, at just the right time — a group that includes Pittsburgh, Columbus, Colorado and Dallas. Some of the best stories have come from individual stars who continue to dominate. Connor McDavid (Edmonton) has returned from a scary-looking knee injury to star yet again, and veterans such as Patrick Kane (Chicago), Alex Ovechkin (Washington) and Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin continue to marvel. Another exciting aspect of this season has been the spectacular play of rookie defensemen Cale Makar (Colorado) and Quinn Hughes (Vancouver), each of whom is playing beyond his age. The tight races and lack of clear-cut favorites promise to make the stretch run one of the best in recent memory. Here is a look at the NHL, heading into its All-Star break: more

DETROIT - The Detroit Red Wings today assigned right wings Givani Smith and Filip Zadina, defenseman Dennis Cholowski and goaltender Calvin Pickard to the American Hockey League's Grand Rapids Griffins. Additionally, the Red Wings recalled goaltender Kaden Fulcher from the ECHL's Toledo Walleye under emergency conditions.

ST. LOUIS — Jan. 22, 2020 — The Professional Hockey Writers Association  (PHWA) announced today the winners of 10 Midseason Awards, as the hockey world descends on the Gateway City to mark the halfway point of the 2019-20 NHL campaign. The PHWA’s Midseason Awards have proven to be an accurate predictor of the NHL Awards show in June: Six of the eight traditional Midseason Awards winners went on to claim the trophy last year in Vegas. “We’re proud of the work our PHWA members put in throughout the entire season, crunching numbers and speaking to sources to gather the best ballot possible,” PHWA president Frank Seravalli said. “The Midseason Awards are the latest example of that, beginning an evaluation process in January that will conclude in early April when the real ballots are submitted.”

15 minutes to watch.  

January 21, 2020 – As the defending Stanley Cup® champion St. Louis Blues prepare to host the 2020 Honda NHL® All-Star Weekend for the first time since 1988, NHL Network™ is set to produce nine hours of live coverage from St. Louis. The action begins with the 2020 NHL All-Star Media Day presented by adidas this Thursday, January 23 at 6:00 p.m. ET, as NHL All-Stars visit with Jamie Hersch, E.J. Hradek and Kevin Weekes and discuss their excitement for the 2020 Honda NHL® All-Star Weekend festivities.

The Red Wings are already at minus 90 in goal difference this season. On pace for minus 145. Worst goal diff. in recent years: 2018-19: -61 (LA) 2017-18: -81 (Sabres) 2016-17: -112 (Avs) 2015-16: -52 (Canucks) 2014-15: -113 (Sabres) 2013-14: -91 (Sabres) — Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) January 23, 2020

To celebrate the All-Star break, I slept in so a little late with this... from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press, The Detroit Red Wings played stupid hockey, but Filip Zadina played to win. Zadina left XCel Energy Center on Wednesday with his first career two-goal game, tallying both markers in the first period, before the Wings caved and collected a 4-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild. For a team as weary as the Wings – they enter the nine-day NHL All-Star break a league-worst 12-35-4 – witnessing a player vital to the rebuild turn in a such a good performance is a balm. “He had a great game,” Dylan Larkin said. “He got a good bounce on his first goal. We needed that as a team. He was one of very few bright spots and showed up to play.”... He works,” Larkin said. “I think as a centerman, he’s a guy you want to play with because he works on the forecheck and when he gets the puck, he’s not looking for the quickest way to get it out of his hands. He’s not holding on to it too long, he’s looking to play give-and-gos and find me and then get to spots and find Bert and get to his spot where he can shoot it. “He’s a smart player and that’s the one thing playing with him that I enjoy playing with him. That’s going to help our team a lot if he keeps developing.” read on

* Oliver Bjorkstrand lifted the Blue Jackets to their sixth straight win after he became the first player in franchise history to record a multi-goal performance in three consecutive appearances. * Ahead of making his sixth NHL All-Star game appearance, Eric Staal factored on two of Minnesota’s three third-period goals to lift the Wild to their 13th comeback win of 2019-20. * Starting today, the 2019-20 season will take a four-day break from regular-season games for 2020 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend, which will be hosted by the reigning Stanley Cup champion Blues at Enterprise Center in St. Louis.

via Sportsnet's YouTube channel,  Elliotte Friedman joined Tim and Sid to discuss teams that are on the bubble when it comes to adding talent at the trade deadline, and what he thinks of the Jets and Paul Maurice’s standing with the team.  

In the first period, Zadina 2, Wild 1.  Nice to see the Wings get the bounces. In the second period, Wild 3, Wings 0.  After 40 minutes, Minnesota 4, Detroit 2.  Not the best period for the Wings but we have seen it before. No scoring in the third.  Final 4-2 Minnesota. Below find the Zadina goals and Detroit stats. Now it is break time for the Wings, next game is Friday, January 31 at MSG to face the Rangers.

Another loss by the Wngs, losing 4-2 to the Wild. Not sure if there will be post-game videos but if they show up soon, I will post them below.  added 11:41pm, below, group post-game video is below.    

It’s gotten to the point of actually dreading Wings game's lately. They manage to get worse with each passing game. I understand injuries, lack of elite talent, no D, and yes, bad goaltending. That still doesn't get the coaches off the hook either.  Many of us have watched all of the worst of the Wings teams of the past, and this group has some better players than on previous bad Wings teams, but, this is some of the worst hockey in forty years. Bar none.....   It's a Live Blog!

from Christian Hetrick of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Chris Greenwell brought his boy Brandon to the Wells Fargo Center one night in November to meet the most famous person on the Philadelphia Flyers payroll: Gritty. The Flyers had invited Greenwell and his 13-year-old son to get a photo and some face time with the fuzzy, googly-eyed mascot, all part of an exclusive event for season ticket holders. But after waiting in line for about an hour behind dozens of fans to get to Gritty, something shocking happened, according to Greenwell. In Greenwell’s telling, Brandon playfully patted the mascot on the head after the photo was taken. As Brandon walked away, Gritty got out of his chair, “took a running start," and “punched my son as hard as he could," Greenwell said Wednesday. Officials at Comcast Spectacor, the company that owns the Flyers, told Greenwell there is no video footage of the incident because the “cameras in that area of the center are focused on other locations,” according to emails between Greenwell and officials. The company claimed it conducted an investigation that included interviews with Gritty, and “Gritty’s handler,” but couldn’t verify Greenwell’s account. continued

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. … The 2020 AHL All-Star Classic presented by Ontario International Airport is just days away, and the two-day event will reach millions of hockey fans worldwide through extensive television, internet streaming and social media coverage.

Dennis Cholowski first, Jeff Blashill below.   "It's always exciting to be back." Dennis Cholowski is in Minnesota after being called up from Grand Rapids this morning. | #DETvsMIN pic.twitter.com/B6A6sE9lmI — Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) January 22, 2020

Heck, I can't even remembers goals from the games last night, so turning it over to you. from Tracey Myers of NHL.com, In the runup to the unveiling of the NHL First and Second All-Decade Teams on Jan. 24 (6:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN), the NHL will be announcing its best plays, moments, events, coaches and team of the 2010s. One selection, chosen by NHL.com and NHL.com International staff members, will be unveiled each day in the runup to the release of the all-decade teams. Today is Goal of the Decade, which was scored by Patrick Kane in Game 6 of the 2010 Stanley Cup Final against the Philadelphia Flyers. Patrick Kane has scored a lot of memorable goals in his NHL career. But the Chicago Blackhawks forward's goal 4:06 into overtime against the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 6 of the 2010 Stanley Cup Final, the one that ended the Blackhawks' championship drought after 49 years with a 4-3 victory, is one he'll never forget. "I mean, obviously it was a great run throughout the [Stanley Cup] Playoffs and you think you're sitting pretty at 3-2 and they tie it up," Kane said of the 4-3 win. "It seems like they have a lot of the momentum going into overtime. We had a couple of chances early, I think [Kris] Versteeg had a chance in the slot." continued Watch the goal below.

from Lisa Dillman of The Athletic, Drew Doughty knew there would be pain. He realized that last season. But Doughty certainly didn’t anticipate the Kings’ struggles would last this long and run quite this deep. What looks to be their continuing membership in the Lottery Club is difficult to accept for someone with Doughty’s winning pedigree — a two-time Stanley Cup champion, two-time Olympic gold medalist and Norris Trophy winner in 2016. “It’s frustrating. Being one of the top guys, I never expected to be (in this position). I always expected that I would be able to help push my team to a playoff spot every single year,” Doughty said. “But now back-to-back years, being in last place, it’s been stressful and depressing a little bit. “Sometimes you’ve got to sit back and realize you don’t have the team you once had.” continued (paid) Doughty's AAV is $11M through the 2026-27 season. Full contract details.

from Elliotte Friedman of Sportnset, - As the all-star break begins and teams go through their scouting meetings, a few teams with interesting possibilities are waiting on upcoming performance to decide their path. Included in that group are Chicago, Minnesota, Montreal and the Rangers (back-to-back with Detroit when they return). Those teams will test the value of their players, but hold off on final decisions until closer to the deadline — unless they become convinced they’re out. Pittsburgh continues its pursuit of Jason Zucker, but the Wild aren’t yet ready to concede anything. Nothing is happening with the Blackhawks as long as they’re still in the race, but if they fall out, would Joel Quenneville ask to pitch ageless physical specimen Duncan Keith on the virtues of southeast Florida? - The NHL tried to make the Justin Bieber/Jordan Binnington showdown part of All-Star Weekend. Just didn’t work at this time. Apparently, it is going to happen, though. - The league sent a memo to its officials about the “Michigan”/“Svechnikov” lacrosse-style goal reminding officials that any goal scorer must have his stick below shoulder level when possessing the puck and below the crossbar when putting it home. Otherwise, the stick is in an illegal position. many more Thoughts...

#RedWings in morning skate: Bertuzzi-Larkin-Zadina Perlini-Filppula-Fabbri Helm-Glendening-Erne Smith-Ehn-Abdelkader Nemeth-Hronek Daley-Bowey Cholowski-Biega — Dana Wakiji (@Dwakiji) January 22, 2020

from Frank Seravalli of TSN, Five of seven Canadian clubs are represented in the mid-season Top 50. Ottawa and Calgary don’t have any players on the list. The Flames had four on the pre-season list: Gaudreau, ,  and . Norris Trophy frontrunner  is the highest-ranked defenceman at No. 7. Carlson’s teammate  fell from No. 7 on the pre-season list to No. 10, staring up at players like Pastrnak - whom he will attempt to chase down in the Rocket Richard race in the second half. Let the debate begin. Here is TSN Hockey’s mid-season Top 50 ranking for 2019-20: the top 3 on the list are McDavid, MacKinnon and Pastrnak...

“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

from Dana Wakiji of DetroitRedWings.com, Although only 11 players took part in the optional on-ice practice, every player was part of a lengthy meeting beforehand. "It was a meeting that I wasn't going to leave until we had it straight," Blashill said. "We gotta get better. I talked about it last night. We gotta get better in our D zone coverage. So until everybody had a chance to make sure everyone understood, we weren't leaving that meeting. If we went a little long, it went a little long." Bowey said he thought everyone got a lot out of the meeting. "Just right now I think it comes down to structure for us, supporting each other all around the ice," Bowey said. "I think in the D-zone especially, we got to close quicker, make sure it's harder for other teams to get their top players rolling around in our defensive zone and I think just focus on that. I think we have a really good structure put in place by the coaching staff and if we just follow that, do that to the best of our abilities, it puts us in good spots to come away with wins. I think that's certainly a focus now, focusing on doing the little things right, supporting each other all around the ice and knowing who we have to cover and knowing when to shut down plays." more and other topics including an injury update on Anthony Mantha and Andreas Athanasiou, "(Mantha's) still a ways away, a month maybe," Blashill said. "It's not a progress thing. I don't know if I gave you a bad timeline to start. I don't remember the timeline I gave you, to be honest with you. It just is what it is. It's gonna be a long process before he's healed." Unlike Mantha, Athanasiou had started skating before the team left. "His is a healable thing that will be healed. It just depends on when," Blashill said.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. … The American Hockey League today announced that Bakersfield Condors defenseman Brandon Manning has been suspended for five (5) games as a consequence of his actions in a game at Ontario on Jan. 20. Manning was suspended after being assessed a game misconduct under the provisions of AHL Rule 23.9 for use of a racial slur towards an opponent. Manning will miss Bakersfield’s games Wednesday (Jan. 22) vs. San Jose, Friday (Jan. 24) at Tucson, Saturday (Jan. 25) at Tucson, Jan. 31 vs. Ontario and Feb. 1 at Stockton. Statement from Manning is below.

via Dana Wakiji tweet, Erne, Ehn, Smith and Ericsson on ice for optional practice at Xcel Energy Center. Larkin just joined as well. Anything noteworthy from the optional I will post it here.

I recently received an email from a KK member which included the following. Paul, I have had many milestones in my 63 years. College, 29 years of marriage, 30 years as an attorney and Judge, scaled mountains, sailed seas, flown airplanes, raced my Porsche, and now........ (drum roll please)  I just moved above 10,000 posts on your site! Huzzah! Thank you for the hosting the platform for all the shenanigans through the years! Onward!! All the best, I emailed the member back to receive an okay to use this, with the name of the member not included.  How about you, does anyone else reach some rare air?  

from Sportsnet, “I don’t know, it’s tough, I mean 3-on-3 is exhausting. We play six forwards and three D for the most part. Guys are usually dead tired, and goalies are dead tired by the end of the five minutes, so, I think extending it would be a little bit tough.” – Vegas’ Mark Stone “You see how much the fans love it, and I think we love it almost just as much. It’s fun. If you went past the five minutes, it wouldn’t take long until there’s a goal because there are so many chances that happen. Once you get to a shootout, it’s kind of like a 50/50. How many two-on-ones are there in five minutes? I think in another five minutes, someone will score.” – Vancouver’s Brock Boeser many more responses...

His ideal temperature for a long winter’s nap — seven to nine hours is the goal — runs about 18 Celsius (64.4F), and maybe chillier.... And his environment must be pitch black, which is generally not a problem at home or on the road, when the Leafs stay at high-end hotels like the Four Seasons or Ritz-Carlton. “Most rooms have nice blackout curtains.”... “When you’re in a new room, something about your brain stays on a little bit. The fight-or-flight response,” he said. “It’s some kind of instinct. When you’re in a new environment, you’ve got to be aware if there’s any sabretooth tigers coming.” Who is it?

from Sean Keeler of the Denver Post, “I don’t think I’m gonna get 50,” MacKinnon, the Avalanche all-star, said quietly when the subject of the big 5-0 — Nimble Nate is on a pace for 51 — was broached. “Nah. I don’t think I’m gonna get 50. “I’m a disher. I’m a passer. I’ll get 70 assists but not 50 goals.” Come again? “I’m just joking,” MacKinnon continued, less than hour after scoring twice on the hapless Detroit Red Wings to help Colorado close the first half of the season with a 6-3 win. “I don’t know. We’ll see. “I’ve got to get hot. I’ve only gotten 40 once, so I don’t know. I’m just trying to play my best every night, play at 100 percent and we’ll see what happens out there.” read on

from Brendan Kelly of the Montreal Gazette, The big talking point as the Canadiens start their bye week is what Bergevin is going to do with his week off while many of his players are off vacationing in the sun. The Feb. 24 trade deadline day in the National Hockey League is hurtling toward us with frightening velocity and the discussion among hockey opinion-makers and Canadiens fans this week is what the general manager’s strategy should be in the next month. As a good pal of mine, a former stock trader, always says: “sell high, buy low.” That’s true on Wall St. and it’s also true in pro sports. If you believe that, then Bergevin should be dealing assets in the coming weeks. In terms of high value, you don’t get much better than Tomas Tatar and Shea Weber and that’s why he should, at the very least, go out and see what fellow GMs might offer for those two. Tatar is having another great season, with 43 points in 50 games. We all love Tuna — even more so after he scored that beauty of a shootout winner Saturday — but he’s eligible to become an unrestricted free agent in summer 2021 and will naturally be looking for a lengthy high-price contract that off-season, a deal for a 30-year-old that would be silly for Montreal to sign. Weber, 34, is more obvious trade bait. He is also having an amazing season, but this one is just an age thing. He will not be the same kind of player when the Canadiens’ young prospects come to maturity. read on

from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press, The Detroit Red Wings noticed fans still remember the rivalry, and the competitiveness of the Colorado Avalanche stoked hopes it soon might be revived. The Wings head into Wednesday's game at Minnesota, their last before the break, on a five-game losing skid after dropping a 6-3 Monday matinee at Pepsi Center. There were enough partisan fans to start a few "Go Wings" chants, but many more voiced their disapproval of the Wings, whose rivalry with the Avalanche two decades ago was one of the best in sports. “This rivalry, with the fans, most definitely it’s still there,” Dylan Larkin said. “Next year or year after and in the years following, with the players they have and the players that we have, it’s going to be an exciting rivalry again.” The Wings don’t stack up against opponents most nights, their lineup weakened by injuries (top defenseman Danny DeKeyser is out for the season and top-line winger Anthony Mantha’s return is uncertain) and patched with minor-league call-ups. At 12-34-4, the Wings are on pace to finish with 46 points. continued

NEW YORK (Jan. 20, 2020) – Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin, Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Elvis Merzlikins and Chicago Blackhawks center Jonathan Toews have been named the NHL’s “Three Stars” for the week ending Jan. 19.

At what point do we just stop watching the Wings? All of the beat writers have finally anointed the Wings as "Bad". Tell us something we don't know. As a team, at what point did it become acceptable to just give up? Losing has now become the norm, and, that is going to be the hardest obstacle to overcome. The longer the Wings continue to lose, the easier it becomes, and it's looking all too easy from where I stand.  It's a matinee Live Blog!

added 5:42pm, Detroit stats way below. Since some of you are probably working during the game and since this is the only NHL this afternoon, well as I get Detroit goals and/or highlights, I will post them. Follow Kate's Live Blog for all the ongoing comments during the game and check back here for videos during and after the game. 1-0 Detroit Bertuzzi.  

Just south of 5 minutes to watch.  

Coach first, highlights below. added 6:32pm, Larkin below. added 6:58pm, group video below.  

from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News, The Red Wings mustered three goals Monday — they’ve only scored eight goals in the last five games, all losses — but didn’t do enough defensively to quiet the Avalanche. “A lot of chances and goals were from us not coming back into our zone, it’s not good enough,” forward Dylan Larkin said. “We knew coming in, a team like this, we were going to have to defend a lot. But we didn’t come back (defensively) and sort it out enough.”... “The second period, we couldn’t get out of our end and all of a sudden you’re spending a whole bunch of time defending,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “We lost (Nielsen, Green) … and it just taxed our guys a lot. “There’s a whole bunch of defending and suddenly we didn’t have our skating legs — and that’s a hard team not to have your skating legs against.”... Losses wear on you, and it starts to hurt your energy a little bit,” Blashill said. “We have to be real careful of that, we have to find a way to have great energy in our last game before the break and get ourselves rejuvenated coming back out of the break.” more

THREE HARD LAPS * No strangers to wild comeback wins this season, Florida rallied past Minnesota at Xcel Energy Center via a go-ahead goal scored in the dying seconds of regulation by Noel Acciari. * In his final game before captaining the Central Division at the 2020 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend, Nathan MacKinnon tallied twice and became the fourth player to reach the 30-goal mark this season. * Cale Makar matched the single-season franchise record for points by a rookie defenseman, reaching the mark in nearly half the games required by the Nordiques blueliner who did so nearly 35 years ago.

Just a reminder, the puck drops against the Avs at 3:00pm ET today. It will take you close to 27 minutes to watch.  

The Athletic with their poll of the players with question like best player, game 7 SCF goalie and more. I will concentrate on this... Who is the dirtiest player in the league? Now we come to the first question players were a little hesitant to answer. Some took issue with the concept of dirty players altogether. “Nobody’s dirty,” a Pacific Division player said. “I know guys who are cheap. There are a lot of rats in the league. (Matthew) Tkachuk’s a rat. Brad Marchand’s a rat. But I wouldn’t call them dirty.” Others disagreed and had lots to say about Marchand, in particular. Let’s go with a sampling from all four divisions. “Marchand can do some shady shit.” — a Pacific Division player. “Let’s go with Brad Marchand. He’s a little prick.” — a Metro Division player. “It’s disgusting what the league lets Marchand get away with. He’s got no respect for anybody. Makes me sick.” — a Central Division player. more ($$$) and 9 more categories...

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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,

Paul Stastny picking at his chicklets.  

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.

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.

The panel discussed Zack Kassian close to signing an extension, the play of Ilya Kovalchuk and are the Habs buyers or sellers. Also Gerard Gallant wants to get back into coaching quickly if the right fit, Robin Lehner wants a fair contract and at the ASG, the boards will be digitally advanced. via Sportsnet,  

General recap of Detroit's 4-1 loss to Florida. In games like this, the lack of offensive weapons on the Detroit team shows. I would say the Wings had more chances than Florida but no finish.  They still remain offensively challenged.  Plus going 0-6 on the power play doesn't help. Joe Veleno and Moritz Seider interviews plus Detroit goal and stats are below. Next game is in Denver on Monday with a 3pm ET drop on MLK Day. added 10:03pm, added the stick work by Biega below the stts...

Frederik Andersen on Bronx cheers from #Leafs fans tonight: “I think it’s easier for players to play well when they have support. Sometimes you don’t get it. But you also have to work and play well to get that kind of support.” Prefers the other kind of cheers he’s used to. — Kristen Shilton (@kristen_shilton) January 19, 2020   Below, watch the Bronx cheers.  The Leafs lost 6-2 to the Blackhawks.

Besides Joe Veleno and Moritz Seider (posted in tonight's game recap), Fox SportsDetroit spoke with Gustav Lindstrom and below, Michael Rasmussen and Evgeni Svechnikov. Added Jeff Blashill below too after the loss to Florida. added  10:53pm, Larkin, group talk and highlights below.  

via Sportsnet, Sheldon Keefe addresses the media following the Toronto Maple Leafs loss to the Chicago Blackhawks, stating that the team is 'immature' and that they need to be more disciplined and responsible defensively.     added 11:17pm, Post-game talk below.

At the end: "Thank you, thank you very much." #CBJ https://t.co/gKJLRPlERR — Jeff Svoboda (@JacketsInsider) January 19, 2020

Some good, flashback video cuts included. via Sportsnet, Brian Burke talks about the league stepping in to deal with the Tkachuk and Kassian feud and the process of hiring a coach with a remaining term.  

from Larry Brooks of the New York Post, Ray Shero’s dismissal after 4¹/2 seasons as Devils general manager wasn’t as much a commentary on his and his team’s performance as it was a story about lines of authority and autonomy within the hierarchy. Make no mistake. This is an owner-driven operation. If you didn’t recognize that David Blitzer and Josh Harris were calling the shots, then you might have missed the summer trade for PK Subban that was hatched in the owners’ suite. Not that New Jersey was alone on this, as another Eastern Conference team beaten to the punch on No. 76 was also holding talks above the GM level with the Predators, sources reported at the time. There has been previous reporting by CBC’s redoubtable Elliotte Friedman about the “collaborative” process favored by ownership in decision-making. George Steinbrenner once favored a collaborative process, too. Slap Shots has been told New Jersey features an organizational chart in which all lines on the hockey side lead to ownership rather than the general manager and that the influence the analytics department had on ownership was an issue, with VP Tyler Dellow reporting to Blitzer/Harris rather than Shero and with reports from the analytics department awarded prominence in weekly meetings between ownership and the hockey department. continued

I think these back to back games are a lot harder on the 19 than they are on the Wings. Just sayin...... It's a Live Blog!

from Peter Botte of the New York Post, “They’re not easy discussions, but Hank and I also have had good conversations regarding the situation we’re in,” Rangers coach David Quinn said. “It’s about players adapting in their careers, and as their careers evolve. “[Lundqvist] is in a situation where he’s obviously not playing the amount he’s played in the past. That doesn’t mean he’s not a really good goalie. We have faith in him. But our organization feels that we’re gonna have three goalies here as of right now, and it’s just kind of the way it’s evolved and the situation we’re in.” The Rangers (23-19-4) have won four of their past five games, with Shesterkin and Georgiev notching two wins apiece, sandwiched around a 5-2 loss Jan. 11 in St. Louis in Lundqvist’s lone appearance between the pipes during that stretch. “It’s a bit of a challenge, for sure. In the end, you want to play. If you’re in this room, you want to play games,” said Lundqvist, who has one year remaining on his contract at a $8.5 million cap hit with no indication he’d be willing to waive his full no-trade clause. “I understand the big picture here, and at the same time, [Georgiev and Shesterkin] are playing well, both of them. I’m trying to focus on the things I can control, and that’s the way I practice and prepare. “It’s important for me not to overthink it too much, and I’m sure it was the same for [Manning] when he went through it. I know I can play well when I get the next opportunity to play and get my chance.” more

Coach Blashill ahead of the game. #FLAvsDET #LGRW pic.twitter.com/0iDHc609z6 — Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) January 18, 2020

from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun at the National Post, - If you were a hockey scout and you’d never seen Tyson Barrie play before this season, what would you tell your team about him? And would you recommend signing him? I’m not sure I would … Leafs are still trying to figure Barrie out. He looked lost playing for Mike Babcock, scored three goals in his first three games under Sheldon Keefe, but has just one goal in 22 games since. - How much will Dougie Hamilton’s broken fibula injury hurt the Carolina Hurricanes? He was having a terrific season.  Carolina is a tight playoff race. Four teams – Canes, Philadelphia, Florida and Columbus – for two spots and two points behind them all … The West could go down to the final weekend. Right now, it’s Arizona and Calgary at 57, Vancouver and Vegas at 56, Edmonton at 55, Winnipeg at 54. It’s hockey’s version of musical chairs. Six teams, five playoff spots, someone will be left standing … And who do you like in the Atlantic – Boston or Tampa Bay? The Lightning are again playing the best hockey in the league. They have a +38 goal differential. Since December 1st, the Lightning are 17-7-1 and the Bruins are 10-13-7. more

Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press answers some fan mail. The first question is regarding the Wings at the trade deadline, Yzerman has said he wants to add more picks to the eight the Wings hold in the 2020 draft, but he may be hard pressed to do so. Mike Green, Trevor Daley and Jimmy Howard are among veterans on expiring contracts, but they’ve all struggled this season. Maybe a contender inquires about Green because he has been successful especially on power plays in the past on good teams, but he isn’t going to yield much in return. Daley is a mobile puck mover but he has struggled to stay healthy the past two seasons. Howard has struggled too much to draw interest. More: Detroit Red Wings' Jeff Blashill: NHL coach firings 'a bit crazy in the league' Forward Andreas Athanasiou scored 30 goals last season, but this season has been dismal — at the time he suffered a lower-body injury Dec. 29, Athanasiou had 5 goals, 14 assists and a minis-35 rating in 36 games. That has tarnished his trade value, and there’s no sense in moving a 25-year-old with his skill set — explosive speed, soft hands — unless the return is something that really boosts the rebuild. He should still draw interest, though. Maybe the Penguins consider him, since they lost Jake Guentzel to shoulder surgery on Dec. 31. more and two more questions...

from Matt Porter of the Boston Globe, At a hockey game today, everything is under review. Look no further than a Bruins game at TD Garden. To capture the on-ice action, NESN has access to 17 cameras, shooting different angles. They’ve got center-ice overheads, wide-angle side views, iso-cams, and ankle cams. There are lenses focused on the stars, the scrubs, the goalies, coaches, and management. If Cam Neely sneezes, it’s probably on film. All this video has seemingly made everyone a little more sincere. If a player dares to skate into the zone a few snowflakes ahead of the puck, the NHL’s video review system will catch him. And anyway, hockey’s an honest game, right? All that free-flowing action makes it hard to cheat. It’s a game of quick thinking, not sign stealing. A playbook isn’t much help when Connor McDavid is racing toward you, or David Pastrnak is lining up a slapper. You can’t deflate solid rubber, and if anyone’s banging on a trash can, it’s an overserved fan. Honest game, right? Not quite. “I played with an illegal stick my entire career,” offered NESN analyst Andy Brickley.... All in all, fairly benign. But here’s the question: Could an NHL team pull off a true cheating scam? read on plus more topics...

from Jack Harris of the LA Times, “There’s this momentum across the league and the hockey industry itself,” said Alicia Chin, an NHL senior manager of social impact and growth. “As demographics of North America are changing, we know that we need to be relevant.” The traditional cold-weather sport has never found much of a foothold in Latin America. In many cities across the U.S. Sun Belt states, it still remains mainly a niche activity. Latino players, such as the Kings’ Alec Martinez and Toronto Maple Leafs All-Star forward Auston Matthews, have always been in the minority on NHL rosters. And unlike football and baseball, French is hockey’s de facto second language, not Spanish. The potential, however, is promising. Teams across the league, especially those in the country’s southern footprint, are envisioning an increasingly diversified future for their sport. more

from Luke DeCock of the News & Observer, There’s no replacing Hamilton, who picked up where he left off last season as an offensive dynamo, not only creating chances for others but finishing them himself, and doing a far more credible job in his own end at the same time. Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce were already shouldering a heavy load as part of the defensive foundation with Hamilton; their nights aren’t going to get any shorter. Slavin played 25:23, third-most this season, in Friday’s 2-1 overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks. Pesce played 25:34, second-most for him. That’s the new normal for both in the post-Hamilton reality. The Hurricanes are hoping the way they played isn’t. Hamilton’s absence alone doesn’t excuse a dismal performance against a Western Conference bottom-feeder after Sebastian Aho staked the Hurricanes to the lead in the first four minutes. “That’s a huge part of our team missing,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “But we have a lot of guys in there. I don’t think we were sharp. That was clearly evident.” The Hurricanes were in the market for a top-four capable defenseman before Hamilton went down, but that quest was upgraded from “if possible” to “by all means necessary.” Unfortunately for them, everyone else in the NHL knows it. Whatever the prices they saw before were, they just went up. Fortunately, they have the salary-cap space to do it, and maybe even add a veteran depth guy as well. Ideally sooner rather than later. more

Then... Mickey Redmond tells us so.