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.”

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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).