The New York Islanders took a moment Friday to acknowledge a popular former player.
Kyle Okposo, who signed with the Buffalo Sabres as a free agent this past summer, was honored with a video tribute and a long ovation from the Barclays Center crowd during a break in action.
Okposo appeared in 556 regular-season games for the Islanders after being drafted seventh overall in 2006
The New York Islanders aren't exactly the best team around these days, but they are giving one of their more notable celebrity fans the bobblehead treatment.
That would be Ralph Macchio of "Karate Kid" fame, seen below wearing a home jersey while adopting the crane kick pose made famous in the climactic scene of the 1984 film.
The Islanders enter Friday's action in the Eastern Conference basement, so perhaps head coach Jack Capuano will get his players to paint his fence and wax his car in an effort to turn the season around.
It's been an interesting first third of the season for the Winnipeg Jets, to put it simply.
The club has looked to be a tire fire at times and a potential Cup contender at others. Nevertheless the club is just a point out of the final wild-card spot in the West thanks in large to some incredible individual performances.
Mark Scheifele for a time led the entire league in scoring and looked to be the hottest player going. Meanwhile, Patrik Laine has been flirting with several rookie scoring records en route to hammering 19 pucks past opposing netminders so far.
However, a player that has been nearly equally as impressive - but has not received the same praise - is Nikolaj Ehlers.
Now in his second season after a commendable rookie campaign that saw him post 15 goals and 38 points in 72 games, the 20-year-old is set to obliterate last year's totals.
Just 36 games into the season, Ehlers has nine goals and 29 points, putting him on pace to close out the season with 20 goals and 66 points.
What is surprising in all of this has been that while his linemates have populated the headlines, Ehlers has flown under the radar despite being just a point behind Laine and two back of Scheifele for the team lead.
His production in itself shouldn't be that unexpected. After all, the Jets selected him ninth overall in 2014 after Ehlers posted back-to-back 100-plus-point seasons with the Halifax Mooseheads of the QMJHL.
Ehlers is an exceptional talent who is only just scratching the surface as to what he can really do. If he keeps riding his current pace, it will be only a matter of time before he finally starts getting the credit he deserves.
According to Fox Sports Ohio, Columbus' 7-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday was viewed in about 38,000 homes in the region. In the final 30 minutes of the broadcast, the number of viewing households jumped to 55,000.
The game's 4.1 household rating, or the percent of total households that tuned in to the game, was the highest regular-season rating the club has drawn in seven years, per Evan Weese of Columbus Business First.
The Blue Jackets have not generated those kind of viewing numbers since clinching their first playoff berth in a game against Chicago back in 2009.
Columbus vaulted into a tie with the Blackhawks for first in the overall standings with the win in front of a sellout crowd of 19,113, and will host the Montreal Canadiens on Friday.
For the time being, many eyes are on this suddenly successful team.
Speaking with TSN on Friday, the Team Canada captain commented on the decision by USA Hockey to leave Alex DeBrincat off its final roster.
"It's their decision," Strome said. "I think it's good for us that he's not there. (He's got) a lot of goals. A little strange decision, but they obviously wanted to go a certain way with their team and he wasn't part of it.
"I feel bad for him, but at the same time I'm playing for Canada right now."
A native of Farmington Hills, Mich., DeBrincat has scored 30 goals and 30 assists through 28 games this season with the OHL's Erie Otters, where he is teammates with Strome.
The Chicago Blackhawks selected DeBrincat 39th overall in last year's NHL draft.
Practices postponed in rinks in the surrounding area, it's the hottest ticket in town inside an inspired hockey community that Matthews is validating with his performances thousands of miles away. In the biggest market of its kind.
For his part, Mike Babcock won't take from the dramatic effect.
Mike Babcock will give Auston Matthews the opening faceoff tonight in Arizona.
The pews will be packed with hundreds of young hockey players and fans that look up to "Papi" - as Matthews is known as in his hometown - but there will be a few in attendance that he's particularly excited to perform in front of.
Matthews told TSN's Kristen Shilton that having his grandparents see him play in the NHL for the first time will be "pretty great."
We imagine for the Matthews family, this entire holiday season will be much the same.
The Hurricanes and Red Wings were originally scheduled to play Dec. 19 at the PNC Arena in Raleigh, N.C., but an issue with the arena's ice cooling system ultimately postponed the game.
The two teams met earlier this season, with the Red Wings winning the Oct. 25 game by a 4-2 score. Thomas Vanek, Andreas Athanasiou, and a pair of goals by Dylan Larkin pushed the Red Wings to victory.
Captain Coyote is about to join an exclusive group.
When the Arizona Coyotes and their leader Shane Doan take on the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday, it will mark the 1,500th game of Doan's long-tenured career, one in which he has spent entirely with the same franchise.
With the feat, Doan will become just the sixth player in NHL history to play as many games with one organization:
Player
Team
Games
Gordie Howe
Detroit
1687
Nicklas Lidstrom
Detroit
1564
Alex Delvecchio
Detroit
1549
Ray Bourque
Boston
1518
Steve Yzerman
Detroit
1514
Shane Doan
Arizona
1500
Doan also becomes just the 17th player to reach 1,500 games all together.
It won't be the only mark that Doan could hit Friday. The wily veteran sits one goal shy of 400 for his career, and has the chance to achieve the feat versus Arizona-born Auston Matthews.
"Anyone that gets to 400, I've definitely taken the longest," a humble Doan told reporters. "Anyone that's played this long should have had 400 a long time ago."
Drafted seventh overall by the original Winnipeg Jets in 1995, Doan stayed with the club when it left the Manitoba capital for Phoenix the following year.
Ever since, he's claimed every record in franchise history, as Doan holds the top slot in the team's all-time goals, assists, and points categories, scoring 954 points over the course of his career.
Things have never been lower in the Mile High City.
Indeed, it's been a rocky season for the Colorado Avalanche. Following Thursday's 6-0 stomping by the Toronto Maple Leafs in front of their home fans, the Avalanche fell to 11-20-1 on the season, further cementing their place in the NHL's basement.
The loss comes less than two weeks after the Avs lost by more than a touchdown to the Montreal Canadiens, on the wrong end of an ugly 10-1 score. Things weren't much better against Toronto, where Colorado failed to tally on two separate 5-on-3 man advantages, leaving the Denver faithful - who have witnessed just four home wins on the season - wanting more.
It's been a nightmare month for the Avalanche, who have come away with just two wins through 11 games in December. That stretch has seen the Avs shutout three times, and out scored 42 to 18.
It's a roster that once included Paul Stastny, who left in free agency, and Ryan O'Reilly, who was sent to Buffalo for a package of players including Mikhail Grigorenko and Nikita Zadorov, neither of which has had much impact through two seasons in Denver.
But for all of their offensive options, the Avalanche can't seem to score. And they surely can't defend with so little depth on the back end.
That problem was further compounded following the loss of top blue-liner Erik Johnson, sidelined with a broken leg and not expected back on the ice until February. The Avalanche are 2-7 in his absence. That's left Tyson Barrie and veteran Francois Beauchemin to hold down the fort in the meantime. Really? 50 more games of this?
Season
GP
Record
Points
2016-17
32
11-20-1
23
2015-16
82
39-39-4
82
2014-15
82
39-31-12
90
2013-14
82
52-22-8
112
Things were supposed to get better once Patrick Roy left his coaching post. After all, it was supposedly his system and his style that was holding back the Avalanche. But new coach Jared Bednar, fresh off a Calder Cup win in the AHL, hasn't been swept up with offense of his own. Still, as a first-year on the job, he's safe for now.
And short of a world where the Avalanche can cut loose general manager Joe Sakic, the most prolific player in franchise history, that means change must come elsewhere.
Poor drafting
It starts at the draft table, where the Avalanche have scored with their higher picks. MacKinnon, Landeskog, and Duchene were all taken within the top three, and are now big pieces of the Colorado core. Meanwhile, the likes of Tyson Jost and Mikko Rantanen, both 10th overall picks in the past two drafts, have delivered impressive early returns.
But the team hasn't had nearly as much luck on the second day of the draft, where clubs make their picks in rounds two through seven. Go back a decade and the results just aren't there. Outside of the opening round, only five picks have seen 100 games in the NHL - Barrie, O'Reilly, Kevin Shattenkirk, who was flipped to the St. Louis Blues for Johnson, plus T.J. Galiardi, now in the KHL, and the ever-obscure Bradley Malone.
So what's the answer for the one-time dominant franchise that made the postseason every year in its first 10 after uprooting from Quebec, a stretch which included two Stanley Cups and four other trips to the Conference Finals?
It's a distant past for the Avalanche, winners of a single playoff series since 2007 and just a three-time postseason participant in that time.
Blueline repair
A team that once featured the likes of star blue-liners Rob Blake and Adam Foote, former teammates of Sakic, surely knows the value of defense. After all, it wins championships.
Owners of the league's worst goals against, the Avalanche allow 3.25 goals per game. And at minus-40, their goal differential is a full 10 points worse than the second-last club, and 20 worse than the third-lowest.
That's led to many long nights for goaltenders Calvin Pickard and Semyon Varlamov, who both own save percentages in the .900s, despite standing behind a porous defense. Varlamov, after all, is just two years removed as a Vezina nominee. Surely the 28-year-old's game hasn't fallen off that quickly.
Duchene, Landeskog...name a core player and the rumors will be flying once the roster freeze lifts. Something has to give in Colorado.
Change is needed. Let the Edmonton Oilers serve as a model for the Avalanche. Like Colorado, Edmonton had collected years of scoring talent at the draft table, only to be continuously mired in losses and poor play. That ended last offseason, when the Oilers flipped former first-overall pick Taylor Hall to the New Jersey Devils for defenseman Adam Larsson, who has played a major role in reshaping Edmonton's defensive game.
Today, the Oilers sit fifth in the West, 18 points ahead of the Avalanche, and poised to make their first playoff appearance since 2006.
That is the path forward for the Avalanche, who have the opportunity to repair their ailing blueline, with just three defenders - Johnson, Barrie, and Beauchemin - signed through 2017-18. Depth is badly needed, and perhaps an entire second pairing all together.
That means one of MacKinnon, Landeskog, or Duchene should be on the outs. As captain, Landeskog is likely safe, and the same for MacKinnon, a dynamic talent and former Calder Trophy winner. That makes Duchene the likely candidate.
It's now up to Sakic to find the right trade partner, to not only strengthen his team's blue-line, but return the Avalanche to respectability and the glory days with which he is familiar.
