Cody Eakin drew the ire of the New York Rangers and the attention of the officials with a single blow Thursday night.

The Dallas Stars forward delivered a forceful hit to the head of Henrik Lundqvist as the Rangers goaltender was playing the puck behind his net in the first period.

Eakin was assessed a five-minute charging major and a game misconduct for the incident, which forced Lundqvist to briefly exit before returning to play the remaining five minutes of the period.

It's the veteran netminder's first game back in the crease following four straight starts by backup Antti Raanta.

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Of course he did.

In his first game against his hometown Arizona Coyotes, Auston Matthews opened the scoring with a wicked power-play wrister late in the first period.

The Maple Leafs phenom is up to 14 tallies in 29 games this season, which puts him on a remarkable 40-goal pace.

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Well that was a thing of beauty.

The Chicago Blackhawks showed their skill on a beautiful power-play goal against the New York Islanders on Thursday, with three players dishing crisp passes before Artem Anisimov finished things off in front of the net.

Patrick Kane and Artemi Panarin drew the assists on the goal, Anisimov's 14th of the season.

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Mark Messier is about to be pushed down a peg.

The hockey legend ranks second on the NHL's all-time scoring list with 1,887 points, but Jaromir Jagr is on the verge of passing him and laying claim to the title of the game's most productive player not named Wayne Gretzky.

With Jagr's Florida Panthers set to take to the ice Thursday, and with the Czech winger only four points back of second place, Messier held a conference call Thursday to reflect on Jagr's accomplishments and what it means for him personally.

"When there’s been almost 6,000 people come into the league, I’m the most surprised person of anybody that I’ve been sitting at No. 2 for this amount of time," Messier said, per Craig Davis of the Sun-Sentinel.

"As humble as Gordie (Howe) was when Wayne passed him, I look at this like it's an opportunity to hopefully inspire the next generation of players and set the benchmark for them and hopefully inspire them to be the best they can be."

Messier added the following in regards to Jagr:

When he came into Pittsburgh he dazzled us with his power and his skill and his overall game. And later on in his career he inspired us with his passion and dedication. He's played long enough to understand the significance of what the game means to him as a person and as a player.

The only way you can play and do what he's doing right now is to make sure you're putting the time in for your conditioning and taking care of yourself. And to really have a deep passion for the game. The game has to be the number one priority in your life because it takes a lot of time to prepare for each and every game, never mind each and every season.

Jagr - whose NHL career was interrupted by a stint in the KHL - has recorded 1,883 points in 1,659 career games, while Messier needed 1,756 to reach his total.

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Ottawa Senators forward Mike Hoffman has been booked for a phone hearing with the NHL's Department of Player Safety to address his cross-check to the back of the head of Logan Couture on Wednesday night, Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun reports.

Hoffman was given a five-minute major penalty and game misconduct for the vicious bit of stick work, which left Couture down on the ice injured.

Because the chat takes place over the phone, Hoffman cannot be suspended for more than five games.

There's not yet word whether San Jose Sharks defender Marc-Eduoard Vlasic will will meet with the safety bureau for his apparent spear on Erik Karlsson.

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Team Canada will shoot for gold at the world juniors without New York Islanders forward Anthony Beauvillier.

But it wasn't without every effort by Hockey Canada, which made a last-ditch attempt to add Beauvillier to its final roster, only to be rebuffed by the Islanders, reports TSN's Bob McKenzie.

The governing body made similar pleas to the Arizona Coyotes, Philadelphia Flyers, and Toronto Maple Leafs for loans of Lawson Crouse, Jakob Chychrun, Travis Konecny, and Mitch Marner, respectively, none of whom were released as they continue to play regular minutes with their NHL clubs.

That's not the case with Beauvillier. The 19-year-old, Quebec-born forward made the Islanders out of training camp but has seen little playing time as of late.

Beauvillier has been a healthy scratch through four of the Islanders' six December games, and has averaged about 12 minutes of playing time in the two games he's seen the ice this month. He was held pointless and recorded a minus-1 rating through those matches.

The season overall hasn't gone much better. Beauvillier got off to a strong start with five points in his first five games, then cooled, with just two points in his last 15 games.

Drafted 28th overall in 2015, Beauvillier spent last season with Shawinigan of the QMJHL, tallying 79 points in 47 games.

Still, Beauvillier insists he's happy to be in the NHL and playing with the Islanders, realizing the goal he made in training camp.

"I'm in the NHL right now and there's no place I’d rather be," Beauvillier told Newsday's Arthur Staple. "My goal at the beginning of the year was to play here the whole year, so I want to stay. If I would have been in juniors, it's a different story. World junior would have been a goal for sure. But I'm here and I want to stay here."

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The Pittsburgh Penguins will have to make do without defenseman Kris Letang for the coming weeks, as coach Mike Sullivan announced Thursday that the blue-liner will be "out a couple weeks" with a lower-body injury.

Letang has appeared in 25 games with the Penguins this season, recording two goals and 17 assists.

The 29-year-old missed five games earlier this season with an upper-body injury.

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Shane Doan's son will get to watch his favorite player in action Thursday when the Toronto Maple Leafs host the Arizona Coyotes. Oh, and dad.

Prior to the matchup, Doan suggested that his son is "as big of an Auston Matthews fan as there is," according to Sportsnet's Chris Johnston.

It will obviously be a special night, too, for the Arizona-raised No. 1 overall draft pick of the Maple Leafs, who will square off against his boyhood club - and idol - for the first time.

He mentioned after practice Wednesday how exciting it will be to play against the team, and one of the players, that inspired him to pursue hockey.

"I'm really looking forward to it," he said, according to Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun. "It will be pretty cool after watching guys such as Doan growing up. He's still playing (at 40). That will be pretty special."

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The Tampa Bay Lightning found the solution to their recent losing skid.

After winning just once in regulation in their last eight games, the Lightning pasted the Calgary Flames on Wednesday, coming away with a 6-3 victory.

Brian Boyle and Alex Killorn each grabbed a pair of goals on the night, while blue-liners Braydon Coburn and Andrej Sustr also chipped in on offense, both notching their first tallies of the year.

"We simplified our game and we skated," Lightning coach Jon Cooper told reporters. "We've had a bad habit of trying to place the puck in the net. There's always a better play to be made.

"We hemmed them in there a little bit, and we were aggressive, but we were skating. When you're doing that, especially with some of the guys on our team that can skate, we can be a little troublesome for teams, and we did that tonight."

Despite a 15-13-2 record through 30 games, Tampa Bay has struggled in recent weeks, going 5-7-1 since losing captain Steven Stamkos to a long-term knee injury.

With the victory over the Flames, the Lightning climbed to within three points of the third playoff position in the Atlantic. Tampa Bay now has a chance to build a winning streak of its own when they take the ice Friday versus the Vancouver Canucks.

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Fifty-two. Or one more if you would prefer to round up.

That's the amount of wins the top five teams in the Metropolitan Division - the Penguins, Rangers, Flyers, Blue Jackets, and Capitals - are on pace to attain, each, now beyond the one-third mark of the 2016-17 playing schedule.

That total is six behind the most wins in a single season in the post-lockout era - the Red Wings won 58 back in 2005-06.

That's more than all but 18 stand-alone campaigns over the same time period. It's better than the current franchise record for more than half the teams in the NHL.

The five clubs - with four points separating them in the standings - have a combined plus-111 goal differential and .689 points percentage through 148 games. One team, on average, has finished a season in the post-lockout era with a higher points percentage - or 11 total.

The Penguins, Rangers, and Flyers are the three highest-scoring teams in the league, and the only outfits to pass the 100-goal threshold. The Capitals and Blue Jackets, meanwhile, are two of the top three stingiest to date.

The quintet have produced seven of the top 11 scorers in the NHL, and boast win streaks of 10, seven (twice), and five (three times).

Of course, the speed to which these teams are piling up points will be checked, eventually. The Blue Jackets have only played four games inside the division, and the Flyers five.

But it might be safe to conclude already that it just ain't happening this season for the Devils, Hurricanes, and Islanders - victims of the best division in hockey.

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