He won't play Wednesday night, but New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist will be back between the pipes for the club's upcoming road trip to California, head coach Alain Vigneault confirmed Wednesday.
Lundqvist has been out of the lineup since March 7 with a hip injury, but is back to full health and is expected to make two of three starts on the trip.
He's clearly itching to get back into game action, as he wanted to play Wednesday night against the Islanders, per Dan Rosen of NHL.com. Instead, the team will give him a few more days off as a precaution before facing off with the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.
Lundqvist has posted a record of 30-17-2 in 51 appearances this season, while recording a save percentage of .923.
For warmup only, Ovi will don some fancy custom-painted skates, paying homage to his native Russia and his American home, Washington, D.C. on Russian Heritage Night at the Verizon Center.
The colorful jets - patented yellow laces and all - will be auctioned off during the game, with all proceeds going toward the American Special Hockey Association.
The loss continued a recent trend in which Montreal's top guns have lacked their usual offensive spark. Over the past nine games, the Canadiens' first line has produced just two goals, both coming from Max Pacioretty in a 4-1 win over Edmonton on March 12.
Those struggles led head coach Claude Julien to split up his usual top-line trio of Alexander Radulov, Alex Galchenyuk, and Pacioretty late in the game against Detroit.
Ostensibly, putting the more skilled player in Galchenyuk between Montreal's top two wingers makes sense for a No. 1 line, but Radulov and Pacioretty have been much more productive while flanking Danault this season.
Combination
Time on ice (minutes)
Goals
Assists
Points
Radulov-Galchenyuk-Pacioretty
135
0-1-3
3-2-2
3-3-5
Radulov-Danault-Pacioretty
337
3-3-8
6-5-5
9-8-13
(All stats listed at five-on-five, courtesy corsica.hockey)
It should be noted that Danault's sample size on the top line is much larger than Galchenyuk's, who missed a significant portion of Montreal's schedule with a knee injury.
Whether Julien opts to run his new variations on Thursday versus Carolina remains to be seen, but either way, the Canadiens will certainly need their top players to start producing in order to fend off the lurking Ottawa Senators for the Atlantic Division title.
Much has been made of Chicago's salary cap casualties during its run off success over the past nine years, but general manager Stan Bowman continues to surround his core with a capable supporting cast.
Case in point: During Tuesday's loss to the Vancouver Canucks, Richard Panik became the sixth Blackhawk to record at least 20 goals this season.
As it stands, this is the first time since 2009-10 that Chicago has had six 20-goal scorers. That season, of course, marked Chicago's first of three Stanley Cup wins, and the Blackhawks' depth up front this season suggests another long run is quite possible.
Among the host of restricted free agents who'll be seeking new contracts this summer, David Pastrnak's case should be as open and shut as they come.
In just his third NHL season, the Boston Bruins winger is already displaying star potential, with the look of a potential franchise cornerstone.
Pastrnak, who turns 21 on May 25, is causing many to question how he dropped to 25th overall at the 2014 NHL Draft. Among all players from that class, he ranks first in career goals (56) and second in total points (116), trailing Edmonton's Leon Draisaitl by only nine while appearing in 18 fewer games.
Pastrnak's career totals have been dramatically boosted by the 31 goals (tied for sixth among all players) and 32 assists he's recorded this season, which have him among the top 20 point producers in the NHL.
With all that in mind, Pastrnak deserves a sizable extension - both in terms of length and dollars.
Consider the comparables
Here's a look at six players who, over the past two offseasons, have signed deals worth at least $6 million annually with a minimum length of six years:
Player
Team
Years
Value
Cap hit
Vladimir Tarasenko
Blues
8
$60M
$7.5M
Johnny Gaudreau
Flames
6
$40.5M
$6.75M
Sean Monahan
Flames
7
$44.625M
$6.375M
Nathan MacKinnon
Avalanche
7
$44.1M
$6.3M
Mark Scheifele
Jets
8
$49M
$6.125M
Filip Forsberg
Predators
6
$36M
$6M
Brandon Saad
Blue Jackets
6
$36M
$6M
Of that group, only Tarasenko and Scheifele have put up more points than Pastrnak this season, and, as pointed out lower down, few in recent years have put up comparable numbers at his age.
A contract in the range above, then, wouldn't be a crazy ask on Pastrnak's part.
What they're saying in Boston
Ty Anderson of WEEI shed some light on just how impressive Pastrnak's season has been:
With 30 goals (now 31) and 32 helpers on the season, Pastrnak becomes the 10th player since 2005 to have recorded a 30-goal, 30-assist season before the age of 21.
The other names on that list? Patrice Bergeron, Sidney Crosby, Anze Kopitar, Evgeni Malkin, Sean Monahan, Alex Ovechkin, Jeff Skinner, Steven Stamkos, and Jonathan Toews. Crosby and Stamkos were the only two of that group to accomplish the feat twice.
And here's CSNNE's DJ Bean with important insight as to where the Bruins and Pastrnak stand:
Both sides are interested in a long-term deal rather than a bridge contract. The best news of all for the Bruins is that Pastrnak’s camp is not insisting on Vladimir Tarasenko as a comparable.
Rather, they feel the most accurate comps are Filip Forsberg, Sean Monahan, and Mark Scheifele, all of whom signed new contracts off their entry level deals last offseason.
It’s been reported that the cap won’t go up much, if at all, from the $73 million it is this season. That means that the Bruins could conceivably start with one of these contracts and perhaps not be far off from the one that could keep Pastrnak in Boston.
Long-term deals aren’t always ideal. Even a star like Marchand carries risk at the end of his eight-year extension. In the final season of his deal, Marchand will be 36 years old, his precious wheels likely to be spinning at a lower RPM.
Pastrnak, however, has yet to approach his peak performance. Even if he scores the eight-year maximum, he will still be 28 at the extension’s conclusion, still well within his window of high-level play.
The Bruins do not have to lock up Pastrnak. He will not be eligible for arbitration when his entry-level deal expires. But making him a long-term centerpiece of their future is the right thing to do. He’s earned it.
All signs, then, point to Pastrnak cashing in.
Pay the man
In light of how the Bruins have handled their young players in recent years - most notably Tyler Seguin and Dougie Hamilton - the club can ill afford to mess around with another budding star.
David Krejci, Patrice Bergeron, David Backes, and Brad Marchand will all make between $6 million and $7.25 million next season; given that Pastrnak has certainly become just as integral to the forward group, he deserves to be compensated as such.
Boston has already cleared cap space, and more money should come off the books thanks to expiring contracts. Ryan Spooner is also set for RFA status, but he won't be due for a huge raise over the $950,000 on his current deal.
If it's true that Pastrnak's camp will point to Forsberg and Scheifele, rather than Tarasenko, as comparisons, then a contract worth $42.7 million over seven years should be on the table as soon as possible. That would put Pastrnak on the books for a $6.1-million cap hit - less than Marchand and more than Backes.
Guentzel, who wasn't in control of the puck at the time of impact, was later diagnosed with a concussion. Ristolainen was issued a five-minute major for interference and was ejected.
If a suspension is looming for Ristolainen, it will interrupt a strong offensive season, as he leads all Buffalo blue-liners with 44 points in 72 games.
When former head coach Patrick Roy bolted on the Colorado Avalanche just weeks before the 2016-17 season, many wondered how they'd adjust.
To sum it up 72 games into the season: not well.
Colorado's dead last in the NHL, an astounding 20 points behind 29th-place Arizona. The Avalanche rank 30th in goals per game (1.94), goals allowed per game (3.29), and goal differential (-98).
The Avalanche have amounted a paltry 43 points this season so far. To put that into perspective, last year's 30th-place club, the Toronto Maple Leafs, finished with 69, a bar not even possible for Colorado to reach. Furthermore, the 2014-15 Buffalo Sabres, who basically admitted to tanking in the Connor McDavid sweepstakes, still reached 54 points.
"I think up and down the organization, everything needs to be assessed, and I'm sure it will," Johnson said. "We're the worst team in 20 years and that falls on us first and foremost, the top players on this team."
The Avalanche are in fact on pace for the lowest point total (48) since the Atlanta Thrashers finished their debut season with 39 points in 1999-00.
Johnson added: "There obviously needs to be changes somewhere and I'm sure (general manager) Joe (Sakic) will do that because he's not oblivious to what's gone on here."
Sakic is expected to orchestrate some changes this summer, especially after neglecting to deal Matt Duchene and Gabriel Landeskog - two valuable pieces heavily rumored to have been on the trade block.
With that in mind, here's a quick look back at three losses that could prove to be very costly if the Lightning ultimately miss the playoffs.
Oct. 20 vs. Colorado
After kicking off the regular season with three straight wins, the Lightning dropped a 4-0 decision to the Avalanche on home ice.
It was difficult to foresee just how far Colorado's season would fall downhill from that point on, but the Avalanche are now a full 20 points behind the Arizona Coyotes at the bottom of the NHL standings, on track for the worst season of any team in the shootout era.
Losing a game to Colorado in 2016-17 is a bad result, by any measure.
Jan. 21 @ Arizona
As mentioned, the Coyotes are the next-worst team in the NHL after Colorado, and have scored only 2.36 goals per game.
On this day, however, Arizona dropped five goals on the Lightning, all of which were allowed by a since-traded Ben Bishop on just 17 shots against.
For their part, the Lightning managed 48 shots, but puck luck clearly wasn't on their side, resulting in a tough-to-swallow 5-3 defeat.
March 21 vs. Arizona
Despite playing without star center Steven Stamkos for most of the season - while enduring a host of other injuries and playing the role of seller at the trade deadline - the Lightning entered Wednesday's game against Arizona with a chance to make up some ground in the playoff race.
The result? Another 5-3 loss at the hands of the Coyotes. To make matters worse, the Lightning held a 3-2 lead heading into the third period.
"There's been a lot of frustrating games this year, so this ranks up there," head coach Jon Cooper said afterward, per the Associated Press. "How important the game is to us .... That 3-2 lead at home in a must-win for us, to give it up like we did, it's frustrating, to say the least."
It's not over yet, but things look bleak with 10 games remaining on the schedule. And while a lot of factors have contributed to Tampa Bay's slide, it's easy to look back at those three games as missed opportunities.
After two years of missing the playoffs as a result of late-season swoons, the Boston Bruins aren't about to let go of their hold on a postseason berth.
So says defenseman Torey Krug, whose seventh goal of the season wasn't enough to keep the team from dropping a third straight game Tuesday in Ottawa.
"Haven't thought about it. Haven't talked about it," Krug said of the past two seasons' failures, per Amalie Benjamin of NHL.com. "It's a different feeling this year. It's not going to happen. I know we have a lot of pride in this room, the guys that have been through it. There's no other option except making sure we stay on course and take care and do our jobs."
Boston had a chance of securing a playoff spot on the final day of 2015-16, only to lose 6-1 to the Senators on home ice. And in 2014-15, a three-game losing streak to end the season kept the Bruins two points out of the final spot.
Despite the recent losses, Boston remains third in the Atlantic Division with a 78 percent chance of making the playoffs, according to Sports Club Stats.
The Toronto Maple Leafs, however, are one point back and have two games in hand, and could very well bump the Bruins into the second wild-card spot and a much less desirable first-round matchup. The New York Islanders sit four points back, also with two games in hand, thereby posing a real threat of bumping the Bruins from the playoff picture entirely.
For Krug, the answer is simple: take things one game at a time, beginning Thursday against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
"There's no other option except winning that game," he said.
Calgary Flames rookie Matthew Tkachuk was suspended two games for an ugly elbow on reigning Norris Trophy winner Drew Doughty on Sunday, and while many believe he's on track to build an unfavorable reputation throughout the league in his debut season, one franchise legend thinks otherwise.
Theo Fleury, the diminutive right winger that played 791 games for the Flames and amassed 1,088 points in his lengthy career, said he "loved" the play and thinks Tkachuk's suspension will benefit him in the future.
"He's smart," Fleury told Sportsnet's Mark Spector. "What he did the other night was, he sent a message to the entire league. Yeah, it cost him two games, but I'm sure it will benefit him down the road.
"The more room you get on the ice, the more you have to do the things you do best. By creating some unpredictability, you get more room."
Fleury, listed at 5-foot-6, broke into the NHL in an entirely different era, when plays like Tkachuk's were much more common. Yet, the 1989 Stanley Cup champion went as far as saying a current small and skilled Calgary winger should take notes.
"Johnny Gaudreau needs to take a lesson from him," Fleury said. "Johnny can be neutralized because of his size. If he were a little meaner with his stick and elbows, he might get a little more room out there."