The Toronto Maple Leafs will have one less star to worry about Saturday against the Buffalo Sabres.
Rookie Jack Eichel will miss the contest as he battles the flu, head coach Dan Bylsma announced.
The 19-year-old was impressive in his first visit to the Air Canada Centre earlier in March, scoring a goal in a 4-3 shootout victory.
Eichel has been on fire of late, with eight points in his last eight games. His 49 points are good enough for second in league scoring among rookies.
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The wait is finally over.
Goaltender Niklas Backstrom will be between the pipes for the Calgary Flames for the first time in 14 months when they take on the Montreal Canadiens, and he is relishing the opportunity.
"It's fun," Backstrom told Aaron Vickers of calgaryflames.com. "Playing … that's the most fun part about this game and you want to go out there and compete and compete against other teams, but compete against yourself too to see where you are. For sure it's fun to have a date now."
The 38-year-old, whose last game came as a member of the Minnesota Wild back on Jan. 13, 2015, was a victim of multiple injuries, and the Wild's solid one-two combo of Devan Dubnyk and Darcy Kuemper.
Backstrom was acquired by the Flames at the trade deadline, along with a sixth-round pick, in exchange for forward David Jones. And while he hasn't made a start in more than a year, he isn't ready to hang up the skates just yet.
"He still wants to play," Flames coach Bob Hartley said. "As soon as we made the trade we sat with him, and he doesn't want to retire, he wants to keep playing. He came in with a great attitude, lots of energy, lots of work on the ice, in the gym. He works relentlessly, so we felt that we needed to be honest with him also, and that's why he's going to get the start in Montreal."
Backstrom has 409 career games under his belt, boasting a 194-142-50 record with a .915 save percentage and a 2.48 goals-against average.
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Kris Letang's empty-net goal that was, then wasn't, then still wasn't, then was, might not have been the strangest thing that happened to him in Saturday's 4-1 statement win over the Philadelphia Flyers.
Watch the Pittsburgh Penguins blue-liner, after having gathered the puck below his goal line, attempt to clear the zone with both hands and his stick behind his back.
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Tales of Sidney Crosby's demise were greatly exaggerated.
After an uncharacteristically slow start to the season, the Pittsburgh Penguins superstar extended his point streak to 11 games with an assist on a Chris Kunitz goal Saturday in Philadelphia.
Don't think he meant to do that...
— NHL (@NHL) March 19, 2016
Sid extends his point streak to 11 games. #PITvsPHIhttps://t.co/1a2eoCXXkI
Sure, the puck bounced off the boards and was swiped in by Steve Mason, but an assist is an assist. Crosby went on to add a secondary helper on an empty-net goal by Kris Letang goal late in the 4-1 win over the Flyers.
Altogether, it's the longest active streak in the league and has propelled Crosby well up the points leader board, moving him past Evgeny Kuznetsov, Tyler Seguin, and Erik Karlsson for sole possession of third place with 74 points through 70 games.
The recent outburst also keeps Crosby's trend of improving month by month alive and well.
| Month | Games | Goals | Assists | Points | P/GP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| October | 11 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 0.45 |
| November | 12 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 0.83 |
| December | 13 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 0.92 |
| January | 11 | 8 | 6 | 14 | 1.27 |
| February | 13 | 8 | 10 | 18 | 1.38 |
| March | 10 | 6 | 9 | 15 | 1.5 |
Crosby remains six points behind Jamie Benn for second in points, and 18 behind Patrick Kane for the league lead. The fact that he's climbed this high after falling so low is proof he's still one of the game's brightest stars.
As an added bonus, the point came in a win over the Flyers, holding the cross-state rivals at bay in the race for an Western Conference wild-card spot.
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Columbus Blue Jackets goalie Curtis McElhinney will undergo surgery on his knee Monday and miss the remainder of this season, the team announced.
McElhinney suffered his injury at practice Friday.
Coming off his best season, the long-time backup appeared in 18 games, won twice, and authored a forgettable .890 save percentage in 2015-16.
He's got one more year on his deal, and is schedule to earn $800,000 next season.
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Dallas Stars center Tyler Seguin is on the road to recovery, and continues to provide photos to prove it.
After undergoing a procedure to mend a rather gruesome Achilles injury, Seguin addressed the media for the first time since the announcement was made that he'll be out of the lineup for three-to-four weeks.
"Yesterday was a little bit better than today," he told reporters. "(I'm) starting to get a bit more feeling in the foot today after the surgery."
Seguin admitted he was concerned following the incident, especially as he thought of scenes from the horror flick "Hostel." He considers himself both unlucky that it happened and lucky that it wasn't worse. While there's no firm timeline for his return to the lineup, he has an idea of when he'll be back.
"I can't really picture myself missing Game 1 (of the playoffs)," he said. "Even if I come back for the last game of the regular season, that'd be quite the goal for me. There's a long way to go until then and I'm looking forward to getting better."
Seguin later shared a visual update on his Achilles injury, which he said looks a bit more gnarly than the first:
"@MichaelDelZotto: @tseguinofficial aren't they the worst? pic.twitter.com/5okpwxjrHC” people like scars tho right ? pic.twitter.com/g1Yn35pZpr
— Tyler Seguin (@tseguinofficial) March 19, 2016
Look for Seguin to wear thicker socks upon his return.
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After being placed on the trade market via press release, waived, and then banished to the American Hockey League, Chris Higgins is on his way back to the NHL.
The Vancouver Canucks recalled Higgins on Saturday, momentarily ending the veteran forward's two-month stint with the AHL's Utica Comets.
Higgins scored nine goals and added four assists in 22 games with Utica after laboring through 25 games with the Canucks.
Vancouver tried, unsuccessfully, to deal the 32-year-old winger at the trade deadline. There were ultimately no takers for the three-time 20-goal scorer, who tallied three points before his demotion and has another season at $2.5 million on his contract.
Higgins is expected to fill in for Radim Vrbata, who's out with a lower-body injury.
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