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Brandon Dubinsky has 17 points in his last 15 games and four two-point games in the last nine.

Since his last healthy scratch, JM Liles has seven points in six games. Now THAT is coming back on a mission.

In those same six games, Kyle Quincey has just one point. Liles has passed him on the scoring list (21 points to 20). With just five points in 23 games, Quincey seems to be losing his magic touch.

Still with the D-men, Jack Hillen has five points in his last five games and he has played at least 20:30 in each of the last 17.

Minnesota has waived Petr Sykora and Robbie Earl. If Sykora clears, which he will, he will be released to play in Europe.

Michael Russo goes on to speculate that a return to the lineup tonight for Brent Burns is probably too soon, but Coach Richards alluded to the possibility.

I checked the fantasy tools section for the San Jose line combos last night and was surprised to see that Marleau, Clowe and Pavelski weren’t together. Considering that each of them got two points and no other forward on the team did, it just makes sense. But in fact, they were all on separate lines – Marleau was with his usual Team Canada linemates, while Clowe played with Nichol and Ortmeyer (!!!??); Pavelski played with Malhotra and Setoguchi.

Jose Theodore has four straight wins now. Semyon Varlamov had an off day, but worked hard off the ice Tuesday according to Tarik El-Bashir. My guess is that we will see Varlamov back next week. But with Theo playing so well, there is no rush.

We all know the big story of the night, so this one will slip under the radar – Pascal Dupuis suffered a facial injury when he was hit from behind into the boards. We could see Luca Caputi getting called back up – this time with a hot Malkin to play with.

Can’t ignore the big story, of course – Sid the Kid pots six points and Evgeni Malkin scores three times. Crosby is up to 63 now, which puts him four behind the league lead.

There were a few with big nights in the league – Jeff Carter (three points), Dan Boyle (three), Kristian Huselius (three), Gaborik (four), Kovalchuk (three)…you’ll see lots of movement in your leagues this morning I’m sure.

Alexei Ponikarovsky has back-to-back two-point efforts. He’s streaky, so obviously he’ll be a good one to ride for about two weeks.

Huselius, by the way, has 14 points in his last 10 games. As I always say – when he’s not, he’s one of the seven or eight most productive players in the game. His streakiness is bang-your-head -on-the-desk frustrating though.

The AHL had their All-Star game last night, a 10-9 win for Canada over Planet USA. The players with two goals: Shirokov, Keller, Sterling and Lehtonen. Of those, Shirokov has the brightest future in the NHL. Keller and Pittsburgh’s Dustin Jeffrey led the way with three points each.

The CHL’s Top Prospects Game is tonight at 7pm ET and you can have little doubt that Matt Bugg will give us a full report.

The big offensive game for Pittsburgh was at the expense of Dwayne Roloson, and not the hot Rick DiPietro. It’s just always coming up Millhouse for RDP isn’t it? He’s certainly due the good fortune.

Give Brian Elliott back-to-back wins now, each of them solid efforts allowing just one goal. Sorry about your luck Mike Brodeur – maybe next time. Brodeur had looked promising, against all odds.

Chris Osgood took the loss last night – his last win was on December 12. The one before that was November 5.

The Red Wings have scored eight goals in their last five games and have lost three in a row.

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More in the morning…