Bobby Ryan’s hat-trick, Koivu filling in for Granlund, Jordan Staal returns, Arizona’s home cooking and more…

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Fully loaded day of hockey with 12 NHL games, plus four World Junior games. I'll apologize now for whatever I miss. There's simply no touching on everything that took place yesterday.

UPDATE: For more on the World Juniors, check out the new Ramblings over at DobberProspects.

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Huge night for Bobby Ryan as he notched a natural hat-trick on eight SOG and was a menace to the Sabres all evening. The opponent here matters some but Ryan has been hot the past few weeks with 12 points in his last 11 games now. That is damn good considering his second line/second power play unit usage.

Mika Zibanejad had been Ryan's centerman for much of this hot streak and had been rather productive himself but he was buried on the fourth line by the end of the night. Zibanejad did notch an assist on the empty-netter at the end of the night, however.

JG Pageau jumped onto the second line in Zibanejad's stead and recorded an assist with five SOG. We'll have to see if this was a one-time demotion or if Dave Cameron decides to experiment with this on a more permanent basis. I could not advocate against this more but I'm not sure my opinion matters here. Curious if Sens fans want to chime in on the reasoning for the demotion (if there was one.)

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After being a complete and total mutt for the first two and a half months of the season Chris Stewart is heating up with points in five straight and six of his last seven. Perfecting timing to juice his value for the trade deadline!

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Jordan Staal returned for the Hurricanes last night and was understandably sluggish but we caught a good glimpse of what to expect over the second half of the season. Jordan was out there with his brother Eric Staal on the top line and top power play unit, with Eric shifting over to the wing.

This is nothing new as the Hurricanes experimented with Eric on the wing at times over the past two seasons. Watch for some dual position eligibility for Eric if this keeps up, not that multi-position eligibility has much value now that virtually every player has at least two positions under some providers.

The brothers Staal combined for the lone Hurricane goal and do appear to have the makings of a very productive line, especially when Jordan gets back to full speed.