Auston Matthews is expected to be out for at least the next three weeks with a knee sprain. Matthews reportedly injured his knee during Wednesday's game against the Rangers. With the injury to Matthews, Michael Bunting moved to the first-unit power play for Friday's game against Ottawa. As well, Bunting was on the Leafs' new top line along with John Tavares and Mitch Marner. Pontus Holmberg moved up to the second line alongside William Nylander and Calle Jarnkrok.

I guess if there's a right time for an injury like this, it might be now. Right Leafs fans?

It's not the worst time for Auston Matthews to be injured because the Leafs play CBJ, CBJ, CHI, MON, and CHI after the All-Star break.

*checks the Leafs record vs. teams like Montreal and Arizona* pic.twitter.com/jmBjUhSawm

— Michael Amato (@amato_mike) January 27, 2023

Aleksander Barkov will go to the All-Star Game in place of Matthews. Whether you think someone else deserves to go over Barkov, the game is in Florida and the only other Panther nominated is Matthew Tkachuk.

Ilya Samsonov was the surprise last-minute starter for the Leafs after Matt Murray appeared to be hit with a high shot during warmup. After the game, Sheldon Keefe said that something flared up with Murray. Although it wasn't related to the abductor injury from earlier this season, it is not known whether it was related to the shot. Samsonov may not have been prepared to be called into duty, as he allowed six goals in a 6-2 home loss to the Senators. He's appeared in six games in a row with that streak likely to be extended if Band-Aid Boy Murray has to miss any time.

In case you missed it, Ridly Greig took eight shots on goal with an assist while playing on a scoring line with Alex DeBrincat and Claude Giroux in his NHL debut on Wednesday. Although he remained on that line on Friday, he was held to just a single shot on goal on Friday without a point. Greig was recalled after Josh Norris was shut down following shoulder surgery, so he could remain with the Senators for the rest of the season if he performs at the NHL level. Greig posted 23 points in 28 games in the AHL this season. For more, see his Dobber Prospects page.

Anton Forsberg stopped 31 of 33 shots in earning the win for the Senators. Forsberg is expected to start again tonight against Montreal, as Cam Talbot is out indefinitely with a groin injury. Kevin Mandolese, who has split time between the AHL and ECHL, is currently the backup, and there don't appear to be any plans to start him unless there is an emergency.

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Making his case for another Lady Byng, Barkov took his first penalty of the season in Friday's game. The only player with more points and as few penalty minutes as Barkov is Brayden Point. Other low PIM top scorers include Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, Nico Hischier, Anze Kopitar, and the newly signed Andrei Kuzmenko, all with 4 PIM. You may have noticed that three of those players are Devils, although they are not the league's least penalized team. The Devils just have other players that take penalties.

With a goal on Friday, Brandon Montour extended his point streak to eight games. He also has 12 points in his last 12 games. I'll admit that I didn't have Montour on my radar at all this season, but he has unexpectedly gained first-unit power-play time while his overall icetime has increased nearly seven minutes per game over last season. At one time a team that tried a five-forward first-unit power-play, the Panthers have now swung the opposite way with two defensemen (Montour and Aaron Ekblad) on PP1.  

Gustav Forsling had to be helped off the ice with an injured leg after crashing into the boards during the second period. Fortunately, Forsling returned for the third period.

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The Devils historically haven't had a reputation of being a high-scoring team, as they won their Stanley Cups during the dead puck era. Yet I find this interesting anyway.

The Devils have never had a player score 50 goals or get 100 points in a season.

Jack Hughes has 33 goals and 64 pts this season, on pace for 55 goals and 107 pts.

Brian Gionta holds the #NJDevils goals record (48, 2005-06); Patrik Elias holds the points record (96, 2000-01).

— David Satriano (@davidsatriano) January 28, 2023

With a pair of goals, including the overtime winner, the rarely-penalized Hughes has 24 points over his last 14 games. Only Connor McDavid has a higher point-per-game average than Hughes (1.71 PTS/GP) over that span. Hughes is averaging over a shot per game more (4.5 SOG/GP) over last season (3.4 SOG/GP), which has been key to his success in finding the net. Only David Pastrnak and Timo Meier have taken more shots than Hughes (220 SOG) this season.

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With a goal on Friday, Filip Chytil now has goals in three consecutive games and five points over that span. He's been making it work on the Kid Line for much of the season with Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko, but what might be surprising given where they were drafted is that he's the leading scorer among all three (29 points in 41 games). Some higher-than-normal advanced stats (18.0 SH%, 3.0 PTS/60, 1052 PDO) might suggest that a downturn is on the way, but it's clear that Chytil has taken a step forward this season.

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Sebastian Aho has been red hot with six goals over his last three games. Aho scored two goals and added an assist while taking a season-high nine shots in Carolina's 5-4 win over San Jose.

Martin Necas scored both the game-tying goal with seconds left in regulation and the game-winning goal in overtime for the Canes. He now has four goals over his last four games.  

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Ilya Sorokin posted his fourth shutout of the season and 14^th shutout of his career. If your league counts shutouts, he's a goalie to target. Only Darcy Kuemper has more shutouts this season.

Ilya Sorokin made history tonight. #Isles pic.twitter.com/mnzM1MHBev

📢 advertisement:

— Rob Taub (@RTaub_) January 28, 2023

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Following a very lukewarm first quarter, Victor Hedman has 20 points in his last 19 games. Hopefully you didn't sell low. That's why I don't subscribe to the theory of trying to trade a star player when their stats suddenly decline, which to me is selling low. Hedman is now 32, so I think I might start to lower his projections for next season in case wear and tear starts to become an issue.

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Soon-to-be-traded (?) Bo Horvat recorded four assists on Friday. He recorded just seven assists in his first 26 games but has 16 assists in 23 games after that. Horvat has just one goal in his past seven games, but the assist rate had to increase even if the goal frequency would decrease.  

Quinn Hughes has scored five goals this season – all of them after the Christmas break.

With the kind of season Elias Pettersson is having, it might be a surprise that he was finally credited with his first power-play goal of the season on Friday.

In some news that dropped immediately after the game, Ilya Mikheyev will undergo ACL surgery shortly, shutting him down for the season. That's a bit of a shocker, as Mikheyev played on Friday and even scored his first goal in 15 games. That being said, the ACL had been an issue all the way back to the preseason, and it is possible to play on a torn ACL. Taking care of it now should ensure he is ready for training camp next season. I'm guessing he will be "upgraded" from Band-Aid Boy Trainee to Certified Band-Aid Boy, as he has never played more than 54 games in any of his four NHL seasons.

I’d expect the Mikheyev absence to pave the way for at least one of Vasily Podkolzin or Nils Hoglander to be recalled from the AHL soon.

All Kirill Marchenko does is score goals. He scored both of the Blue Jackets' goals on Friday, giving him goals in three consecutive games. That gives him 13 goals – but no assists – in 26 games. In what should be a surprise to absolutely no one, no player with as many goals is without an assist. He's shooting a very unsustainable 27%, so similar to what we saw with Horvat, fewer goals with a few more assists seem inevitable going forward.

Marchenko is the first #NHL player since John McKinnon of the old Pittsburgh Pirates in 1926-27 to start his career w 13 goals and no assists.

The only player to begin his career w more goals before tallying an assist is Joe Malone, who had 16-0-16 for Montreal in 1917-18.
2/2

— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) January 28, 2023

Gustav Nyquist is out indefinitely with an upper-body injury, which could affect his status as possible trade bait at the trade deadline.

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Is there a goaltending controversy in Calgary? Dan Vladar picked up his fifth consecutive win on Friday, stopping 28 of 30 Seattle shots that he faced. The last time he lost in regulation was November 26, which is a span of 13 games (10-0-3 record since). Vladar's and Jacob Markstrom's goals-against averages aren't that different, but Vladar has shown the better save percentage. Moreover, a -10.82 GSAA (goals saved above average) uncovers Markstrom's struggles even further. Vladar is rostered in less than half of leagues in both Yahoo and Fantrax, so he's a legitimate option because it appears that he is more than just a seldom-used backup now.

Meanwhile, Markstrom has no wins and just one quality start over his last five games. With an ADP of 30 in Yahoo, he might be this season's poster child of why it's not a good idea to draft goalies early. I'd still bet on him receiving the majority of starts going forward because of his contract, but that could change if he continues to struggle and the Flames are fighting for their playoff lives.

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Follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding for more fantasy hockey.