Adam Fox left Thursday's game with a lower-body injury after colliding leg on leg with Sebastian Aho. At the time of the injury, Fox was tied with Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes for the most points among defensemen (11 points). That was before Hughes and the Canucks teed off on the Sharks later Thursday evening.  

As is expected, Erik Gustafsson's value receives a major boost if Fox is out of the lineup. Because Fox left in the first period, Gustafsson logged the most power-play time of any Rangers defenseman, but he did not record a point and his 18:42 total in this game wasn't much higher than his season average. We don't know the extend of Fox's injury at this time, so Gustafsson is worth a speculative pickup in many formats. He's been either a feast-or-famine option throughout his career, which has a lot to do with how much opportunity he receives. When John Carlson was sidelined last season, Gustafsson picked up 25 points over 33 games.

Filip Chytil also left Thursday's game with an upper-body injury.

With an assist, Artemi Panarin has extended his point streak to start the season to 10 games. He is averaging 3.6 SOG/GP, which in itself doesn't seem sustainable because it's a full shot per game higher than his career average. A third consecutive 90-point season doesn't seem out of reach for Panarin even if he cools off.  

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In a key Atlantic Division matchup, the Bruins were able to keep their point streak alive with a 3-2 shootout win over the Leafs. Expected to regress after some offseason personnel losses, the B's seem to have picked up where they left off (regular-season wise, anyway) with no regulation losses in their first 10 games.

Pavel Zacha continues to be hot with a goal in his third consecutive game. Zacha also has a five-game point streak with six points over that span. Currently on a line with David Pastrnak, Zacha has totalled 13 shots over his last three games. Given the big hole in the middle from the offseason departures of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, the most telling stat for Zacha has been icetime. He is averaging just over 19 minutes per game, which is over three minutes higher than last season's average.

Timothy Liljegren is expected to miss some time after this "can-opener" from the hands of Brad Marchand, who was not penalized. Marchand knows the NHL Player Safety Department on a first-name basis, but I'm not sure he gets suspended here. Yet the league has been showing some teeth in issuing four-game suspensions to Rasmus Andersson and Charlie McAvoy already, so who knows.  

Timothy Liljegren has been helped down the tunnel and has left the game after this play against Boston. pic.twitter.com/KOJ6YZ3XMq

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) November 3, 2023

With McAvoy serving the first game of his suspension, Hampus Lindholm logged 30 minutes of icetime on Thursday. Although he hasn't recorded a point in 10 games, that should probably change during the next three games (unless McAvoy's suspension is reduced, since he has appealed). Lindholm is on the first-unit power play as well. I'd be surprised if Lindholm reaches the 50-point mark again this season.

On the other end of this game's icetime continuum was Tyler Bertuzzi, who logged just 11:32. Bertuzzi was demoted to the fourth line for part of this game. He's an ice-cold fantasy commodity at the moment with no points in his last three games and two points in his last eight games. Bertuzzi's icetime is particularly low in the third period, when he has played just 1:19 and 2:31 over each of the last two games. Sheldon Keefe doesn't like something about Bert's game right now, although he at least started the game on a scoring line. He's not necessarily a drop, as this could light a fire under him. But it definitely bears watching.

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Matt Boldy returned to the Wild lineup from an upper-body injury, recording two assists in 21 minutes of icetime. The Wild haven't gotten off to an ideal start, so perhaps the return of Boldy will help.

Boldy and Marco Rossi were recently moved onto a line with Kirill Kaprizov. Rossi scored a goal and an assist on Thursday with four shots. He has three goals and five points over his last five games, which means that he could finally be making some noise in single-season fantasy leagues. Rossi is only 3% rostered in Yahoo leagues. It might be time to add him to your watch list, or simply add him to your team if you are in a deeper league (he is only center-eligible, though).

At the time I am typing this, Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt are 1-2 in league scoring. The latter scored a goal and added three assists, giving him 18 points over his last eight games. Bratt was held off the scoresheet during the first game of the season, but he has been en fuego ever since. Meanwhile, Hughes is flirting with some historic numbers.

Jack Hughes became the first player this season to 20 points in just his ninth game and joined an elite list of players in the process.#NHLStats: https://t.co/4kx7xmvfCX pic.twitter.com/A6QoeMdEhh

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) November 3, 2023

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Maybe Sergei Bobrovsky hasn't been as bad as I expected this season. Bobrovsky recorded a 22-save shutout in Detroit, giving him four wins and quality starts over his last six games. Bob also hasn't been tagged with a really bad start in eight games. Seems like he's managing alright without Aaron Ekblad or Brandon Montour.

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Semyon Varlamov has posted shutouts in back-to-back games, his latest coming on Thursday against Washington. In both games, Varlamov has faced at least 30 shots, which is why he is featuring a sparkling.972 SV% this season. Could Varlamov receive a greater share of the starts than we originally expected? Ilya Sorokin has been more ordinary with a 2.99 GAA and .911 SV%. Varlamov has started two of the last three games. He could be worth adding soon, as he is rostered in just 20% of Yahoo leagues. Just note that he may not start again until next week.

As expected, the Isles are a top-10 team in goals against but a bottom-10 team in goals for.

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It's been a rough week for the Ottawa Senators both on and off the ice. At least they are getting better goaltending from Joonas Korpisalo after a shaky start. Even though he has only posted one win in his last three games, Korpisalo has been credited with quality starts in all three of those games. He's had to earn those quality starts, facing a minimum of 38 shots in each of those three games.

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Johnny Gaudreau finally scored goal number one of the season in his 10^th game. Johnny Hockey had been averaging over three shots per game, so he was clearly due. However, his five points in 10 games seems rather ordinary. Add to that the goal was an empty-netter, which doesn't exactly inspire confidence. But hey, you’ve got to start somewhere.

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With two goals and an assist on Thursday, Roope Hintz has three consecutive multipoint games and seven points over his last three games. Hintz also has at least one point in seven of eight games this season.

Joe Pavelski also had three points (1 G, 2 A) in the Stars' 4-3 win over Edmonton.

One nice story in an otherwise disappointing season so far for the Oilers is the return of Sam Gagner. Now 34 years of age, Gagner scored a pair of goals on five shots in his first game of the season on Thursday. Both of Gagner's goals came in the third period, cutting Dallas's lead from 4-1 to 4-3. Gagner had signed a one-year contract with the Oilers just two days earlier. Gagner skated 13 minutes while on an even-strength line with Ryan McLeod and Dylan Holloway, so temper your expectations.

Since showing his displeasure of being demoted to the third line on Hockey Night in Canada, Evander Kane has three goals in his past four games. In addition, he has back-to-back multipoint games and six shots in each of his last two games. And yes, he is back on a scoring line.

The Oilers might have played well enough to win on Thursday, but Scott Wedgewood was the difference. Wedgewood faced 49 shots, stopping 46 of them. Meanwhile, Oilers goalies have four really bad starts but just three quality starts in nine games this season. The Oilers can usually outscore their defensive woes, but both Jack Campbell and Stuart Skinner have a save percentage of below .880. If the Oils are to be a legit Stanley Cup contender, they need to get this sorted out ASAP.

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I'll cover the west coast games tomorrow, along with Friday's light day (just two games). In the meantime, follow me on Twitter/X and Threads.