Something that had been a bit confounding – maybe a lot confounding – about the Calgary Flames is their utter refusal to even bother giving minor league goalie Dustin Wolf a shot at the NHL level. Wolf, the back-to-back goalie of the year in the AHL, had a .924 save percentage in the AHL so far this season. At a certain point, when you've already lost one season thanks to awful goaltending and are a month into another season of the same thing happening, you have to wonder if management knows what the mandate of their job is.

Anyway, the team finally called up Wolf on Thursday:

AWOOOOOOO!

The #Flames have recalled Dustin Wolf from the @AHLWranglers 🐺

📄: https://t.co/xPokACmx6U pic.twitter.com/hWJwpPPpou

— Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) November 9, 2023

Technically, it's an emergency recall because they have a back-to-back this weekend in Ontario and Jacob Markstrom isn't fully healthy. That means they have three goalies on the roster, so Wolf may not even get in a game. We should hold judgment and see what happens this weekend, but if he gets sent down without playing, I will have no choice but to laugh until I'm in cardiac arrest.

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One of the downsides of watching Patrik Laine's career blossom has been all the injuries. On the good-news front, he was on the ice with teammates on Thursday:

#CBJ Patrik Laine (concussion) among the early players out for today's morning skate. Another good sign that he's making progress toward a return.

— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) November 9, 2023

Skating with scratches doesn't mean a lot, but it does mean he's inching closer to a return. Columbus went into Thursday night with the fewest wins in the East so they can't afford too many more injuries like this, or games missed from Laine.

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Igor Shesterkin was held out of Thursday night's game while Jonathan Quick is considered day-to-day. That led to AHL goalie Louis Domingue – you all remember him – getting the start against Minnesota.

A note passed on from beat writer Vince Mercogliano was the team might keep them out longer because after Saturday's game against Columbus, the New York Rangers are off until the following weekend for some reason. It would give the injured players a lot of time to rest up.

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Buffalo had an interesting name on their top line in practice:

Sabres looking like this today:
Skinner-Thompson-Savoie
Greenway-Mittelstadt-Peterka
Girgensons-Jost-Okposo
Rousek-Krebs-Olofsson
Cozens
—
Dahlin-Rjohnson
Power-Jokiharju
Clifton-EJohnson
Bryson-Samuelsson
—
3 goalies w/Comrie back.

— Mike Harrington (@ByMHarrington) November 9, 2023

We saw this a month-plus earlier with Zach Benson so let's not get too excited, but the team has been trying a lot of different combinations this year. It also would help them extend their lineup by keeping fewer of their top forwards skating together (assuming Alex Tuch is healthy). We will see what the lineup looks like on Friday night against Minnesota.

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Shayne Gostisbehere was a scratch for Jeff Petry on Thursday night in Detroit's home game against Montreal. Jake Walman and Moritz Seider were on the top PP unit while David Perron moved down to the second unit.

I'm not a fan of the move but it did get Petry a chance to face his former team, so whatever. If it lasts more than a game, then the concerns start.

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An update on Anthony Mantha:

Anthony Mantha (hit in ear with shot last night) won't travel with Caps on trip to NJD and NYI, but team says he is day to day.

Joel Edmundson (hand) won't travel on trip either.

TvR (lower) remains day to day and won't travel either.

Nic Dowd (upper) may go on trip. TBD.

— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) November 9, 2023

That he's only day-to-day after taking a puck to the side of the head is very good news. Things like that can be frightening, as the Caps saw with defenceman John Carlson last year. Good for Mantha, who'd been off to a solid start with three goals in 10 games.

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Carolina decided to use most of their top forwards on the same lines:

The #Canes are on the ice at Invisalign Arena for a practice before heading south to the Sunshine State.

Jarvis – Aho – Necas
Svechnikov – Kotkaniemi – Teravainen
Martinook – Staal – Lemieux
Bunting – Drury – Noesen

Slavin – Burns
Skjei – Pesce/DeAngelo
Orlov – Chatfield

All… pic.twitter.com/jkrVEstzzu

— Walt Ruff (@WaltRuff) November 9, 2023

As with all things Carolina, we'll have to see if this lasts longer than a couple of games, or even a single game, but it could make for a very dangerous top-6 forward group if they all find chemistry together. They have a back-to-back this weekend against Florida and Tampa Bay.

They also said that defenceman Brett Pesce, who has not played in nearly four weeks, will be on the road trip. With Dmitry Orlov taking some top PP reps in that practice, Tony DeAngelo may be coming out of the lineup. We will find out on the weekend.

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Pierre Engvall was a healthy scratch for the Islanders on Thursday after the coach deemed his costly turnover against Minnesota on Tuesday worthy of sitting out a game. Engvall's line ranked sixth out of 51 line combinations with at least 60 minutes together this season by expected goal share, higher than any line from the Kings, Lightning, and Rangers (for example), and had a higher goal share than the top lines from Toronto, Los Angeles, New York, Vegas, and Dallas. Anyway, that turnover is absolutely a reason to break up one of the best second lines in the league this year, and one of the best second lines since Engvall was traded to Long Island. Certainly not anyone on the third line, that is getting hemmed in their zone on a nightly basis. Perfectly reasonable stuff here.

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Calen Addison was in the lineup and on the power play for the Sharks on Thursday night. I'm interested to see how he does, but that he's going right to the power play indicates the team knows what his strength is. That is a first step in the right direction, anyway.

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Connor Bedard had the game that fantasy managers and Chicago fans have been waiting to see as he posted four points in the Blackhawks' 5-3 win over Tampa Bay. He had two goals and two assists, and both goals looked something like this, where he went right to the crease:

This pass by Philipp Kurashev on Connor Bedard's goal was slick. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/Of32xEksMI

— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) November 10, 2023

His shot is what usually gets discussed but his ability to hide under the coverage like this is what will make him such a versatile and dangerous scorer. It is just a glimpse of what the future holds and is definitely one of those statement performances.

Nick Foligno had three assists, including on the on the power play and one of Bedard's tallies. A good fantasy performance from the veteran.

Phillipp Kurashev had a pair of helpers while Kevin Korchinski also scored. That was Korchincki's first marker of his career as his role has stayed mostly steady through the season.

Nikita Kucherov scored his 11^th goal while Anthony Cirelli netted a power play tally, adding another assist as well. Brandon Hagel assisted on that Cirelli marker and that keeps Hagel over a point per game on the season.

Taylor Hall and Andreas Athanasiou left the game injured and we'll provide more updates when we get them.

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Three third-period goals, including two from Charlie Coyle to cap off a hat trick, led Boston to a 5-2 win over the New York Islanders. Coyle added an assist with six total shots and a pair of blocks. David Pastrnak was nearly as impressive with a goal, two assists, and five shots. That is 10 goals and 10 assists for the superstar winger to date this season.

Adam Pelech was a gametime scratch for the Islanders and Noah Dobson managed an assist, three shots, and a block with Pelech out.

Linus Ullmark stopped 27 of 29 shots for the win.

*

Cole Caufield ripped home an overtime power play goal to lift Montreal 3-2 over Detroit on Thursday night. Mike Matheson assisted on the goal, his second PP helper of the night, after scoring in the first period. He was up near 28 minutes in this contest after seeing a downturn in ice time of late, and the added ice time helped him rack up five total shots in this game.

Nick Suzuki scored the other power play goal while adding a PP assist on Caufield's overtime winner. Caufield remains a point-per-game player while Suzuki has 12 in 13 contests.

JT Compher and Christian Fischer scored for Detroit. Jake Walman had three shots, four blocks, and a couple PIMs in a solid multi-cat effort.

Cayden Primeau also stopped 27 of 29 for his team's two points.

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Elias Pettersson (1+2), JT Miller (1+1), Ilya Mikheyev (2+0), Andrei Kuzmenko (0+2), and Phil Di Giuseppe (0+2) all had multi-point nights as Vancouver skated out of Ottawa with a 5-2 win. Mikheyev now has five goals in nine games since returning as he's been a tremendous add to the top-6 now that he's healthy.

Pettersson now has 24 points in 13 games as his unbelievable tear continues.

Brock Boeser also scored and he's now tallied 11 goals in 13 games. It has been a tremendous start for him and though the shooting percentage will come down, this kind of start already has him in line for a career year.

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With Louis Domingue in net for the Rangers, the team held down the fort by allowing just 26 shots against as they took a 4-1 win over the Wild. The second line of Artemi Panarin (1+1), Vincent Trocheck (1+2), and Alexis Lafreniére (1+2) did most of the damage in a big win with the team filled with injuries. That makes six points in three games for Trocheck as he's now reached the 10-point mark on the year. It was also Lafrenière's best fantasy effort of the year, as he also registered four shots on goal. He is now on a three-game point streak, too.

Jacob Trouba had a great multi-cat night with an assist, a shot, four blocks, two PIMs, and five hits. He has been doing that all year long in what has been a great start for him in multi-cat formats.

*

In a scary incident in Colorado, Artturi Lehkonen was knocked off balance and went head-first into the boards. He was able to skate off under his own power but certainly looked hurt getting down the tunnel very, very slowly. He was responsive and had full movement, per the team, so that's always good news when the alternative seemed possible.

Colorado lost that game 4-3 to Seattle but it really didn't seem very important at the time. Oliver Bjorkstrand scored twice and he's now up to six goals and 12 points in 14 games. A much different start for him this year compared to last where it took him until January to score his sixth goal.

Jaden Schwartz had a goal and an assist while both Vince Dunn and Adam Larsson had a pair of helpers each. Dunn is up to 12 points in 14 games as he continues his strong performance from last season. In fact, going back to March of 2022 – spanning 118 games – Dunn is 10^th in scoring among defencemen with 91 points, more than Miro Heiskanen, Charlie McAvoy, Noah Dobson, and so on. Quite the ascension from him after leaving St. Louis.

Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and an assist in the loss.

*

Filip Forsberg scored twice for Nashville but was outdone by Winnipeg's Kyle Connor, who scored thrice as Winnipeg defeated their opponent 6-3. Connor added a power play assist and had seven total shots while Mark Scheifele had four assists and four shots on goal. That makes six goals in four games for Connor, who now has 11 goals in 13 games on the year, and is tied with Nikita Kucherov and Brock Boeser for second in the league behind Auston Matthews.

Cole Perfetti scored a power play goal while Laurent Brossoit saved 20 of 23 shots for the win.

Forsberg doubled his season's goal total with his tallies and is now up to four goals and 14 points on the year. He has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the new offensive system under Andrew Brunette.

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Matt Duchene's line did the work for Dallas on Thursday night as he returned to the lineup and had a goal and two assists on four shots while adding a hit. Linemates Tyler Seguin (1+1) and Mason Marchment (one goal) also got on the scoresheet in a game that demonstrated Dallas's strength: three scoring lines.

Going back to last season, Marchment has six goals in his last 18 games. In a third-line role, that would play exceptionally well, but his drop in ice time is leading to far fewer hits (10 in 12 games) than he did in his first three seasons (1.8 per game).

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An overtime goal from Bryan Rust got Pittsburgh two points over Los Angeles in a 4-3 win. Each member of the time line scored as Jake Guentzel and Sidney Crosby got on the board, with Crosby also assisting on Guentzel's goal. Guentzel has 15 points in 12 games, which seems like excellent production for a guy who looked as if he may not start the season on time as he was trying to come back from injury.

Magnus Hellberg performed admirably in net for the Penguins, stopping 33 of 36 shots and giving the team a chance to win with both their NHL goalies injured.

Adrian Kempe, Kevin Fiala, and Carl Grundstrom scored in the loss for Los Angeles. Kempe now has six goals and 14 points in his last 10 games, averaging 4.7 shots per game.

*

Edmonton lost to San Jose 3-2. Uh. Hmm.

Tomas Hertl (1+1) and Fabian Zetterlund (1+1) each had multi-point games for the Sharks. As bad as the team is, Hertl has nine points in 13 games, so things could be going a lot worse for him.

Stuart Skinner allowed three goals on 18 shots in the loss while MacKenzie Blackwood saved 39 of 41 in the win. He is facing nearly 40 shots per 60 minutes and no other regular goalie is over 36.

Calen Addison didn’t have any points but skated 19:47, which is a lot more than he usually got in Minnesota.