Toronto hosted Vegas on Wednesday night, and the Maple Leafs were already without Auston Matthews, who has been out of action for over two weeks. The recent update on Matthews was that there's a hope he can return to action sometime next week, but given that he's been day-to-day for most of November already, we shouldn't hold our breaths. Max Pacioretty has also been out of action, and Calle Jarnkrok has been injured all season.

There was another notable injury to come through on Wednesday:

The Maple Leafs have placed F Max Domi on IR (lower body) retroactive to November 16.

F Nikita Grebenkin has been recalled from the Toronto Marlies (AHL).

— Leafs PR (@LeafsPR) November 20, 2024

Domi had been pointless in six games since the Matthews injury, but this effectively means that their first- and third-line centres are out of action. It puts a lot on the shoulders of John Tavares.

The injury woes continued for the Leafs on Wednesday night as Matthew Knies took a hard hit from Vegas defenceman Zach Whitecloud in the second period and left the game, not to return. Whitecloud did catch Knies in the head, so there is reason for concern here. We will wait for an update from the team.

Toronto did manage the win, though, earning a 3-0 shutout victory over Vegas. Joseph Woll got the start for the Leafs, and it was easily his best start of the season by stopping all 31 shots faced. It was his first shutout in nearly three years (November 21^st, 2021).

William Nylander did the damage for the Leafs as he had a goal (PP), an assist, a block, and six total shots on the evening. He now has 13 goals and 22 points in 20 games on the campaign.

Fraser Minten scored his first NHL goal, finishing a nice setup from Nylander in the first period. With all the injuries the team has among the forward group, he may get some run here for the team.

Mitch Marner chipped in with a pair of assists (one on the PP), a shot, and a hit. He now has 26 points in 20 games through the first quarter of the NHL schedule.

Pontus Holmberg scored the empty-net tally for the Leafs, and he skated nearly 17 minutes for his highest TOI total of the season.

Adin Hill took the loss for Vegas, allowing two goals on 23 shots.

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An update on Connor Ingram:

#UtahHC has recalled goaltender Jaxson Stauber from the Tucson Roadrunners (AHL) on an emergency basis.

Connor Ingram is day to day with an upper-body injury. He has remained in Utah for further evaluation.

— Belle Fraser (@bellefraser1) November 20, 2024

It doesn't seem too serious right now, but we'll wait for more from the team.

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Good news for Columbus as Kent Johnson looks to be on the verge of returning:

#CBJ Kent Johnson, expected to return to the lineup Thursday vs. #TBLightning, is on a line with center Adam Fantilli and left wing James van Riemsdyk at the start of practice.

— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) November 20, 2024

Johnson had five points in four games before the injury and it'll be interesting to see if he can help Adam Fantilli's production woes.

A bit of bad news for Columbus on the injury front:

#CBJ Cayden Lindstrom had a minor surgical procedure on his back Tuesday, per GM Don Waddell. Expected to play again this season after rehab.

— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) November 20, 2024

Lindstrom has had known back issues for months, so this tracks, and it's good that he should be expected to return this season. All that said, back surgeries of any nature always scare me a bit.

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It appears as Alexandar Georgiev will be back in net for Colorado very soon:

Alexandar Georgiev is "an option" to start for Colorado at Washington tomorrow night, coach Jared Bednar said, depending on how the goaltender comes out of a full practice today.

— Stephen Whyno (@SWhyno) November 20, 2024

Keep an eye on Goalie Post for updates.  

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Timo Meier was at practice and skating in his usual lineup spot on Wednesday so hopefully whatever that back injury is was very minor.

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Seattle has been without defenceman Vince Dunn since the fourth game of the season, but things are trending in the right direction for his return:

Vince Dunn is with the main group at optional morning skate. First time in about a month. pic.twitter.com/9MdjElB8jv

— Kate Shefte (@KateShefte) November 20, 2024

Dunn did not suit up Wednesday night, and the coach said after practice he’ll be a couple weeks yet, but a good sign nonetheless.

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Carolina went into Philadelphia on Wednesday night and the Flyers did a good job of hanging in the game for the most part, but the Hurricanes just simply took over in the third period. Carolina got third-period goals from Sebastian Aho, Jack Roslovic, and Jordan Staal about six minutes part to take a 1-1 tie into a dominant 4-1 lead, and that's how things would finish.

Jalen Chatfield scored in the first period for Carolina, his first goal of the season. He also had an assist on the Staal goal and finished the game with two shots. He has just six points in 18 games on the season, but that pace is a career-high as his production has improved with a larger role on the team.

Aho's goal was the first of the season for him at 5-on-5. He and Andrei Svechnikov now have two (2) combined goals at 5-on-5 on 67 total shots. It is safe to say they are both due to go on a little hot streak, which is terrifying to think about when we consider that Roslovic is now up to 10 goals on the season overall. Aho assisted on that goal, so he's just off a point-per-game pace with 17 in 18 contests.

Pyotr Kochetkov wasn't overly busy but made most of the saves he needed to, stopping 18 of 19 shots for the win.

Ryan Poehling had the lone goal for the Flyers.

Ivan Fedotov played well enough again, but allowed four goals on 37 shots in the loss. He has been better over his last handful of starts, and that's important with Samuel Ersson still on the shelf.  

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Going through tracking data from AllThreeZones, and something stood out to me: the league average of zone entries that are carried in (vs. dumped in or passed in) is dropping. Among forwards at 5-on-5, here are the league averages over the last four seasons:

Season	% Of Entries Carried In
2021-22	55.2%
2022-23	53.2%
2023-24	52%
2024-25	50.4%

The percentages of entries that were passed in had been dropping but have rebounded so far in the early portions of the 2024-25 season. In other words, a few years ago a 60% carried entry rate was good but not high-end whereas that would be far above average now.

It is worth seeing if anyone is succeeding despite this drop, so let's compare players to what they did in 2023-24. Samples are still limited, so keep that in mind, and we are going to restrict our data to players with at least 200 tracked minutes last season and 60 tracked minutes this season. Here are some forwards who have improved their percentage of entries being carried in.

At the top is Mason Marchment, who had a down year in this regard last season but has rebounded very well. Behind him is Brandon Tanev, which I'm not buying into yet considering he has a long history of not doing anything like this, but the next two names after them are both from the same team, and that caught my eye:

As things stand on Wednesday morning, Kyle Palmieri has the second-highest assists-per-minute rate at 5-on-5 of his last 10 seasons, while Bo Horvat's is a career-high. That second part might catch some readers by surprise, considering Horvat has largely been a fantasy disappointment with 14 points in 19 games. It is worth noting that he is shooting 4.7% at 5-on-5 after posting a three-year average of 11.2% from 2021-2024. If he is at that mark, rather than what he's done, he has eight goals in 19 games and there's probably less consternation about his production.

It is also notable that Horvat has just two (!) power play points on the season. Not that he's been a big power play producer since getting to Long Island, but his first two seasons with the team gave us one power play point every five games. He is about one every 10 games this season. Once his shooting percentage rebounds, if the power play can ever right itself (a healthy Mathew Barzal would help), there could be a big production rise coming from Horvat. Barzal's injury timeline was a return in late November or early December, so fantasy managers might want to check in to see how cheap Horvat is to acquire. I suspect he'll be much more productive over the final four months.

There has also been a sharp increase for a young San Jose Sharks forward:

Only nine Sharks forwards have reached 175 minutes at 5-on-5, but Eklund leads them by primary assist rate at 5-on-5, and by a whopping 42%. Across the league, his primary assist rate is in the 89^th percentile of all forwards with at least 175 minutes played.

Eklund has also improved his shot attempt rate at all strengths, too. That has jumped by 23.5%, so what was a fourth-line shot attempt rate is now a second-line shot attempt rate. He is missing the net a fair bit, but once that corrects itself, his shots per game will rise.

It may take a couple years for the Sharks and their young core to start hitting their stride, but there are important and noticeable improvements to Eklund's game. He could be a 20-goal, 60-point forward this year as it is, and that indicates what his upside can be down the road once the blue line is replenished and young stars like Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith come into their own. Eklund might be a future winger version of Robert Thomas.