It has been a very tough go for Carolina goaltender Frederik Andersen over the last few years. There have been a slew of injuries, notably the blood clot that kept him out of action for most of the 2023-24 season. As for this season, it looks like he may be out at least until late January, and given the timing of the Four Nations Cup and the longer end of that timeline, perhaps longer:

Hurricanes announce that goaltender Frederik Andersen will have knee surgery on Friday and is expected to be out 8-12 weeks

— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) November 21, 2024

Carolina still has Pyotr Kochetkov, so the team should be fine, but it's a wonder if they don't look for another goalie beyond Spencer Martin. We will see.

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An update from Toronto and forward Matthew Knies after he left the game on Wednesday following a hard hit from Zach Whitecloud:

How is Matthew Knies (upper body) doing?

Craig Berube: "Not bad. I mean, still being evaluated & looked at, but actually feeling OK today, which is good news."@TSN_Edge

— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) November 21, 2024

We don't have any official confirmations or anything, but it seems as if Knies hasn't suffered any sort of serious injury. We will wait for more updates.

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In the Good News Department, defenceman Kris Letang was back at practice for Pittsburgh:

Kris Letang and Kevin Hayes are participating at Penguins practice. Blake Lizotte and Cody Glass skated earlier.

— Shelly Anderson (@_ShellyAnderson) November 21, 2024

Letang has missed the last week due to an illness but it looks as if he may be ready for the team's back-to-back this weekend at home to Winnipeg and Utah.

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For more good news, we head to Edmonton and defenceman Darnell Nurse:

Nurse on the ice this morning. Not taking regular reps but skating. No Hyman or Arvidsson. pic.twitter.com/zhaXF1zYyY

— Ryan Rishaug (@TSNRyanRishaug) November 21, 2024

Nurse didn't play on Thursday night, but it seems as if he escaped serious injury after that hit from Ryan Reaves and could be back in the lineup this week.

Both Zach Hyman and Viktor Arvidsson missed Thursday night's game, though, and Vasily Podkolzin continues to hold down that top-line role. The team said Hyman may be out about a week and Podkolzin likely isn't coming back tonight.

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Alexander Georgiev was activated off the injured reserve and was back in net for Colorado on Thursday night. He had been a lot better since the first couple weeks, and he could be a great fantasy asset if he can both stay healthy and be more like his five starts after his mini reset (.906 save percentage).

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An update on Washington forward Alex Ovechkin:

Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin underwent further evaluation with team doctors. It was confirmed that Ovechkin has a fracture to his left fibula and is anticipated to miss 4-6 weeks.

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) November 21, 2024

A 4- to 6-week timeline would put him out until mid-December at the earliest, and possibly into January. If there are any changes, we will send along those future updates, but Andrew Mangiapane took his spot on the top line for Thursday night's game and has a chance to start being a meaningful fantasy contributor if he can hold onto that spot.

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Brock Boeser is with Vancouver as they head to Ottawa for a Saturday night showdown. There is no official confirmation yet that he's going to play but it certainly seems as if it's at least a possibility. We will update more when the information becomes available.

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New Jersey got power play goals from Jesper Bratt and Stefan Noesen, while Bratt and Dougie Hamilton added even-strength tallies as the Devils took a 4-2 win over Carolina. The Devils have now won eight of their last 12 games and that recent stretch includes a dismantling of Vancouver, a win in Edmonton, two wins in Florida, and now Carolina. That is a lot of wins against some of the best teams in the league.

Bratt had two goals, one assist, four shots, and a block in 18:38 of ice time. He now has 10 goals and 17 assists in 22 games, totaling 10 blocks, 28 hits, and three shots per game. So far, Bratt has had a tremendous fantasy season.

Jack Hughes had a trio of helpers, two of them coming on the power play, adding a shot along the way. His hot streak continues as he has 13 points in his last seven appearances.

Noesen had a goal and an assist to go with two shots, a block, and a hit. He also skated 18:14 in total ice time, a lot of which was on the power play but he's getting heavy usage now that he has a top-6/top power play role.

Hamilton had that goal, two shots, two blocks, two PIMs, and three hits. Just an excellent fantasy night.

Jack Roslovic scored his 11^th of the season while Andrei Svechnkov managed a power play marker in the loss.

Jacob Markstrom stopped 20 of 22 shots in the win while Spencer Martin allowed four goals on 21 shots in the loss.

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Detroit honoured Pavel Datstyuk on Thursday night, and rewarded him and the fans with a 2-1 win at home to the New York Islanders. They staged a late comeback as Jonatan Berggren scored with under five minutes left in the game to tie the score, and then Lucas Raymond scored in the final minute for the win.

Raymond has just three goals now on the season, but does have 18 points and 10 power play points, so it's not all bad.

Simon Edvinsson assisted on Raymond's goal and now has four points in his last seven games, totaling 11 shots and 12 blocks.

Alex Lyon was stellar in net, stopping 22 of 23 shots for the win. A nice rebound for him after allowing 15 goals across his last five starts. He has stopped 52 of 53 shots in two games against the Islanders this season.

Simon Holmstrom got the lone goal for the Islanders. Ilya Sorokin took the loss, allowing two goals on 31 shots.

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Pavel Dorofeyev scored halfway through the third period in Vegas's game in Ottawa on Thursday night, and it held up as the game-winning tally as the Golden Knights escaped with a 3-2 win. Jack Eichel and Brett Howden had scored earlier in the game to boost Vegas to the two points.

Both Ivan Barbashev and Noah Hanifin had a pair of assists in the game. Barbashev had gone pointless in four straight contests but those two points bring him back near a point-per-game status with 19 in 20 outings. He has 35 shots, 12 blocks, and 43 hits so there has been very good multi-cat value here.

Hanifin now has 10 points in 20 games and is pacing to get back to the 40-point plateau for the second season in a row.

Ilya Samsonov was great in net for Vegas, stopping 38 of 40 shots for the win.

Adam Gaudette and Drake Batherson had the goals for Ottawa. Linus Ullmark took the loss, stopping 29 of 32 shots, but one save too few for a chance at the win.

Brady Tkachuk had six shots and seven hits as he continues his great fantasy season, even without getting on the scoresheet.

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Joonas Korpisalo stopped all 21 shots he faced as Boston took a 1-0 win at home to Utah. It was the team's first game since firing coach Jim Montgomery, and if they never allow a goal again, it's safe to say they'll turn their season around.

Elias Lindholm scored Boston's goal on the power play, his first goal since October 12^th. No, really.

David Pastrnak had an assist on five shots with a hit.

Karel Vejmelka took the hard-luck loss, stopping 30 shots but one went past him and that was enough.

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Mikko Rantanen (PP) and Miles Wood both scored for Colorado as they handed Washington a defeat in their first game since the Alex Ovechkin injury by a 2-1 score. That goal was Rantanen's 13^th of the season, and he now has 28 points in 20 games, pacing for a career-high 115 points. It'll be interesting to see how he fares now that the team is fully healthy, and he doesn't have to play 23 minutes a night.

Wood had that goals, five shots, a block, and a hit in just 8:04 of total ice time. Very productive in a limited role.

Georgiev took the win in his first game back, stopping 30 of 31 pucks fired his way. He now has a .918 save percentage in six games since his 10-day reset back in October.

Pierre-Luc Dubois scored just his second goal of the season, Washington's lone tally on the night.

Logan Thompson played very well but took the loss, allowing two goals on 27 shots.

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The main event for Thursday night was an absolutely bonkers Tampa Bay-Columbus game. The long story short is Tampa Bay had a 3-1 lead after the first period and lost the game 7-6 in overtime. The teams combined for six goals in a six-minute stretch early in the second period and it was 6-6 heading to the extra frame. Zach Werenski scored his second of the night to lift the Jackets to an unbelievable win.

Rather than write it out in paragraphs, it's probably easier to summarize everything in bullet points:

• Zach Werenski: Two goals, three assists (one PP, one SH), eight shots, two blocks.
• Sean Monahan: One goal, three assists (one SH), three shots, one block, two hits.
• Kent Johnson in his first game back from injury: Two goals (one PP), two shots.
• Dmitri Voronkov: One goal, one assist, four shots, one block.
• Yegor Chinakhov: One goal, two shots.
• Kirill Marchenko: Two assists (one PP), three shots, one hit.
• Cole Sillinger: Two assists, two blocks.
• Nikita Kucherov: Three assists (one PP), six shots, one hit.
• Brandon Hagel: One goal, one assist, three shots, two blocks, one hit.
• Anthony Cirelli: One goal, one assist, two shots, three blocks.
• Conor Geekie: One goal (PP), one assist, three shots, one block, one hit.
• Mitchell Chaffee: One goal, one assist, two shots, three hits.

And those are just the multi-point games.

With the five-point night, Werenski is now up to 19 points in 19 games with 73 shots. It is the same point total as Monahan.  

Johnson picked up where he left off and now has four goals and three assists in five games. Production aside, he looks like a genuine offensive threat on most shifts, and that kind of consistency is what'll help him be a very good producer.

Elvis Merzlikins hung on for the win, allowing six goals but saving 24 shots.

Jonas Johansson made the start for Tampa Bay and allowed all seven goals on 43 shots.

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Yaroslav Askarov made his San Jose debut on Thursday night, but took the shootout loss as St. Louis skated away with a 3-2 win. Askarov looked solid, stopping 29 of 31 shots, but the first goal against was 11 seconds into the game and was a result of Askarov giving the puck away on a Blues dump-in. A tough loss, maybe a goal that shouldn't have happened, but not a bad start to his Sharks tenure.

Nathan Walker and Jordan Kyrou has the goals for the Blues. Pierre-Olivier Joseph was back in the lineup for St. Louis and assisted on Kyrou's goal, managing a shot and a block.

Alex Wennberg scored both goals for the Sharks, and they were both assisted by Macklin Celebrini and Mikael Granlund. A note on Granlund: After starting the season with 66 shots in 20 games, which is an incredible total relative to what he's done for years, he now has four shots in his last four games with just 11 shot attempts. Is it a return to what he's usually done or a blip? We will see.

Jordan Binnington stopped 22 of 24 shots for six win on the season.

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Petr Mrazek was great in net for Chicago as the Blackhawks managed a 3-1 win at home to Florida. Mrazek now has a .911 save percentage and 2.66 goals against average on the season, so even if the wins aren't abundant (six in 14 starts), the ratios are solid.

Teuvo Teravainen scored a power play goal and the Blackhawks got tallies from Craig Smith and Nick Foligno (EN). Foligno had a goal, assist, two shots, and six hits in a great fantasy night.

Sam Reinhart had the lone goal for Florida, totaling four shots and a hit. Arbitrary cutoff alert: Since March 10^th, 2023, Reinhart is second in the league in total goals, as well as goals per minute at all strengths, trailing only Auston Matthews. That is a span of 119 games for Reinhart.

Aaron Ekblad had an assist and a shot in over 25 minutes of ice time, and he took the top PP unit over from Uvis Balinskis.

Spencer Knight took the loss, allowing two goals on 19 shots.

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Igor Shesterkin was under siege in Calgary, and took the loss but made 46 saves in New York's 3-2 defeat. It is the third time this season that Shesterkin has faced at least 40 shots, and he's faced the fourth-most shots per minute of any regular starter in the league.

Yegor Sharangovich had a goal (PP) and an assist with four shots. Matt Coronato also had a goal and an assist (PP) with four shots. Connor Zary had the other tally, registering five total shots and a block.

Mackenzie Weegar had three assists (one on the PP), seven shots, three blocks, and four hits. He is up to 11 points, 56 shots, 49 hits, and 48 blocks in a great multi-cat season thus far.

Dustin Wolf made the start again for Calgary and stopped 27 of 29 shots for the win.

Alexis Lafrenière scored for the Rangers, managing five shots and a hit, while Will Cuylle had the other tally.

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Minnesota's depth had a big game for them on Thursday night as Frederick Gaudreau had two goals and an assist while Marcus Foligno had one of each in the team's 5-3 win over Edmonton. Matt Boldy and Marcus Johansson had the other tallies.

Kirill Kaprizov had just one assist, but he took a knee-on-knee and left the game briefly. He came back and finished the game, so it's something to keep an eye on.

Jonas Brodin had an assist, five blocks, and a hit in a solid multi-cat night.

Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 28 of 31 shots faced for the win.

Corey Perry had a goal and an assist, Jeff Skinner also scored, and Leon Draisaitl got a lucky bounce (roll?) for his 15^th goal of the season.

Stuart Skinner allowed five goals on 26 shots for the loss.