There was a bevy of crucial injury updates that came down on Thursday so let's start with those.

The Anaheim Ducks announced that forward Trevor Zegras will miss at least six weeks after surgery to repair a torn meniscus. When the injury first happened, it certainly seemed as if things would be a lot worse than that. Do not expect him back in your fantasy lineup until the end of January, and depending on whether it takes a bit longer, maybe the team waits until after the Four Nations Cup.

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We got positive updates on Mathew Barzal, Anthony Duclair, and Adam Pelech:

Barzal and Duclair didn't participate in line rushes. Pelech skated with Hutton as the extra D-pair. #Isles

— Stefen Rosner (@stefen_rosner) December 12, 2024

That Barzal and Duclair were skating with the team during the morning skate is a good sign. Hopefully that means they are back sooner rather than later. The Islanders don't play again until Sunday, so look for an update on the weekend.

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Some good news on both Jonas Brodin and Mats Zuccarello:

Both Jonas Brodin and Mats Zuccarello with the group this morning #mnwild

— Jessi Pierce (@jessi_pierce) December 12, 2024

The Wild have a back-to-back this weekend with Philadelphia and Vegas in town on Saturday and Sunday. Reading the tea leaves here, maybe they return for the latter game as the team doesn't rush them to the lineup to play a back-to-back. Hopefully, both are a full-go for the next fantasy week.

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It was a good news/bad news situation for Nashville. Forward Ryan O'Reilly returned to the lineup on Thursday night, slotting in on what would be the second line. He had missed the last three games and the 'week-to-week' designation seemed to indicate he would miss a lot more than three games. That's the positive.

On the negative side, Roman Josi wasn't in the lineup after suffering an injury in their loss to Calgary on Tuesday. When we get more, we will pass it along.

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Tampa Bay's Victor Hedman was a surprise scratch for the Lightning on Thursday night as they were visiting Calgary. He took warmup, so this definitely seemed to be a surprise, but there is not much clarity on what is going on here.

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JT Miller returned to the lineup for Vancouver on Thursday night. He had missed three and a half weeks after taking a leave of absence from the team. It is good to see him back in the lineup and hopefully whatever issue was going on is behind him.

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Toronto was at home to Anaheim on Thursday night and they managed to escape with a 3-2 win. The bad news was that goaltender Anthony Stolarz left the game after the second period and did not return. Joseph Woll came in and stopped 19 of 20 shots in relief.

Toronto's second line did all the damage as Max Pacioretty had two goals, one assist, three shots, a block, and three hits in 18:32 in ice time. Due to an injury and a lengthy pointless streak, those were Pacioretty's first points since Halloween, and is the kind of secondary scoring the team needs.

William Nylander also scored, totaling seven shots.

Frank Vatrano scored a power play goal for Anaheim. That goal was assisted by Jackson LaCombe, who also scored later in the game. LaCombe was in the game after Olen Zellweger took the scratch. It seems as if the Ducks are going to play musical chairs with their young defencemen for a little while yet.

Lukas Dostal allowed three goals on 33 shots in the loss.

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The Pittsburgh Penguins laid an absolute beatdown on Montreal and took a 9-2 win. The funny thing is this was a 1-1 game after the first period and a 3-2 game after the second period. Pittsburgh reeled off six goals in 14 minutes during the third period to completely blow the doors off the game.

This would probably be easier with a bullet-point list:

• Bryan Rust: three goals, one assist, six shots, one hit
• Rickard Rakell: two goals (one PP), two assists (one PP), four shots
• Sidney Crosby: three assists, four shots, three hits
• Kris Letang: one goal (PP), one assist (PP), three shots, one block, two PIMs
• Matt Grzelcyk: two assists (one PP), two blocks

Anthony Beauvillier, Matt Nieto, and Noel Acciari had the other goals. Clear? Great.

Samuel Montembeault was pulled after the sixth goal, and Cayden Primeau allowed the other three.

Tristan Jarry stopped 21 of 23 shots for the win.

Nick Suzuki and Joel Armia had the goals for the Canadiens.

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Third-period goals from Jack Hughes and Brett Pesce (SH) proved the difference as New Jersey took a 3-1 win at home to Los Angeles. Hughes assisted that goal from Pesce, and also assisted on a first-period goal from Ondrej Palat. That makes 12 goals, 23 assists, and 95 shots in Hughes's last 27 games, so a pretty good one-third of the season from him.

Palat finished with a goal and an assist, posting a pair of blocks. It was his first multi-point game of the season, which seems hard to believe but here we are.

Jordan Spence scored the only Kings goal, adding a pair of blocks. He now has as many goals in 28 games (2) as he did in 28 games last year. If only he was getting more assists.

Jacob Markstrom had an easy night, facing just 13 shots and stopping 12 of them for the win.

David Rittich allowed three goals on 26 shots in the loss.

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If the Penguins scoring six goals in 14 minutes wasn't weird enough, Scott Laughton of the Philadelphia Flyers not only had a natural hat trick in the team's 4-1 win over Detroit, he had all four goals. He had four goals in his prior 41 regular season games and scored four in this contest (in fairness, two were into an empty net), totaling nine shots overall. Hockey, man.

Travis Konecny had a pair of assists on those four goals, including one being short-handed, with one shot, three blocks, and a pair of hits. With that performance, Konecny is now on pace for 98 points. He certainly seems to be well on his way to not only a career year, but potentially a 100-point season.

Ben Chiarot scored the only goal for the Red Wings.

Cam Talbot was back in net for Detroit, and was solid for them, but took the loss allowing two goals on 34 shots.

Aleksei Kolosov was solid again for the Flyers, stopping 25 of 26 shots in the win.

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It was a goaltending duel, of sorts, in Columbus as the Washington Capitals took a 2-1 overtime win thanks to Aliaksei Protas. It was his second goal of the game, and he's now up to 11 goals and 50 shots in 28 games. He's riding hot, but he's also been very good, so it's a combination of playing well and getting a bit of luck. Always nice when that happens.

Jet Greaves got the start for the Jackets and was good, but took the loss, giving up two goals on 37 shots. At the other end, Charlie Lindgren held on for the win with 32 saves on 33 shots.

Kent Johnson assisted on a Zach Werenski power play goal, and he now has 17 points in 15 games. He had 16 points in 42 games last season, so he's a little bit ahead of that pace right now.

Jakob Chychrun had a great stat-stuffing night with two assists, two shots, a block, two PIMs, and two hits.

Werenski finished with that power play goal, six shots, a block, and two PIMs. He now has 10 goals and 102 shots in 29 games. It is the seventh time he's reached double-digit goals in his career, and the only times he didn't do it was the 2021 Bubble Season (and he still had seven goals in 35 games), and last season when he played 13 games. That goal was also the 100^th of his career as he is 1 of 6 defencemen with 100 goals since the start of the 2016 season, Werenski's rookie year.

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Chicago went into New York to face the Islanders and the game ended up a bit of a 1980s redux as the Islanders took a 5-4 win. The teams combined for six goals in the third period but Ilya Sorokin was able to make that one extra save, stopping 26 of 30 total shots for the win.

Simon Holmstrom had a goal and two assists with a pair of blocks, Jean-Gabriel Pageau had a trio of helpers with three shots and a hit, and Noah Dobson had a goal, an assist, and two blocks. Dobson had a very tough start to the season but now has nine points in his last 10 games. I'm sure fantasy owners are begging for more of this moving forward, and with the team about to welcome back Barzal and Duclair, he just might.

Connor Bedard had a goal (PP), two assists, four shots, a block, and a hit in the best fantasy game he's had in two months, if not all season. Tyler Bertuzzi had a pair of goals on five shots, and TJ Brodie had the other tally. That makes three goals and 10 shots in Bertuzzi's last two games, so he's making up for a bit of lost time.

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Macklin Celebrini had another big game for San Jose with two goals (one PP), one assist, and six shots as the Sharks took a 4-3 win in St. Louis. Nikolai Kovalenko, in his debut with San Jose, had a trio of assists while skating on Celebrini's line at even strength, adding a shot and three hits. There isn't any power play time (yet), but a great start in his new locale.

Tyler Toffoli scored his 12^th goal of the season while Jake Walman scored his fifth. Walman now has 22 points in 27 games to go with 70 shots, 42 blocks, and 25 hits.

Alexandar Georgiev was in net for the Sharks and won his debut by stopping 17 of 20 shots faced.

Jordan Kyrou, Jake Neighbours, and Brayden Schenn all scored for the Blues. Neighbours finished with a goal, an assist, two shots, two PIMs, and three hits.

Jordan Binnington took the loss, allowing four goals on 31 shots.

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O'Reilly made the difference for Nashville in his debut with two goals, one assist, three shots, a block, and a hit as the Predators took a 4-1 win in Dallas. That snaps an eight-game losing streak for Nashville as Dallas has now lost three of their last four games.

Tommy Novak and Zachary L'Heureux scored the other markers for the Predators as Justus Annunen was fantastic in net, stopping 35 of 36 shots.

Lian Bichsel, Dallas's first-round pick from 2022, made his NHL debut, and scored in his NHL debut. He totaled two shots, five hits, and two PIMs in 15:46 of ice time.

Jake Oettinger took the loss, allowing three goals on 25 shots.

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Victor Olofsson scored a late power play goal for Vegas to push their game with Winnipeg to overtime, and Ivan Barbashev sealed the win in the extra frame with his 14^th goal of the season. The 3-2 loss for Winnipeg means they are now 6-8-1 in their last 15 games after starting the season 15-1-0. They have fallen to third in the Western Conference by points percentage, though they still lead the division by virtue of more games played than anyone else.

Shea Theodore had a pair of assists, one on the PP and one in overtime. He is now 1 of 8 defencemen with at least 20 assists so far this season.

Adin Hill held down the fort for his 13^th win, stopping 18 of 20 shots. He has now allowed more than three goals against in any game in the last month, posting a 7-1-1 record and a .935 save percentage in that span.

Nikita Chibrikov and Josh Morrissey scored for Winnipeg. Morrissey is now 1 of 8 defencemen averaging at least 0.9 points per game this season.

Connor Hellebucyk took the loss, allowing three goals on 33 shots.

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Are the Edmonton Oilers BACK back? Because they brought Minnesota to the woodshed on Thursday night, skating out of Minnesota with a 7-1 win. Leon Draisaitl had the big game for the Oilers, posting a goal, three assists (one on the PP), and five shots. He is the only player in the NHL with at least 20 goals and 20 assists on the season.

Edmonton is now 8-2 in their last 10 games and have climbed to third place in the Pacific, just one point back of Los Angeles.

Connor McDavid had two assists (one PP) and two shots, Evan Bouchard had two assists (one PP) with two PIMs and a hit, and Connor Brown had a goal (SH), an assist, two shots, and a hit. Zach Hyman scored a power play goal, totalling three shots, and now has four goals in four games since returning. Kasperi Kapanen, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (PP), Derek Ryan, and Troy Stecher had the other goals for Edmonton.

Calvin Pickard stopped 29 of 30 shots in the win.

Frederick Gaudreau had the only goal for Minnesota and Filip Gustavsson was pulled after the third period, and five goals against.

Jake Middleton left the game after his very first shift due to injury and did not return.

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Dylan Guenther kept his tremendous season rolling in Utah's 4-1 win in Colorado on Thursday. Guenther had two goals (one PP), an assist, three shots, a block, and four PIMs in a fantasy performance. He now has 12 goals, 16 assists, 68 shots, and 13 power play points in 29 games this season.

Kevin Stenlund and Vladislav Kolyachonok had the other goals for Utah. Logan Cooley had a pair of assists (one PP), a block, and three hits. Cooley has 24 goals and 29 assists in his last 82 regular season games. He doesn't turn 21 years old until May.

Karel Vejmelka had another great game in net, stopping 23 of 24 shots faced for the win. While he has generally been good all season, he now has a .919 save percentage in nine games since the injury to Connor Ingram. He has done his part to keep Utah in the playoff race.

Nathan MacKinnon had Colorado's only goal, totaling four shots, a block, and two PIMs. He now has 49 shots in his last nine games.

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Tampa Bay did what Tampa Bay does and that's fill the net on the opposition – they laid the boots to Calgary in a 8-3 win in Alberta. Jake Guentzel managed a hat trick (one PP) on four shots, and that makes goals in five straight games for him. He has nine goals in his last eight games, and is up to 16 goals in 27 games this season.

Nikita Kucherov, predictably, figured in heavily in the scoring with a goal and five assists (three PP). His point-per-game pace (1.76) is now just a shade behind his pace from last season (1.78) when he had a 144-point season.

Anthony Cirelli had a goal (PP), two assists, and two shots while Brayden Point had a goal (PP), three assists (two PP), three shots, and a block. While Point has obviously been tremendous, Cirelli is now over a point-per-game pace with 27 points in 26 games. He has always been good offensively, but he has taken his game to another level this season.

Not to be left too far behind, Brandon Hagel had a goal, an assist, two shots, and two blocks. He is up to 33 points in 27 games, which is a 100-point pace.

As of today, there are 33 forwards in the NHL that have played at least 20 games and are over a point per game. Five of those 33 forwards (15.2%) are in Tampa Bay.

For posterity, Darren Raddysh ran the top PP unit with Hedman out of the lineup.

Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 19 of 22 shots in the win.

Jonathan Huberdeau had a goal and an assist on three shots while Nazem Kadri and Connor Zary had the other tallies. Huberdeau now has 11 goals in 30 games on the season; he didn't score his 11^th goal last year until March 28^th.

Dan Vladar was in net for all eight goals, facing 26 shots in total.

JJ Moser was injured in the second period and did not return. Depending on Hedman's status, the Lightning blue line could be pretty thin on Saturday when they head to Seattle.

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Miller had two assists (one PP) in his return to the Vancouver lineup as the Canucks shut out the Florida Panthers 4-0. The Canucks had a 3-0 lead 25 minutes into the game so they rolled lines, and no forward reached 17 minutes, so Miller's 14:17 in TOI doesn't stand out given that context. A nice game for him to get his feet back under him after weeks away from the team.

Danton Heinen, Brock Boeser, Carson Soucy, and Jake DeBrusk (PP) scored the goals for the Canucks. It was Garland, and not DeBrusk, who lost the PP spot with Miller's return, so DeBrusk looks to be holding onto his top-6/top PP role for now.

Quinn Hughes had a pair of assists (one PP) with two shots. He is now just two points behind Makar for the lead among defencemen, and has three fewer games played.

Kevin Lankinen was in net for the Canucks and registered the 27-save shutout. It is his third shutout of the season in 21 starts, compared to his three career shutouts in 101 starts prior to this season.

Sergei Bobrovsky allowed four goals on 19 shots in the loss for Florida.

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Boston followed up their 8-1 embarrassment at the hands of Winnipeg on Tuesday with a slightly-but-still-bad embarrassment at the hands of Seattle on Thursday night to the tune of a 5-1 loss. Joonas Korpisalo was in net for this one, allowing four goals on 20 shots.

Oliver Bjorkstrand had a pair of goals (one PP) on two shots with four hits. Bjorkstrand now has 11 goals and 11 assists on the season as his solid campaign rolls along.

Jared McCann had a goal, an assist, and two shots in the win while Jaden Schwartz and Vince Dunn had the other tallies. Dunn finished the game with four shots and a block, and now has 16 goals and 47 assists in his last 82 regular season games for the Kraken.

Shane Wright had two assists with a hit in the win. Since his week of healthy scratches, Wright now has 11 points in 10 games. He has had some good underlying numbers for most of this season, and now the production is starting to catch up to it. His third line with Bjorkstrand and Eeli Tolvanen has been tremendous at 5-on-5 for the Kraken, managing a 59% expected goal share and a plus-6 goal differential in nearly 115 minutes together.

Philipp Grubauer allowed just one goal on 34 shots for the win in probably his best game of the season.

Brad Marchand scored on a penalty shot, the only goal Boston managed on the night. He had three shots and a pair of hits and, despite Boston's scoring problems for most of this season, is on pace for a 32-goal season.