The big news from Wednesday was the postponement of the game between the Calgary Flames and the Los Angeles Kings due to the ongoing, severe wildfire in California. There has not been a date announced for the makeup game, but that is not the important thing right now.

For anyone looking to help out with the wildfire relief, there are a few different spots to do so. One is the California Fire Foundation which provides direct relief to victims and survivors of such incidents.

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One of the enduring sagas of the 2024-25 regular season is the healthy status of Colorado Avalanche forward Gabriel Landeskog. He hasn't played a game since the 2022 playoffs, which is pushing three years now. If he can return to the lineup and be anywhere near as effective as he was three years ago, it would be a huge boost for the team. That returns is still uncertain, though, and the team provided an update on Landeskog:

On @AltitudeSR, Bednar says they're "optimistic" about Gabriel Landeskog moving in the right direction and ventures to guess he's further along in this process then he's ever been. Still no timeline for a return and still a ways to go.

— Evan Rawal (@evanrawal) January 8, 2025

There is no imminent return, obviously, but that he's progressing is a good sign. This seems a situation where we're looking months into the future, but a step forward is a step forward.

On the topic of the Avalanche, Jonathan Drouin was out on Wednesday night with an upper-body injury, but he is expected to play Thursday. It seems more of a maintenance thing for him as he's battle injury all year and they don't want to push it.

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The Montreal Canadiens have been on a good streak recently, and got some good news in regards to Patrik Laine:

Patrik Laine a patiné ce matin avant le reste du groupe. @CanadiensMTL @TVASports

— Renaud Lavoie (@renlavoietva) January 8, 2025

Laine has been out for a few games due to illness, and the Canadiens don't play again until Friday night. We should get a better idea of his status on Thursday, but things are trending in the right direction.

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Speaking of trending in the right direction, the Carolina Hurricanes provided an update on goaltender Frederik Andersen:

Frederik Andersen is also on the ice ahead of today's #Canes practice.

It is the first time we have seen him skating since he underwent knee surgery on Nov. 22.

A big step as he works his way back through the 8-12 week recovery process. pic.twitter.com/nqQxITP1FD

— Walt Ruff (@WaltRuff) January 8, 2025

It seems that he still has some distance between now and a return to the crease, but it's always a good sign to see an injured player back and skating, and he even stuck around for some practice time with the team. From Monday, January 13^th until the Four Nations Cup break in early February, Carolina is tied for the second-fewest games on the schedule with 12, according to Frozen Tools, and only one back-to-back set. With a relatively light schedule, there's no need to rush things right now, and we'll update as we get more on this front.

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For more positive injury news, we go to the Vancouver Canucks and defenceman Filip Hronek:

General Manager Patrik Allvin announced today that D Filip Hronek has been assigned to Abbotsford (AHL) for conditioning.

— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) January 8, 2025

Hronek has been out of the lineup since late November but it seems he's not too far away from a return to the NHL. He forms a fantastic top pair with Quinn Hughes and with the Canucks in a fight for a playoff spot, they need all the healthy bodies they can get.

Staying with Vancouver, Elias Pettersson was a game-time decision for their game in Washington on Wednesday night.

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Some good news for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Evgeni Malkin:

Evgeni Malkin is on the ice for practice. Seems to be a regular jersey. #Pens

— Wes Crosby (@OtherNHLCrosby) January 8, 2025

Malkin was a surprise scratch due to injury on Tuesday night in Pittsburgh's loss to Columbus. He has slowed down since a hot start to the season but if the team wants to stay in the playoff race, they need him healthy and productive.

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Now for some bad news, New York Rangers forward Filip Chytil was not at practice on Wednesday:

Filip Chytil is not practicing today as he's being evaluated for an upper-body injury. #NYR

— Remy Mastey (@MasteyRemy) January 8, 2025

Given Chytil's injury history, it's always a concern when he misses practice due to injury. Hopefully this is nothing serious, but there are obviously more updates to come.

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The Buffalo Sabres sent Jiri Kulich to the injured reserve and subsequently said that he has a week-to-week status. It is a tough break for Kulich, who had carved himself a nice middle-6 role for the Sabres and had seven goals in 31 games despite skating under 14 minutes a game with secondary power play time.

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Daniel Sprong was put on waivers by the Seattle Kraken. He has played 19 games this season between Seattle and Vancouver, who put him on waivers earlier in the year. We will see if anyone claims him considering he had 39 goals and 89 points across 142 games from 2022-2024 while skating under 12 minutes a game. That is pretty good production in a depth role, and there might be some contending teams that are looking to bolster the scoring in their bottom-6 (looking at you, Colorado and Florida).

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The Montreal Canadiens held their mid-season press conference, and while there wasn't a whole lot to glean, there were to bits of information that are relevant for fantasy managers.

The first is to not expect prospect Ivan Demidov to end up in Montreal before the end of the season. Sometimes, players on expiring KHL contracts (or in college) will make their way to the NHL when their team's season ends, but it won't be the case with Demidov for whatever reason. There may have been some hope he could arrive in April, but that's gone now.

The second bit of information is that the team is looking to stay the course and see where things stand a couple months from now at the Trade Deadline. They look to be getting Patrik Laine back (again) as he recovers from his illness and already traded for Alexandre Carrier a few weeks ago. The management group seems content to see how the team's recent play – stretching back a couple of months now – holds up, and to see if they can make a legitimate push to the playoffs with the group they have. Of course, there are names like Jake Evans and David Savard who will continue popping up in trade rumours, but don't expect the Canadiens to make a big splash, one way or another, between now and the end of the regular season.

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Chicago was at home to Colorado on Wednesday night as the Blackhawks were looking to rebound from a 6-2 loss on Sunday. The Avalanche had goalie Trent Miner in net as this was the first half of a back-to-back that concludes in Minnesota on Thursday night, and while he played well enough, the Blackhawks managed to skate out with a 3-1 win.

Petr Mrazek was the star of the night for Chicago, only allowing the one goal (Juuso Parssinen's first as an Avalanche) on a partial breakaway in the first period. He turned aside the other 36 shots he faced for his eighth win of the season. That brings Mrazek's season save percentage up to .897, which isn't that bad on a Blackhawks team of this calibre.

Connor Bedard extended his point streak to eight games with a goal and an assist, and that streak has seen him tally four times and distribute seven helpers. Going back further, Bedard now has eight goals and 22 points in his last 20 games, totaling 45 shots and 11 power play points along the way. After a very slow start, Bedard's most recent quarter has been extremely productive.

Frank Nazar scored his first goal of the season while Ilya Mikheyev had the other marker. Seth Jones finished with an assist, two shots, four blocks, and a hit in a solid multi-cat night.

Miner faced 20 shots and allowed three goals in the loss.

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Pierre-Luc Dubois played overtime hero for Washington as he finished a rush from Aliaksei Protas to lift the Capitals to a 2-1 win in the extra frame over Vancouver. It was Dubois's second goal of the night after scoring late in the first period. Though the overtime tally was just his seventh goal of the year, it gives him 33 points through the first 41 games of the season. That is back near his career marks that we expect from him, and much better than the 40 points he posted in his lone season with Los Angeles. He certainly looks like a different player.

Logan Thompson was fantastic in net for the Capitals, stopping 30 of 31 shots for his 17^th win of the season in just 21 starts. Washington has been splitting time in net between he and Charlie Lindgren, but Thompson has been clearly been the better option. The Capitals have built a nice playoff cushion in the East, so there's not much need to deviate, but if things continue as they have, it's obvious who the starter should be come playoff time.

That assist from Protas was his 18^th of the season to go with his 18 goals. Not a bad start for a guy who had 44 points in his prior 141 regular season games.

Conor Garland scored a power play goal in the second period, the only puck to get past Thompson on the night. Garland finished the evening with three shots in 19:53 of total ice time.

Kevin Lankinen was in net for the loss, allowing the one goal on 16 shots. With the Canucks in Carolina on Friday, it'll be interesting to see if they go Thatcher Demko, who was dressed and the backup for this game.

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Jesper Boqvist scored a pair of goals, Sam Reinhart scored on the power play, and Eetu Luostarainen tallied on the empty net to lift Florida to a 4-1 win in Utah. That goal from Reinhart broke a six-game goalless drought and he's still on pace for a 45-goal season with 23 tallies in 42 games.

Matthew Tkachuk had a pair of assists, including on the Reinhart power play marker, to go with two shots, two PIMs, and five hits in 16:15 of total ice time. It has been a very inconsistent season for Tkachuk who started the year with five goals and 16 points in his first 18 games, then had a four-game stretch with five goals and 13 points, and now has eight points in his last 14 outings. He is over a point-per-game status again, but both his points per game and shots per game are four-year lows.

Sergei Bobrovsky was rock-solid in net again for Florida, stopping 26 of 27 shots. He has settled into a nice groove lately, allowing one-or-fewer goals in six of his last 13 starts, and just 13 goals in his last seven outings.

Logan Cooley scored on the power play, Utah's only goal of the night. He is on a very nice little run right now with eight goals, 15 assists, 12 power play points, and 42 shots in his last 21 games. He skated nearly 20 minutes last night, totalling two shots and a block along the way.

Karel Vejmelka took the hard-luck loss, allowing just two goals on 31 shots. Among the 28 goalies with at least 20 starts, he sits tied for fifth with a .915 save percentage. Of those 28 goalies with at least 20 starts, 11 of them have a save percentage equalling or exceeding a .910 save percentage, and he's the only one without double-digit wins. Fantasy hockey, man.