The NHL Department Player of Safety rendered their judgments on Edmonton's Connor McDavid and Vancouver's Tyler Myers after the incidents over the weekend at the end of the game that saw both players give cross-checks to the head of an opponent: Both players have been suspended for three games. Edmonton starts a six-game homestand on Tuesday night and McDavid will miss games against Washington and Buffalo as well as a rematch against Vancouver while Myers will also miss games against the Capitals and Sabres as well as that rematch.

Not a whole lot to say about this one. The players deserved the suspensions they got but, as always, the referees deserve all the criticism they are getting (and then some).

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Calle Jarnkrok has yet to play a game for the Toronto Maple Leafs this season because of a pair of surgeries, including one for a sports hernia. Some good news for the Leafs on that front:

Calle Jarnkrok also skating this morning @TSN_Edge pic.twitter.com/pxTPfrfqgh

— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) January 20, 2025

With Max Pacioretty currently missing time with an upper-body injury, John Tavares out of the lineup, and the bottom-6 scuffling a bit, Järnkrok returning soon would be a boost for their forward depth. There is still no official word on his return, but positive signs, nonetheless.

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The Florida Panthers provided an update on defenceman Aaron Ekblad:

Maurice reiterates that the hope is for Ekblad (upper body) to return on this road trip.

He hasn't been ruled out for tomorrow yet.

"We'll see how he is tomorrow, but he had a better day today then he thought he would," Maurice said.

— Jameson Olive (@JamesonCoop) January 20, 2025

Florida plays Tuesday night in Anaheim and then has Los Angeles, San Jose, and Vegas before the end of the week. The hope is that Ekblad can be in the lineup sometime in the next seven days.

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A little update on Los Angeles's Drew Doughty and Alex Laferriere:

Drew Doughty and Alex Laferriere are both on the ice with the @LAKings this morning in non-contact jerseys!

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) January 20, 2025

Given the recency of each injury, I would guess that Laferriere is closer to game action than Doughty, but it is nice to see Doughty back skating. It will complicate matters on the blue line a lot, and it puts Brandt Clarke's fantasy value for the next thee months in a bit of peril. He hasn't been getting much ice time as it is, Doughty has typically been the top power-play defenceman for years, and Clarke is waiver-exempt. Just some things to keep in mind.

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Anaheim got some good news on injured forward Trevor Zegras:

Trevor Zegras (meniscus surgery) inches closer and closer to a return. He's practicing with the second power play unit this morning. Looks like Rich Clune has made a couple tweaks to both units as well.#FlyTogether pic.twitter.com/Yj91lRZD54

— Derek Lee (@Derek_Lee27) January 20, 2025

He was skating on the second line with Leo Carlsson and Alex Killorn, so it seems a return for Zegras may be imminent after missing nearly seven weeks of action. Anaheim is at home to Florida on Tuesday night and their next game is at home on Thursday against Pittsburgh.

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The Boston Bruins staged a comeback on Monday afternoon as they turned a 3-2 deficit at home to San Jose with 12 minutes left in the third period into a 6-3 win. Charlie Coyle had two goals, including the game-tying and game-winning tallies, to go along with an assist on Elias Lindholm's empty netter, a block, and a pair of hits. It is Coyle's first three-point game since early November of 2023.

Each of Lindholm, Brad Marchand, and David Pastrnak had a goal and an assist in the game. Pastrňák totaled six shots and a hit, and has five goals, six assists, and 20 shots in his last four games. Going back a bit further, he has 14 goals, 20 assists, and 107 shots in his last 25 games.

Matthew Poitras assisted on both Coyle goals, his first multi-point game in his 17^th appearance this season.

Joonas Korpisalo got the win, his eighth in 14 starts, stopping 25 of 28 shots faced.

Will Smith had a goal and an assist for San Jose in the loss. He is up to 17 points in 41 games on the season, which is good for a 19-year-old rookie playing a middle-6 role on a Lottery team.

Barclay Goodrow and Fabian Zetterlund had the other tallies. Zetterlund finished the game with six shots, three blocks, and a pair of hits.

Yaroslav Askarov played well again, but took the loss, allowing four goals on 31 shots.

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Without Kirill Kaprizov, Jared Spurgeon, and Jonas Brodin, the Minnesota Wild went into Colorado and came out with a 3-1 win. The defence did a lot of the damage as Jake Middleton had a goal and an assist while Brock Faber scored his sixth goal in his 43^rd game. Middleton finished with two shots and four blocks as well, and as now tied his career-high in goals for a season (7) in just 36 games. With 56 shots, 91 blocks, and 56 hits in those 36 games, he has been a multi-cat fantasy gem when he's been healthy.

Yakov Trenin had Minnesota's other goal as Marc-Andre Fleury was stellar in net again, allowing just one goal on 27 shots. He has had a couple rough starts this year, but Fleury has now allowed three-or-fewer goals in 11 of his 14 starts.

Nathan MacKinnon scored the lone goal for the Avalanche, winding up with six shots and a block in nearly 26 minutes of ice time. That was the 36^th time in his last 201 regular season games dating back to the start of the 2022-23 season where MacKinnon has played at least 25 minutes.

Mackenzie Blackwood took the loss, giving up three goals on 26 shots.

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Seattle hosted Buffalo on Monday afternoon and they had a wild game as Buffalo stormed back from a 3-1 deficit to tie the game 3-3 before ultimately falling to the Kraken by a 6-4 margin.

Jared McCann had a big game fantasy-wise, posting an empty-net tally to go with two helpers. It was just his second three-point game of the season, but he now has eight points in his last eight games, so a bit of a production turnaround happening right now.

Chandler Stephenson, Adam Larsson, and Jamie Oleksiak each had a goal and an assist. Larsson finished with two shots and a hit in a very good fantasy performance. After posting just three points in his first 25 games of the season, Larsson now has nine points in 23 games dating back to December 1^st. It isn't exceptional, but very solid when considering he has 50 blocks and 24 hits in that span.

Matty Beniers (PP) and John Hayden had the other tallies. That gives Beniers six goals in his last 12 games to go with 23 shots. A bit of a hot streak, but a good sign nonetheless.

Joey Daccord managed the win, stopping 25 of 29 shots faced.

Tage Thompson and Jason Zucker each had a goal and an assist for the Sabres in their defeat, each registering a power play point. That puts Thompson at the 20-goal mark for the season in his 41^st game. Whatever complaints fans may have about the Sabres, most of them well-founded, Tage isn't (or shouldn't be) among them.

Jack Quinn and Alex Tuch had the other goals. That makes four goals in five games for Quinn, and eight goals in his last 15 games. After a very slow start, he's shown signs of life offensively, albeit while shooting over 30% in that 15-game span.

Devon Levi got the start for the Sabres but took the loss, giving up five goals on 33 shots.

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Vegas scored two late third-period goals with the empty net to tie up their home game with St. Louis 4-4, but the Blues escaped with the extra point thanks to a shootout win.

Cam Fowler (PP), Jake Neighbours, Brayden Schenn, and Nathan Walker all scored for St. Louis. Schenn finished with two shots, a block, and a hit in a balanced effort. His 82-game pace right now is for 193 hits, so he is in range to potentially break the 200-hit plateau for the first time since 2013-14.

Jordan Kyrou had a pair of assists, one on the power play, to go with a hit in the win. That puts him up to 20 goals and 21 assists on the season, his fourth straight 20-20 campaign. He is well on his was to his third straight 30-30 effort.

Jordan Binnington gave up four goals on 32 shots but held on in the shootout for his 13^th win of the season.

Shea Theodore assisted on all four Vegas goals, one of them being a power-play tally from Tomas Hertl. That gives Theodore 38 assists on the season in his 46^th game, tying his career-high for assists in a season (he had 38 in 78 games back in 2021-22). He is currently on pace for 75 points.

Jack Eichel and Pavel Dorofeyev each had a goal and an assist, with Dorofeyev's helper coming on the power play. That goal was Dorofeyev's 20^th of the season, the first Vegas player to reach that mark in 2024-25. He has 32 goals in his last 82 regular season games dating back to last season.

Brett Howden had the other goal for Vegas, totaling five shots, two PIMs, and a hit.

Adin Hill took the loss, giving up four goals on 28 shots.

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The Islanders got a pair of goals from Bo Horvat, one on the power play, and Simon Holmstrom scored short-handed as New York took a 3-1 win at home to Columbus. Mathew Barzal assisted on both Horvat goals, and now has 13 points in his last 13 games, including points in eight of his last nine outings.

Horvat's fantasy line was a very good one: Two goals (one PP), four shots, two blocks, and five hits. He is up to 57 hits on the season, well on his way to breaking the 100-hit mark for the first time on his career.

Noah Dobson had a power-play assist, two shots, and four hits before exiting the game early in the third period. He took a hard hit along the boards and his right leg bent under him in fairly gruesome fashion. The good news was he skated off on his own, but he did not return, and we'll update his status when we know more.

Ilya Sorokin stopped 25 of 26 shots for his 14^th win of the season.

Kent Johnson scored on the power play for Columbus, the team's only goal of the night. He finished with four shots and three blocks.

Elvis Merzlikins was solid, but allowed three goals on 25 shots for the loss.