Sidney Crosby was not in the Penguins' lineup on Friday due to an upper-body injury. According to head coach Mike Sullivan, the team is “taking it one day at a time." The Penguins play again today (Saturday), so Crosby has to be considered questionable for that game as well. If he does not play on Saturday as well, then his availability for Canada at the 4 Nations will come into question. I'm not sure Pittsburgh is really in the playoff race, so they may not be as worried about Crosby playing as much as the Canucks might be with Quinn Hughes.

Even without both Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, the Penguins were able to pull out a 3-2 win over the Rangers at MSG. Rickard Rakell is doing just fine on his own, as he has goals in back-to-back games and five points over his last four games. Rakell has also averaged 4.5 SOG/GP and 1.5 HITS/GP over those last four games. Leading the Penguins in goals with 25, Rakell will be on Team Sweden at the 4 Nations.

With an assist, Erik Karlsson now has five points over his last four games. As well, he was back on Pittsburgh's top power play on Friday.

In stopping 23 of 25 shots that he faced from the Rangers, Alex Nedeljkovic now has five consecutive quality starts. He posted a shutout in one of those starts and allowed two goals in each of the other four. After a rough start to the season, Ned has a .934 SV% over his last eight games, stabilizing the Penguins' goaltending situation. At just 20 percent rostered in Yahoo and 35 percent rostered in Fantrax, Nedeljkovic seems like a decent waiver-wire pickup for fantasy teams needing goaltending assistance.

Vincent Trocheck led the Rangers with a goal and an assist on Friday. Adam Fox scored the Rangers' other goal, giving him nine points over his last nine games.

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Gabriel Vilardi led the Jets with two goals and seven shots in their 4-3 win over the Islanders. Vilardi's linemates Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele each assisted on both of Vilardi's goals. Vilardi already has a career-highs of 24 goals and 51 points in 56 games, and he is on pace for 75 points if he can remain healthy all season. Vilardi owes much of his success this season to his linemates Connor and Scheifele, who are both on pace for 90+ points.

Cole Perfetti has nine points over his last seven games, while Vladislav Namestnikov has six points over his last four games.

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Ryan Donato led the Blackhawks in their 6-2 win over Nashville on Friday, scoring two goals and adding two power-play assists for the first four-point game of his career. Donato also took four shots and finished with a plus-2 in 19 minutes of icetime. The Blackhawks might be lacking talent around Connor Bedard, but Donato has been a useful addition to Bedard's line recently, picking up seven points over his last three games. Donato also has a career-high 18 goals and 36 points, and he is on an 82-game pace of 57 points. At 10 percent rostered in Yahoo, Donato is worth at least a stream.

Bedard finished with a goal and an assist, both on the power play. He has seven points over his last seven games and 22 points in his last 21 games. Biz Nasty made some salient points about Bedard's overall game on a TNT broadcast earlier this week, but this is funny anyway.

I love this shit. Hockey's poppin baby. 😎 https://t.co/vEuJ8TuAEV

— Paul Bissonnette (@BizNasty2point0) February 8, 2025

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Martin Necas scored the game-winning goal in a 5-4 win for Colorado over Edmonton. That gives him nine points (4 G, 5 A) in eight games for his new team. Meanwhile, Mikko Rantanen has two points in six games with the Hurricanes. That should help Colorado fans soothe some of the pain of losing Rantanen.  

Plugging in Necas with Nathan MacKinnon has benefitted both players. MacKinnon led the Avalanche with a power-play goal and three assists and seven shots. Over his last seven games, Nate Dogg has 12 points over his last seven games.

The Avalanche are a fun team to watch with MacKinnon, Necas, and Cale Makar, who scored twice (once shorthanded), added an assist, and took six shots in 29 minutes.

Guess who?! 🤭

Marty Necas has been so, so good for the @Avalanche. pic.twitter.com/f6QpnnEycB

— NHL (@NHL) February 8, 2025

Cale Makar is just nasty… imagine getting this from your d-man while SHORTHANDED 🤯 pic.twitter.com/7dJ3ndZ6jK

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) February 8, 2025

With two goals on Friday, Leon Draisaitl became the first player to reach 40 goals this season. Could he be the only player to reach 50 goals this season? Draisaitl is seven goals clear of next-highest goal scorer William Nylander. Only three other players have reached 30 goals.

Corey Perry scored the Oilers' other two goals. With 12 goals, Perry is fifth on his team in goals. That's an accomplishment for the 39-year-old Perry, but it also speaks to the lack of depth beyond the big guns.

Stuart Skinner was pulled after the first period after allowing three goals on 12 shots. His 20 wins are a decent total, but his .900 SV% is very average. Perhaps we start to see more of Calvin Pickard, who entered Friday's game with wins and quality starts in each of his last four games. That's not a reach, if you remember last year's playoffs.

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I often see Kevin Fiala on the Frozen Tools Popular Profiles list. Lots of folks must be waiting for a second-half breakout similar to past seasons after an underwhelming first half. Maybe that's starting to happen. Fiala scored a goal and an assist on Friday, giving him three consecutive multipoint games and five goals over those three games. Fiala also scored an overtime winner that was disallowed due to goaltender interference, but he also scored one of the Kings' shootout winners. From what I saw, his shot looked switched on in this game. That's a good sign for that second-half surge.

Fiala has found success on a line with Quinton Byfield and Alex Laferriere. Byfield has his own hot-and-cold streaks, so it's worth mentioning that he's hot again (all assists) with six points over his last three games.

With an assist on Friday, Adrian Kempe broke a six-game point drought. Kempe also led the Kings with seven shots on goal. The goal Kempe assisted on was scored by Anze Kopitar, who now has points in back-to-back games after being held without a point in his previous six games.

Matt Duchene led the Stars with two goals and an assist in this game. Duchene also leads the Stars in scoring with 52 points in 54 games.

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Jim Rutherford is living up to his reputation as an executive who loves to make trades. In a minor deal on Friday, the Canucks traded depth defenseman Mark Friedman to the Nashville Predators for good ol' future considerations. The Canucks' defense continues to get a revamp, although there is little to speak of in terms of fantasy relevance. Carson Soucy is reportedly on the trade block as well.

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Today I have more space to discuss the upcoming 4 Nations tournament than I will tomorrow, so I might as well share my thoughts on it. I’ll say without reservation that I'm really looking forward to it. Because it is now an international sport, hockey has a real opportunity for more of these types of tournaments. Is Canada still the best in the world at hockey, or does their lack of star goaltending make them inferior to the United States? Sweden and Finland should also make this a competitive tournament.

There are always gripes about these best-on-best tournaments. For example, it will interrupt the regular season for over a week, which to that I don't particularly mind if an 82-game season will be played eventually anyway (COVID made me adapt). In addition, this tournament won't be as long as the Olympics usually are. As well, many star players will not be included, such as Leon Draisaitl, Nikita Kucherov, and David Pastrnak. Yet between injuries, players opting not to play, and players simply snubbed, the All-Star Game is never a complete collection of the very best anyway. What about injuries? Sure, I'll take that chance. I had multiple fantasy teams burned by Dominik Hasek's Olympic injury back in 2006. Entertainment comes with risk.

Need help planning the extended fantasy week following the 4 Nations? The Frozen Tools Schedule Planner now has that option. When selecting your date range, choose "2024-25 4 Nations Extended Fantasy Week" and even "Remaining 2024-25 4 Nations Extended Fantasy Week" once the week has started. Frozen Tools is always on top of things.

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