One of the more intriguing storylines all season was the health of Colorado Avalanche winer Gabriel Landeskog. He has slowly been making his way back from a knee cartilage transplant surgery, and at times it seemed as if his career may be over. There was some very good news from him and the team on Monday as he was skating at Colorado's practice and taking part in line drills:

Landeskog is running through drills. Looks pretty good. pic.twitter.com/B7ntoD5Sws

— Jesse Montano (@jessemontano_) March 17, 2025

On top of that, Landeskog is joining the team on their three-game Eastern Conference road trip to continue skating with the roster. Of course, there is no guarantee if/when he will officially return, but that he's traveling with the team to practice with them is clearly a very good sign. More updates as we get them, but more good news for a player that has very little of that over the last 20 months or so.

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Buffalo was on the road in Boston on Monday night, and the Sabres were without a lot of key players as each of JJ Peterka, Jiri Kulich, and Josh Norris were not in the lineup. For a bit of good news, though, it seems as if Peterka may return for Thursday's game in Utah:

Peterka is on track to play for the Sabres in Utah, said Lindy Ruff.

Norris wasn't ready to skate today, but the team is hopeful he'll be able to return later this week.

JBD should be an option at some point during the trip.

— Lance Lysowski (@LLysowski) March 17, 2025

Again, we will pass along updates as they come, but Buffalo may be getting at least one important offensive player back soon.

Despite all those injuries, the Sabres fought back from a 2-1 first-period deficit to take the game 3-2 in the waning seconds of overtime. Owen Power fired a shot from the top of the circle to Joonas Korpisalo's right and it was redirected in by Alex Tuch:

ALEX TUCH WINS IT FOR BUFFALO IN OVERTIME!#Sabrehood pic.twitter.com/eyhtjYviwQ

— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) March 18, 2025

That was Power's third point of the night, scoring his own goal in the second period and assisting on a Peyton Krebs power-play goal in the first period. He had two total shots and three blocks for some nice peripheral contributions, too. Those three points push Power to 35 on the season, tying his career-high as a rookie in 2022-23 in 13 fewer games played. He has a legitimate shot at reaching 40 points.

Tuch's goal was his 26^th of the season, and his 50^th point of the year. Going back to the Christmas break, Tuch has 17 goals, 25 points, 85 shots, 39 blocks, and 27 hits in 31 games. That is a pretty solid second half thus far.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen faced just 19 shots and turned aside 17 for his 23^rd win in his 50^th start.

Morgan Geekie had a goal and an assist for the Bruins and Pavel Zacha also got on the scoreboard. Those two points move Geekie to 37 this season, two points shy of tying his career-high set last season.

Joonas Korpisalo took the loss, allowing three goals on 30 shots.

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Columbus had some new line combinations, or at least their top-6 forwards did, on Monday night in their home game against New Jersey. They reunited the line of Dmitri Voronkov, Yegor Chinakhov, and Kirill Marchenko that was so good for them last season and put Adam Fantilli with Boone Jenner and Kent Johnson. Considering the Blue Jackets had been shut out in back-to-back games, it's hard to not understand the changes.

It helped a bit, but not much, as Columbus went nearly 54 minutes without scoring a goal before Mathieu Olivier registered his 16^th goal of the season with under seven minutes left to cut New Jersey's lead to 2-1. That was as close as they got, though, as Columbus lost that game in regulation, their fourth in a row and sixth in their last seven games. They are 5-9-1 since February 1^st, and that is the kind of stretch a team clawing for a playoff spot can't afford at this time of year.

Both Timo Meier and Jesper Bratt scored their 20^th goals of the season to lead the Devils to the win. Meier finished the game with three shots, a block, and a hit, and he has 5 goals, 7 points, 30 shots, and 22 hits in 9 games for the month of March. It looks as if the patented Meier late-season heater is underway.

All of that said, Jake Allen was the story of the game. Columbus only scored the one goal, but that was because Allen was exceptional in net, stopping 45 of the 46 shots he faced. The last time he made at least 45 saves in a regular season game was December of 2022, so truly one of his most elite games in quite some time. That brings him to a .914 save percentage on the season with four shutouts in 25 starts.

Olivier finished the game with a goal on five shots for Columbus, adding a pair of hits. Not only is he within reach of the 20-goal mark now with 16 goals in 67 games, but those two hits give him 250 on the year.

Jet Greaves got the start for Columbus and gave up two goals on 20 shots.  

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A bit of an update on the injured Minnesota Wild skaters of Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Jonas Brodin:

Hynes said both JEEk and Kaprizov are progressing off the ice.

Brodin remains day to day. #mnwild

📢 advertisement:

— Jessi Pierce (@jessi_pierce) March 17, 2025

That Brodin seems close is good news, but that Eriksson Ek and Kaprizov seem to be in a holding pattern isn't ideal. There is less than a month left in the season, so there really isn't a lot of time to ramp up rehab and get back into game shape.

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After a couple rough starts in a row, Andrei Vasilevskiy held down the fort for Tampa Bay as they shut out the Philadelphia Flyers 2-0. That is Vasilevskiy's fifth shutout of the season, his highest mark of the last four seasons. It also pushes him to a .920 save percentage for the first time in four seasons as well. We haven't heard his name much in the Vezina Trophy discussion, and I'm definitely not saying he should win it over Connor Hellebuyck (as of now, he shouldn't), but he deserves consideration to finish top-3.

Nikita Kucherov had a goal and an assist in the game, scoring the game winner in the first period and adding a helper on Jake Guentzel's empty-net tally. The goal leaves Kucherov one shy of the 30-goal mark for the third straight year and five points shy of the 100-point mark.

Ivan Fedotov was in net for the Flyers and had a solid game, allowing just one goal on 22 shots, but took the loss.

Philadelphia has scored 12 goals in nine games this month, going 2-7-0 in that span. They are now eight points back of the final Wild Card spot with 13 games remaining, fewer than any other team. This loss all but puts the final nail in the coffin of their season.

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After a string of games that saw Toronto lose five of six outings, the Maple Leafs put a proper beatdown on the Calgary Flames at home on Monday night by a 6-2 margin. Auston Matthews had a huge offensive game with a pair of power-play goals, a power-play assist on a tally from William Nylander, five total shots, three blocks, and a hit. For all the consternation about Matthews' production, he now has 6 goals and 16 assists in his last 16 games. That seems quite alright to me.

Nylander also assisted on both of Matthews' goals, totaling four shots and a block along the way. Those three points pushed Nylander to 71 points on the year, his third straight season of at least 70 points. He needs two goals for his third straight 40-goal season and nine points for his fourth straight 80-point campaign.

Max Domi had a goal and an assist of his own while Bobby McMann and Nicholas Robertson also registered tallies of their own. That goal from McMann broke a 12-game goalless drought from him as he looks to regain that scoring touch he showed last year and earlier this season.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson had a pair of helpers and a block in the win. That gives him 24 assists on the year, and he needs one more to post his highest total since the 2018-19 season.

Joseph Woll stopped 24 of 26 shots in the win.

Rasmus Andersson and Kevin Bahl had the goals for Calgary. Andersson finished with three shots, three blocks, and a pair of hits for a great multi-cat night.

Dustin Wolf got the start but was pulled after the second period, allowing five goals on 26 shots.

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Minnesota won their home game on Monday night, taking a 3-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings. Ryan Hartman had a goal and an assist (both on the PP) as Mats Zuccarello (PP) and Marcus Johansson (PP) also tallied. That was just the second multi-point game for Hartman since American Thanksgiving.

Matt Boldy had a power-play assist and a shot in the win. Boldy has now gone 11 straight games without a goal and has just 11 goals in his last 51 games played.

Filip Gustavsson stopped 28 of 29 shots for his 26^th win of the season.

Adrian Kempe (PP) scored the lone goal for the Kings. That makes four power-play goals for Los Angeles in six games since adding Andrei Kuzmenko to the lineup (and to the top PP unit). The Kings had just four PP goals in the 17 games prior to Kuzmenko's arrival.

Darcy Kuemper allowed two goals on 21 shots in defeat.