The 15^th annual Midseason Guide will be released on Friday, January 13! Pre-order it here. This is included in the Platinum/Gold subscriptions only, or the Ultimate Fantasy Pack (not the Keeper League Pack). Just four days away!

The 15^th annual Midseason Guide will be released on Friday, January 13! Pre-order it here. This is included in the Platinum/Gold subscriptions only, or the Ultimate Fantasy Pack (not the Keeper League Pack). Just four days away!

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Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Wilson each made their season debut for the Capitals on Sunday and here is how the line combinations shook out:

Time	%	EV – FORWARDS	GF	GA	+/-	SF	SA	SF%	CF	CA	CF%
10:41	20.5	ELLER – OSHIE – MILANO	0	0	0	1	11	8.3	6	17	26.1
10:08	19.5	KUZNETSOV – WILSON – STROME	0	0	0	5	2	71.4	8	2	80.0
6:26	12.4	BACKSTROM – SHEARY – OVECHKIN	0	0	0	2	4	33.3	5	11	31.3
4:11	8.0	DOWD – HATHAWAY – SHEARY	0	0	0	1	1	50.0	4	5	44.4
3:59	7.7	JOHANSSON – DOWD – HATHAWAY	1	0	1	1	2	33.3	7	4	63.6

The first thing you'll notice is – no Anthony Mantha. Sonny Milano has stolen his spot. But Milano's line coughing up all those chances (see CF%) likely means he'll catch the blame (they rarely blame the veterans). So expect Milano out next game and Mantha back in.

Backstrom has assisted on 278 of Alex Ovechkin's goals. That's fourth behind Wayne Gretzky (assisted on 364 of Jari Kurri's goals), Bryan Trottier (310 of Mike Bossy's goals) and Henrik Sedin (280 of brother Daniel's goals). If Backstrom continues to play with Ovechkin and sets up another two, they'll tie the Sedins.

Ovechkin failed to get his 400^th career goal at home on Sunday. Only Wayne Gretzky has 400 career goals at home and 400 on the road. Next game for Ovy is on the road, so he won't get a chance again at home until January 14 against the Flyers.

With the lone goal on Sunday, Erik Gustafsson now has 15 points in his last 11 games.

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Nik Ehlers needed one game to get his bearings, and then picked up where he left off before his injury. Sunday's three-point performance gives him six in four games. Here were Winnipeg's line combos with him back in the lineup:

15:00	27.7	WHEELER – SCHEIFELE – PERFETTI	0	0	0	3	12	20.0	7	14	33.3
14:05	26.0	EHLERS –  DUBOIS – CONNOR	3	1	2	13	5	72.2	23	8	74.2
10:35	19.5	LOWRY – KUHLMAN – BARRON	1	0	1	4	5	44.4	7	5	58.3
5:09	9.5	GAGNER – STENLUND – JONSSON-FJALLBY	1	2	-1	1	5	16.7	3	5	37.5

Sam Gagner gets bumped back to the fourth line and the outlook for both Kyle Connor and P-L Dubois – who were already doing just fine – gets a nice spike. But just as important – the domino effect on the first line. This is a legit top second line and it takes a lot of the heat off of the Mark Scheifele line. I think both lines benefit tremendously, but first up was obviously the Dubois line (four points for Dubois, three each for Connor and Ehlers).

If you're wondering how the Jets scored seven goals on Sunday and Josh Morrissey had zero points, a big reason for that is that Winnipeg did not see a power play. That's been a big part of Morrissey's surge, with 11 of his 23 second-quarter points coming with the man advantage.

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Sam Bennett has just three points in his last 14 games. Just one goal despite 37 shots during that span. He's playing with Sam Reinhart, who is having similar struggles, and Eetu Luostarinen. While Luostarinen has earned some looks on the second line with a bit of a surprising season, to me it's only a matter of time before Anton Lundell gets a look there. Lundell has played with Reinhart before, and all four of  these players are centers (though admittedly Luostarinen more of a LW) on a team that is rich with them. You can't bury talent like Lundell on the third line with those players. Last year it was different – the Panthers had better scoring depth. But this year not so much, and Lundell is stuck playing with Colin White and Nick Cousins.

In his last four games, Spencer Knight has a 4.52 GAA and 0.860 SV%, as well as a GSAA of -5.745.

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Roope Hintz left the Sunday game with an upper-body injury and did not return. Tyler Seguin slid into his spot on the first line. A situation worth keeping an eye on because I think Seguin can be as productive as he used to be, but has been somewhat buried thanks to the emergence of Hintz, Jason Robertson and Joe Pavelski as an elite NHL line. Robertson still managed three points despite losing his sidekick.

Nils Lundkvist now has seven points in his last 15 games. Not exactly eye-popping, but it's good to know that he's making strides and becoming more comfortable.

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Since his three-point game on December 29, Barrett Hayton has really come into his own. He's up to seven points in his last six games now. He's been promoted to the top line alongside Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz, and early on that trio is working a lot better than when Travis Boyd was there.

Dylan Guenther rejoined the Coyotes after his WJC gold-medal win. Most prospects were sent back to junior, but Arizona actually brought him back.

Shayne Gostisbehere has gone five games without a point.

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Ty Smith saw 7:45 of PP time while Pierre-Olivier Joseph saw just 2:50. Neither player helped the Pens cash in on the power play though. It is interesting to see where Mike Sullivan is leaning when given the option of Smith or Joseph. In Smith's first game back in the NHL he saw 11:10 of PPTOI. So far Smith has yet to record a point with the man advantage despite seeing 23:57 in total PPTOI. Joseph has seen 39:50 and has two PPPts, or a PPPts/60 of 3.0. For reference, Kris Letang is at 3.6 and Jeff Petry is 3.2.

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In a game that saw three players get two points each (Colton Parayko, Brandon Saad and Brayden Schenn), none of the players were named in the NHL's "Three Stars" while two of the "Stars" tallied zero points. I don't think I've seen that before. Calle Rosen was pointless, but was the third star. He blocked two shots and had one SOG.

Kirill Kaprizov was the second star, despite his team being shut out. He had six SOG (but so did Calen Addison) and saw 26:39 of ice time, which is massive for a forward in a non-OT game.

Thomas Greiss, the game's first star, had himself a 36-save shutout. It was his first start in eight games. When you see St. Louis pushing their starter with so many consecutive games, it's a firsthand look at a team trying to make a bad contract look good. Binnington's numbers don't even justify a backup job, yet he starts seven straight games. The Blues really want the long-term $6M cap hit to work. This is why I say X goalie will be the starter, even though a young stud Y goalie has been the better option. Money dictates the hockey politics, and the hockey politics play a big influence on where and how often a player plays, particularly with goaltenders. But a 36-save shutout is hard to ignore, and the Blues are at the point in the season where they need to stop forcing Binnington to be their guy – and start going with what best sets them up to win. Look for Greiss to get another look very soon (if not next game) and then another strong performance could see him cannibalize a lot more starts moving forward.

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With TJ Brodie out day-to-day with a minor injury, Conor Timmins drew back into the Leafs' lineup. He didn't deserve to come out of the lineup to begin with, but the Leafs are just very deep. He obviously doesn't want to come out again as he picked up two points (including first career NHL goal), was plus-2 and had two BKS. He's up to 10 points in 14 games, or 10 in 12 since joining Toronto. His xG% at 5on5 is 61.0%. What more does he need to do? His numbers are the best on the team among blueliners and should get the chance to show how long he can keep them up.

Calle Jarnkrok, John Tavares and Mitch Marner picked up three points each on the "second" line. For Jarnkrok, he has 14 points in his last 13 games. I got him off waivers Sunday and you should too.

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Tony DeAngelo was benched after the first period, seeing just 7:05 in the game. Tortorella's doghouse again.

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Lukas Reichel picked up his first career NHL goal as well as his second and third career NHL assists – a three-point game in a 4-3 OT win over Calgary. He replaced Patrick Kane in the lineup and wouldn't you know it, he produced like Kane too. He played with Max Domi and Philipp Kurashev.

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Another four points for David Pastrnak, and the Czech-ing line of Pastrnak, David Krejci and Pavel Zacha combined for nine points. Pastrnak is now just one goal behind Connor McDavid for the NHL lead, already Pasta is at 32.

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See you next Monday.