The last few years have taught us all to be used to seeing shocking news in the NHL on a near-daily basis, but what we saw from Calgary on Thursday pushes the boundaries of what we're used to seeing in the league: Calgary Flames defenceman Rasmus Andersson was hit by a car while on his scooter heading to team dinner on Wednesday night:

At approximately 6:00 p.m. ET, Wednesday, February 8 in Detroit, MI, while riding a scooter on his way to dinner, Flames defenceman Rasmus Andersson was struck by a vehicle. Andersson was taken to local hospital for a full battery of tests before being released last night.

— Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) February 9, 2023

As the team mentioned, he underwent tests and was released later Wednesday night. He did not play Thursday but is day-to-day and seems no worse for the wear. It certainly could have been a lot more impactful for Andersson. Hope to see him on the ice soon.

In the meantime, MacKenzie Weegar was moved to the top PP unit.

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The other bit of big news from Thursday was the New York Rangers trading for St. Louis winger Vladimir Tarasenko. I have a full breakdown of that trade here.

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New Jersey had said that center Jack Hughes was battling an upper-body injury and they announced on Thursday that he is week-to-week:

Jack Hughes will NOT play tonight against Seattle.

He is week to week. Upper body injury. #NJDevils head coach Lindy Ruff confirms the news.

— Amanda Stein (@amandacstein) February 9, 2023

There are two ways to look at this. It is better, from a winning perspective, for a player to sustain an injury two months out from the playoffs than two weeks. It gives Hughes time to recover and get back up to speed in time for the postseason. On the downside, this takes an MVP candidate out of the lineup and New Jersey's hopes of a division title, or even home ice in the first round, are now very much in question. Expect a bigger role from Dawson Mercer now, while Erik Haula took the second-line role on Thursday night. We'll pass along more updates on Hughes as we get them.

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Aleksander Barkov was out for Florida's game Thursday night at home to San Jose. The team had said he was likely to play after leaving their last game, but his issue is lingering longer than they had anticipated. Eetu Luostarainen (who is having a nice season) was moved up into Barkov's spot at even strength.

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We got a Cale Makar update:

Cale Makar won't play tonight or Saturday at minimum per Jared Bednar.#COLvsTBL #GoAvsGo

— Conor McGahey (@ConorMcGahey) February 9, 2023

He did not play on Thursday night.

I could not believe there was no discipline sent Jeff Carter's way for that hit. It was very reminiscent of the David Steckel hit that nearly ended Sidney Crosby's career. Carter even gave him a bit of a chicken wing on the way by. If that is how the NHL is going to protect its players, it is little wonder the fists start flying after every big hit. Even if players are reacting emotionally at that moment, if they were thinking rationally, how could they possibly rely on the NHL to properly discipline players for clearly dangerous plays?

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Dominik Kubalik was scratched on Thursday night in favour of the returning Filip Zadina. For Kubalik to go from 25 points in 25 games to start the season to a healthy scratch in February is a bit puzzling. He isn't having a great year by other metrics but there are some Red Wings players who've been much worse (has anyone had a real look at Lucas Raymond's season yet?). Regardless, it seems Detroit wants to make sure they get their young players ice time for next season so here we are.

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Toronto announced Matt Murray to the injured reserve:

Updates from @LeafsPR

🏒 Pontus Holmberg, Alex Steeves and Joseph Woll recalled from Marlies

🏒 Matt Murray placed on injured reserve

🏒 Kyle Dubas will do post All-Star media availability at 2 pm

🏒 Practice at 2:15 pm @TSN_Edge

— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) February 9, 2023

Murray was injured in warmups before the All-Star break and it's clear he's not ready to go yet. Injuries are the thing that have really hurt Murray over the last 4-5 years. and it seems those issues have cropped up again. Let's hope it's nothing that keeps popping up.

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Seattle also has injury news with Andre Burakovsky being week-to-week with a lower-body injury. Both Daniel Sprong and Ryan Donato were in the lineup Thursday night as a result. It isn't good news for a team in a battle for a division title.

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With Makar out of the lineup, Colorado fell 5-0 to Tampa Bay on Thursday. The second line did a lot of the damage as Brandon Hagel had a goal and two assists on five shots with two blocks, Alex Killorn had three assists (one on the power play), while Anthony Cirelli had two assists to his name. Mikhail Sergachev had a great multi-cat performance with a goal on four shots, one block, three hits, two PIMs, and a plus-3 rating.

Andrei Vasilevskiy was stellar in net with 30 saves for the shutout.

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Two goals from Sam Reinhart and two empty-net goals from Eric Staal lifted the Barkov-less Florida Panthers 4-1 over the San Jose Sharks. Luostarainen had two assists with a shot, a block, and a plus-3 rating in 17:37 of ice time. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 33 of 34 in the win while Kaapo Kahkonen had a great game of his own, stopping 38 of 40 he faced.

Erik Karlsson had an assist with five shots and a pair of blocks as his resurgent season continues.

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In the return matchup of Bo Horvat and the Islanders against Anthony Beauvillier and the Canucks, we had a fantasy bonanza (as long as you didn't roster a goalie). Vancouver held on for a 6-5 win after scoring three goals in the third to rally for the lead, only to have Noah Dobson bring New York within a goal with 50 seconds left. All told, Elias Pettersson had a goal and two assists with three shots and a pair of blocks while Brock Boeser had a goal and two assists on five shots with a pair of hits. Quinn Hughes pushed himself over a point per game on the season with two assists to go alongside a shot, two blocks, and two PIMs. Both of those helpers came with the man advantage, giving him 22 on the season.

Dobson had a goal and an assists with two shots and a hit while the duo of Mathew Barzal (1+2) and Bo Horvat (1+1) combined for five points as they start to gel a little bit.

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No Hughes, no problem for New Jersey as they took a 3-1 win over Seattle. Dougie Hamilton scored twice, giving him 51 points, setting a career high. He has 31 more games to play. Hamilton had five total shots, three blocks, and four PIMs in a huge fantasy effort.

Tomas Tatar was moved to the top power-play unit with a forward spot opening up.

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Carter Hart stopped 34 of 35, and had a goal overturned in his favour, as the Flyers managed a shootout win over the Oilers, giving them the 2-1 victory. Kevin Hayes scored the lone goal for Philadelphia as his All-Star season continues.

Evander Kane had the tally for Edmonton and he managed six shots total.

Stuart Skinner stopped 35 of 36 in the shootout loss.  

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Yesterday's Ramblings discussed some of my preseason predictions including breakout players, season-long predictions for players and teams, as well as longshot futures. Those covered successes, near-successes, or potential successes. This will cover the sure-fire misses, and there are some fantastically wrong prognostications here.

Alexander Holtz

The hopes were that he would be in the running for the Calder Trophy and could finish around a 25-goal season. The reality turned out to be dressing fewer than half the games to date, spending time in the AHL, and averaging two minutes less per game this season than the tryout last season. Perhaps this injury to Jack Hughes will finally get Holtz in the lineup for an extended period, but the Devils also lost an elite offensive force, and there's no guarantee Holtz gets top minutes. I still have a lot of belief in him long-term, but this season is not looking good from a fantasy perspective.

Ross Colton

Somewhere in the multiverse, Ross Colton is skating on the top line for the Lightning and already has a 23-goal season. As it is, he's spent the vast majority of the season in the bottom-6 for Tampa Bay, and is actually skating less per game (12:08) than he was a year ago (12:48). He could still push for a 20-goal season, sitting with 11 right now, but the upside I had been looking for is not there. Something could change over the final two months but my magic 8-ball says: Outlook Not Good.

Evan Bouchard

Going into Thursday night's game against Philadelphia, Edmonton was 9-1-2 in their previous 12 games. Since American Thanksgiving, they've posted a 19-8-4 record. That is a 111-point pace over a full year. In that sense, it is hard to argue with what they've been doing with the lineup. At the same time, Evan Bouchard has as many games with under 15 minutes of TOI (7) than he does with more than 21 minutes of TOI. That kind of inconsistency, combined with sparse top PP time, has really hurt his fantasy value. Another young player to keep belief in long-term but is enduring the rocky road right now.

Seth Jarvis

Rounding out the group of young players I believed would take a step and haven't is Carolina's talented winger, Seth Jarvis. Shots per game are up but goals and assists are both down. The big problem for fantasy is his shooting percentage, sitting at 7.5% overall. There are other numbers that I've referenced for him before, like Scoring Chance Contributions, that have slid so there are other problems besides just shooting percentage – by the data tracked in that link, he has the lowest rate of both individual scoring chances and assists on teammate scoring chances at 5-on-5 on the team. Hopefully, an extended stay with Sebastian Aho helps over these final nine weeks or so.

Patrice Bergeron Does Not Reach 60 Points

This is where we get to my biggest albatross: the Boston Bruins. My concerns over the health of a number of players in the offseason, namely Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy, were way out of line. Even without them in the lineup, Boston dominated the first month of the season. It has been the case ever since. Even in a tough Eastern Conference, and Atlantic Division, they are the clear front-runners for a Stanley Cup. Bergeron may not crack 60 points – he's on pace for 61 – but the entire Boston situation is a giant loss for me.

Matt Boldy Does Not Reach 50 Points

Minnesota had to let Kevin Fiala walk in the offseason due to cap constraints and the lack of offensive depth outside the top line was a worry. It still is, honestly, as no forward that isn't a top power-play regular is on pace for 40 points except for Ryan Hartman, who has missed a lot of time due to injury. However, Boldy has 36 points in 50 games, making him a threat to break 60 points. He is a very good player, and is still getting better, but he does need help. Watch for them to make a splash at the trade deadline.

Winnipeg Is A Bottom-3 Western Conference Team

So, uh, I was expecting an even worse Winnipeg team this season compared to last and that certainly has not happened. The team has 32 regulation/overtime wins already, posting 37 all of 2021-22. Connor Hellebuyck looks like a Vezina Trophy contender, Josh Morrissey has evolved into a Norris Trophy possibility (if down the ballot a bit), and the offence has been able to cobble together a good effort around the injuries. If Hellebuyck maintains his play, they are not a team that opponents want to see in the playoffs.

Troy Terry Scores 50 Goals (Longshot)

Another albatross for me was the belief that the Anaheim Ducks were going to take a big step forward as a franchise. Jamie Drysdale and Trevor Zegras were a year older, Adam Henrique was still solid, they added the forwards from the Rangers, signed John Klingberg, and were looking at a fairly weak division. If everything came together, maybe Anaheim could be a force in the Pacific, the thought train went.

Not sure I need to keep going on here.

Quinn Hughes Is A Top-5 Fantasy Defenceman

Despite my misgivings about what Vancouver would look like defensively, the offence was supposed to be really good. If Andrei Kuzmenko could work out – and he has – then the addition of Ilya Mikheyev would help round out a very dangerous top-6 for the Canucks. There was also offseason chatter about Quinn Hughes knowing he needed to fill out his game and start shooting more, making himself a dual threat like Cale Makar, Roman Josi, and Brent Burns. Vancouver's offence has been largely fine, and Hughes is on a point-per-game pace, but under two shots per game isn't going to cut it in the fantasy game. His value suffers heavily in any sort of multi-cat league.

Dylan Larkin Goes 40-50

Adding David Perron and Andrew Copp, along with another year from Moritz Seider, and health from players like Jakub Vrana (though that isn't really a usual health issue, to be fair), Robby Fabbri, and Tyler Bertuzzi should see this Detroit team, the idea went, become a bigger offensive force. In turn, Dylan Larkin would have easily his best season in the NHL as he heads for a new contract, posting at least 40 goals and 50 assists. He could do it, I suppose, if he manages 25 goals and 21 assists in his final 33 games. That feels like a lot to ask, though.