The Pittsburgh Penguins got a boost to the lineup as goaltender Tristan Jarry was in net for the team's game at home to the New York Islanders on Monday night. He had missed nearly a month with an upper-body injury and has just three starts in calendar 2023. Staying healthy has been an ongoing concern with Jarry dating back to the end of the 2021-22 regular season so hopefully he can put all this behind him. Pittsburgh needs him to be healthy and in net if they want a playoff push followed by a playoff run.

On the other side of that game, the Islanders got some very bad news about Mathew Barzal:

#Isles Injury Update: Mat Barzal is out indefinitely with a lower body injury.

— New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) February 20, 2023

Coach Lane Lambert would later say that they're hopeful he can return this season. That kind of wording seems to cast a lot of doubt over Barzal and the remaining two months of the campaign. It also points to the severity of the injury that he suffered, and that knee-on-knee certainly didn't look good. This situation will be updated both here and elsewhere on the site (the team has already ‘upgraded’ him to week-to-week) but it's a huge blow for a franchise that had managed to climb into a playoff spot (as of early Monday afternoon). Kyle Palmieri has jumped to the top PP unit so if he's on your waiver wire, he could see some much heavier usage in the near-term.

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Continuing with the injury woes, we head to Montreal and Sean Monahan having missed practice:

No Sean Monahan at practice today. @CanadiensMTL

— Renaud Lavoie (@renlavoietva) February 20, 2023

He had been travelling with the team so it looked as if he could return soon, but this casts a bit of doubt. The team would say that he was getting off-ice treatment but missing practices is rarely a good sign for an injured player.

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Detroit provided us with an update on Lucas Raymond:

No Raymond on ice for practice; on track to miss 6th consecutive game tomorrow vs. Capitals #RedWings

— Ted Kulfan (@tkulfan) February 20, 2023

Raymond had 15 goals and 18 assists in 50 games before the injury, pacing for his second straight 20-goal, 50-point season to start his career. That looks to be in jeopardy as he keeps missing time with this injury.

One thing I will note is that Dylan Larkin, over the last two seasons, has had much more success without Raymond on his line than with him. Here are some of the stats, starting with Larkin's production (via Natural Stat Trick):

• Larkin's points/60 at 5-on-5 with Raymond on his wing: 2.1.
• Larkin's points/60 at 5-on-5 without Raymond on his wing: 3.6

How about Detroit's scoring?

• Detroit's goals-for/60 at 5-on-5 with Larkin/Raymond on the ice: 2.3
• Detroit's goals-for/60 at 5-on-5 with Larkin on the ice without Raymond: 4.5

Okay, maybe that's just riding percentages, so what about expected goals?

• Detroit's expected goals-for/60 at 5-on-5 with Larkin/Raymond on the ice: 2.5
• Detroit's expected goals-for/60 at 5-on-5 with Larkin on the ice without Raymond: 3.2

Well, maybe Larkin is just trading chances without Raymond and the defence suffers as a result?

• Detroit's expected goals-against/60 at 5-on-5 with Larkin/Raymond on the ice: 2.8
• Detroit's expected goals-against/60 at 5-on-5 with Larkin on the ice without Raymond: 2.6

And, for posterity, the Red Wings have scored 40% more often on the power play when Larkin is on the ice without Raymond than with him.

This isn't meant to slag Raymond; he's still just 20 years old and is clearly a talented shooter. However, playing 17-18 minutes a night in the NHL on a playoff-hopeful team's top line requires a lot more than just shooting and that will come with development. This is meant to highlight that Larkin has 11 points in five games with 19 shots on goal since Raymond was injured and that there is reason to believe he's better off without Raymond next to him when he does finally return to the lineup. I suppose then it's a question of where he could fit but I'll leave that up to the coach.  

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Getting to some good injury news, we have Gabriel Landeskog skating again:

Gabriel Landeskog is back on the ice. pic.twitter.com/TRWGl0qOPk

— Evan Rawal (@evanrawal) February 20, 2023

Landeskog had knee surgery back in the fall and it has been a lengthy recovery for him. He has not suited up all season so it will take him a while to get up to speed. I said last month that if he can be back for early April and get maybe a half-dozen games in before the playoffs, that would be a big win for Colorado. (That is just a guess on my part.) Even if it's good news for the Landeskog and Avalanche fans, it might not mean much for fantasy owners outside of those fighting for a title over the last couple of weeks of the season.

It should be noted Cale Makar was skating, too. It is a good sign for the blue liner who has played just two games over the last three-plus weeks.

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In a lineup swap, Vladimir Tarasenko was bumped down to the second line with Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck while Jimmy Vesey was back alongside Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider. I know the early returns on Tarasenko haven't been other-worldly with three points and six shots in five games (heading into Monday night), but the team did have a brutal stretch of games against teams playing extremely well defensively like Edmonton, Calgary, Carolina, and Seattle (goaltending is another matter). Their next five games are much softer so the totality should give us a better idea of what he could contribute moving forward.   

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We did not get a full update on Timo Meier, but he did not play on Monday night (afternoon) after missing practice on Sunday. Hopefully this is nothing serious because Meier's name had been heavily rumoured to be on the move by the NHL trade deadline, which is a week and a half from now. The team would say they’re hopeful he can return later this week, so it might not be that serious in the end.

Tomas Hertl also did not play but the team said it was for personal reasons.

Despite both Meier and Hertl being out of the lineup for San Jose, they shutout Seattle 4-0 on Monday afternoon. Logan Couture and Evgeny Svechnikov similarly had 1+1 in this game, with Michael Eyssimont scoring on six total shots. Eyssimont now has 55 shots in 17 games with the Sharks, adding 33 hits as well. Not a bad multi-cat performance.

James Reimer stopped all 26 shots he faced for the shutout. That's twice Seattle has been shutout since returning from the All-Star break two weeks ago, having been shutout just once all season prior to the ASG.

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The Jets got good news about Nikolaj Ehlers as he was back in the lineup on Monday despite exiting their recent game with an apparent injury. The bad news is that Cole Perfetti missed the game due to an upper-body injury. We will pass along more on the rookie as we get it.

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Florida came back from down 2-0 to Anaheim to rally for a 4-3 overtime win on Monday afternoon. A third-period deflection from Ryan Lomberg tied it at 3-3, setting the stage for Carter Verhaeghe's overtime heroics:

VERHAEGHE IN OT! Carter Verhaeghe gets in alone and beats Gibson, securing the extra point in overtime!#TimeToHunt pic.twitter.com/LbfNN6J2bX

— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights (@HockeyDaily365) February 20, 2023

Verhaeghe finished the game with five shots, a couple of penalty minutes, and a hit in a solid multi-cat fantasy effort. He has now reached the 30-goal plateau for the first time in his career, and he still has 22 more games to play. I am simply begging Paul Maurice: power play time on the top unit, every game, pretty please.

Matthew Tkachuk had a pair of assists in the win, adding six shots and a hit for good measure. He has now hit 50 assists in back-to-back seasons.

Mason McTavish scored in the loss, giving him three goals in the last five games. He is starting to make noise for a Calder Trophy push again.

John Gibson stopped 51 of 55 shots in a loss that clearly wasn't his fault.

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Boston got a pair of goals from David Pastrnak in a 3-1 win at home to Ottawa. That pushes Pastrnak over the 40-goal mark (41 in 56 games, to be specific) for the second straight season and third in a row where he's played at least 50 games. He also tied his points output from last year in 16 fewer games.

Full marks to the Senators for making this a competitive game, seeing as they were playing back-to-back on the road with an early afternoon weekday start. It was about as bad a situation as possible, and it was still an entertaining game. It was just the team's second regulation loss in their last 10 games.

Brad Marchand had an assist and four shots but he's mired in a bit of a slump right now. He has gone 11 straight games without a multi-point effort (two goals, four assists in that span) and if my math is right, one more game like that would be his longest streak since the winter of 2016-17, his first season as a staple of the top PP unit for Boston.

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Calgary clawed back from a 3-1 third-period deficit to tie their game with Philadelphia at three apiece, but Wade Allison scored a few minutes later to give the Flyers the lead once again, and eventually the win. Travis Konecny had a goal and an assist but was injured midway through the game and did not finish. That is a situation to monitor as he had been having a fantastic fantasy season. Tony DeAngelo also had a tally and a helper, reaching the double-digit goal mark for the third time in four seasons.

Andrew Mangiapane and Mikael Backlund also had a goal and an assist each in the loss, both registering five shots on goal as well. Jacob Markstrom allowed four goals on 22 shots in the loss.

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In another monster goaltending performance, Connor Hellebuyck rebounded in a back-to-back situation with 50 saves in a 4-1 win over the New York Rangers. It was a marvelous performance from Hellebuyck in what continues to be a Vezina-quality season for him.

Kyle Connor had a goal and two assists with five shots while Mark Scheifele scored twice. Schefiele is now five goals away from setting a career-high of 39, though his assist totals continue to lag.

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The Islanders beat Jarry in his return to the net by a 4-2 margin largely thanks to 44 saves from Ilya Sorokin. Brock Nelson scored twice on five shots with a couple of PIMs while Bo Horvat added a goal and an assist to his season's total in a solid effort without Barzal in the lineup.

Jake Guentzel scored in the loss and now has four goals in six games. Him heating up would be big for this team down the stretch as they need to start winning more games.