While the extent of the injury to New Jersey Devils goaltender Jacob Markstrom hasn't been made official yet by the team, Kevin Weekes reported that it is not as serious as it looked, but that it is putting Markstrom's participation in the Four Nations Cup in peril. That would indicate that it will likely be a couple weeks as teams go on break two weeks from Saturday. We will wait for official confirmation, and it could have been worse, but still not ideal.

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For an official confirmation from a team, the New York Islanders told us that the news on defenceman Noah Dobson isn't great:

#Isles player update: Noah Dobson (Lower body) is considered week-to-week.

— New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) January 23, 2025

As mentioned, the Four Nations Cup break starts two weeks from now. If Dobson is week-to-week, he may be out until the teams return from that time off. It would give Dobson lots of time to rest and rehab for a hopeful run at a playoff spot, however unlikely that may be.

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The Vegas Golden Knights also provided an update on forward William Karlsson:

Update: William Karlsson is out week-to-week with a lower-body injury. #VegasBorn

— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) January 23, 2025

Vegas is a team that has gone through their fair share of injuries over the last few years, and add another one to the pile. Hopefully he can be back before the Four Nations break, but at this point, if a player is deemed week-to-week, I am not expecting them back before the end of February.

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Mikhail Sergachev was not in the lineup for Utah on Thursday night, and the team said he did not travel with them for their road game in Minnesota. Utah heads to Canada for games in Winnipeg and Ottawa this weekend, and Sergachev can always hop on a plane if things change, but it looks like he'll miss a couple more on top of the three he's missed already.

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Patrick Kane was not in the lineup for Detroit on Thursday night. He is considered day-to-day, so it's better news than Karlsson and Dobson, at least. Vladimir Tarasenko skated in Kane's spot both on the second line and the top power-play unit for the game.

Detroit laid the hammer down on Montreal in their Thursday night matchup, even if the score was just 4-2. Shots after the first period were 17-4 in Detroit's favour, and 32-16 after the second period. The shot counter was very much indicative play as Detroit was dominant pretty much from start to finish.

Dylan Larkin scored another power-play goal, his 12^th PP goal of the season and sixth in the month of January alone. He added an assist on a Jonatan Berggren goal, totaled nine shots, and had a pair of blocks for good measure. Larkin now has 9 goals, 10 assists, and 61 shots in 13 games since Todd McLellan took over behind the bench.

Alex DeBrincat (one goal, five shots) and Andrew Copp (one goal, four shots) had the other tallies for the Red Wings.

Cam Talbot held the net for the win, stopping 27 of 29 shots.

Kirby Dach and Kaiden Guhle scored Montreal's goals. Guhle finished with three shots, two blocks, and a hit in a solid fantasy night. That goal from Dach, meanwhile, was his eighth in his last 14 games.

Sam Montembeault was in net for all four goals, facing 45 shots along the way. He has now faced 174 shots in his last five starts, or nearly 35 per game. That is, uh, a lot of shots against.

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Speaking of beatdowns, the New York Rangers laid one on Philadelphia on Thursday night, too. The Rangers took a 6-1 win at home, marking the seventh time in 12 games in the month of January that they've scored at least four goals. They are 8-1-3 in that stretch.

Reilly Smith, Filip Chytil, Adam Fox, and K'Andre Miller each had a goal and an assist in the win. Chytil had four shots and a block, Fox had four shots, and Miller had two shots and three blocks. Braden Schneider also scored for the Rangers, so their blue line accounted for three of the six goals the Rangers scored on the night.

Adam Edstrom had the other tally for New York.

Just as a small aside: Arthur Kaliyev had a primary assist on Schneider's goal, and added two shots in 10:38 of ice time. That makes three primary points at 5-on-5 for Kaliyev in eight games since joining the Rangers lineup in less than 87 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time. That works out to over 2.0 points per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 which, over the course of a full season, would be a first-line rate. Just throwing that out there.

Igor Shesterkin was great in net once again, stopping 35 of 36 shots he faced.

Owen Tippett scored Philadelphia's lone goal, totaling four shots and a block. Samuel Ersson allowed five goals on 36 shots for the loss.

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Boston rebounded well in their loss to New Jersey with a 2-0 shutout win at home to Ottawa. David Pastrnak did the thing again, figuring in on both Bruins goals with a goal and an assist, registering four total shots and three hits. Since December 14^th – a span of 19 games – he has figured in on 47.5% of Boston's goals. Not goals with him on the ice – all of their goals.

Morgan Geekie was the recipient of a great pass from Pasta, resulting in Geekie's 13^th goal of the season. He is now four shy of his career-high of 17 he set in 76 games last season.

Joonas Korpisalo was stellar in net, stopping all 29 shots he faced for the shutout win. It is his third shutout of the season in just his 15^th start, yet his save percentage is under. 900. Hockey is a funny game.

Anton Forsberg took the loss, allowing just one goal on 25 shots faced. It was the fifth time the Senators have been shutout in their last 11 games, and the only team with a lower goals-per-minute rate since American Thanksgiving is Anaheim. That is not a great stretch.

Jake Sanderson was a game-time scratch for Ottawa. If it proves to be any sort of serious injury, Thomas Chabot was running the top power-play unit with Sanderson out of the lineup.

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Carolina and Columbus had an absolutely wild game in Carolina on Thursday night.

Columbus got out to a surprise 2-0 lead, which is only a surprise because they had played the night before and were on the road. The Hurricanes stormed back and scored five goals in a nine-minute span in the second period, only to have the Blue Jackets score two late goals in the second to bring it to a 5-4 game.

Carolina added a pair of goals in the third to seal the game 7-4, but this was a back-and-forth game for 50 minutes. A tough loss for the Blue Jackets, but Carolina was the better team on the night.

Seth Jarvis had a monster fantasy night with two goals (one PP), two assists, five shots, and four hits. It is the kind of fantasy performance that can win a week for a fantasy manager. He now has 9 goals and 12 points in his last 10 games and has 14 goals in 29 games since returning from injury in late November.

Sebastian Aho also had a big game with a goal, two assists (one PP), and seven shots. That brings him up to a point-per-game pace with 15 goals and 34 assists in 49 games played.

Jackson Blake had a goal and an assist of his own while Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Jordan Martinook, and Eric Robinson all had solo tallies. Blake had two total shots, a block, two PIMs, and a hit in 14:18 of ice time. He remains on the top line for Carolina and is up to 11 goals in 49 games in his rookie season. Not bad.

Frederik Andersen held on for the win, stopping 18 of 22 shots faced.

Both Kent Johnson and James van Riemsdyk had a goal and an assist for Columbus. That makes six points for Johnson in his last five games while JvR is up to 10 goals in 42 games. He had 11 in 71 games last season.

Kirill Marchenko scored his 19^th goal of the season and Adam Fantilli had a pair of assists. Fantilli had two shots, a block, and a hit in a balanced fantasy effort. He has seven goals and five assists in his last 10 games.

Daniil Tarasov was in net for the Blue Jackets and allowed six goals on 42 shots.   

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The Minnesota Wild got both Jared Spurgeon and Kirill Kaprizov back on Thursday night, but Utah goalie Karel Vejmelka spoiled their returns with a 26-save shutout in Utah's 4-0 win. It is Vejmelka's first shutout of the season in his 27^th start, but he does have a .913 save percentage on the year. He has been very good for Utah, especially with Connor Ingram missing so much time.

Clayton Keller had a power-play goal, Barrett Hayton scored twice, and Lawson Crouse scored his first goal in nine games to push their team to the win. Those two goals give Hayton 11 on the season, the second-highest mark of his career, and he could potentially reach the 20-goal mark for the first time.

Filip Gustavsson was in net for Minnesota and took the loss, allowing four goals on 29 shots.

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Like Detroit, earlier, Vegas may not have put a huge total on the scoreboard, but they did dominate St. Louis in Vegas's 4-2 win on Thursday night. Vegas led the shot differential by a 24-8 margin after two periods, holding a 3-1 lead, to give an indication of what kind of game it was.

Mark Stone had a goal and an assist (PP) in the win, and he now has 20 points in 20 games since returning from injury.

Victor Olofsson, Pavel Dorofeyev (PP), and Tomas Hertl had the other tallies for the Golden Knights. Dorofeyev finished the game with five shots, and now has seven goals, 10 points, and 22 shots in his last six games.

Ilya Samsonov stopped 15 of the 17 shots he faced for the win.

Jordan Kyrou and Robert Thomas had the goals for St. Louis. That gives Kyrou an even 21 goals and 21 assists on the season.

Joel Hofer allowed three goals on 30 shots for the loss.

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Both Nazem Kadri and Jonathan Huberdeau managed a goal and an assist in Calgary's 5-2 win at home to Buffalo. That puts Huberdeau at 19 goals in 46 games this season, or as many as he had in his 122 prior regular season games in Calgary. It is a shooting percentage bender (23.2%) but it's always nice to see a player rebound like that.

Jakob Pelletier had a goal and an assist while both Mikael Backlund and Yegor Sharangovich added individual tallies. After going 15 games without a goal, Sharangovich now has three in his last five appearances.

Even without an actual point, Mackenzie Weegar had a very good multi-cat night with three shots, five blocks, five PIMs, and three hits to go with a plus-3 rating.

Dustin Wolf stopped 32 of 34 shots in the win. He is 7-2 with a .935 save percentage in nine starts since Christmas, which seems pretty good to me.

Mattias Samuelsson had a goal and an assist in Buffalo's loss while Tage Thompson scored his 22^nd goal of the season. He has 16 goals at 5-on-5 in 43 games played, or as many as he had in 71 games last year. He is tied for fourth in the league in 5-on-5 goals, trailing only Leon Draisaitl, Cole Caufield, and Nikita Kucherov.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen gave up three goals on 24 shots for the loss.

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In an anticipated rematch from the weekend that brought us a couple of suspensions, the Edmonton Oilers trounced the Vancouver Canucks 6-2. Both Zach Hyman (2+1) and Leon Draisaitl (1+2) had three-point games with the former having a power-play assist and the latter having one of each on the man advantage. Draisaitl is on pace for 60 goals and 126 points.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a goal and an assist on the power play and nearly half (14) his points this season (29) have come on the man advantage.

Adam Henrique and Kasperi Kapanen had the other goals while Calvin Pickard stopped 24 of 26 shots for the win.

Brock Boeser and Filip Hronek scored for Vancouver, and Boeser assisted on the Hronek goal.

Thatcher Demko gave up six goals on 34 shots. He has given up 40 goals in 12 starts since returning from injury, posting an .867 save percentage. Beyond how the Canucks are generally playing as a team, it is fair to wonder just how healthy Demko is.

Kiefer Sherwood left the game in the second period with an undisclosed injury and did not return.

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The Anaheim Ducks scored five goals for just the second time since American Thanksgiving as they toppled the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-1. Both Mason McTavish and Alex Killorn had a pair of goals, the former having four shots and a hit while the latter had five shots and two hits. After scoring just two goals in his first 22 games of the season, McTavish now has seven goals in his last 20 games, averaging over 2.5 shots per game and shooting 13%. It isn't a percentage bender, so this uptick in production is nice to see from the young forward.

Frank Vatrano had the other goal for the Ducks, totaling two shots, a block, four PIMs, and a hit in a solid multi-cat fantasy performance.

John Gibson stopped 31 of 32 shots for the win. He and Lukas Dostal have both been largely great for the Ducks this season.

Michael Bunting scored the only goal for the Penguins. Alex Nedeljkovic gave up four goals on 33 shots, and winger Bryan Rust left the game in the third period with a lower-body injury and did not return.

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Aliaksei Protas, Ethan Frank, and Alex Ovechkin (EN) all scored for Washington as the Capitals blanked the Seattle Kraken 3-0. Kudos to Charlie Lindgren, making his first start in nearly two weeks, for the 22-save shutout, his first of the season.

That goal was Protas's 20^th of the season, giving him 20 goals and 20 assists on the campaign. He is the 22^nd forward to reach both those marks this season, and currently sits sixth by points per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 this season. Only Sean Monahan, Draisaitl, Kucherov, Kirill Kaprizov, and Cole Caufield are higher. Protas has more 5-on-5 goals in 48 games this season (14) than he had in 169 career regular season games before this campaign (13).

Joey Daccord gave up two goals on 31 shots for the loss.

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For the second time this week, Nashville and San Jose had an absolute festival of a game. The Predators got out to a 3-0 lead in the first seven minutes of the game and then San Jose brought it to a one-goal game with a pair of tallies before the end of the period. Nashville scored two early in the second period before San Jose replied with three of their own to make it a 5-5 game heading into the third. A Fedor Svechkov power play goal proved the difference as Nashville won 6-5. Four of the six periods between these two teams this week resulted in at least four combined goals, and they scored 23 goals in the two contests.

Filip Forsberg had a pair of goals for Nashville, totaling six shots along the way. After a stretch that saw him score on goal in 25 games, Forsberg has now scored at least one goal in seven straight games, and has nine goals in all in that stretch. He has 9 goals, 21 assists, and 73 shots in his last 20 games.

Svechkov had that PP goal and an assist with three shots, a block, and a hit in the win. Tommy Novak also had a goal and an assist (PP) with three shots of his own. Gustav Nyquist (PP) and Steven Stamkos (PP) had the other tallies.

Brady Skjei managed three assists (one PP) with two shots, three blocks, and a hit.

Justus Annunen stopped 30 of 35 shots for the win.

Mikael Granlund had a trio of helpers in San Jose's loss, including one on a Macklin Celebrini power play goal. That gives Granlund three goals and five assists in his last eight games.

Walker Duehr, Fabian Zetterlund, Henry Thrun, and Mario Ferraro had the other goals for the Sharks. Ferraro also had an assist, two shots, and four hits in the loss.

Tyler Toffoli was back in the lineup for the Sharks, but was held off the scoresheet in 17:44 of ice time.

Yaroslav Askarov took the loss in his first game against Nashville, allowing six goals on 38 shots.