Ice Breaker: Detroit wins night one of the Larkin standoff
Arvidsson scores three the night the Wings suspend Larkin, Tage Thompson gets five points and Buffalo barely survives Anaheim.
Dylan Larkin told the Red Wings he won't play for them again, and Detroit answered by suspending him without pay. Then the Wings went out and beat Chicago 4-1 without him, with Viktor Arvidsson scoring three. Nothing settles a room like winning the first night of a standoff. Gord has where it goes from here.
Red Wings 4, Blackhawks 1
Arvidsson answered Connor Bedard's opener in the second, Lucas Raymond scored on the power play early in the third, and Arvidsson added two more to finish the hat trick. Interim GM Shawn Horcoff said the club was "disappointed by his decision, particularly given his obligations to the organization and his teammates."
Lind's read: Detroit outshot Chicago 31-19, and while one night without your top center proves little, it tells 31 other GMs the Wings aren't selling in a panic.
Tage Thompson had three goals and two assists, two of the goals 15 seconds apart late in the second. Buffalo led 7-3 early in the third and still needed the horn, as Anaheim scored three more, the last with 31 seconds left.
Sully's chirp: Buffalo was up four with 13 minutes to play. The Sabres don't close out games, they negotiate a settlement.
Kings 6, Senators 5 (OT)
Los Angeles led 5-1 after two, then Ottawa scored four in the third, two by Dylan Cozens, before Shane Pinto tied it at 18:20. Quinton Byfield won it 3:37 into overtime, and Drew Doughty had three assists.
Lind's read: Ottawa took 35 penalty minutes, including Hayden Hodgson's boarding major, and handed the Kings seven power plays and a 38-22 shot edge. The comeback came mostly at even strength, so the problem was discipline, not legs.
Utah 4, Penguins 3 (OT)
Logan Cooley scored twice in the first, Pittsburgh came back to lead on Ben Kindel's goal at 19:35 of the third, and Cooley tied it with one second left for the hat trick. Mikhail Sergachev won it in overtime.
Sully's chirp: Pittsburgh held the lead for 24 seconds. That's not a lead, that's a layover.
Lightning 6, Jets 4
Tampa Bay scored four times in the second, and Pontus Holmberg finished with a goal and three assists. Neal Pionk scored twice as Winnipeg cut a 5-1 hole to 5-4 before Holmberg's empty-netter. Stuart Skinner was pulled after allowing five on 21 shots.
Lind's read: Winnipeg is 0-4-1 in its last five and minus-9 over that stretch, by our count. It plays again tonight in Sunrise, with a goaltending decision to make after Skinner's early exit.
Islanders 4, Wild 3 (OT)
Matthew Schaefer scored 33 seconds into overtime, his second goal of the night, in 30 minutes of ice time, while Quinn Hughes scored and played nearly 34 minutes for Minnesota.
Sully's chirp: The kid played 30 minutes and ended it before the overtime crowd sat down. At his age I logged 30 minutes a night on a video game and called it cardio.
Canadiens 5, Stars 2
Cole Caufield and Alex Newhook scored twice apiece, and Montreal led 4-1 midway through the second, all while going 0-for-4 on the power play.
Lind's read: Montreal is 4-0-1 in its last five and plus-8, with a power play at 10.3% on the season, by our count. That's a team winning at five-on-five, and that travels.
Blues 4, Bruins 1
Boston outshot St. Louis 32-18 and lost by three, because Joel Hofer stopped 31 of 32, the Blues went 2-for-3 on the power play, and Robert Thomas and Philip Broberg had three points each.
Sully's chirp: Outshoot them by 14, lose by three. That's the Bruins tax: do all the work, still owe money.
Capitals 4, Predators 3
Cole Hutson scored twice from the back end, and Alex Tuch broke a 3-3 tie at 10:09 of the third. Filip Forsberg scored twice for Nashville.
Lind's read: Tuch has 10 goals in 12 games and a three-game point streak, by our count. That's top-line finishing on 19 minutes a night.
Hurricanes 3, Blue Jackets 2
Jordan Martinook, Logan Stankoven and Mark Jankowski built a 3-0 lead, and Pyotr Kochetkov held it with 24 saves. Denton Mateychuk and Kent Johnson scored for Columbus in the third.
Sully's chirp: Mark Jankowski has seven goals. I checked the box score twice, and the box score checked itself once.
Sharks 3, Canucks 2
Will Smith scored twice and Yaroslav Askarov made 23 saves, while Elias Pettersson, the center, picked up an assist to stretch his point streak to six games.
Lind's read: Vancouver went 0-for-3 on the power play and San Jose went 1-for-5. In a one-goal game, that was the margin.
Three stars of the night
- Tage Thompson, BUF: three goals and two assists in Anaheim.
- Viktor Arvidsson, DET: three goals and an assist on the first night of the standoff.
- Logan Cooley, UTA: a hat trick, capped by the tying goal with one second left.
EDGE of the night
One NHL EDGE season best fell last night, and it belongs to the guy who never leaves the ice. Most distance in a game: Quinn Hughes, MIN, 4.9 miles.
By our count: Matthew Schaefer has a point in six straight games and 14 points in 13, while averaging 27 minutes a night.
Lind's number of the night
27.6. That's Quinn Hughes' average ice time in minutes this season, per NHL data, and he went nearly 34 last night while skating a season-high distance. Marcus made the case for paying him now, and usage like this is the whole argument.
Sully's take of the morning
Look, Buffalo's penalty kill isn't killing anything but the mood. It's at 67.4% on the season by our count, and Anaheim went 3-for-4 last night. Thompson put up five points and still had to sweat out the last 30 seconds. Buddy, I'm begging you, put somebody in front of the net. Grade: D.
Gord's whisper
Reported. LeBrun has Minnesota as the team that has made the most offers for Larkin since June, and says Florida, one of the original three teams on his list, never really engaged. File under: Trade winds.
Tonight
The Jets visit the Panthers at 7 p.m. ET on Scripps, on the second night of a back-to-back, three days after Florida beat them 5-1 in Winnipeg. Florida is -225 at DraftKings. 21+. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.
Pabs has where the middle stands with Barkov and Marchand skating. Elsewhere, Devils at Golden Knights opens the night at 6 p.m. ET on NHL Network, and Kraken at Flames goes at 8.
