After acquiring him from Winnipeg, the Columbus Blue Jackets are not wasting any time trying to get Patrik Laine signed long-term.New Jersey Devils

Even though it did not always show up in their goal prevention numbers a year ago, the Wild had excellent defensive metrics across the board when it came to preventing scoring chances. The issue they ran into was their goaltending was not always up to par. It was not until Alex Stalock stepped in during the second half and solidified things that their season started to turn around.

The Buzzer: Painful Devils own-goal, more from NHL on Thursday Blown lead, another Laine benching: Tough times for Blue Jackets, Torts Blues bet big on Binnington: six year, $36M extensionCarolina Hurricanes



Avalanche: I, too, had them as my preseason pick. The Avs have also been hurt by injuries to Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar. MacKinnon is back, Makar is trending that way and goalie Philipp Grubauer was just named player of the week. – Brehm



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“We’ve seen him do it year after year,” Backstrom said of Ovechkin. “It’s just so impressive. I think the way he shoots the puck, the way he scores, the way he plays the game is just fun to see. As a teammate, you’re just enjoying every moment.”Boston Bruins

Torey Krug, STL at LOS ($17): When he was in Boston, Krug was a machine on the power play. Given that, it's generally surprising to see him have a mere five power-play points through 28 games this season. The move to St. Louis has not paid off on that front. Cal Petersen has been a consistent goalie in his limited NHL career, and he's kept that up this year with a 2.64 GAA and .921 save percentage.

The former Devils backup backstop stopped all 18 of the shots he faced in the matinee battle to improve to 1-1-0 with a 1.53 GAA and .933 SV%.

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