* The NHL will reach the Quarter Mark during Friday’s 14-game slate. A full day of hockey starts at 1 p.m. ET and will end about 12 hours later.
* The 2022 NHL Thanksgiving Showdown returns today with a doubleheader on TNT, Sportsnet and TVA Sports that opens with an intrastate rivalry between the Penguins and Flyers and concludes with the Blues visiting the Lightning.
* Legendary NHL defenseman Borje Salming, who revealed in August that he was battling ALS, passed away Thursday at the age of 71. Salming, the NHL’s first star player from Sweden and a Maple Leafs icon, was a Hall of Fame defenseman and pioneer who changed the perception of European players when he joined the Maple Leafs for the 1973-74 season.
2022 NHL THANKSGIVING SHOWDOWN DOUBLEHEADER LEADS FRIDAY SLATE In addition to leftovers and Black Friday shopping, the 2022 NHL Thanksgiving Showdown returns with a doubleheader that will be broadcast nationally in the U.S. and Canada. It opens with a pair of Pennsylvania rivals squaring off when the Flyers host the Penguins and concludes with two teams who have combined for three of the last four Stanley Cup championships when the Blues visit the Lightning.
* The Flyers have a record of 103-36-12 (218 points) in 151 all-time home games against the Penguins - they are the only franchise to own 100+ wins on home ice when facing Pittsburgh. That includes a 6-2-0 mark in the last eight times they have hosted their intrastate rivals dating to Feb. 23, 2019.
* Penguins forward Sidney Crosby has recorded a point in 11 consecutive regular-season games against the Flyers dating to Jan. 31, 2020 (9-9—18 in 11 GP), marking the longest active point streak by one player against Philadelphia.
* Nikita Kucherov leads all Lightning skaters with 10-18—28 in 19 games this season, including nine multi-point efforts. Should he record multiple points Friday, it would mark the second time in his career that he has posted 30 points within his first 20 games of a season. He previously reached the 30-point benchmark in 18 games during the 2017-18 campaign en route to his first career 100-point season.
* The Blues will look to halt the streaky win-loss trend to their season so far when they visit the Lightning - they opened the campaign 3-0-0 before losing eight consecutive games and following that up with seven straight wins before dropping their most recent appearance (6-2 L at BUF on Nov. 23). One streak they would like to continue is Jordan Binnington’s recent success head-to-head versus the Lightning: Binnington is 5-0-0 in his last five appearances against Tampa Bay dating to Feb. 7, 2019 (1.94 GAA. .938 SV%, 1 SO).
BLACK FRIDAY DEAL! FREE #NHLSTATS In addition to the 2022 NHL Thanksgiving Showdown doubleheader, 24 other teams are in action on a full Friday of hockey that starts at 1 p.m. ET and is likely to end around 1 a.m. ET. See below for a selection of stats that are just a small sample of what you can find by following #NHLStats: Live Updates throughout today’s games.
* Alex Ovechkin returns from the holiday just 10 goals shy of joining Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe in the NHL’s exclusive 800-goal club. The latest #NHLStats Pack has all the stats you need to know as Ovechkin continues on his “Road to 800.”
* Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane (762) enters Friday one assist shy of tying Chris Chelios (763) for the fourth-most by a U.S.-born player. They trail Phil Housley (894), Mike Modano (813) and Brian Leetch (781).
* The two longest point streaks of 2022-23 will both be on the line with Maple Leafs forward Mitchell Marner (3-16—19 in 14 GP) and Stars forward Jason Robertson (14-10—24 in 13 GP) both in action. Marner can become just the sixth player in Maple Leafs history to register a 15-game point streak. Robertson, meanwhile, will attempt to mark the fifth instance of a Stars/North Stars player reaching 14 games – and first since the club has played out of Dallas (since 1993-94).
* Sharks forward Logan Couture can extend his goal streak to six games, which would tie Robertson (6 GP) and Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov (6 GP) for the longest goal streak by any player in 2022-23.
NHL REACHES QUARTER MARK OF SEASON ON FRIDAY The 2022-23 regular season will reach the quarter mark with the 11th of 14 games scheduled Friday (328 of 1,312 games). The League enters the quarter mark averaging 6.3 goals per game, the highest rate at this stage of a season (317 GP) in the past 28 campaigns and with 46% of all games witnessing a come-from-behind win. Click here for a “By the Numbers” look at the first quarter of the 2022-23 NHL season.
Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.
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