. . . NHL LAUNCHES CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
The NHL will honor a century’s worth of extraordinary players, teams, remarkable plays and unforgettable moments throughout 2017.

The League’s Centennial Celebration commences today in Toronto with the 2017 Scotiabank NHL Centennial Classic. The marquee event also will feature the first phase in the announcement of the 100 Greatest NHL Players presented by Molson Canadian (1917-1966) as well as the NHL Centennial Fan Arena, a traveling fan experience that will visit all NHL markets across North America in 2017.

ALUMNI GAMES DELIGHT FANS IN TORONTO, ST. LOUIS
Fans were treated to a pair of alumni games on Saturday in advance of the outdoor contests in Toronto and St. Louis:

* Kris Draper scored the tiebreaking goal late in the third period to lift the Red Wings to a 4-3 victory over the Maple Leafs in the 2017 Rogers NHL Centennial Classic Alumni Game at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto.

* Pierre Turgeon potted two goals, including what stood as the winner, to lead the hometown Blues to an 8-7 triumph over the Blackhawks in the 2017 NHL Winter Classic Alumni Game at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

WAYNE GRETZKY TO TAKE QUESTIONS FROM FANS
NHL icon and Centennial ambassador Wayne Gretzkywill participate in a live Q&A session for fans at The PreGame at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto beginning at 12:30 p.m. ET.

SATURDAY’S RESULTS
Home Team in Caps
BOSTON 3, Buffalo 1
Washington 6, NEW JERSEY 2
Columbus 4, MINNESOTA 2
NY Islanders 6, WINNIPEG 2
PITTSBURGH 4, Montreal 3 (OT)
TAMPA BAY 3, Carolina 1
NY Rangers 6, COLORADO 2
Florida 3, DALLAS 1
Vancouver 3, EDMONTON 2 (SO)
CALGARY 4, Arizona 2
LOS ANGELES 3, San Jose 2

BLUE JACKETS DEFEAT WILD IN HISTORIC MEETING OF DUELING STREAKS
Cam Atkinson scored twice to help Columbus extend their franchise-record win streak to 15 games while snapping Minnesota’s club-record run at 12 games. Elias notes that it was the first contest in the history of the NHL, NBA, MLB or NFL in which two teams faced off while each holding win streaks of 12 or more games.

* Columbus’ 15-game run is tied for the second-longest single-season win streak in NHL history, behind only Pittsburgh’s 17-game run from March 9 – April 10, 1993.

* The League-leading Blue Jackets (26-5-4, 56 points) also extended their franchise-record overall point streak to 17 games (16-0-1) and road point streak to 11 games (10-0-1), establishing another club record.

* Columbus, who concluded the month of December with a 14-0-0 (28 points) record, also extended franchise benchmarks for wins and points in a calendar month. Elias notes that the Blue Jackets became the second team in NHL history to win every game in a calendar month (min. 10 GP), joining the 2012-13 Penguins (15-0-0 in March).

* Sergei Bobrovsky (29 saves) extended his career-high and franchise-record win and point streaks to 13 and 15 games (14-0-1), respectively.

LOOSE PUCKS
Panthers forward Jaromir Jagr (1-1—2) collected his 1,135th career assist to tie Paul Coffey for fifth on the NHL's all-time list . . . Rangers forward Chris Kreider (3-0—3) scored his second career hat trick and Henrik Lundqvist (25 saves) earned his 390th career win to pass Dominik Hasek (389) for 12th on the NHL’s all-time list among goaltenders . . . Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin (16-27—43) scored his 10th career regular-season overtime goal and is tied with Oilers forward Connor McDavid (14-29—43) for the most points in the NHL this season . . . Kings forward Jeff Carter scored his NHL-leading seventh game-winning goal of the season . . . Hurricanes equipment manager Jorge Alvesplayed the final 7.6 seconds of regulation as an emergency backup goaltender . . . Former Boston Pride forward Denna Laing dropped the ceremonial puck at TD Garden.

the information above was provided by the NHL PR department