Also via Wakiji,

Blashill said he anticipates Athanasiou playing tomorrow. Nielsen our tomorrow, day to day.

added 1:18pm, Wakiji,

Athanasiou took Zadina’s spot on the line with Larkin and Bertuzzi and also on the first power play unit.

Dana Wakiji tweets,

Mantha skating with the orange jersey.

Nielsen not practicing.

Zadina also not skating.

Updates coming if needed.

I expect hockey news will be slow today, most eyes will be on the Super Bowl,

There are three NHL games today, Capitals/Penguins at 12:30pm ET on NBC and at 2pm ET Blue Jackets/Canadiens and Canucks/Hurricanes.

So feel free to use this as an open post, you can even comment on the football game.

I will update if needed but again I don't see much much coming out today.

from Neil Best of Newsday,

Thanks for the memories from that 17-game point streak, Islanders. It was big fun . . . when was that again? Oh, right, last autumn.

That is ancient history now, with exactly two months left between their next game and their last regular-season game on April 4 — if not their last game, period, with a playoff berth far from a certainty.

The good news is this should be an entertaining ride, as evidenced by Saturday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Canucks at Barclays Center, which allowed the Islanders to cling to third place in the Metropolitan Division thanks to a late, point-salvaging goal.

The scary news for the team and its fans is that this is not going to be easy, not with a tightly packed posse of Eastern Conference contenders on the Islanders’ heels.

While the coach and players said many positive things about their effort against the Pacific Division leaders after having been off since Jan. 21, they are going to need many more positive things to happen in the coming weeks.

continued

from Robert Tychkowski of Edmonton Journal,

The Battle of Alberta is back, baby, and the rest of the NHL can eat its heart out.

Just when it looked like the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames couldn’t top Thursday’s classic return to the provincial rivalry, they doubled down on the intensity and emotion in Saturday’s rematch, throwing back to the glory days of the ’80s with 11 goals and a second-period line brawl.

When it was all over, and the last of the gloves had been picked up and names had been called, the Oilers avenged three previous losses to Calgary this year by laying a lopsided 8-3 beating on the dumbfounded Flames.

“Old time hockey,” grinned Oilers forward Sam Gagner, who was at ground zero when all hell broke loose. “Those are the fun ones, obviously. I like the way our guys stuck together. I thought our game was great pretty much the whole way through.”

continued

from Eric Francis of Sportsnet,

Sure enough, the Oilers got a chance to retaliate with a stick flip of their own.

It came with 24 seconds left in the second period, a split-second before the first goalie versus goalie fight in the Battle of Alberta’s history.

Yep, you read that right.

Despite all the bad blood flowing for decades between north and south of this great province, it took a matchup between goalies who switched sides this summer to come to blows.

With Cam Talbot throwing blockers into the face of Alex Chiasson as part of an old-school melee in the Flames end, Mike Smith skated to centre ice with hopes of attracting a dance partner.

continued

Watch the game highlights below.

THREE HARD LAPS

* Leon Draisaitl factored on four of eight goals to extend his double-digit point streak, pad his lead in the 2019-20 Art Ross Trophy race and help the Oilers earn a win in the penultimate Battle of Alberta installment slated for the 2019-20 regular season.

* David Pastrnak of the Atlantic Division-leading Bruins registered 1-2—3 to claim sole possession of first place in the 2019-20 Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy race, while Quinn Hughes of the Pacific Division-leading Canucks scored twice to leapfrog another defenseman for the most points among rookie skaters this season.

* Storylines are aplenty heading into the 50th head-to-head regular-season meeting between Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby, with the hosts and its captain looking to continue their historic success in games taking place on Super Bowl Sunday.

via Sportsnet,

Brian Burke looks at the playoff-type hockey happening in January this season, with teams clearly bringing fire to their style of play.

Note this ws before tonight's goalie fight.

added 2/2/20 at 12:04am, longer version below, penalties added below too...

Gets it with his skate blade.

Game highlights are below.

added 2/2/20 ar 12:15am, Just Blashill added below.

The lack of offense hurts the Wings again but tonight they had numerous chances but could not finish.

Rangers win 1-0, this is painful.

Find the Detroit stats below.

via Sportsnet,

Kelly Hrudey spoke about the personality showing across the league as players celebrate scoring goals and goaltenders celebrating wins.

via Sportsnet,

Elliotte Friedman and Chris Johnston update on the latest news form around the NHL, touching on Dustin Byfuglien's situation this season and negotiations with Jake Muzzin.

Plus a few more topics including contract talks with Jacob Markstrom and the Canucks.

Excellent feature.

via Sportsnet,

David Steward, co-owner of the St. Louis Blues and one of 13 black billionaires in the world, sat down with David Amber to discuss his childhood in Clinton, Missouri and how he plans to grow diversity in hockey.

Ya... I'm mailing it in. I almost forgot that there is a game tonight. It's probably something I caught from the Wings. You know. Like the, "forgetting there's a game to play virus". It's been going around the Wings locker room all season long. And then some......

It's a Live Blog!

The talk started yesterday if you missed it.

from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

- No American has ever won the Rocket Richard Trophy for most goals scored but Matthews could become the first. He has 36 goals, one behind eight-time winner Alex Ovechkin and Boston’s David Pastrnak. The last Canadian to lead the NHL in goals was Steven Stamkos in 2012.

- Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl leads the NHL in scoring but you could argue that Rangers’ Artemi Panarin is having a better season. On a team with a goal differential of plus-1, Panarin is plus-23 in New York and just nine points behind Draisaitl, who is minus-11 on an Oilers team that is plus-3.

- Before this season John Tavares was scoring at .94 points per game in his NHL career. This season he’s at .93 points per game. His career average is 77 points a season. This year he’s scoring at 76-point pace. And yes, goal scoring is down from a career high of a year ago but his point scoring is basically the same as it’s always been.

a few more note, mostly Leafs...

from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

The first Stanley Cup champion of the century is also the best Stanley Cup champion crowned in the 2000s, and it is the one that will be celebrated Saturday night in New Jersey.

This was the Devils team that fired its coach, Robbie Ftorek, with eight games remaining in a regular season that would barely make it into the top 10 of franchise history. But this was also the team that under Larry Robinson flexed all of its muscle and all of its talent and all of its depth and all of its unparalleled defense and goaltending to bring the second of three Cups within a nine-year stretch to Exit 16W off the Turnpike.

The Exit of Champions.

Few lines in NHL history have been as dynamic and sympatico as the “A Line” that consisted of Patrik Elias and Petr Sykora on the wings, flanking Jason Arnott. The band made sweet, joyful music and operated as if connected by a sixth sense, three thinking and operating as one.

continued

DETROIT - The Detroit Red Wings today assigned goaltender Calvin Pickard to the American Hockey League's Grand Rapids Griffins and removed goaltender Jonathan Bernier from injured reserve.

NEW YORK (Feb. 1, 2020) – Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin, Edmonton Oilers center Leon Draisaitl and Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy have been named the NHL's “Three Stars” for the month of January.

from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,

If you were expecting a different looking Red Wings team coming out of that All-Star break, no such luck.

They pretty much looked like the Red Wings from most of this season Friday in a 4-2 loss to the New York Rangers.

The Red Wings rallied with two third-period goals, but it was after they trailed 4-0, and too large a deficit to overcome.

continued

from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,

Filppula’s parents came to Detroit from their native Finland in anticipation of watching him hit a milestone Saturday when the Wings host the Rangers at Little Caesars Arena.

“It means a lot,” Filppula said. “I hoped the circumstances would be a little bit different, that we would have a little bit better season. It’s been a while. Fifteen seasons. I’m healthy and able to play so I am excited about that.”

It’s fitting it comes in a Wings uniform: He was a regular in the lineup from 2006 to 07 to 2012 to 13, when he rejected offers from the Wings and bolted to Tampa Bay. At the time, the Lightning were managed by Steve Yzerman, and this past summer Yzerman made Filppula one of his first free-agent signings after being named general manager of the Wings. Filppula won the Cup with the Wings in 2008.

more

If you missed the game last night and want to watch the recap, you can do so below..

THREE HARD LAPS

* With chants of ‘Ovi, Ovi’ raining down at Canadian Tire Centre, Alex Ovechkin surpassed Mark Messier for sole possession of eighth place on the NHL’s all-time goals list.

* Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby each collected three points as the Penguins edged the Flyers in overtime. The duo are the highest-scoring teammates since 2005-06.

* Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves to extend his overall point streak and road point streak to 15 and 11 games, respectively, as the Lightning kept pace with the Bruins in the Atlantic Division standings.