Patrick Kane was at Detroit’s practice on Thursday, according to Helene St. James. Kane has missed the last three weeks with an upper-body injury but may be ready to go soon as he was also skating in his usual second-line spot next to Marco Kasper and Alex DeBrincat.

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Mats Zuccarello was not in the lineup for Minnesota on Thursday night, but Joe Smith indicated that he may be ready for their game on Friday night in New York when they visit the Islanders.

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The Montreal Canadiens found themselves in yet another overtime game, their fourth straight such contest and the seventh of the year, on Thursday night in New Jersey. The Devils were able to pull a win in the extra frame thanks to Jesper Bratt‘s fifth goal of the year, and that gave the Devils 10 wins on the season.

Cody Glass was back in the lineup and he scored the first New Jersey goal, following by tallies from Ondrej Palat and Timo Meier. Meier had five total shots and two PIMs along with his goal.

Jacob Markstrom saw just 19 shots but stopped 16 of them, and that was enough for his fourth win in his fifth start.

Kirby Dach, Jake Evands, and Oliver Kapanen had the goals for the Habs. Noah Dobson assisted on two of those goals, adding a block and a hit. Dobson now has seven points in his last eight games.

Jakub Dobes suffered his first loss of the year, giving up four goals on 28 shots.

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In another overtime game, Pavel Zacha poked home a puck left around the crease off a rush from Charlie McAvoy to lift the Boston Bruins to a 3-2 win at home over Ottawa. That makes six wins in a row for the Bruins, and seven wins in their last eight outings, to bring them to a 9-7 record after a 3-6 start.

Sean Kuraly and Morgan Geekie scored the other goals for the Bruins. That is Geekie’s 10th goal of the season, to go with 36 shots and 27 hits in 16 games. Geekie has 41 goals in his last 71 games dating back to early December of last season.

That assist from McAvoy gives him 12 helpers in his last 14 games.

Joonas Korpisalo won the game for Boston over his former team, stopping 20 of 22 shots launched his way.

Claude Giroux had a goal and an assist in the loss for the Senators with Michael Amadio scoring the other marker. That multi-point game gives Giroux 10 points in 14 games this season, a very good start for him after a bit of a down year in 2024-25 when he had 50 points in 81 outings.

Linus Ullmark suffered another loss in net for Ottawa, allowing three goals on 25 shots. He has now allowed 12 goals in his last four games.

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Nikolaj Ehlers scored his second goal of the season, and early third-period tally for Carolina in their home game against Minnesota, and that lifted the Hurricanes to a 4-3 win over the Wild. Jackson Blake, Andrei Svechnikov, and Sean Walker had the other goals for Carolina. Walker finished the game with a goal, an assist, a block, and two hits in nearly 25 minutes of ice time. That gives him back-to-back games with at least two points, and it’s notable he skated nearly 25 minutes given that this game marked the return of defenceman K’Andre Miller to the lineup. Miller skated 23:13, though the ice time levels were all elevated after Jalen Chatfield left the game in the first period after taking a hit to the head, and he did not return.

Frederik Andersen held the fort for the Hurricanes, stopped 20 of 23 shots for his fifth win in his eighth start.

Matt Boldy scored twice for the Wild, including once on the power play, while Brock Faber scored the other goal. Boldy wound up with three shots, two blocks, and a hit in the loss, and he’s back up to a point-per-game pace with 15 points in 15 appearances.

Goaltender Filip Gustavsson was in net for the Wild’s defeat, allowing four goals on 27 shots.

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All things considered, perhaps the funniest outcome of the night was the St. Louis Blues going into Buffalo and shutting out the Sabres by a 3-0 margin. Joel Hofer stopped all 28 shots he faced for the shutout, and hopefully this is a sign of things to come as the Blues’ goaltending situation turns itself around.

Mathieu Joseph had a goal and two assists, Justin Faulk had one of each, and Nick Bjugstad posted the third tally. Faulk had three total shots and a block to go with his two points as he now has four points in his last four games.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was in net for the Sabres and gave up two goals on 16 shots.

Jordan Kyrou was a healthy scratch for the Blues, which will make their next game interesting to see what they do with the lineup to follow this shutout win.

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Sidney Crosby scored a pair of power-play goals, Bryan Rust scored a PP goal of his own, Anthony Mantha tallied his seventh of the season, and Connor Dewar added an empty-net marker to lift the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 5-3 win at home to Washington. The two goals from Crosby give him 11 on the season and, at the time, put him in first place league-wide for goal scoring. Just remarkable what he continues to do at his age.

Rust finished the game with that PP goal, two PP assists, five shots, and a hit. He is up to five goals, 14 points, and 32 shots in 13 games since returning from injury.

Arturs Silovs was solid in net, stopping 28 of the 31 pucks sent his way by the Capitals.

Rasmus Sandin, Dylan Strome, and Tom Wilson all scored for the Caps. Strome assisted on both those goals, giving him 14 points in 12 games on the campaign.

Charlie Lindgren suffered the loss in net for the Caps, giving up four goals on 30 shots.

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The late games will be updated in the morning.

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Yesterday on Twitter and BlueSky, I had short threads on how teams are faring defensively so far this season. What stood out immediately is how the performance of the New York Rangers. Namely, they have allowed the lowest percentage of high-danger shots as a ratio of all shots against at 21.5%, and opponents are requiring the third-most shots for every expected goal created at 10.32:

This is a drastic shift from recent seasons where the team was porous defensively in front of Igor Shesterkin. The Rangers are still looking for their scoring touch, but if they can be even an average scoring team from here on out while maintaining these defensive numbers, they could legitimately be one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference.

Conversely, if fantasy managers are wondering why Ilya Sorokin has struggled so much for the New York Islanders, a big reason is probably because their percentage of HD shots against is the highest in the league (37.3%) by a wide margin (next-worst is the Anaheim Ducks at 32.7%) while opponents are requiring the fewest shots against per expected goal created (7.9), also by a wide margin (next-worst is again Anaheim at 8.34):

We may ask why backup David Rittich is finding some success, and to that I would say, “He’s only played four games and only two of them were really good.” I don’t think the Islanders stay this bad defensively, but remaining anywhere close to this bad will give Sorokin a very tough environment to overcome and be a top fantasy netminder.

For posterity, the Vegas Golden Knights, Seattle Kraken, Colorado Avalanche, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Toronto Maple Leafs all graded well by both measures. At the other end, Anaheim, the Chicago Blackhawks, the Carolina Hurricanes, and the Vancouver Canucks are struggling. In fairness, the Frozen Tools scheduler has the Hurricanes with the third-toughest schedule and Jaccob Slavin has played just two games. Vancouver, meanwhile, has had the easiest schedule, but their sheer number of injuries is also a factor here.