NHL Hockey Player News

Girardi will not play Saturday vs. the Red Wings, so Jan Rutta was recalled from the AHL and will replace Girardi on the third-pairing.

Lundqvist allowed two goals on 45 shots in the Rangers shootout loss in Detroit on Thursday. It was an outstanding outing for King Henrik, earning him another start tonight vs. the Devils. Lundqvist allowed three goals on 22 shots in a 4-3 win in his first start New Jersey—tonight’s matchup is even juicier with the Devils banged up and on the tail-end of a back-to-back.

Domingue allowed four goals on 41 shots in the Lightning’s loss in Boston on February 28th. Domingue has only started three of the last 16 games but draws a great spot-start matchup tonight vs. a Dylan Larkin-less Red Wings team. The 27-year-old netminder has gone 8-1-0 with a 2.46 GAA and .923 SV% on home-ice this season.

Hutton allowed four goals on 45 shots in the Sabres loss in Chicago on Thursday. Hutton has lost three straight starts while allowing a combined 11 goals on 101 shots (.891 SV%). This afternoon he faces Colorado for the second time this season—he allowed six goals on 30 shots in a 6-1 loss in their first meeting of the season.

Domingue allowed four goals on 41 shots in the Lightning’s loss in Boston on February 28th. Domingue has only started three of the last 16 games but draws a great spot-start matchup tonight vs. a Dylan Larkin-less Red Wings team. The 27-year-old netminder has gone 8-1-0 with a 2.46 GAA and .923 SV% on home-ice this season.

Andersen allowed three goals on 31 shots in the Maple Leafs overtime loss in Vancouver on Wednesday. The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for Andersen, who will make his 50th start of the season in Edmonton. One of those five wins came against the Oilers in late-February—he stopped 34 of 36 shots in a 6-2 win.

Holtby allowed three goals on 30 shots in the Capitals win in Philadelphia on Wednesday. Holtby extended his winning streak to four games, posting a 1.97 GAA and .918 SV% in the process. He is a must-start on Friday as the Capitals host an injury ravaged Devils team—he stopped 33 of 36 shots in a 6-3 win in his first start vs. New Jersey (Nov.30).

Ferland was banged up in Boston on Tuesday, missed practice on Thursday but remains a game-time decision on Friday. Despite the questionable label, head coach Rod Brind’Amour said he thinks he will be “good to go.” Ferland has three goals and four assists (seven points) in his last 13 games.

Price allowed one goal on 27 shots in the Canadiens win in Los Angeles on Tuesday. With Antti Niemi going last night, Price draws the great matchup tonight in Anaheim. He has won three of his last four starts while stopping 102 of the 110 shots (.927 SV%) that he has faced. With a win tonight, Price will break Jacques Plante’s Canadiens franchise record for wins with 315.

McElhinney allowed four goals on 38 shots in the Hurricanes loss in Boston on Tuesday. The Hurricanes will break their goalie rotation as they will go back to McElhinney tonight vs. the Jets. The 35-year-old has gone 9-3-1 with a 2.01 GAA and .931 SV% on home-ice this season, but draws a fairly difficult assignment with the Jets in town—however, Winnipeg comes in without two of their top defensemen and as losers of nine of their last 14 (5-7-2).

Landeskog will likely miss the rest of the regular season after suffering an upper-body injury in Dallas on Thursday. This is a huge blow for the Avalanche, who are just four points out of the last playoff spot in the Western Conference right now. With Landeskog out, the Avalanche split Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen up at Friday’s practice. Derick Brassard and J.T. Compher were with MacKinnon and Colin Wilson and Carl Soderberg were skating alongside Rantanen.

The “upper-body” tag was a bit mis-leading as Butcher got his ears cleaned out on Wednesday, then woke up on Thursday with blood in his left ear, unable to hear. He missed yesterday’s practice while he got it cleaned up and is good to go on Friday.

Quenneville has missed the last four games with an upper-body injury but will be on the Devils fourth line in Washington. He has not registered a point in 16 games this season but has 16 goals and 14 assists in 32 AHL appearances.

Palmieri missed the last four games with a lower-body injury but will play Friday in Washington. Palmieri, who will skate on the top line with Travis Zajac and Kenny Agostino, has 26 goals and 22 assists (48 points) in 63 games this season.

Read has been a healthy scratch for the last three games but will replace Luke Kunin (upper-body) in the lineup on Friday. Read scored a goal in just 13:14 TOI in Calgary last Saturday after being recalled from Iowa—where he has 15 goals and 16 assists (31 points) in 50 games.

Kunin was a little “woozy” after Thursday’s game and will not play Friday in Florida. Matt Read will draw into the Wild lineup with Joel Eriksson Ek and Jordan Greenway likely centring the second and third lines.

Montembeault will play in his second career NHL game with James Reimer serving as his backup. The 22-year-old, former third-round pick was 13-14-3 with a 3.16 GAA and .901 SV% in 37 games with Springfield (AHL) at the time of his call-up. Montembeault allowed four goals on 26 shots in the Panthers 4-3 OT loss to the Hurricanes in his first career start (Mar.2).

Karlsson has missed the last three games and has no timetable for his return but the Sharks are confident that he will return to the lineup before the playoffs. The Sharks are locked into a playoff spot so they will not rush Karlsson back until he is 100 percent.

Anderson allowed four goals on 38 shots in the Senators loss to the Islanders on Tuesday. Anders Nilsson started Thursday but the Senators will continue their goalie rotation tonight in Boston. Anderson is 0-10-1 with a 3.69 GAA and .890 SV% in his last 12 appearances. He is a terrible option against a Bruins team that has not lost in regulation in their last 18 games, going 14-0-4 while averaging 3.22 goals for per game.