* Oliver Bjorkstrand lifted the Blue Jackets to their sixth straight win after he became the first player in franchise history to record a multi-goal performance in three consecutive appearances. * Ahead of making his sixth NHL All-Star game appearance, Eric Staal factored on two of Minnesota’s three third-period goals to lift the Wild to their 13th comeback win of 2019-20. * Starting today, the 2019-20 season will take a four-day break from regular-season games for 2020 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend, which will be hosted by the reigning Stanley Cup champion Blues at Enterprise Center in St. Louis.

via Sportsnet's YouTube channel,  Elliotte Friedman joined Tim and Sid to discuss teams that are on the bubble when it comes to adding talent at the trade deadline, and what he thinks of the Jets and Paul Maurice’s standing with the team.  

In the first period, Zadina 2, Wild 1.  Nice to see the Wings get the bounces. In the second period, Wild 3, Wings 0.  After 40 minutes, Minnesota 4, Detroit 2.  Not the best period for the Wings but we have seen it before. No scoring in the third.  Final 4-2 Minnesota. Below find the Zadina goals and Detroit stats. Now it is break time for the Wings, next game is Friday, January 31 at MSG to face the Rangers.

Another loss by the Wngs, losing 4-2 to the Wild. Not sure if there will be post-game videos but if they show up soon, I will post them below.  added 11:41pm, below, group post-game video is below.    

It’s gotten to the point of actually dreading Wings game's lately. They manage to get worse with each passing game. I understand injuries, lack of elite talent, no D, and yes, bad goaltending. That still doesn't get the coaches off the hook either.  Many of us have watched all of the worst of the Wings teams of the past, and this group has some better players than on previous bad Wings teams, but, this is some of the worst hockey in forty years. Bar none.....   It's a Live Blog!

Heck, I can't even remembers goals from the games last night, so turning it over to you. from Tracey Myers of NHL.com, In the runup to the unveiling of the NHL First and Second All-Decade Teams on Jan. 24 (6:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN), the NHL will be announcing its best plays, moments, events, coaches and team of the 2010s. One selection, chosen by NHL.com and NHL.com International staff members, will be unveiled each day in the runup to the release of the all-decade teams. Today is Goal of the Decade, which was scored by Patrick Kane in Game 6 of the 2010 Stanley Cup Final against the Philadelphia Flyers. Patrick Kane has scored a lot of memorable goals in his NHL career. But the Chicago Blackhawks forward's goal 4:06 into overtime against the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 6 of the 2010 Stanley Cup Final, the one that ended the Blackhawks' championship drought after 49 years with a 4-3 victory, is one he'll never forget. "I mean, obviously it was a great run throughout the [Stanley Cup] Playoffs and you think you're sitting pretty at 3-2 and they tie it up," Kane said of the 4-3 win. "It seems like they have a lot of the momentum going into overtime. We had a couple of chances early, I think [Kris] Versteeg had a chance in the slot." continued Watch the goal below.

from Frank Seravalli of TSN, Five of seven Canadian clubs are represented in the mid-season Top 50. Ottawa and Calgary don’t have any players on the list. The Flames had four on the pre-season list: Gaudreau, ,  and . Norris Trophy frontrunner  is the highest-ranked defenceman at No. 7. Carlson’s teammate  fell from No. 7 on the pre-season list to No. 10, staring up at players like Pastrnak - whom he will attempt to chase down in the Rocket Richard race in the second half. Let the debate begin. Here is TSN Hockey’s mid-season Top 50 ranking for 2019-20: the top 3 on the list are McDavid, MacKinnon and Pastrnak...

#RedWings in morning skate: Bertuzzi-Larkin-Zadina Perlini-Filppula-Fabbri Helm-Glendening-Erne Smith-Ehn-Abdelkader Nemeth-Hronek Daley-Bowey Cholowski-Biega — Dana Wakiji (@Dwakiji) January 22, 2020

from Lisa Dillman of The Athletic, Drew Doughty knew there would be pain. He realized that last season. But Doughty certainly didn’t anticipate the Kings’ struggles would last this long and run quite this deep. What looks to be their continuing membership in the Lottery Club is difficult to accept for someone with Doughty’s winning pedigree — a two-time Stanley Cup champion, two-time Olympic gold medalist and Norris Trophy winner in 2016. “It’s frustrating. Being one of the top guys, I never expected to be (in this position). I always expected that I would be able to help push my team to a playoff spot every single year,” Doughty said. “But now back-to-back years, being in last place, it’s been stressful and depressing a little bit. “Sometimes you’ve got to sit back and realize you don’t have the team you once had.” continued (paid) Doughty's AAV is $11M through the 2026-27 season. Full contract details.

“There was no f—ng slow start. We played as good in the first as we did in the second as we did in the third. That team played its asses off tonight. “Listen, I haven’t liked some of the games we played but that team played as hard as it could. I got no beef on the effort, the other team played well too.” -Paul Maurice, head coach of the Winnipeg Jets after a 4-1 loss to Carolina.  Ted Wyman of the Winnipeg Sun has more on the Jets, who have lost 5 of their last 6 games.

Two games tonight, Winnipeg at Columbus and Detroit at Minnesota. Then no NHL games until Monday.  So a simple question as we head into the All-Star break. Who is your favorite to win the Stanley Cup? Mine, the Blues repeat. Extra credit if you pick the other team in the SCF.  Mine is Washington.

from Christian Hetrick of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Chris Greenwell brought his boy Brandon to the Wells Fargo Center one night in November to meet the most famous person on the Philadelphia Flyers payroll: Gritty. The Flyers had invited Greenwell and his 13-year-old son to get a photo and some face time with the fuzzy, googly-eyed mascot, all part of an exclusive event for season ticket holders. But after waiting in line for about an hour behind dozens of fans to get to Gritty, something shocking happened, according to Greenwell. In Greenwell’s telling, Brandon playfully patted the mascot on the head after the photo was taken. As Brandon walked away, Gritty got out of his chair, “took a running start," and “punched my son as hard as he could," Greenwell said Wednesday. Officials at Comcast Spectacor, the company that owns the Flyers, told Greenwell there is no video footage of the incident because the “cameras in that area of the center are focused on other locations,” according to emails between Greenwell and officials. The company claimed it conducted an investigation that included interviews with Gritty, and “Gritty’s handler,” but couldn’t verify Greenwell’s account. continued

from Michael Arace of the Columbus Dispatch, The Blue Jackets are 15-2-4 over their past 21 games. The numbers within are crazy, and we can count the ways. On Dec. 9, when this hot streak started, the Jackets were closer to last place in the conference (nine points ahead of Detroit) than they were to the second wild card (11 points behind Carolina). Heading into a game Wednesday night against the Winnipeg Jets in Nationwide Arena, the Jackets are holding the first wild card. Right now, they’re in. The Jackets are 26-18-6. They have 60 points, their second-best record through 50 games, trailing only the 2016-17 team, which had 71 points through 50 games and ended the regular season with 108. That was a healthy group touched by magic. This is something else. The past 21 games, by the numbers (and the goaltending stats are crazy): Nineteen players have combined to score 63 goals (3.0 a game). Twelve players have scored winning goals. continued

from Ken Campbell of The Hockey News, The Blackhawks should have a pretty good idea of their playoff chances by the time the trade deadline rolls around Feb. 24. They have a gruelling schedule in February, with all but three of their 14 games away from the United Center. But they’ve actually been a better team on the road than at home this season. Not including tonight’s game, they have 11 more games, eight of them on the road. So the picture should become a little clearer in the coming weeks. If the Blackhawks are still in playoff contention, there’s no way they even think of trading Lehner. They might not be able to trade him even if they want to make a deal because as enticing as a top-tier goaltender would be for the playoffs, there are precious few teams that are playoff bound that need a goaltender. The Edmonton Oilers, who are getting good, but not great goaltending, are one of those teams. The last time they made a deadline deal to get a goalie was 2006 and it worked out pretty well. They made a deal for Dwayne Roloson, who carried them to the Stanley Cup final and might have won it for them had he not gotten hurt in Game 1 of the final. Regardless of whether Lehner is dealt by the Blackhawks, it’s impossible to argue that he doesn’t deserve the long-term deal he was seeking from the New York Islanders over the summer. There have been a total of 37 goaltenders in the NHL who have played at least 60 games over the past two seasons and of those goalies, Lehner is second in save percentage to Ben Bishop. more

from Jeff Gordon of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Blues general manager Doug Armstrong has aggressively spent long-term assets while in win-now mode. He has the defending Stanley Cup champions atop the Western Conference as a result. Yet Armstrong can step back at the All-Star break and still see solid organizational depth supporting his roster. If he wants to make an upgrade before the NHL trade deadline, he still has chips to play. If he chooses to hang on to them instead, he will have a hedge against spring fatigue and future salary cap challenges. Either way, Armstrong is sitting more comfortably than most of his peers. Even with wingers Vladimir Tarasenko and Sammy Blais sidelined while recovering from surgical repairs, forwards Jordan Kyrou and Zach Sanford have had to alternate in the lineup and power forward Klim Kostin has remained in development in San Antonio. continued

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. … The 2020 AHL All-Star Classic presented by Ontario International Airport is just days away, and the two-day event will reach millions of hockey fans worldwide through extensive television, internet streaming and social media coverage.