Kayla Douglas

Matthew Knies is still being evaluated after being injured by a high hit during Wednesday's contest, but Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube said the winger is doing better.

The Nashville Predators are looking to acquire a top-four defenseman with some term, reports Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman

Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin has a fracture in his left fibula and will likely require four-to-six weeks to recover, the team announced Thursday.The Capitals initially listed Ovechkin as week-to-week Tuesday after he suffered the ailment Monday following a collision with Utah forward Jack McBain. Washington officially placed Ovechkin on injured reserve Wednesday. Alex Ovechkin is slow to get up after colliding knee-to-knee with Jack McBain. pic.twitter/gQNOiDMcPR— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) November 19, 2024 The 39-year-old was in the midst of a hot start to the campaign with 15 goals through 18 games. He scored 31 tallies all last season. Ovechkin is just 27 goals away from claiming the all-time record from Wayne Gretzky. The Great One lit the lamp 894 times in 1,487 career games, while the Great Eight has 868 tallies under his belt in 1,444 outings. Capitals teammate Tom Wilson said Wednesday that Ovechkin's absence is a "letdown" for the hockey world now that the sniper's chase is on hold. Washington is playing its first game without Ovechkin on Thursday night against the Colorado Avalanche. The Capitals entered the contest with the third-best record (13-4-1) and points percentage (.750) in the NHL.

Yaroslav Askarov will make his San Jose Sharks debut Thursday night when they take on the St. Louis Blues, the team announced.

The Vegas Golden Knights signed forward Brett Howden to a five-year extension with an average annual value of $2.5 million, the team announced Friday.More to come.

Darnell Nurse sounded off on the hit from Toronto Maple Leafs forward Ryan Reaves that's sidelined the Edmonton Oilers defenseman since Saturday.

San Jose Sharks rookie Macklin Celebrini's NHL career may just be beginning, but he still expects more from himself in the shootout. "I'm letting my team down here," he said, per NBC Sports' Sheng Peng. "I haven't scored on the shootout yet. I know I can do better and be there for my team when they're relying on me to score in that shootout. I'm 0-for-3 right now, so I'm not happy with it."The 18-year-old's harsh self-review came after the Sharks' 3-2 shootout loss to the St. Louis Blues on Thursday. Celebrini tried to get Jordan Binnington to bite with some quick puck movement, but the goaltender made the stop. Celebrini similarly tried to out-deke Philadelphia Flyers netminder Samuel Ersson during his first-ever shootout attempt earlier in November. He attempted to go five-hole on Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Alex Nedeljkovic two games later, but to no avail. The Sharks haven't won in the shootout yet this season. Celebrini is contributing to San Jose in plenty of other ways. He recorded his third multi-point outing of the season against the Blues, won four straight faceoffs with the goalie pulled, and made a key stop in the final minutes of regulation before the Sharks scored the equalizer with nine seconds remaining. HOW ABOUT THIS DIVING EFFORT FROM CELEBRINI 💪 This game doesn't get to overtime without him. pic.twitter/2uRKOkEImg— NHL (@NHL) November 22, 2024 "It's obviously an important part of the 6-on-5 (game) in crucial situations," head coach Ryan Warsofsky said of Celebrini's work between the dots. "But I think the more important part of the whole 6-on-5 was his effort to come back and save the game."Celebrini is up to four goals and seven points in 10 outings while averaging almost 20 minutes of ice time per contest. He scored the first overtime winner of his career Monday against the Detroit Red Wings to snap San Jose's three-game winless streak.After recording a goal and an assist in his NHL debut back in October, he missed the next 12 games with a suspected hip injury. The Sharks selected him with the first overall pick at the 2024 NHL Draft.San Jose is 29th in the league with a 6-11-5 record.

The Chicago Blackhawks may have pulled off a 3-1 win against the defending Stanley Cup champions on Thursday night, but Connor Bedard continues to be frustrated by his own play. "I could name 100 things," he said Friday when asked what he could do better. "I don't know, man. It's been frustrating, for sure. I just don't feel like I'm really doing anything. Keep chipping away at it, I guess, and hopefully I'll find my game again."Bedard hasn't scored a goal in 11 straight games, and he's been held without a point eight times over that span."It's been a tough stretch," he said. "You just feel like you don't have it, or whatever. You lose a bit of confidence."He and linemates Jason Dickinson and Joey Anderson didn't generate a single shot on goal during Thursday's victory over the Florida Panthers, while Bedard didn't record a shot attempt, according to Natural Stat Trick. However, Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson still complimented Bedard's performance."He played a good game," he said. "I thought he back-checked really hard to basically even up a 2-on-1 in the second period. ... We didn't get him here to be a defensive specialist, but the responsibility of playing against good lines, it comes first."Richardson added: "It just didn't bounce for him for the offensive side of things tonight, but he did everything right on the defensive side of the game against one of the top centermen in the league, playing against (Aleksander Barkov's) line."Bedard paces Chicago with 15 points in 20 games, but he's only scored three times.Offense has been tough to come by for the Blackhawks in general. They rank 30th in the league in goals per game (2.35), and they've also scored the third-fewest goals at five-on-five (30).Richardson has resorted to mixing up his lines in an attempt to spark his group. Bedard has been placed with usual bottom-six staples Dickinson and Anderson for the past two games, but he's also skated alongside Nick Foligno, Teuvo Teravainen, Philipp Kurashev, and Ryan Donato this season. Bedard thinks there's a lot he can learn from Dickinson and Anderson. "I'm not doing much offensively at all, so I've got to find a different way to be productive," he said. "That was obviously different for me, but it was good to do that." Chicago is currently second last in the league with a 7-12-1 record.

The Toronto Maple Leafs signed forward Alex Nylander to a one-year contract worth a prorated $775,000 and recalled him from the AHL, the team announced Friday.

The Vegas Golden Knights signed forward Brett Howden to a five-year extension with an average annual value of $2.5 million, the team announced Friday.