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Detroit Red Wings fans can breathe a little easier thanks to the latest update from head coach Todd McLellan concerning the health of defenseman Simon Edvinsson.

Edvinsson departed Wednesday evening's game against the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome after he was felled by a lower-body injury after blocking a shot, and he was subsequently ruled out for the remainder of the contest. 

The Red Wings called up defenseman Erik Gustafsson from the AHL's Grand Rapids Griffins under emergency conditions on Thursday morning, sparking fears that Edvinsson could be unavailable because of his injury.

However, according to McLellan, Edvinsson is with the team in Edmonton for Thursday evening's tilt against the Oilers and is expected to suit up. 

"The latest on Simon is that he's in there (points toward dressing room) and is getting ready to play," McLellan explained to reporters at Rogers Place. 

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Edvinsson had already missed time earlier this season because of an illness. He's appeared in 28 games so far in the campaign and ranks second overall behind only Moritz Seider in total ice time per outing, and has three goals with six assists along with a positive plus-six rating. 

During Wednesday's game, the Red Wings built up a comfortable 4-0 lead by the end of the second period and appeared well in position to cruise to another shutout victory like they enjoyed on Monday against the Vancouver Canucks. 

However, the Flames made life extremely tense for the Red Wings by scoring three third-period goals. While Detroit ultimately pulled out a 4-3 win, there wasn't much time to work on the things that went wrong against the Flames with another game to play less than 24 hours later. 

"You can't fix everything without a practice, and we addressed a few of the areas that we liked in the game last night, and there was a lot to like," McLellan said about the club's preparation for Thursday's game. "But there were also some areas that we needed to clean up. Anything that we thought would be really relevant to today's game against Edmonton in that short period of time, we tried to blend together for our pre-game meeting." 

Red Wings Hold Off Flames With 4-3 Victory in Calgary While things got dicey for the Detroit Red Wings, they held off the Calgary Flames and picked up a 4-3 victory at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

The Red Wings and Oilers are scheduled to drop the puck just after 9:00 p.m. ET.

It's their second and final meeting of the season, barring a matchup in the Stanley Cup Final; Detroit defeated Edmonton at Little Caesars Arena on Oct. 19 by a 4-2 final score, which included the first career goal of rookie Emmitt Finnie. 

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After a winless, pointless three-game homestand, the Senators will try to right their ship on the road Thursday night in Columbus, Ohio.

They’ll face the Blue Jackets, who have almost the same record as Ottawa, sitting just two points ahead of them. But with the Senators losing three straight, five of their last six, and plummeting in the Eastern Conference standings, the calibre of their opposition should be the last thing on anyone's minds.

Senators head coach Travis Green continues to fiddle with his forward lines, hoping to find some chemistry.

Nick Cousins is back down on the fourth line after starting the last game with Tim Stützle and Fabian Zetterlund. Brady Tkachuk takes his spot on that line, while David Perron moves up from the fourth line to play with Dylan Cozens and Drake Batherson. 

Kurtis MacDermid draws into the lineup, meaning Steven Halliday and Olle Lycksell take a seat. There’s a good chance MacDermid and Blue Jackets tough guy Mathieu Olivier find each other at some point.

But when you’re in a slump, you look for lucky charms wherever you can find them: in MacDermid’s eight games this season, the Senators have gone 5-1-2.

Linus Ullmark will start in goal.

Senators projected lineup

Tkachuk – Stützle – Zetterlund
Perron – Cozens – Batherson
Amadio – Greig – Giroux
MacDermid – Eller – Cousins

Sanderson – Zub
Kleven – Spence
Matinpalo – Jensen

Starting goalie: Ullmark

Weird stat of the day: Daniel Alfredsson celebrates his 53rd birthday in Columbus. According to NHL.com, in his long NHL career, Alfredsson only ever played three times on his birthday.

The Blue Jackets come into this game losers of three straight as well.

Blue Jackets projected lineup (according to nhl.com)

Voronkov – Monahan – Marchenko
Johnson – Fantilli – Jenner
Wood – Coyle – Sillinger
Gaunce – Lundestrom – Chinakhov

Werenski – Provorov
Mateychuk – Severson
Smith – Fabbro

Starting goalie: Merzlikins 

Steve Warne
The Hockey News Ottawa

As it stands, no members of the Vancouver Canucks are expected to make Team Canada’s 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics roster. However, there is a former Canucks who has gotten off to a red-hot start to the 2025–26 season and could be making a bid for Olympic contention. Had things gone differently during his time with the Canucks, Bo Horvat could have been Vancouver’s lone representative on Team Canada. 

Currently, Horvat has been one of the NHL’s strongest goal-scorers to start the year. The former Canucks captain is tied with Jason Robertson and Connor Bedard for third in the entire NHL, having scored 19 goals in 31 games played at a pace of .612 goals per game. He currently leads the New York Islanders in points by a margin of eight — Mathew Barzal has the next highest total with 23 on the year. 

Throughout his time with the Canucks, Horvat has shown flashes of being a phenomenal goal-scorer at the NHL level. One instance in which this was very prominent was during the 2020 Bubble Playoffs, in which he scored 10 goals in 17 games, holding the league lead until Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Dallas Stars and Tampa Bay Lightning. Horvat and his team had been eliminated two rounds before that. 

Horvat’s offensive production shot up a couple of seasons after that. During the 2021–22 season, he scored a career-high (at the time) 31 goals in 70 games to mark the first 30-goal season of his career. The year after that, he potted 31 in 49 games played with the Canucks before being traded to the Islanders at the end of January. He finished that season with a grand total of 38 goals. 

Since joining the Islanders, Horvat has posted 33-goal and 28-goal seasons in 2023–24 and 2024–25 respectively. He is currently on pace to score 50 goals by the end of 2025–26. The former Canucks captain also has the second-most faceoff wins in the entire NHL with 329, while his faceoff winning rate of 57.8% ranks ninth among centers who have played more than 400 minutes and taken more than 200 faceoffs. 

With the Olympics on the horizon, Horvat is a good option for Team Canada in terms of center depth. Of course, however, this will be impacted by how Canada decides to deploy players like Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, and Nathan MacKinnon. Horvat was not named to Team Canada during the 4 Nations Faceoff last year, though his current goal-scoring streak could propel him to land a spot on the team. 

“It’s always in the back of my mind,” Horvat said to amNewYork of making Canada’s Olympic roster. “I want to be there. Plain and simple. Anybody in my position, anyone around here wants to be a part of that. To wear the Canadian flag and represent your country has always been a dream of mine, and if I get that opportunity, I’m going to make the most of it.”

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There are some encouraging signs regarding Matt Rempe’s recovery from an upper-body injury. 

We haven’t seen Rempe in game action since suffering an upper-body injury during a fight against Ryan Reaves that landed him on long-term injured reserve. 

Rempe has missed the past 23 games. However, it appears as if he’s getting closer to making a return to the lineup. 

The 23-year-old forward practiced for the first time on Tuesday and actually traveled with the team to Chicago for the New York Rangers’ Wednesday night game against the Chicago Blackhawks despite not playing. 

“He’s skated a fair amount on his own with our skills coaches, and the next step is to get him on with the group in the team setting in a non-contact jersey,” Mike Sllivan said of Rempe. “That’s what he was today, he participated like that. And then obviously the final step is to get him into game role scenarios.”

The Absence Of Adam Fox Was Especially Prevalent In Rangers' Disastrous Loss To Blackhawks The weight of Adam Fox’s absence is beginning to grow larger on the New York <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/new-york-rangers">Rangers</a>.&nbsp;

It’s worth noting that Rempe has been skating in a non-contact jersey, but these recent developments are certainly a sign that he’s been making significant progress in his overall recovery. 

The losing ways of the Buffalo Sabres on their Western road swing ended on Tuesday in Edmonton, even those the club surrendered a three-goal third period lead before Alex Tuch’s overtime winner, but the club’s injury woes have reappeared. Already with Michael Kesselring, Jiri Kulich, and Justin Danforth out, the Sabres lost winger Jason Zucker in Calgary, and goaltender Colten Ellis against the Oilers. 

Zucker will be unavailable long-term with a lower-body injury, and Ellis was placed on injured reserve on Thursday due to being in concussion protocol. Center Josh Norris did not play in Edmonton after being a late scratch with what Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff described as an illness, but also due to something that occurred during warmups. 

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“(Ellis) said he was feeling better, but just protocol now, so we’ll go through that and get him back as soon as we can.” Ruff said after the morning skate in Vancouver. “(Norris) is doing better, but he won’t play (against the Canucks).”

Winger Isak Rosen was recalled to take Zucker’s spot and after demoting Noah Ostlund earlier in the week, the Sabres opted to call up center Trevor Kuntar from AHL Rochester. Kuntar was a 2020 third round pick of Boston, who after two seasons in AHL Providence was not qualified by the Bruins and signed an AHL deal with the Amerks. 

The  24-year-old had nine goals in 24 games with Rochester, and was signed to an NHL two-way deal on Wednesday to be eligible to join the NHL club. Ruff indicated that Ostlund needed to play one AHL game before being able to be recalled and with the Amerks playing in Belleville on Wednesday, it would have been nearly impossible for the young center to get to Vancouver in time to play against the Canucks. 

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The Montreal Canadiens are making some changes to their blueline for their Dec. 11 matchup against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Canadiens announced that defenseman Arber Xhekaj will not be in the lineup for them against the Penguins. In addition, the Canadiens shared that blueliner Adam Engstrom is set to enter the lineup for the Habs against the Penguins. 

Xhekaj has appeared in 27 games so far this season with the Canadiens, where he has recorded one assist, 21 blocks, 57 hits, 55 penalty minutes, and a minus-7 rating. This comes after the 24-year-old defeneman posted one goal, six points, 118 penalty minutes, and 180 hits in 70 games for the Canadiens this past season. 

Engstrom, on the other hand, has posted five goals, 11 assists, 16 points, and a plus-8 rating in 20 games this season for the Canadiens' AHL affiliate, the Laval Rocket. He also played in his first two career NHL games for the Canadiens earlier this season, where he was held off the scoresheet. 

The Canadiens are entering their matchup against the Penguins with the hope of snapping their two-game losing streak.