After a long month, it appears the Pittsburgh Penguins are close to welcoming one of their best players back to the lineup. 

For the first time since going on injured reserve Dec. 9, center Evgeni Malkin skated in a full capacity with the team on Tuesday. Malkin, 39, has missed the last 15 games with an upper-body injury, which he clarified was a shoulder injury following practice.

His last game came Dec. 4 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, when he recorded two goals and three points. Malkin has eight goals and 29 points in 26 games on the season. 

"It's, like, crazy, because I'm not feeling any pain after game, but next morning, I wake up, and, like, my upper body, it's like I can't move my shoulder," Malkin said. "It's crazy."

Adding Malkin back to the lineup should bolster an already-buzzing group that has won five consecutive games since the holiday break. Prior to some bad injury luck for the Penguins, Malkin was skating on a line with Justin Brazeau and Anthony Mantha, and they saw a lot of success as a line. 

Tommy Novak has been centering that second line, where Malkin figures to slot back in. His return might make for some tough lineup decisions, but it's a good problem for the Penguins to have. 

"I think it was a good step in the right direction having him out there," head coach Dan Muse said. "Full-blown practice, looked good, got another practice day tomorrow... So, we'll continue to have conversations, but it was a good day for him."

Malkin said he hopes to play this week, but Muse didn't offer a specific timeline for his return to the lineup. The Penguins next play the New Jersey Devils on Thursday.

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- Unfortunately, another player may have sustained an injury during practice. 

After a collision with a teammate, forward Rutger McGroarty left the ice and was attended to by the trainers, and he did not return to practice. Muse could not offer an update on McGroarty after practice. 

McGroarty has two goals and three points in 16 games this season. 

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- Tuesday's practice was optional, as Sidney Crosby, Bryan Rust, Rickard Rakell, Yegor Chinakhov, Erik Karlsson, and Kris Letang were absent. 

- A decision looms on rookie defenseman Harrison Brunicke, who is headed back to Pittsburgh after helping Canada earn a bronze medal at the World Junior Championship. 

Brunicke, 19, cannot play in the AHL this season and has played in nine games at the NHL level, which means his entry-level contract has not been activated. However, another deadline looms, as Jan. 31 would mark 40 games that Brunicke will have been on the active NHL roster. 

Should Brunicke remain on the roster beyond that game, the Penguins lose a year of restricted free agency, and, therefore, team control. The Penguins are expected to come to a decision in the coming days on whether or not he will spend the rest of the season in the WHL.

NHL Rumors: Penguins Big Winger Makes New Trade BoardThis Penguins forward has been featured on a new trade board.

Bookmark THN - Pittsburgh Penguins on your Google News tab to follow the latest Penguins news, roster moves, player features, and more!   

Connor McDavid torched the Nashville Predators Tuesday night in Edmonton, recording his 14th career hat trick as the Oilers blew out the Nashville Predators, 6-2. 

McDavid is now up to 28 goals on the season. He kicked off the scoring for the Oilers in the first period, finding the back of the net on the power play. It marked the seventh straight game that Nashville has given up the first goal of the night. 

Edmonton poured it on in the second period, scoring three unanswered goals, to bump its lead to 3-0. McDavid netted his second goal of the night in the second frame on a penalty shot when Adam Wilsby held him on a breakaway. 

The Predators showed a little bit of life in the third period as Ryan O'Reilly scored his 12th of the season to snap Connor Ingram's shutout bid.

Ryan on the rebound 💥 pic.twitter.com/9pyKlME9Jp

— Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) January 7, 2026

Nic Hague let a shot go that rebounded off of Ingram's right pad and onto O'Reilly's stick for the easy put-back goal. Luke Evangelista was credited with a secondary assist. 

15 seconds later, Nick Blankenburg ripped a long shot from the left point that found the back of the net to cut Edmonton's lead to. 4-2. Reid Schaefer and Michael Bunting were awarded the assists.

Leon Drisaitl restored the Oilers ' three-goal lead, and McDavid added insurance in the final minute of the game, netting his third goal of the night. 

Nashville was dominated by the Oilers, getting outshot 43-26 and winning just 43.3% of the total face-offs. Juuse Saros made 37 saves on 43 shots, which is the most shots he's faced in a single game this season.

The Predators fall to 19-19-4 on the season and are three points outside of a Wild Card spot with 42 points. They wrap up their seven-game road trip going 4-3-0. 

Nashville returns to Bridgestone Arena on Thursday against the New York Islanders at 7 p.m. CST. 

The Winnipeg Jets' losing streak has hit 10 games. 

On Tuesday, in front of home fans for the first time in four games, the Jets gave up 2-0 and 3-2 leads, ultimately falling 4-3 in overtime to the visiting Vegas Golden Knights for their tenth-straight loss. 

Luke Schenn scored his first goal as a Jet, Cole Perfetti got his first goal in 16 games, while Kyle Connor found his 20th goal of the season, but it wasn't enough to beat the visitors on Tuesday.

“I’ve gone through stretches like this in my career, just not with a group that’s this talented," the veteran blueliner said following the game.

"With a world-class MVP goalie, top-line talent and great defencemen, veterans and guys who have been around for a long time and have won. It’s not bringing in a bunch of young guys and seeing what sticks. It’s a great group of guys, we’re just not getting across the finish line at the end of the day. That’s what it is," Schenn added.

The Jets got on the board just 5:16 into the game, with Perfetti snapping an ugly goal scoring streak with his third of the season and just first goal in 16 games. He had just only points in the month and change since scoring his second of the year back on November 29. 

The youngest player on the Jets' roster was the beneficiary of a nice spinning pass from veteran Jonathan Toews. He got Perfetti the puck on the doorstep, who only needs to tap it past Carter Hart in goal off his backhand for the 1-0 marker.

Things took a scary turn as local product Keegan Kolesar sent Haydn Fleury hard into the end boards, which required a lengthy delay, EMS and a stretcher to get the defenceman off the ice. 

The Jets later reported that Fluery was transported to hospital via ambulance but had movement in all extremities before leaving the downtown venue. 

“He’s at the hospital, he’ll be staying overnight," head coach Scott Arniel said after the game. "Obviously he’s got a lot of tests to go through. He does have a broken nose. There’s a few different things that happened off it. A little bit of everything. He obviously slammed his back, his neck, hit his head, and then obviously his nose.”

Winnipeg led narrowly on the scoreboard and shot chart (5-4) through 20 minutes of play.

The middle stanza belonged to Luke Schenn.

He finally scored his first goal as a member of the Jets (42 total games played over the past two seasons) on a sneaky wrist shot from the point. His long-range floater beat Hart cleanly and bounced directly down off the crossbar and into the net, giving Winnipeg a 2-0 lead 12:04 into the frame. 

“Usually when they go in from the blueline I think that they’re probably not going straight in," Schenn laughed. "And it usually hits something, a skate or shin pad or something like that. Nice to see it go in, obviously, they don’t happen too often. I was pretty pumped at the time. The last one I got was last year right around the 1,000th game mark. It doesn’t come too often. It would have been a lot sweeter to get it in the win.”

Skating in career game No. 1,100, Schenn later flattened Kolesar at centre ice, drawing quite a rouse form fans at Canada Life Centre.

But then, following the script, the Golden Knights' lone goal of the stanza was a pass that deflected off Schenn before landing on the stick of Winnipeg's own Mark Stone, who batted it into the net past Connor Hellebuyck on a late period Vegas power play. 

Haydn Fleury is wheeled off the ice on a stretcher by EMS after taking a hard fall into the end boards.

Keegan Kolesar, a Winnipegger, was the offender on the play.

He made sure to give Fleury a pat as he was pushed by the Golden Knights’ bench as a sign of sportsmanship. pic.twitter.com/7gkDczJHYn

— Carter Brooks (@CBrooksie84) January 7, 2026

The Golden Knights took over the shot lead in the second, pulling ahead 14-9 after 40 minutes of play. 

Eventually the dam broke, as another Manitoban, Brett Howden, tied things up for the visitors, pounding home his eighth of the season from the high slot midway through the third period. 

But not to be outdone, Connor pounded home the go-ahead marker with 5:04 to play in the frame.

Moments after being denied on the doorstep from point-blank range, Connor got a second chance at it and beat Hart five-hole for his 20th of the year. 

However, Reilly Smith had other plans, needing just 59 seconds to tie the game once again, sending it to overtime with the visitors outshooting Winnipeg 27-15.

An eventful extra frame saw both teams trade chances on the fly, as well as a penalty to Dylan Samberg leading to a Vegas power play with 50 seconds to play. Tomas Hertl deflected a Mitch Marner point shot past Hellebuyck with just 13 seconds remaining, sealing the deal on the Jets' 10th-straight loss.

Hellebuyck made 27 stops on the 31 pucks sent his way, while Hart turned aside 17 of the 20 shots he faced on the night. 

Next up for Winnipeg is the continuation of the five-game homestand, as the Edmonton Oilers roll into Manitoba for a Thursday night, all-Canadian matchup. That game can be viewed live on TSN at 7:00 PM central. 

The Colorado Avalanche have suffered back-to-back defeats for the first time this season. 

Brandon Hagel broke a third-period deadlock with his 20th goal of the season, lifting the Tampa Bay Lightning to their eighth straight win in a 4–2 triumph over the Avalanche on Tuesday night at Benchmark International Arena.

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 31 saves.

Parker Kelly and Brock Nelson scored for Colorado. The Avalanche had just three regulation losses on the season entering Tuesday. Scott Wedgewood stopped 24 shots.

First Period

Tampa Bay’s Darren Raddysh was sent off just under four minutes in for holding Nathan MacKinnon at the top of the crease, giving Colorado an early power-play opportunity. The Avalanche generated quality looks, highlighted by a heavy one-timer from Cale Makar, but Andrei Vasilevskiy stood firm, turning aside every chance to keep the game scoreless.

Late in the period, Colorado gave up a goal with 12 seconds remaining on a penalty kill. Off the ensuing faceoff, a quick exchange pulled Sam Malinski toward Nikita Kucherov, opening space on the weak side. Jake Guentzel slipped into the void, gathered the puck below the dots, and walked it above the goal line before finishing with just 12 seconds remaining to give Tampa Bay a 1–0 lead.

Second Period

The second period finally revealed a spark from the Avalanche. Zakhar Bardakov jump-started the response with a poised centering feed into the crease that Parker Kelly finished cleanly to level the score early in the frame.

The momentum carried later in the period, immediately after Colorado’s penalty kill—necessitated by a Bardakov slashing minor—expired. Cale Makar burst up ice in transition and spotted Brock Nelson joining the rush, threading a pass that Nelson nudged past Andrei Vasilevskiy to give Colorado a one-goal lead.

It would prove to be the Avalanche’s final goal of the night.

Puck management unraveled throughout the night, and even Colorado’s most reliable defenders weren’t immune. An uncharacteristic breakdown from Cale Makar opened the door for Zemgus Girgensons at the top of the crease, where he made no mistake, knotting the game as it headed into the final period

Third Period

Brandon Hagel put Tampa Bay back in front early in the third period, converting on a quick release that flat out beat Scott Wedgewood clean to give the Lightning the lead. Anthony Cirelli later sealed the outcome with an empty-net goal, cementing a 4–2 Tampa Bay victory.

Takeaways

The Avalanche have been careless with the puck in previous affairs this season, but tonight was one of those rare games where they’ve been forced to pay the price. This road trip was not so much fun. It’ll be nice to come home for a bit. Hopefully we see more from our top guys. The depth made their contribution, but we need the first line to contribute some more. It’s been a tough few games.

Next Game

The Avalanche (31-4-7) take on Brady Tkachuk and the Ottawa Senators (20-16-5) at Ball Arena on Thursday. Coverage begins at 7 p.m. local time.