For the better part of the season, the Florida Panthers have hung around the bottom of the Atlantic Division standings, despite not being separated by many points.
But, a recent strong stretch with more consistent performances has reintroduced the Panthers back into the division race, and now they sit just four points back of the division-leading Detroit Red Wings with two games in hand.
There are still teams between the Panthers and Red Wings. The Boston Bruins sit in second with 26 points, three more than the Panthers, but the Panthers have three games in hand. The Tampa Bay Lightning and the Ottawa Senators sit one point ahead of the Panthers with the same number of games played.
The division is very tight, and there has been plenty of movement in the standings through the first 20 games or so, but the Panthers have the experience to take advantage of the opportunities given to them.
The Panthers are about to enter a stretch of games against teams on the outside looking in, when referring to the playoffs, and it's time they go on a run. It all starts tonight with a rematch against the Edmonton Oilers before matchups with the Nashville Predators, Philadelphia Flyers, Calgary Flames, Maple Leafs, Predators and Columbus Blue Jackets.
Sergei Bobrovsky will be in between the pipes tonight when the Panthers host Connor McDavid and the Oilers.
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Rocco Becht threw for 241 yards and three touchdowns, with two scores and 73 yards going to Brett Eskildsen, and Iowa State defeated Kansas 38-14 on Saturday.
That's how Jonathan Aspirot described his NHL debut with the Boston Bruins on October 28th, following a 5-2 comeback win over the New York Islanders.
A few weeks earlier, Aspirot had been having a fine 2025 training camp with the Bruins after signing with the organization over the summer. Some observers even felt he was a decent bet to make the team, but when the final cuts came, Aspirot was sent to the American Hockey League for his seventh straight season there.
But as he got to work again in Providence, Rhode Island, with the odds starting to stack against him at age 26, he was still hopeful that providence would smile on him.
"I try to believe in myself all the time, just trying to keep up positive thinking and just keep working and keep believing in my dream," Aspirot told the media after his debut
The NHL dream started to take shape back in his days with the QMJHL's Moncton Wildcats, where he was teammates with future Senator Jordan Spence. That's where the Sens noticed Aspirot for the first time, and while he was passed over in the NHL Draft, the Sens did sign him to a two-year AHL contract with Belleville ahead of the 2019-20 campaign.
GM Pierre Dorion liked what he saw that season and signed him to a three-year entry-level agreement with Ottawa. Aspirot spent the next three years in the organization without getting a sniff in Ottawa, and in 2023, the Sens chose not to sign him to a qualifying offer.
The same thing then happened in Aspirot's next stop.
He signed yet another AHL deal, this time with the Calgary Wranglers. The Flames liked what they saw and gave him an NHL deal for 2024-25. Last spring, they chose not to sign him to a qualifying offer.
Rinse and repeat.
But this year in Boston, Aspirot's solid performance at camp was still fresh on the mind of GM Don Sweeney, a man who spent 15 years patrolling Boston's blue line. Sweeney has been pulling his hair out with injuries this season, including the one to Charlie McAvoy, who took a puck to the face and had facial surgery this week.
But even before that, fellow defensemen Hampus Lindholm and Jordan Harris both went down in October, and Harris is still on LTIR with a right ankle fracture. When Lindholm was briefly placed on injured reserve on October 26th, Sweeney called on Aspirot to make his NHL debut.
As Aspirot can now attest, making the NHL is extremely hard. But staying in the NHL is even harder.
241 men have come and gone in NHL history with only one career game to their credit. As they lived out their dream in a perfect, glorious moment, they had no idea their first game would also be their last. Given how long it took to get here, Aspirot was certainly a candidate to join the NHL's one-and-done club.
But his debut was almost a month ago, and he's played in 10 of the club's last 12 games. He looks right at home in the show..
"He never really has chances against," Bruins head coach Marco Sturm told the media. "That's where I look a lot of times. He never really shows up in a bad way, again, because of his skating mobility and his core, because he's very, very strong and thick.
"He closes a lot quicker than other guys, and he competes. Given that he competes hard, he fights for his job every day, and that's something I really like about him."
As the Senators went shopping this week for a decent NHL defenseman who could add to their left-shot depth, it turns out they may have had a pretty good future option in Aspirot a couple of years ago. That's not to scold the team for letting him walk. He was here for four years, and at some point, you have to turn the page and take a look at other prospects.
What raises an eyebrow? He was here for the very darkest years of the Senators' long rebuild, as they rostered some very fringe NHL veterans, and they didn't bring him up for a single NHL shift in four years.
Aspirot's accomplishment is not only a fine tale of perseverance, but it's a good reminder that so-called 'older' hockey prospects who haven't made it yet aren't necessarily washed up in their mid-20s.
By Steve Warne The Hockey News Ottawa
This article was originally published at The Hockey News Ottawa. Read more:
The Flyers erupted for four first-period goals Saturday night en route to a resounding 6-3 win over the Devils at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Their second, third and fourth goals all came within a span of 26 seconds, sending the crowd into an absolute frenzy, perhaps the loudest it has been here this season.
“I’ve lived it here, this crowd,” Rick Tocchet said. “When they get something to cheer about, it’s loud.”
Prior to Saturday night, the Flyers had been outscored 9-1 in the first period over their last six games.
Tyson Foerster took the roof off the building with back-to-back goals in 17 seconds to make it 4-1. The 23-year-old winger was asked if that was the loudest he had heard the building in his time here.
Noah Cates started the onslaught with a game-tying 1-1 goal. Matvei Michkov then gave the Flyers the lead 3:06 minutes later on a breakaway.
“Some good shots, some nice plays,” Tocchet said. “It was a good start.”
Bobby Brink added a goal in the second period. Trevor Zegras put New Jersey away with a third-period goal.
“It was nice to have that killer instinct,” Tocchet said.
Cates (one goal, two assists), Foerster (two goals) and Sean Couturier (two assists) finished with multi-point games.
“I think we worked pretty well on the forecheck and created chances off of that,” Couturier said.
The Flyers (11-6-3) have picked up at least a point in 12 of their last 16 games (10-4-2).
This was the first of three matchups between the Flyers and Devils (13-7-1) this season. New Jersey was without star forward Jack Hughes, who’s recovering from finger surgery.
• The offense was nice for the Flyers, who have struggled to score in parts of the season.
But through 20 games, the Flyers have given up just 2.80 goals per game.
“We’re hungry to learn and keep building,” Cates said. “That’s the best part about it.”
Last season, the Flyers were 8-10-2 through 20 games and had surrendered 3.50 goals per game.
The efforts defensively and in net have been huge.
“I’ve seen some really good things,” Tocchet said. “Obviously the goalies have been really good for us.
“If we can continue to play well without the puck, give our goalies sight lines, let them play half the net, then we can work on other stuff. I do like the play without the puck.”
• Dan Vladar converted 32 saves on 35 shots.
He made an excellent third-period stop to deny a 2-on-1 opportunity for the Devils. It was a big save because a goal there would have provided New Jersey some life. But Vladar kept it a 5-2 game.
“Just timely saves with him has been this whole season,” Cates said. “He has just been huge for us — in the locker room, on the ice. Just stability for us to play our game.”
The Devils scored their third goal later in the final stanza, but it came with just 6:35 minutes left. Zegras then padded the Flyers’ lead back to three.
New Jersey opened the scoring with a power play goal. It didn’t score again until the second period when the Flyers had a commanding 5-1 lead.
Devils netminder Jake Allen had a rough first period. He stopped 23 of 29 shots on the night.
• Nikita Grebenkin was a healthy scratch for the fourth time in the last five games. More on that here.
Egor Zamula entered the lineup for Noah Juulsen, who sat for the first time this season. Playing alongside Nick Seeler, Zamula was on the ice for five of the Flyers’ goals. He finished as a plus-5 and so did Seeler.
“Overall, the team played very good,” Zamula said. … “Vladdy was outstanding, some key saves.”
Andrej Stojakovic scored 20 points, Keaton Wagler had 19 and No. Illinois beat Long Island 98-58 on Saturday. David Mirkovic had 12 points and eight rebounds for the Illini (5-1), who bounced back nicely after losing to No.
John Mateer threw two touchdown passes, and No. 8 Oklahoma defeated No. 23 Missouri 17-6 on Saturday to inch closer to a College Football Playoff spot.
The Buffalo Sabres have a lengthy list of injured players and got one back in their lineup on Friday with Jason Zucker returning after missing three weeks due to a virus, but early in the second period of their 9-3 victory over Chicago, it appeared that that list would get larger. Defenseman Bowen Byram, who had scored his fourth goal of the season in the first period, fell awkwardly into the boards after checking Hawks forward Frank Nazar.
Byram had trouble getting back to his skates, and was favoring his right shoulder when he skated off the ice and down the tunnel to the Sabres locker room, but surprisingly returned after five minutes of game time and played a regular shift the rest of the game, finishing with 18:01 on the night.
"It didn't look good initially. I was pretty worried that was a guy we weren't see come back," Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff said.
Ruff said that he was cautiously optimistic that Byram was fine, saying that it was a positive sign that he returned and finished the game, but also said that they would see what tomorrow would bring. The club cancelled a scheduled practice on Saturday and will complete their four-game homestand on Sunday afternoon against Carolina,
Buffalo may get another injured forward back against the Hurricanes, as Ruff said on Friday that winger Zach Benson could return Sunday. The injured forward has been out since October 30 with a lower-body injury, but took part in the morning skate. Ruff considered the possibility of Benson returning against the Hawks, but opted to keep him out another game.
A battle for first place in the Pacific Division commences on Saturday, with the Ducks taking on the Vegas Golden Knights. The Ducks were victorious in the previous matchup in Las Vegas, beating the Golden Knights 4-3 in overtime.
That loss for Vegas was in the midst of an eventual four-game losing streak, but they have won three of their last four games since then and have collected seven points out of a possible eight in that stretch. The Ducks are coming off a 3-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Thursday and are looking to get back into the win column.
“(Vegas is) a good hockey team,” Ducks head coach Joel Quenneville said. “The third period there, they really had us in our end there. They do a lot of good things. They're very quick, they're very skilled and they're talented. They see plays, make plays and they’ve got structure. They’re well-rounded in all areas, very meaningful game for us as well.”
“(Their) transition game is excellent,” Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “A lot of speed, attack-oriented. I thought we played well that night. It was a good hockey game, could have went either way. And now what they're going through is they're not sneaking up on teams anymore, right? People are aware of (Leo) Carlsson and some of their younger players. So, that's their challenge they have in front of them, and we'll be one of those teams now that we've seen them once, right? So hopefully we're up to the task.”
“They defend well,” Frank Vatrano said. “They're a team that thrives off transition. So, for us, don't be stubborn at lines getting in behind them, and try to create offense from below the goal line.”
“Playing hard the first 10 minutes of the game will be huge for us,” Carlsson said. “Shoot everything from the start, too.”
Defenseman Pavel Mintyukov draws back into the lineup after being a healthy scratch for three consecutive games. Rookie Ian Moore will replace him in the press box.
“You’ve got seven (defensemen) over a course of the year, everybody's gonna get stretches where you're playing and not playing. You’ve got to make some tough decisions sometimes, and that's where it is. I thought he was making some progress in the start of the year to where you're at today. He was killing penalties, coming off a good game in that area. I just think that offensively, there's something there I think he can add to our game and his game. I think he's been okay.”
Ducks forward Ryan Poehling (upper-body) participated in morning skate for the first time since his injury on Nov. 13. Quenneville said that Poehling could return by next weekend at the earliest. Mikael Granlund remains out with a lower-body injury, he has not yet skated again since re-aggravating his injury against the Detroit Red Wings on Nov. 13.
Since the last Ducks-Golden Knights matchup, the Golden Knights have lost both forward William Karlsson and defenseman Jérémy Lauzon to injury. Karlsson left that game early with an undisclosed injury and is currently week-to-week. Lauzon is also suffering from an undisclosed injury and was placed on injured reserve on Tuesday.
Ducks Projected Lines
Cutter Gauthier - Leo Carlsson - Beckett Sennecke Chris Kreider - Mason McTavish - Troy Terry Frank Vatrano - Ryan Strome - Alex Killorn Ross Johnston - Jansen Harkins - Nikita Nesterenko
Jackson LaCombe - Drew Helleson Olen Zellweger - Jacob Trouba Pavel Mintyukov - Radko Gudas
Lukáš Dostál (confirmed)
Golden Knights Projected Lines
Ivan Barbashev - Jack Eichel - Braeden Bowman Pavel Dorofeyev - Tomáš Hertl - Mitch Marner Brandon Saad - Brett Howden - Reilly Smith Cole Reinhardt - Colton Sissons - Keegan Kolesar
The Buffalo Sabres continued to display their Jekyll and Hyde-like levels of performance in the third game of their four-game homestand against the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday. The Sabres gave up four third-period goals in a 6-2 loss to Calgary on Wednesday, who were playing in the second of back--to-back games with a backup goalie between the pipes, but against Chicago backup Arvid Soderblom, the Sabres dropped a nine-spot on the tired Hawks squad in a 9-3 victory at Key Bank Center.
Alex Tuch led the Sabres with four points, Joah Doan had a pair of goals, and Jason Zucker, in his first game since November 1, had a goal and two assists. Buffalo equaled the NHL’s season-high for goals in a single game, tying the Colorado Avalanche’s output in a 9-1 romp over the Edmonton Oilers.
"I thought it was a great response (to Wednesday's loss). We weren't happy with our game," Sabres leading scorer Tage Thompson said. "It's just keeping things simple. I thought we were hounding pucks on the forecheck, I thought our D zone was great, which which led to a lot of offense for us off the rush, and I think a great middle lane drive on entries, which opened up a lot of space once we entered the blue line there. So we were able to establish the O zone."
Even with an injury-depleted lineup, talent is not the issue with the Sabres, it has been establishing a level of consistency that enables them to earn points with regularity. Thus far, the Sabres have had one five-game losing skid and a pair of three-gamers, while going 4-1-0 in one stretch and 3-1-0 in another. This inconsistency has Buffalo in last spot in the Eastern Conference with an 8-9-4 record.
Buffalo finishes up their four-game homestand on Sunday afternoon against the East-leading Carolina Hurricanes.
Harvey Barnes was Newcastle’s two-goal hero as Eddie Howe tasted Premier League success against City for the first time in his career
25 seconds: Donnarumma gets away with a dreadful pass out from the back. Joelinton nips in ahead of Foden, who didn’t want the ball, and pokes to Barnes. The Newcastle winger, on the left-hand edge of the D, aims for the bottom right but his curler is weak and the keeper makes amends. What a start that could have been!
Eddie Howe and Pep Guardiola greet each other warmly, then Manchester City kick off. A huge roar from the St James’ Park faithful. Oh me lads.
Newcastle’s recent slide left them 15th in the Premier League at kick-off but, by the end of an always absorbing, sometimes almost anarchic, evening they had ascended to Cloud Nine.
It is very hard to argue that Eddie Howe is not an elite coach – what price he ends up eventually being poached by Liverpool as Arne Slot’s successor? – but, until this watershed win, his record against Pep Guardiola was pretty dismal. In 16 previous Premier League matches against Guardiola’s Manchester City, with Bournemouth and Newcastle, Howe had lost 14 and drawn two. All that changed as, with Harvey Barnes scoring twice, his players dealt a potentially debilitating blow to City’s title hopes. Guardiola’s side now sit third, four points behind Arsenal and one in arrears of Chelsea.
