Dallas Stars forward Mikko Rantanen may not be considered a dirty player. But his actions this past week have certainly changed the narrative surrounding him.

On Tuesday, with 27.3 seconds to play in regulation, Rantanen extended his arms, sending New York Islanders defenseman Alexander Romanov hard into the boards. 

Here’s what made him so angry

Rantanen was given a 5-minute major for checking from behind on Romanov pic.twitter.com/yNdqW7Nqyyhttps://t.co/ru2wInqXt9

— The Hockey News (@TheHockeyNews) November 19, 2025

Romanov had to be helped off the ice with an upper-body injury -- he's going to miss significant time if not the whole season -- while Rantanen received a five-minute major for boarding and a game misconduct.

However, the NHL's Department of Player Safety deemed that Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield played a part in Rantanen falling in the first place, leading to no fine or suspension.

On Thursday night against the Ottawa Senators, Rantanen went hard through the crease and made contact with goaltender Linus Ullmark's blocker, grabbing the goaltender's arm before falling to the ice.

The league reviewed the play and found it to be embellishment, leading to a $2,000 fine. Rantanen had been previously flagged for another diving incident from a game against the Vancouver Canucks on Oct. 16. 

Rantanen of Stars fined for embellishment | NHL.comForward penalized $2,000 as supplementary discipline for repeated offense

But wait, there's more. 

On Saturday night against the Calgary Flames, Rantanen was ejected for the second time in three games after he drilled Long Island native Matt Coronato from behind. It was a bloody scene. 

Mikko Rantanen received a five-minute major and a game misconduct for this hit on Matt Coronato.

Tuesday, Rantanen sidelined #Isles  D-man, Alexander Romanov for who knows how long… pic.twitter.com/FlHbYBsI2Q

— The Elmonters (@TheElmonters) November 23, 2025

Rantanen cannot get out of his own way. We'll see what punishment player safety hands out. 

MONTREAL — It came down to one period.

The Toronto Maple Leafs fell to the Montreal Canadiens 5-2 at the Bell Centre on Saturday, a loss defined by a disastrous second period.

The Leafs actually started well, carrying the pace of play and outshooting the Canadiens 9-3 in the opening frame. But once Montreal opened the scoring on Lane Hutson’s goal midway through the first, Toronto wasn’t able to get its game back.

What ensued was a fall expected from a team having lost their confidence. Montreal struck one more time in the first period and twice more in the second period, outshooting the Leafs 16-2, leading up to their fourth Habs goal. That marker finally prompted the mercy pull of goaltender Joseph Woll.

It is a familiar narrative for a Leafs team that has now lost seven of its last eight games.

“We just weren't able to get off our heels there for a good portion of it,” John Tavares said of Montreal’s play in the middle frame. "And then we give up the early one, which really hurts,” Tavares continued. “That continues to feed life into their game and [forces] us to continue to have to dig out of a bigger and bigger hole. So, we have to do a better job of maintaining the momentum and then how we get our game going... the other direction and staying with it and battling through times like that.”

The Leafs clearly lack confidence during this recent slump. While head coach Craig Berube acknowledged injuries to much of the roster as a contributing factor, he seems to be out of answers when trying to figure out why the Leafs stop playing when trailing in games.

"What I've seen a few times this year is when we get down a couple of goals at times — this happened in the second period — where we go out there and we don't play. We don't play with any urgency or any confidence in the second period because we get down a couple of goals,” Berube said.  “That's an excuse all day long for me. This is a veteran hockey team. It's inexcusable, and it's on me too. It's on all of us. And with a veteran team like that, that shouldn't happen."

This is essentially a plea from Berube to the leadership group to step up when times are tough—something they haven’t done. That’s fair, but there is no sign that a solution is going to come from anywhere else.

Toronto doesn’t have the assets or ability right now to make a big trade. They need help before things sink fast.

“This is what we have, and we've got to be better. We've got to be better. That's the bottom line. I mean, we showed we could do it,” Berube said.

“These guys have been out for a while now. We played some pretty good hockey at times. That didn't happen tonight. And like I said, we came up with that mindset in the first period and we did a pretty good job. But you can't lose all the momentum because they scored a couple of goals. Like I said, we're a veteran team and it's inexcusable.”

The Leafs have now lost seven of their last eight games and fell to 1-6-0 on the road this season. That doesn't bode well for a club that is about to embark on a five-game road swing beginning Wednesday against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Latest stories:

'I Don't Know The Timeline Right Now': Maple Leafs Unsure About Jake McCabe After Taking Puck To Face Vs. Canadiens

‘In The Back Of My Mind For Sure’: Maple Leafs Mindful Of Joseph Woll's Workload As Goaltender Prepares For Fourth Consecutive Start

Why The Maple Leafs Are Swapping Sammy Blais For Jacob Quillan Ahead of Game Vs. Canadiens

The stage was set for an epic battle at the Bell Centre on Saturday night. Even though the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs have both been struggling of late, this is the kind of rivalry matchup that brings out the best in everyone and plenty of away fans, making the building electric.

With both Xhekaj brothers playing, the Habs wasted no time throwing big hits, and while they weren’t shooting much on net, they built momentum that way and by killing a two-minute penalty.

Canadiens May Get A Big Boost From Energetic Forward
Canadiens Prospect Defender Has Monster Game In AHL
Canadiens: Why Jacob Fowler Is Not The Answer

A Rare Saturday Night Home Start For Dobes

With Samuel Montembeault having been pulled from the last game, Martin St-Louis decided to give rookie goaltender Jakub Dobes a rare Saturday night start at the Bell Centre, and the coach didn’t regret his decision in the first frame.

While Toronto put 11 shots on net, Dobes stopped them all, even though he was almost beaten on a wrap-around after overplaying a shot to his right, but he got to the puck in extremis to make the save. Aside from that, we saw some safe and sound goaltending by the Czech netminder in the first frame. The one shot that did beat him ended its run on the crossbar, and there was no harm done.

Toronto finally broke through on their 15th shot of the night, a bullet of a shot from Oliver Ekmann Larson that got the best of Dobes. While he received only six shots in the second frame, he remained alert and tracked the puck pretty well. This is the kind of performance that could go a long way toward rebuilding his confidence.

The Canadiens played a deep game in the final frame, taking only three shots and attempting to manage both the game and the puck, but it still allowed the Leafs to see more of the puck and attack more. Dobes was steady, stopping eight of the nine shots he faced. Toronto did hit another puck, but you’ve got to be lucky to be good and good to be lucky, as they say.

When all was said and done, Dobes stopped 24 of the 26 shots he faced, giving him a .923 save percentage, the kind of number he had accustomed us to earlier in the season.

A Successful Baptism Of Fire

Much had been made of Florian Xhekaj’s insertion in the lineup, and it turned out to be a good move by the Canadiens’ coach. St-Louis had said earlier in the day that he wanted the youngster to play his game in the Canadiens’ game, to be smart even if he’s walking the line, and that’s precisely what he did.

He seemed to energize his line, and after 40 minutes, four Habs had three hits: both Xhekaj brothers, Josh Anderson and Jayden Struble. On top of it, Anderson also scored his fourth goal of the season, a picture-perfect shot above Woll’s shoulder, and the youngest Xhekaj got his first career point on the play.

In the third frame, defenseman Dakota Mermis took some liberties with Brendan Gallagher, pushing and shoving him for a whole shift before ramming him into the Leafs’ net. The younger Xhekaj took note, and when he had a chance, he forced Mermis to answer the bell, sending the Bell Centre into a frenzy. The crowd loved it, and so did his teammates, who went to congratulate him in the box for taking care of his teammates. Meanwhile, his big brother was beaming with pride on the bench.

As first games go, it would have been hard to write a better scenario, as the hero of the night said himself, it would have been if he scored a goal, but he had no complaints. As for the coach, when asked about the youngster’s first game, he replied:

He played to his identity; he brought his game: his toughness, his pace, his presence.

-

The coach also spoke about the coaching staff in Laval, crediting them with how ready the players recalled lately have been:

I tip my hat to the staff in Laval. We got a lot of call-ups recently, and the guys come, and they look ready; they don’t look out of place. I know there are other players that are knocking on the door too down there, our staff do a great job to facilitate the transition.

-

With the way Xhekaj’s first game went, Joshua Roy shouldn’t expect to get back in the lineup anytime soon.

Slafkovsky’s Big Night

Tonight, Jujar Slafkovsky wasn’t on the top power-play unit; he had lost that spot to Ivan Demidov, and he still found himself skating on the second line alongside the young Russian and Oliver Kapanen. After a challenging game Thursday night against the Washington Capitals, the first overall pick of the 2022 draft stood very tall and shone bright.

The coach obviously liked what he saw:

Listen, tonight was one of his best games of the season. That’s his standard; we try to keep him there, and it’s hard. But you know, when he plays like that, he makes you want that all the time. […] I think for any young player, the last box to check is consistency. They show their ceiling, and it’s hard to find that consistency at a young age, but that’s what we’re after.

-

Slafkovsky’s stat line was impressive on the night: two shots, two shots blocked and two missed ones; one hit, one takeaway and one blocked shot. But what was even more impressive was the confidence with which he skated, the awareness he showed on the ice and his ability to play an effective transition game. Furthermore, even though he didn’t get an assist on Noah Dobson’s first goal of the night, that wouldn’t have gone in if it hadn’t been for the way he screened the goaltender. He did get an assist on the second Dobson tally, however, a tic-tac-toe with Demidov and the blueliner.

In the end, the Canadiens secured a much-needed 5-2 win and showed they can still be a dominant team when they pay attention to the details and commit to both sides of the game. Granted, this was a depleted Leafs side missing its number one goaltender, its captain, Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies, but the Canadiens have their own injury woes as well and just rose above.

The Canadiens will take a day off tomorrow. Still, they will be back on the ice in Brossard on Monday morning at 10:30. Their next three games will be out west, where they’ll take on the Utah Mammoth (a side they beat 6-2 two weeks ago, the Vegas Golden Knights and the Colorado Avalanche  in the second game of a back-to-back.

---

Follow Karine on X @KarineHains Bluesky @karinehains.bsky.social and Threads @karinehains.

Bookmark The Hockey News Canadiens' page for all the news and happenings around the Canadiens.

Join the discussion by signing up to the Canadiens' roundtable on The Hockey News.

Subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here. 

The Florida Panthers dropped a tough one on Saturday night in Sunrise.

It was a Stanley Cup Final rematch with the Edmonton Oilers, and unlike during the past couple postseasons, this time it was the Oilers who came out on top, pulling away late to defeat the Panthers 6-3.

Despite facing a three-goal deficit early in the second period, the Panthers did what they usually do and attempted to mount a ferocious comeback, thrilling the 19,534 fans who packed Amerant Bank Arena.

Goals by Mackie Samoskevich and Sam Reinhart 3:26 apart had the building rocking and rolling, but that was as close as the Cats would get, allowing a pair of empty-net goals in the final minutes to take what was a close game and make it appear anything but.

Now the Panthers will embark on a one-game road trip to Nashville before returning to South Florida for their longest homestand of the season.

Let’s get to Saturday’s takeaways:

ROUGH NIGHT FOR BOB

Fresh off what was his best outing of the season – a 32-save shutout of the New Jersey Devils on Thursday – Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky struggled mightily against Edmonton.

It started with a weak goal from a bad angle just 25 seconds into the game that squeaked between Bob’s skate and the post, and then it ended with a goal from a worse angle in which the puck went off his shoulder and into the net.

Bobrovsky was called to the bench after playing just 26:45 of the game, allowing four goals on 17 shots.

While he did stop four of the five high danger shots sent his way by Edmonton, Bob also allowed two low danger shots to get by him, and those can be demoralizing for any squad.

“Yeah, he had had enough,” Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice said of his decision to pull Bobrovsky. “I think, like our team, Bob is so very consistent and so very strong, there's no point in leaving him in. We're down 4-1, we're going to open up our game, so it's a great time for Danil (Tarasov) to go in. He came in off a really great performance the last time, and he’s scheduled to play (Monday) in Nashville, so he gets some work to tune him up before he plays.”

CLOSER EXTRAORDINAIRE DANIIL TARASOV

Speaking of Tarasov, boy oh boy did he perform well in relief of Bobrovsky.

It’s never easy for a goaltender to come into a game cold off the bench, but don’t tell that to Tarasov.

During his five seasons in the NHL, Tarasov has been called into action off the bench five times, including Saturday against Edmonton.

In those five appearances he has yet to allow a goal, stopping all 51 shots he’s faced during the 138 minutes and 17 seconds of relief time he’s played during his career.

That’s quite impressive.

On Saturday, Tarasov made 12 saves against the Oilers, including all five of the high danger shots sent his way, in 32:47 of ice time.

“He made four or five really big saves,” said Maurice. “We're pushing at that point, so we're not in our defensive structure as much as we like, so we give up more than we wanted to in that part of the game and he had to make those saves to give us a chance to be able to come back.”

UVIS STEPS UP

Aaron Ekblad was expected to play on Saturday night, but he never came on the ice for pregame warmups and was eventually ruled out of the game with what the Panthers called an upper-body injury.

Turns out, Ekblad is under the weather. He’ll travel with the team to Nashville on Sunday and barring any setbacks, should be back in the lineup on Monday against the Predators.

With Ekblad out, Maurice called upon Uvis Balinskis to step into a top pairing role alongside Gus Forsling.

Balinskis said he didn’t find out until he arrived at the rink that his role had expanded for the night, but he sure seemed to handle it well on the ice.

When the dust settled, Balinskis ended the night with an assist and a plus-one on-ice rating to go with a season-high 19:01 of ice time.

“I thought he was right on,” Maurice said of Balinskis. “When you get moved up the food chain in the National Hockey League, you're playing against a completely different kind of player. And I thought he was trying to win the game, so he wasn't passive, and he wasn't tentative at all. He was aggressive, physical…I liked his game.”

LATEST STORIES FROM THE HOCKEY NEWS - FLORIDA

Panthers drop Stanley Cup Final rematch to visiting Oilers 6-3

Despite Inconsistent Start Panthers Could Inch Closer To Top Of Atlantic Division Standings

The Panthers Den: Florida starting to show consistency with playing winning hockey

Panthers set to host Oilers in Stanley Cup Final rematch as Cats search for third straight win

The Hockey Show: Winter Classic uniforms, endless injuries, Adnan Virk

Photo caption: Nov 22, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers goaltender Daniil Tarasov (40) makes a save against the Edmonton Oilers during the second period at Amerant Bank Arena. (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)

One year ago, right wing Anthony Mantha tore his ACL on a freak kind of play as a member of the Calgary Flames. 

At that point in the season, Mantha had only played in 13 games, and he missed the rest of the year. It's safe to say that - upon signing a one-year, $2.5 million deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins this summer - he felt there would probably be a bit of a reacclimation period. 

When looking at his numbers this season, it sure doesn't seem like it. 

The 31-year-old forward has gotten off to a fast start with his new team, as he has eight goals and 14 points in 21 games. Those numbers are good for a 31-goal, 55-point pace - both of which would be career-highs for him.

Mantha may not necessarily have expected this start. But he's not surprised by it.

"Obviously, things are going well," Mantha said. "I was not expecting to get off to that start. I mean, I worked on it over the last 11 months of rehab - physically and mentally - to have that kind of start. And I did everything I could to have that kind of start.

"So, am I surprised? I would say, not really. But, obviously, when it does happen, you take it the right way, and you need to keep pushing forward."

Takeaways: Penguins Lose Heartbreaker To Seattle Kraken, Fall Out Of Playoff PositionAfter a <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins/latest-news/takeaways-penguins-no-show-in-5-0-loss-to-minnesota-wild">disappointing effort in a 5-0 loss to the Minnesota Wild</a> on Friday, <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins">Pittsburgh Penguins</a>' young goaltender Sergei Murashov declared that the team would come out much better on Saturday.

His hard work to come back from a major injury hasn't gone unnoticed by his coach, either. 

"I think it goes back even in the summertime. I know it was important to him to just set himself up there for the start of the year," head coach Dan Muse said. "And coming off an injury, being out for a while, too, I think he clearly - based on the start - put in that work. You've seen steps taken here, too. So, that's what we're looking for.

"Obviously, credit to him for putting in that work, and we want to be able to work together with him here so he can continue to take those steps in his game."

Mantha's career season up to this point came in 2018-19, when he put up 25 goals and 48 points in 67 games for the Detroit Red Wings, the team that drafted him 20th overall in 2013. He's had the opportunity to play with some elite talent throughout his career, including Dylan Larkin and Alex Ovechkin.

But he's never flanked a playmaker quite like Evgeni Malkin, who - as his centerman - has been a big part of Mantha's success so far this season.

Penguins Have Found Their Ideal Fourth-Liner In Connor DewarPittsburgh Penguins forward Connor Dewar has been outstanding this season.

"Playing with Geno for sure helps," Mantha said. "He's an All-Star, Hall-of-Fame guy, and he's just able to find those plays that maybe other centermen can't necessarily find. That's why he's had so much success in his career. And, for me, to blend in, I let him do his own things, try to find the open spot or try to find that give-and-go. Because you know he loves to play with the puck."

But it's not just Malkin's playmaking that has helped elevate Mantha's game to high level. There has been a lot of discussion around the size of the Penguins' second line this season, whether it's Justin Brazeau - a 6-foot-6, 232-pounder currently injured - or Kevin Hayes at 6-foot-3, 217 pounds on the left wing. 

Malkin and Mantha both stand at 6-foot-5, and Mantha is 240 pounds. The size of their line - the biggest line Mantha has ever played on - gives them an advantage in puck battles and net-front positioning.

"I think it's just that we're creating space for each other, whether it's a low pick or winning those one-on-one battles, and then getting out of corners," Mantha said. "Just making space for each other and having a net-front presence. I mean, either me or Braz, or me or Hayesy... you know Geno's going to be playing with the puck and more roaming around than straight at the net-front. So, everyone kind of plays their own role, and it's been connecting."

As far as his tenure in Pittsburgh so far, Mantha is fitting right into a locker room that is tight-knit as well as diverse in terms of age, background, and experience. And he has noticed the way that everyone and everything has effortlessly gelled together.

Mantha gives a lot of credit to the Hall-of-Famers in the room, too, and he hopes that his time as a Penguin continues to be a positive experience like it has been for the guys in the room so far.

"Obviously a lot of - how do you say it - a lot of older guys with maturity," Mantha said. "Quite a bit of middle-aged guys, like 25 to 33, 34, you know. And a couple rookies. I mean, the blend of everyone and just being shown in the proper way by those vets and learning every day... and the maturity level.

"Like, you need to bring it up a notch when you're around those guys. And it's been positive for everyone."

For Pittsburgh Penguins' Olympic Goaltender Artūrs Šilovs, No Stage Is Too BigPittsburgh Penguins goaltender Arturs Silovs - acquired from the Vancouver Canucks over the summer - has proven he can perform when the stakes are highest and will get another chance with Team Latvia at the 2026 Olympic Games.

---

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