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The New Jersey Devils will head to Capital One Arena today to face the Washington Capitals. ​

The Devils are 12-4-1 after beating the Blackhawks in overtime Wednesday. ​

The Capitals are 8-8-1, having most recently played the Florida Panthers on Thursday evening. The team lost 6-3 to the Panthers. ​

Simon Nemec is the Devils' player to watch, having scored his first career hat trick on Wednesday and four goals in the last two games. ​

For the Capitals, Tom Wilson has five goals and two assists in his last 10 games for Washington.​

Injuries

On Wednesday, Zack MacEwen and Cody Glass left due to injuries and are not expected to play Saturday. ​

Another player who will not be in the lineup is Jack Hughes. Hughes underwent successful surgery after sustaining a hand injury. He is expected to be re-evaluated in six weeks.

Devils Provide Update On Jack HughesOn Saturday, the <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/new-jersey-devils/game-day/simon-nemec-s-first-career-hat-trick-leads-devils-to-4-3-overtime-victory-over-blackhawks">New Jersey Devils </a>announced that star forward Jack Hughes underwent successful surgery on his finger.

​The list of injured players for the Devils now looks like: ​

J. Hughes (hand)

MacEwen (undisclosed)

Glass (undisclosed)

Hamilton (undisclosed)

Brown (undisclosed)

Pesce (upper-body)

Dadonov (hand)

Kovacevic (knee)

McLaughlin (undisclosed)

The Capitals released a much shorter injury list.

Dubois (abdominal surgery, out 3-4 months)

This is the first of four meetings this season. The teams play again on December 27, March 20, and April 2. ​

Puck drops at 7 PM as the Devils aim for their second straight win.

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Pittsburgh Penguins 2019 first-round pick Sam Poulin has been off to a strong start to the 2025-26 season with their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. 

In 15 games so far this season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Poulin has recorded seven goals, seven assists, 14 points, and a plus-7 rating. With numbers like these, there is no question that the 24-year-old forward is making a big impact with the AHL squad. 

Yet, what's more encouraging about Poulin's play is that he is only continuing to stay hot as the season progresses. Poulin is currently on a four-game point streak with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, where he has recorded four goals and two assists over that span. With this, the young forward is red-hot right now down in the AHL. 

Poulin will now be looking to continue to produce offensively with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. If he does, perhaps it could open the door for him to get another call-up to the Penguins' NHL roster in the near future. 

In 13 career NHL games over three seasons with Pittsburgh, Poulin has recorded two assists, four blocks, 18 hits, and a minus-3 rating. 

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One of the major storylines for the Detroit Red Wings as they began their centennial campaign in the NHL was the emergence of a trio of rookies who made the final roster thanks to their strong showings in both Training Camp and the pre-season.

Michael Brandsegg-Nygård, Emmitt Finnie, and Axel Sandin-Pellikka all began the season with the Red Wings for their rookie campaigns in the NHL. While Brandsegg-Nygård has since been returned to the American Hockey League, both Finnie and Sandin-Pellikka continue their tenures in Detroit. 

After a blazing hot start to his career with four goals and four assists, Finnie has hit the wall in terms of offense.

He hasn't registered a point since scoring as part of Detroit's historical 6-4 comeback victory over the St. Louis Blues on Oct. 25, and he's been since been moved down further in Detroit's lineup after having initially spent a few weeks playing on the club's top line. 

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That's not to say that Finnie is concerned about his first career NHL scoring drought, however. 

"This is the best League in the world, and points aren't going to happen every night," Finnie explained. "Droughts are going to happen, and I'm just trying to stay positive and confident and just contribute in other ways."

"I'm just going to keep playing my game, trying to get to the net and the points will come." 

Finnie is known for playing with an edge to his game, which he plans on continuing to utilize while being a nuisance to opposition goaltenders and defensemen in close proximity to the net, the area of the ice he feels he's most effective. 

I like to play hard and get to the net, I feel like that's where I generate most of my chances," Finnie said. "Playing physical and around the net, that's when I feel like I'm at my best." 

Despite his scoring drought, the confidence that head coach Todd McLellan had and continues to have in Finnie has not wavered. 

"If we said that we’d have a seventh-round draft pick that hadn’t really played any pro hockey playing for us 19 games in and playing a prominent role, we would all be happy," McLellan said.

McLellan continued his praise of Finnie by noting the other things that he does that don't show up on the scoresheet. 

“He does so much extra work for a lot of guys,” he said. “He cleans up messes on the way back because he skates so well. He loosens up pucks on the forecheck, he’ll go to the net, he stirs things up a little bit, draws some penalties. There’s a lot of assets there."

"The confidence in him hasn’t gone or diminished at all." 

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Former Montreal Canadiens forward Christian Dvorak signed a one-year, $5.4 million contract with the Philadelphia Flyers this off-season. This officially marked the end of his four-year stint with the Canadiens.

So far, Dvorak has been a nice addition to the Flyers' roster early on, and he certainly made an impact in their most recent matchup against the St. Louis Blues.

Dvorak had a strong night offensively for the Flyers against St. Louis, as he scored two goals and recorded an assist in Philadelphia's 6-5 overtime win. This included him scoring a goal at the 7:53 mark of the third period to cut St. Louis' lead to 5-4. 

With this strong performance against the Blues, Dvorak has now recorded five goals, seven assists, 12 points, and a plus-5 rating in 17 games so far this season with the Flyers. With numbers like these, there is no question that the former Canadiens forward has had a solid start to his Flyers tenure. 

Dvorak has also been red-hot as of late, as he has posted six points in his last four games with the Flyers. 

In 232 games over four seasons with the Canadiens, Dvorak recorded 38 goals, 65 assists, and 103 points.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have announced that they have activated forward Rutger McGroarty and goaltender Joel Blomqvist from season-opening injured reserve.

In addition, both McGroarty and Blomqvist have been assigned to Pittsburgh's American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. 

McGroarty played in his first eight career NHL games this past season with Pittsburgh, where he recorded one goal, two assists, three points, 12 hits, and an even plus/minus rating. Down in the AHL with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton during the 2024-25 season, he posted 14 goals, 25 assists, 39 points, and 37 penalty minutes.

Blomqvist, on the other hand, had a 4-9-1 record, a 3.81 goals-against average, and a .885 save percentage in his first 15 career NHL games last season with Pittsburgh. He also had an 8-7-3 record, a .914 save percentage, and a 2.84 goals-against average in 18 games last season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. 

With McGroarty and Blomqvist being two key prospects in the Penguins' system, it is certainly good news that they are ready to start their seasons. It will be interesting to see how much of an impact they can make with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton from here. 

ST. LOUIS – Consistency and desperation, desperation and consistency.

Two words often spoken but not gained enough on a regular basis when it comes to this year’s St. Louis Blues.

Such was the case again on Friday when the Blues scored five goals in a game but lost, 6-5 in a shootout to the Philadelphia Flyers. They’ll look to get right back on the horse on Saturday when the Blues (6-8-4) host the Vegas Golden Knights (7-4-5) to close out a four-game homestand at Enterprise Center (7 p.m.; FDSNMW, ESPN 101.1-FM).

Consistency of stringing consecutive wins together seems to be an issue, and it’s only happened once this season through 18 games (Games 2 and 3).

“Yes, very surprised,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “I think it’s a mental attitude. I have to take ownership of making sure that they trust the habits and want to do it. And then there’s the mental component of attitude of game management goes into it, and that’s a habit too. It’s playing the game the right way. I think four of their five goals are directly the result of poor habits or puck management. And we gained our leads by good game habits and management, and players made plays.”

Montgomery mentioned desperation in his postgame press conference on Friday.

“The urgency we need has to come from within,” he said. “It has to be communicated more consistently by the coaching staff and the players have got to take ownership of owning moments.”

- - -

The Blues will implement three lineup changes for Saturday’s game.

Joel Hofer will start in goal after Jordan Binnington made 26 saves on Friday.

Nick Bjugstad and Tyler Tucker, each a healthy scratch Friday for the first time this season, will come in replacing Mathieu Joseph and Hunter Skinner, who made his NHL debut on Friday, respectively.

Joseph did not see the ice for the final 9:31 of the third period, which included a game-tying goal at 5-5 by Owen Tippett. Joseph’s last two shifts in the game were goals against, including an unfortunate fourth goal in which Matthew Kessel slipped and fell in the D-zone with the puck.

“Yes, he’s not the only one that could have done better in that instance (on the fifth goal),” Montgomery said. “He’s the first forward back; we’d like that play killed when Zegras cuts it back initially. And then he’s supposed to stay low, so he should have been in the middle of the ice. Instead, him and ‘Torpo’ had to make a switch. And then our defensemen didn’t scope out quick enough. We had two at the net and they had four high. And then the slot play, if Joseph’s going to be high, he’s got to shoulder check and make sure he has that play. That’s the exact breakdown of the goal as it happens in our structure.”

The lineup is fluid and the Blues held an optional morning skate today that included six forwards (including Jake Neighbours), four defensemen and two goalies.

They ended the game on Friday playing Brayden Schenn between Dylan Holloway and Jordan Kyrou and could go back to that line again Saturday.

“I thought they gave us a lot of juice,” Montgomery said. “They obviously had the one goal as a line, which gave us a lead 4-3, but I also thought they had one play where they had two chances, the one-timer by Kyrou from the Schenn pass and then we had the rebound off of it. They could have made it 6-3. Some of those things were good to see, and they didn’t spend a lot of time in the D-zone.”

- - -

Blues Projected Lineup:

Pavel Buchnevich-Robert Thomas-Jimmy Snuggerud

Dylan Holloway-Brayden Schenn-Jordan Kyrou

Pius Suter-Dalibor Dvorsky-Nick Bjugstad

Alexey Toropchenko-Oskar Sundqvist-Nathan Walker

Philip Broberg-Colton Parayko

Cam Fowler-Justin Faulk

Tyler Tucker-Matthew Kessel

Joel Hofer will start in goal; Jordan Binnington will be the backup.

Healthy scratches include Mathieu Joseph, Alexandre Texier and Hunter Skinner. Jake Neighbours (leg) is out.

- - -

Golden Knights Projected Lineup:

Ivan Barbashev-Jack Eichel-Braeden Bowman

Pavel Dorofeyev-Tomas Hertl-Mitch Marner

Brandon Saad-Brett Howden-Reilly Smith

Cole Reinhardt-Colton Sissons-Keegan Kolesar

Brayden McNabb-Shea Theodore

Noah Hanifin-Kaedan Korczak

Jeremy Lauzon-Zach Whitecloud

Akira Schmid will start in goal; Carl Lindbom will be the backup.

Healthy scratches include Alexander Holtz and Ben Hutton. Adin Hill (lower body), William Karlsson (lower body) and Mark Stone (upper body) are out.

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When a swarm of young hockey fans wearing Pittsburgh Penguins toques all have their phones out to take a picture with Sidney Crosby outside a hotel in Sweden, you know the NHL's doing a decent job growing the game outside of North America.

The first of two NHL Global Series games between the Penguins and Nashville Predators took place at Avicii Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, on Friday, with the second game commencing on Sunday. And the hype is palpable. Former NHL goalie Glenn Healy was among those who signed autographs for fans outside the hotel, and not only did spectators pour into the rink for the game, but they were also cheering the Predators on at practice on Saturday. (Thanks to Valtteri Karjula for sharing his Global Series experience in The Hockey News Community forum.)

Friday's 2-1 overtime win for Nashville featured some exciting action, with Swede Filip Forsberg tying the game late in front of nearly 13,000 fans.

This latest installment of the league’s Global Series comes at a time when the NHL is expanding its European footprint by opening up an office in Zurich, Switzerland. 

It will be a thrill for Swedish fans to see Penguins stars Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Swedes Erik Karlsson and Predators star Filip Forsberg live and in person, the truth is that there’s plenty of room for growth in the league’s blueprint to grow the game outside of North America.

As THN.com’s Avry Lewis-McDougall wrote about not all that long ago, the NHL could eventually combine its trips to Europe with outdoor games in places like London, England’s Wembley Stadium and Stockholm’s Strawberry Arena. The prospect of playing in front of 50,000 to 90,000 European fans at an outdoor game would no doubt be financial music to the NHL’s ears, and the visual grandeur of an open-air stadium hosting an NHL game or two is something the league and its sponsors would bend over backward to be part of.

That said, another option for the NHL to increase its footprint would be to host a week’s worth of games – say, four or five games in a seven-day span. To do so, you’d have to involve multiple teams. While the logistics of doing so would be tricky, the benefits of having a full week of games is something that absolutely should put additional games on the league’s radar. 

In any case, the NHL needs to examine all avenues to capitalize on fan interest overseas.

One day, it should make sense for the league to go beyond Sweden, Finland and Czechia for regular-season games. Back in 2008, more than 17,000 fans filled the O2 Arena in London for games between the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks, and from 1997 to 2000, the NHL played games in Japan. With a rink being built in Milan, Italy, for the Olympics, it may make sense to go there for the Global Series, or perhaps play some more games in Asia.

But for now, placing deeper roots in places like the United Kingdom and Scandinavia is the most logical evolution for its entertainment product. So there may be additional baby steps for the NHL, but everything NHL-in-Europe is skewing positively, and that means more hockey-related revenue for players and the league to divvy up between themselves.

Imagining the NHL will one day have a full-time team outside North America is a pipe dream at the moment. But the fact that the league now has a permanent office is a testament to the growth of the sport. 

And while it will be exciting for Swedes to host some of the best players on the planet this weekend, there could be even better days soon to come for European hockey fans and players. 

For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.