NHL Previews

Nathan MacKinnon has an impressive home point streak going for the Colorado Avalanche but he’s not the hottest player in the NHL right now. That honor belongs to Toronto’s Auston Matthews, who is scoring goals at a scorching rate. Matthews has 10 goals in his last five games, including one in a 7-3 win at Vegas on Thursday night, and carries that hot stick into Saturday night when the Maple Leafs play at Colorado. Matthews

The Florida Panthers could be missing a few key pieces when they host the Washington Capitals on Saturday night. Matthew Tkachuk, who leads the Panthers with 45 assists, and defenseman Gustav Forsling left Thursday’s 1-0 loss at the Carolina Hurricanes in the first period due to unspecified injuries. Forsling is sixth on the team with 19 assists and averages nearly 22 minutes of ice time per game. Neither player returned. “Both are probably day-to-day,” Panthers

The New York Islanders have spent the last two seasons precariously perched on the edge of the Eastern Conference playoff picture. The next 11 days might determine if the Islanders maintain their wobbly position or finally fall off. The Islanders open a key stretch Saturday when they host the rival Tampa Bay Lightning in in Elmont, N.Y. Both teams were off Friday after losing Thursday, when the visiting Islanders were blanked by the St. Louis

The Philadelphia Flyers will look for their second straight victory on Saturday when they host the red-hot New York Rangers, who have won nine in a row. The Flyers went on the road and defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 3-1 on Wednesday. In what was supposed to be a rebuilding season, the Flyers continue to exceed expectations. Travis Konecny scored one of the three goals to extend his points streak to seven. He has compiled 12

The New Jersey Devils are mired in a dreadful power-play slump and feeling frustration about the lack of results. With just two goals in their past 46 chances with the man advantage spanning 14 games, the Devils hope to turn things around on Saturday afternoon against the Montreal Canadiens in Newark, N.J. The Canadiens are one of the NHL’s worst penalty-killing teams. The Devils owned a 28.8 power-play percentage after Luke Hughes and Alexander Holtz

The surging Detroit Red Wings have solidified their position in the Eastern Conference playoff race by going 13-4-2 during the new year. They will bid for their fourth straight victory Saturday when they host the St. Louis Blues. The Red Wings sustained their roll by rallying past the Colorado Avalanche 2-1 in overtime Thursday. “This is two more points, and they all count the same right now,” Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin said. “This is

Two teams whose playoff hopes have been dimming by the game meet Thursday when the Montreal Canadiens visit the Pittsburgh Penguins. Pittsburgh sits eight points off the last Eastern Conference wild-card position, with Montreal another four points back, so the matchup is critical. The Canadiens are coming off a 3-2 home loss against the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday, a game in which Montreal blew two one-goal leads and gave up a short-handed goal for the

After learning captain and top scorer Mark Stone will be sidelined “for a while,” the Vegas Golden Knights will try to snap a season-worst, three-game home losing streak on Thursday night when they face the Toronto Maple Leafs in Las Vegas. Stone, who has scored 16 goals and totaled 53 points, sustained an upper-body injury during a collision with Nashville’s Yakov Trenin late in the second period of Vegas’ 5-3 loss to the Predators on

It wasn’t long ago when Los Angeles Kings forward Pierre-Luc Dubois was receiving some of the blame for the team’s sudden downturn, a 2-8-6 stretch after the Christmas break that ultimately led to the firing of coach Todd McLellan. Dubois appears to have turned things around under interim coach Jim Hiller and he’ll try to stay the course when the Kings host the Nashville Predators on Thursday night. Dubois scored two goals in a 5-1