Player Of The Night: Jason Spezza, Dallas Stars
On Monday night the Dallas Star made veteran forward Jason Spezza a healthy scratch as he was mired in a lengthy goal-scoring drought. The Stars wanted to see more from him, and they knew he could provide more.
When he stepped back into the lineup on Tuesday night against the Detroit Red Wings he did exactly that by scoring a pair of goals in the Stars’ 4-2 win.
Even though Spezza had been struggling to put points on the board he was still doing an excellent job when it came to driving possession and generating shots, as well as the fact the team was outscoring its opponents when he was on the ice. His ice-time has been cut significantly this season, but he was doing enough to suggest that it was only a matter of time until he got back into the goal column.
He snapped out of it in a big way on Tuesday.
Another big injury for Nashville
The Nashville Predators are already playing without two of their top forwards with Filip Forsberg and Viktor Arvidsson sidelined.
They lost another one on Tuesday night in their 1-0 win over the Vegas Golden Knights when Ryan Johanson had to leave the game after taking a high hit from William Carrier.
Johanson left the game and did not return. There was no penalty called on the play.
Predators coach Peter Laviolette had no update on Johansen after the game and said they were given an explanation that it was a clean hit.
The Predators ended up winning the game 1-0 thanks to a goal from Kevin Fiala and 43 saves from Jusse Saros.
Highlight Of The Night
Not much in the way of highlight reel plays tonight, but here is a big goal from Vince Dunn to give the St. Louis Blues a 2-1 overtime win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Factoid Of The Night
A big milestone for New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist as he picks up his 20th win of the season.
With tonight’s win Henrik is now:
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) January 17, 2018
1st goaltender in @NHL history to earn 20 or more wins in each of his first 13 seasons
And
The 1st goaltender in NHL history to earn at least 20 wins in 13 consecutive seasons at any point during the course of a career!
HEN-RIK!#NYR pic.twitter.com/jOaEz5Yya8
Scores
New Jersey Devils 4, New York Islanders 1
New York Rangers 5, Philadelphia Flyers 1
Dallas Stars 4, Detroit Red Wings 2
St. Louis Blues 2, Toronto Maple Leafs 1
Nashville Predators 1, Vegas Golden Knights 0
San Jose Sharks 3, Arizona Coyotes 2
Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.