Tuesday's hockey: Canadiens take wild-card spot; Trump, Putin talk U.S.-Russia series
Montreal — Nick Suzuki’s power-play goal late in the third period lifted the Montreal Canadiens over Ottawa 6-3 on Tuesday night, snapping the Senators six-game winning streak.
The Canadiens moved into the second wild-card spot with 73 points, three points ahead of the Detroit Red Wings who lost 4-1 to the Washington Capitals.
Josh Anderson scored twice, including an empty-netter, while Lane Hutson and Christian Dvorak also had goals for Montreal. Brendan Gallagher added a second into the empty net and Sam Montembeault stopped 22 shots.
Travis Hamonic had a goal and an assist for the Senators while Michael Amadio and Drake Batherson also found the back of the net. Linus Ullmark made 27 saves.
Suzuki buried his shot into an open cage at 15:23 after Ullmark failed to properly cover the puck, helping Montreal take a 4-3 lead. The Canadiens have now won three of their last four games.
More Tuesday NHL games
Calgary 2, (at) N.Y. Rangers 1: Nazem Kadri and Matt Coronato scored first-period goals and Calgary beat New York.
Defenseman MacKenzie Weegar added two assists and Kadri aslo had an assist for the Flames who snapped a three-game losing streak. Dan Vladar made 12 saves.
Artemi Panarin scored his 30th goal for the Rangers, and Igor Shesterkin finished with 33 saves. New York lost its second straight with another subpar home performance as it was outshot 35-13.
N.Y. Islanders 4, (at) PIttsburgh 2: Pierre Engvall scored the tiebreaking goal in New York’s four-goal third period, and the Islanders rallied to beat Pittsburgh.
Kyle Palmieri had a goal and two assists, Noah Dobson added a goal and an assist, and Simon Holmstrom also scored to help New York get four goals in the third after trailing 2-0 for the second straight game. Ilya Sorokin finished with 20 saves.
Sidney Crosby scored his 24th goal, Joona Koppanen got the first of his NHL career and Tristan Jarry stopped 34 shots for the Penguins, who snapped a four-game win streak.
St. Louis 4, (at) Nashville 1: Jordan Kyrou scored two goals, Joel Hofer made 22 saves and St. Louis defeated Nashville.
Justin Faulk and Jake Neighbours each had a goal and an assist and Dylan Holloway had three assists for St. Louis, winners of three straight.
Brady Skjei scored and Juuse Saros, playing in his 400th career game, made 17 saves for the Predators, losers of three straight.
(At) Dallas 4, Anaheim 3 (OT): Mikael Granlund’s second goal of the game 2:32 into overtime gave him 600 career points and lifted Dallas to a come-from-behind win over Anaheim.
Defenseman Thomas Harley had a goal and two assists and Wyatt Johnston also scored for the Stars, who have won eight consecutive home games for the first time since January-March 2006. Jake Oettinger made 22 saves.
Leo Carlsson scored two goals, one on a penalty shot, and rookie Nikita Nesterenko also scored for the Ducks, who are 2-5-1 in their last eight games. Lukas Dostal stopped 27 shots.
Seattle 6, (at) Chicago 2: Shane Wright scored twice, Adam Larsson had a goal and two assists, and Seattle beat Chicago.
Matty Beniers (Michigan) had a goal and an assist, Jordan Eberle and Jared McCann also scored, and Andre Burakovsky had two assits for the Kraken, who trailed by two late in the first period. Joey Daccord stopped 26 shots to move to 23-18-4 on the season.
Tyler Bertuzzi had a goal and an assist, and Connor Bedard also scored for Chicago, which has lost six of its last seven games (1-4-2). Spencer Knight had 24 saves.
(At) Edmonton 7, Utah 1: Zach Hyman (Michigan) had two goals and an assist and Calvin Pickard stopped 29 shots as Edmonton beat Utah.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Connor McDavid and Mattias Ekholm each had a goal and two assists, and Vasily Podkolzin and Viktor Arvidsson also scored for the Oilers, who pulled two points behind first-place Vegas in the Pacific Division.
Sean Durzi scored for Utah. Karel Vejmelka gave up three goals on 14 shots in the first period, and Jaxson Stauber had 24 saves over the final 40 minutes.
(At) Vancouver 6, Winnipeg 2: Brock Boeser scored twice and had an assist as Vancouver handed Winnipeg a drubbing.
Ex-Wing Pius Suter added two goals, including one into an empty net, while Nils Hoglander and Drew O’Connor had one goal each and Quinn Hughes contributed two assists. Kevin Lankinen stopped 19 of the 21 shots he faced.
Nikolaj Ehlers and Alex Iafallo scores for the Jets, whose three-game win streak came to an end. Connor Hellebuyck made 16 saves.
Trump, Putin discuss U.S.-Russia hockey series
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin discussed staging a series of hockey games between players from their respective countries during their lengthy call Tuesday, according to the Kremlin.
Moscow said in its recap of the call that Trump supported Putin’s idea to organize games in the U.S. and Russia involving players from the NHL and the KHL, and agreed to remain in contact on all issues raised on the call, which was scheduled to discuss the war in Ukraine. The White House's report of the call did not mention talks involving hockey, and the NHL learned of the idea after it was over.
“We have just become aware of the conversation between President Trump and President Putin,” the NHL said in a statement sent to The Associated Press. “Obviously, we were not a party to those discussions, and it would be inappropriate for us to comment at this time.”
A message sent to USA Hockey seeking comment was not immediately returned.
The call is Trump's latest foray into the sport after calling in to speak to the U.S. team at the 4 Nations Face-Off last month before the final, which ended in a 3-2 overtime loss to Canada. The U.S. anthem was booed in Montreal during the international tournament after Trump's repeated comments about making Canada “the 51st state” and tariffs that have triggered a trade war between the North American neighbors.
Putin's love of hockey as his favorite sport is widely known. He attended the Russia-U.S. preliminary round game at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, famously won in a shootout by American T.J. Oshie.
The countries' rivalry on the ice dates to the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” when an underdog group of U.S. amateurs beat the heavily favored Soviet Union in the medal round on the way to capturing Olympic gold in Lake Placid, New York.
The Russians, playing as the Olympic Athletes from Russia because of previous doping violations, won men's hockey gold at the Games in 2018 when the NHL did not participate for the first time since 1994.
Russia has been banned by the International Ice Hockey Federation for all tournaments the organization runs since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. A decision has not yet been reached about the 2026 Milan Olympics, with NHL players returning, though the International Olympic Committee did not allow Russian teams to take part last summer in Paris, permitting only individual athletes as neutral competitors.
The NHL has continued to allow Russian players in their league, most prominently Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals as he chases down Wayne Gretzky's career goals record. Some of the most talented players in the league are from Russia, including Tampa Bay goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy and forward Nikita Kucherov and Minnesota's Kirill Kaprizov.
The NHL Players' Association and league have plans to hold a World Cup of Hockey in 2028, though it is unclear if Russians will be part of it.
“Russia has a great hockey tradition. We have great Russian players playing in our league,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said at the 4 Nations in Montreal. “The International Ice Hockey Federation just voted to keep Russia out of competitions, as have many of sports, and we’re going to have to see what the International Olympic Committee does. But we have enough time to deal with the realities of what the world situation looks like before that.”
Union executive director Marty Walsh said members from Russia he has spoken to want to be able to represent their country again on the world stage.
“I’d love to see our Russian players playing in the tournaments again,” Walsh said last month. “They are incredible hockey players. The issues are political. It’s not political as far as NHL. It’s the world politics we have to get through. I am hoping that as we get closer to the Olympics, closer to the World Cup, we will start seeing Russian athletes back in competition.”
Teams from the NHL and KHL have had games against each other in the past, most recently the Premiere Challenge in 2010 when the Carolina Hurricanes faced off against SKA Saint Petersburg and the Phoenix Coyotes played Dinamo Riga. NHL teams also faced the Soviet Red Army team in exhibitions in the 1970s, and the USSR played Canada in Summit Series in ‘72 and ’74.
Skate cut protection discussed at GMs meeting
Manalapan, Fla. — Tom Fitzgerald and wife Kerry watched their son Casey's American Hockey League game on a cellphone at a restaurant bar on Dec. 28 and saw him come out of the corner on an otherwise innocuous play holding his hand to the right side of his neck.
He had been cut by a skate blade just above his neck guard and was bleeding when trainers rushed to him and got him into an ambulance. The only update his parents received, from Hartford's trainer through his girlfriend, was that the bleeding was stopped and Casey was on the way to the hospital.
“He called us from the ambulance on the way to the hospital, saying: ‘I’m OK. I’m going to be OK,’” Tom Fitzgerald recalled. “We kind of broke down there.”
Casey Fitzgerald survived the skate cut to the neck, which came a little over a year since Adam Johnson died from one while playing in a game in England, and his father – the general manager of the New Jersey Devils – gave an impassioned plea on the subject Tuesday at the NHL GMs meeting.
“I don’t wish that on any parent,” Tom Fitzgerald said. “My message was just: ‘Tell the players you don’t want your parents potentially going through something like this, how scary it is. Put as much protection on as you possibly can because you’re going to stop playing at some point, and you’re going to have to live the rest of your life, so live it.'”
Fitzgerald's poignant speech to the group comes amid the sport's rapid evolution on neck guards in light of Johnson's tragic death. Cut-resistant neck, wrist and Achilles tendon protection that is now mandated in the U.S. and Canada at youth levels and up through the minors in the ECHL and AHL is available to players but not required at the NHL level.
“We have to move in the direction that we’re protecting our players the best we can,” said San Jose GM Mike Grier, who is close to the Fitzgerald family from their sons growing up playing together. "We have to encourage our players to protect themselves.”
The Players’ Association would have to agree to any mandate, much like with the decision to grandfather in half-shield face visors just over a decade ago. The union and league have studied the topic for years, and NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh has said those conversations are ongoing.
“The joint NHL/NHLPA Protective Equipment Subcommittee provides education to players and teams regarding cut-resistant equipment that is available to all players,” the Players’ Association said in a statement sent to The Associated Press on Tuesday. "The NHLPA’s emphasis is on making sure players have the necessary information to make informed choices about their equipment. Our membership continues to feel strongly that wearing cut-resistant equipment is a matter of individual preference.”
Some prominent skate cuts, such as Erik Karlsson's torn Achilles tendon in 2013, made Kevlar socks more widely used around the NHL. Johnson's death has ramped up production of neck guards to the point that there are more than 30 approved pieces of equipment available for players now.
“In the old days we started this process, ‘Oh, I don’t want to wear that, it’s too tight, it’s too restrictive, it’s too hot,'” NHL vice president of hockey operations Rod Pasma said. “Well, there’s so many options now to the players that whatever their issues are with a comfort or with a breathability or whatever, there’s other options to try.”
Pasma gave his annual safety presentation, updating GMs on the cuts and near-misses this season, followed by video clips of them. The last one in the montage was of Casey Fitzgerald, along with photos of the cut to the neck that required 25 stitches.
“They showed the before and after, and I think that’s what caught a lot of people’s attention of, ‘Well, wow’ and really how lucky he was,” Tom Fitzgerald said. “The more I talked the more I started getting choked up a bit just thinking how lucky we are."
Fitzgerald and Grier acknowledged they sound like hypocrites because they chose not to wear visors while playing. But now they are encouraging those on their teams to consider putting on cut-resistant gear.
There is a process in place to educate players on skate cut protection: a mandated video of near-misses shown during training camp, when players are provided with their options. Pasma acknowledged players are “creatures of habit” who want to make their own decisions as professionals, but efforts will likely ramp up to make cut-resistant materials as much a part of hockey as helmets and shin guards.
“Does it go to a place like the visors went to a number of years? I’d say that’s got the potential,” Pasma said. "The good news is, is the players, almost all the players that are coming into the National Hockey League, playing their first game in the National Hockey League have already worn the gear, so they’re used to it.”
It's nothing new to the Fitzgerald family. Tom made all four of his sons put on Kevlar socks when they got on the ice as kids, telling them, “If you’re not putting them on, you’re not playing.” He cannot enforce that mandate with the Devils just yet but hopes Casey's experience is another step toward full neck protection.
"I get worried," Fitzgerald said. "Why the players don’t think big picture versus just it’s about my career today. And if they ever thought of their parents watching what we watched, maybe they’d think differently.”
Wild-card playoff race
Atlantic
▶ Florida 85
▶ Tampa Bay 83
▶ Toronto 83
Metropolitan
▶ Washington 98
▶ Carolina 86
▶ New Jersey 80
Wild-card spots
▶ Ottawa 77
▶ Montreal 73
Non-playoff teams
▶ N.Y. Rangers 72
▶ Detroit 70
▶ Columbus 70
▶ N.Y. Islanders 70
▶ Boston 69
▶ Pittsburgh 66
▶ Philadelphia 64
▶ Buffalo 60
Michigan schedule
Tuesday
Capitals 4, Red Wings 1
Friday
Rockford at Grand Rapids, 7
Western Michigan vs. North Dakota in St. Paul, 7:30
Saturday
Red Wings at Vegas, 8
Rockford at Grand Rapids, 8
Ohio State at Michigan State, 7:30