Minnesota Wild at New York Rangers(Friday; 8 p.m. ET; NHLN, MSG+, BSN, NHL LIVE)
I'm looking forward to my former teammate,
Henrik Lundqvist
, getting honored before the game with his No. 30 being raised to the rafters at Madison Square Garden. But the game also should be good. Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin has been great and New York has found its replacement for Lundqvist. Adam Fox is day to day because of an upper-body injury sustained Thursday, but he continues to have a season worthy of repeating as winner of the Norris Trophy as the best defenseman in the NHL. We know how good forwards Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad are offensively, and forward Chris Kreider leads the NHL with 30 goals and could score 50.
For the Wild, Kirill Kaprizov is a star. The forward reached 100 points in the NHL in just 92 games. He's their first gamebreaker since Marian Gaborik. Forward Marcus Foligno has added scoring to his game, the goaltending with Cam Talbot and Kaapo Kahkonen has been good, and Minnesota has done well even with injuries and COVID-19 concerns.
San Jose Sharks at Florida Panthers(Saturday, 6 p.m. ET; BSFL, NBCSCA, ESPN+, NHL LIVE)
The Sharks are one of the surprise teams in the NHL this season. They've been really fun to watch and just defeated the Washington Capitals 4-1 on Wednesday. Coach Bob Boughner and his staff have done a great job. They've integrated a lot of young players in the lineup who have performed well. Defenseman Erik Karlsson was looking good until he had forearm surgery, which is a tough loss for them. Forwards Timo Meier and Tomas Hertl have led the way offensively.
The Panthers are dynamic. They've got nine players who have scored at least 25 points. Forward Jonathan Huberdeau is in the Hart Trophy conversation as NHL most valuable player, and center Aleksander Barkov and defenseman Aaron Ekblad just continue to do what they do. Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky has been great (21-4-3, 2.46 goals-against average, .922 save percentage). And coach Andrew Brunette has done a nice job since taking for Joel Quenneville on Oct. 29.
Vegas Golden Knights at Tampa Bay Lightning(Saturday, 7 p.m. ET; NHLN, BSSUN, ATTSN-RM, NHL LIVE)
This is could be a Stanley Cup Final preview. Forward Max Pacioretty recently returned for the Golden Knights, which is huge. They were without him and forward Mark Stone for a while and those two are gamechangers. It's been impressive to see Vegas play as well as it has without those two and with forward Jack Eichel not having played yet.
For the Lightning, Andrei Vasilevskiy is the best goalie on the planet, Victor Hedman is a perennial Norris Trophy finalist, and we know what forward Brayden Point brings offensively. But let's not forget the season forward Steven Stamkos is having. He leads the Lightning and is tied for sixth in the NHL with 51 points (20 goals, 31 assists) in 43 games and could score 100 points for the first time in his NHL career. Forward Corey Perry has made a nice impact with them, and after back-to-back Stanley Cup championships they still are hungry to win.
