NHL Morning Skate for January 11

* Moritz Seider, Evgeni Malkin and Nikita Kucherov each posted four-point performances to propel their respective clubs to victories.

* The Penguins erased a three-goal deficit in the first period and the Avalanche nearly completed a three-goal, third-period comeback Tuesday as the League maintained one of its highest rates of multi-goal comeback wins ever at this stage of a season.
* The 2022-23 NHL season will eclipse its halfway mark during Wednesday's four-game slate, which features national telecasts in both Canada and the U.S.

FOUR-POINT GAMES GUIDE RED WINGS, PENGUINS AND LIGHTNING TO VICTORIES

Moritz Seider (0-4-4), Evgeni Malkin (2-2-4) and Nikita Kucherov (2-2-4) registered the NHL's 10th, 11th and 12th outing with four-plus points in 2023 to propel the Red Wings (17-15-7, 41 points), Penguins (21-13-6, 48 points) and Lightning (25-13-1, 51 points) to victories. Pittsburgh and Detroit are separated by three teams and seven points in the race for the second Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference.
* Seider (0-4-4) factored on four of his team's seven goals - including three in the first period - to match a franchise record for most assists in a game by a defenseman, a feat last achieved by Mike Green on Oct. 5, 2017 (0-4-4 vs. MIN). Seider also became the fourth active blueliner with four helpers in a game at age 21 or younger, joining Samuel Girard (0-4-4 on Jan. 2, 2020), Cale Makar (0-4-4 on Nov. 16, 2019) and Drew Doughty (0-4-4 on Jan. 4, 2010).
* Seider became the second Red Wings player in the past decade to record three assists in a single period, joining Anthony Mantha who did so on Feb. 20, 2019 (P3). He is also the first defenseman to record as many assists in a period with the club in nearly 25 years.
* Despite his team falling behind 3-0 in the first 7:05 of play, Malkin factored on four of Pittsburgh's five consecutive goals to help the Penguins become the ninth different team to register a three-goal comeback win this season - Edmonton (Oct. 12, 2022 & Nov. 26, 2022) is the only club with multiple such victories. At 36 years and 163 days, Malkin became the oldest Penguins player with a four-point game since Bill Guerin (2-2-4 on Dec. 23, 2009; 39 years, 44 days).
* Vancouver and Pittsburgh are no strangers to back-and-forth, high-scoring affairs following a Nov. 27, 2019 matchup - Pittsburgh built a 2-0 lead before Vancouver went ahead 4-2. The Canucks would eventually extend their lead to 6-3 before five unanswered goals gave the Penguins an 8-6 victory.
* Kucherov scored the first of his four points on Tampa Bay's game-opening goal 1:40 into the contest and assisted on Brayden Point's third-period tally as the latter extended his home goal streak to nine contests. The Lightning extended their win streak at AMALIE Arena to eight games - the Bruins (14 GP from Oct. 15 - Dec. 3, 2022) and Hurricanes (8 GP from Nov. 26 - Dec. 30, 2022) are the only other teams with a home stretch of at least that length in 2022-23.
* Kucherov's 21st career game with at least four points boosted his 2022-23 totals to 16-43-59 (39 GP) and moved him past David Pastrnak (32-26-58), Tage Thompson (31-26-57) and Jason Robertson (29-29-58) for third place in the Art Ross Trophy race.

MULTI-GOAL MADNESS AS SEASON APPROACHES HALFWAY MARK. . .

Four of 10 games contested Tuesday were multi-goal comeback wins, with the Rangers, Devils and Blues all overcoming two-goal deficits to follow the lead of the Penguins who triggered their three-goal rally before the opening period was over.
* There have been 81 multi-goal comeback victories overall this season (653 GP), amounting to 12% of all games which ranks among the highest rates at this stage of a season in League history.
* Dawson Mercer cut the Devils' deficit to 3-2, assisted on the tying tally by Jesper Boqvist (1-1-2) 18 seconds later and scored the winning goal in highlight-reel fashion as New Jersey (26-12-3, 55 points) rallied past Carolina (25-9-7, 57 points) and moved within two points of the Metropolitan Division leaders. Mercer recorded the first two-goal game of his NHL career for the Devils, who earned their second straight multi-goal comeback win and League-leading fifth such victory of the season.
* Jordan Kyrou (1-2-3) was one of two players to score his 20th goal of the season Tuesday night (also Alex Tuch) and helped the Blues capture a third-period, multi-goal comeback win for the third time in 2022-23 - tied with the Kings, Islanders and Ducks for the most this season. With the NHL hitting the halfway mark Wednesday, the League's 23 skaters with 20-plus goals can be the most at this stage of a campaign since 1995-96 (25).

. . . WHILE PANTHERS HOLD OFF THIRD-PERIOD RALLY FROM DEFENDING CHAMPS

Matthew Tkachuk (2-0-2) potted the go-ahead goal with 3:30 remaining in the third period as the reigning Presidents' Trophy-winning Panthers (19-19-4, 42 points) withstood a three-goal, third-period comeback from the defending Stanley Cup-champion Avalanche (20-16-3, 43 points) on ESPN+ as both clubs look to climb back into the playoff picture in the second half of the 2022-23 season.

BENIERS, KRAKEN EXTENDING STREAKS FEATURED IN #NHLSTATS: LIVE UPDATES

The latest edition of #NHLStats: Live Updates featured more notes from Tuesday, including Matty Beniers (5-4-9 in 5 GP) extending his goal streak to a franchise-record five contests and helping the Kraken improve to 6-0-0 in their last six games. Seattle's winning streak includes a 5-0-0 mark through the first five contests of their season-high seven-game road trip, with the Kraken outscoring opponents by a combined 26-10 margin since the journey began on Jan. 3.

QUICK CLICKS

\
Alexander Skarsgard, Ryan Reynolds show Henrik Lundqvist love on MSG Jumbotron
\
Penguins travel to Montreal for wake of Kris Letang's father
\
Justin Kirkland of Ducks released from hospital after car accident
\
Hurricanes wear Raleigh IceCaps warmup jerseys
*

WEDNESDAY'S SLATE FEATURES NHL ON TNT, TVA SPORTS DOUBLEHEADERS

A four-game Wednesday is highlighted by an NHL on TNT clash between the Kings (24-14-6, 54 points) and Sharks (13-21-8 34 points) at Crypto.com Arena, a TVA Sports tangle involving the Oilers (21-18-3, 45 points) and Ducks (12-25-4, 28 points) at Honda Center and both networks carrying the contest featuring the Predators (19-14-6, 44 points) and Maple Leafs (25-9-7, 57 points) at Scotiabank Arena. The slate will bring the 2022-23 NHL season's games total to 657 (50.1% of 1,312 GP).
Download the PDF
.