Los Angeles Kings head coach Todd McLellan reserved special praise for Quinton Byfield after the youngster helped his team to a 3-2 victory over the Dallas Stars.
After placing forward Arthur Kaliyev on injured reserve last week, Byfield was promoted from the Kings' AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign.
The 20-year-old – who was the No. 2 overall pick for the Kings in the 2020 draft – claimed an assist in Tuesday's contest at Crypto.com Arena, with goals on the night coming from forwards Rasmus Kupari, Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe.
Speaking after the win, McLellan outlined his admiration for Byfield's all-round performance, saying: "I thought he had a tremendous game. He's always been fast and quick, but he really used his body to his advantage.
"He stripped pucks, he created and loosened up pucks for his linemates, backchecking, he caught people from behind, he was responsible defensively and he set up a number of offensive plays.
"To me, that was as good a game as we've seen from Q all year and he had some good ones at the beginning. Real positive sign for him."
Although beaten twice in the contest, first by Miro Heiskanen and then Jason Robertson, Kings goaltender Pheonix Copley made 28 saves as his team produced their seventh win from their last nine games.
"The game as a whole was very competitive," McLellan said. "It was a hard, heavy, physical – not always big hits – but just the battles for loose pucks and for ice, it had a big forecheck component to it.
"That part of it and for us to play the way we did, a lot of things we had to fix from the last time we were in Dallas and I thought we accomplished some of that."
The Kings are now 22-13-6 for the season and sit second in the Pacific Division on 50 points, but their coach is only looking as far as the next game, which comes at home to the Boston Bruins on Friday before a trip to the Las Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday, who sit four points ahead of L.A.
"I think we can be [a 100 point team], we're working towards that, but our goal is to become a 52 point team," McLellan added.
"I know that's not what you want to hear but the team coming in here on Thursday, what are they shooting for, their 70th point, that's the type of challenge that we have.
"Then the next game after that, we've got to go into Las Vegas and play and then after that we have Edmonton coming in. So, this string of games right now, every night is a big battle and I think if we start thinking about big numbers and chunks, it's not going to do us any good. One at a time."
NHL: Forsberg's goal in OT gives Predators sixth straight win
Filip Forsberg scored just 14 seconds into overtime to lift the Nashville Predators to their sixth consecutive win, 3-2 over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday.
Michael McCarron scored twice in the first period and Juuse Saros stopped 29 shots for Nashville, which followed a four-game losing streak with wins in six straight.
Evgeni Malkin and Bryan Rust had goals for the Penguins, who dropped to 2-4-1 in their last seven.
Gustav Nyquist assisted on McCarron’s first goal to extend his point streak to nine games. He has two goals and nine assists during that stretch.
Pittsburgh went scoreless on both power-play opportunities and is 0 for 20 over the last eight games.
Wild stop slide in Hynes’ debut
Joel Eriksson Ek and Frederick Gaudreau scored first-period goals and the Minnesota Wild snapped a seven-game losing streak with a 3-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues in John Hynes’ debut as coach.
Matt Boldy added a goal in the third period and Filip Gustavsson stopped 23 shots for Minnesota, playing its first game under Hynes after the Wild fired Dean Evason on Monday.
Colton Parayko scored for the Blues, who dropped to 3-4-0 in their past seven games.
Devils score 3 in third period to rally past Islanders
Curtis Lazar scored with 23 seconds left to cap a three-goal third period and rally the New Jersey Devils to a 5-4 win over the New York Islanders.
New York took a 4-2 lead into the third period, but Jack Hughes scored at 5:08 and Nico Hischier netted the equaliser on a 4-on-3 power play with 8:50 remaining.
Michael McLeod and Dawson Mercer also scored for the Devils, who have won two straight after losing six of seven.
Mathew Barzal had a goal and two assists for the Islanders, who had a six-game point streak snapped (3-1-3).
NHL: Avalanche extend win streak, Bruins lose
Ryan Johansen scored two goals to back 37 saves from Alexandar Georgiev as the Colorado Avalanche extended their winning streak to four games with Monday's 4-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Cale Makar added a goal and an assist for the Central Division-leading Avalanche, who also received an empty-net goal from Valeri Nichushkin and two assists from Nathan MacKinnon to stop the Lightning's five-game point streak. Tampa Bay came in 4-0-1 over its last five outings.
Georgiev had 13 saves in the first period and Johansen scored unassisted 7:12 in to put Colorado in front. Johansen struck again 1:48 into the second before Makar made it a 3-0 lead with a power-play goal less than two minutes later.
Anthony Cirelli scored the Lightning's lone goal in the final minute of the second period, but Georgiev stopped all 12 Tampa Bay attempts in the third before Nichuskin scored into an empty net with 3:14 left.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 19 of 22 shots in the Lightning goaltender's second game back from offseason back surgery.
Blue Jackets send skidding Bruins to third straight loss
Spencer Martin made 31 saves and Yegor Chinakhov had a goal and an assist as the surging Columbus Blue Jackets dealt the suddenly slumping Boston Bruins a 5-2 loss.
Dmitri Voronkov, Ivan Provorov, Kirill Marchenko and Justin Danforth also had goals as Columbus won for the third time in four games following a 4-11-4 start to the season.
The Bruins, meanwhile, have suffered three straight regulation losses following a sizzling 14-1-3 start.
Voronkov scored the lone goal in the first period before the Blue Jackets extended the lead to 3-0 on goals by Provorov and Chinakhov in the second. Marchenko pushed the margin further with a power-play goal 4:51 into the third.
Matthew Poitras and John Beecher had third-period goals for Boston, which pulled starting goaltender Jeremy Swayman after Provorov scored 5:38 into the second.
Swayman stopped 17 of 19 shots before departing, while Linus Ullmark turned back 18 of 20 chances in relief.
Tuch scores twice as Sabres pull away from Rangers
Alex Tuch had a pair of goals and the Buffalo Sabres scored three times late in the third period to pull away for a 5-1 win over the New York Rangers.
Tuch, Casey Mittelstadt and Kyle Okposo all scored in the final 4:29 of the game after New York cut its deficit to 2-1 on Mika Zibanejad's goal with just over eight minutes elapsed in the third period.
Mittelstadt, Victor Olofsson and Owen Power each had two assists to help Buffalo move to 3-1-1 over its last five games. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen finished with 25 saves for the Sabres.
Buffalo had taken a 2-0 lead on JJ Peterka's goal in the first period and Tuch's first of the night, which came with 27 seconds left in the second.
Igor Shesterkin stopped 34 of 38 shots for the Rangers, who had a three-game winning streak snapped and sustained just their fourth regulation loss of the season.
Slumping Wild fire head coach Dean Evason
The Minnesota Wild fired head coach Dean Evason and top assistant Bob Woods on Monday.
The shake-up comes a day after the Wild’s 4-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings extended their losing streak to seven games. Minnesota is 2-8-3 in their last 13 games.
General manager Bill Guerin released a statement announcing the moves.
“Dean did an excellent job during his tenure with the Minnesota Wild, especially as head coach of our team,” Guerin said. “I am very thankful for his hard work and dedication to our organization … I wish Dean, Bob and their families all the best in the future.”
Guerin’s statement did not mention who would take over coaching duties, but The Athletic reported that former New Jersey Devils and Nashville Predators bench boss John Hynes would be the Wild’s next coach.
Evason, 59, landed his first NHL head coaching job when he took over behind the Wild’s bench mid-season in 2020, replacing Bruce Boudreau.
Evason led the Wild to a franchise-record 113 points during the 2021-22 season and followed up with another 100-point campaign last season.
The Wild had three straight first-round play-off exits under Evason, however, and this year’s frigid start was enough to prompt a change.
Evason had a 147-77-27 record behind Minnesota’s bench.
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