Sidney Crosby, Clayton Keller and Dylan Larkin captained their clubs to wins Wednesday. Crosby, Keller and Larkin head to the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 in less than three weeks.
* The League unveiled a series of new Records.NHL.com pages ahead of the Milano Cortina Games featuring statistics, game-by-game results and recaps from each of the five prior tournaments with NHL participation (1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 & 2014).
* Patrick Kane can take another crack at passing Mike Modano for the most points by a U.S.-born player in NHL history when the Red Wings visit the Wild on ESPN as part of an eight-game Thursday. Modano, who played each of his first four seasons in Minnesota and is a hockey operations advisor for the Wild, is set to be on hand at Grand Casino Arena.
Milano Cortina-bound NHL Captains catapult clubs to wins Wednesday
Wednesday’s six-game slate featured a collection of Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026-bound NHL captains leading their teams to victories. More notes in addition to the ones below can be found in yesterday’s edition of #NHLStats: Live Updates.
* Sidney Crosby (0-1—1) factored on one of his team’s four goals as the Penguins (24-14-11, 59 points) skated to victory and leapfrogged the Islanders (27-17-5, 59 points) for second place in the Metropolitan Division standings. Crosby recorded his 785th career road point (301-484—785 in 701 GP) and surpassed Mario Lemieux (315-469—784 in 443 GP) for the eighth most in NHL history.
* Clayton Keller (59:25) scored the latest tying goal in franchise history and overtime winner as the Mammoth became the first team with points in each game during a homestand of at least seven contests since the Kings (7 GP from March 11-26, 2023). Keller, who ushered Utah to its second three-goal comeback win in club history (also Dec. 14, 2025), is a Missouri native and is set to reunite with his former St. Louis Jr. Blues teammates Matthew and Brady Tkachuk in Italy.
* Dylan Larkin (1-1—2) logged his 12th career overtime goal to tie Sergei Fedorov for the franchise record and help the Red Wings (31-16-4, 66 points) match the idle Lightning (31-13-4, 66 points) for the most points in the Atlantic Division. Detroit swept a season series against Toronto for the second time in franchise history (min. 4 GP) – the first instance was during the Red Wings’ 62-win season in 1995-96 (5-0-0).
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League unveils NEW Records.NHL.com pages for Olympics with NHL players
The National Hockey League debuted a series of pages on Records.NHL.com that provide statistics and information from the League’s participation in the Olympic Winter Games in advance of this February’s tournament in Milano Cortina, Italy. The new site section includes statistics, game-by-game results and recaps from each of the five prior Olympic Winter Games featuring NHL players (1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014). These pages will be updated to include statistics and information from the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, providing fans and media with a one-stop resource for information on the NHL’s participation in the tournament. Click here to explore the site.
* The celebration of the “Golden Goal” by Sidney Crosby (PIT; Team Canada) on home ice in 2010 tops the page listing the five gold medal-clinching goals at Olympics with NHL players, while Teemu Selanne is featured on the Skater Records page – where he and fellow Finnish forward Saku Koivu top the career lists for goals (Selanne: 17), assists (Koivu: 18) and points (Selanne: 32). Team Finland also tops the chart for total medals at Olympics with NHL players (4).
* Team USA accounts for two of the 12 hat tricks at these Games, including the most recent scored by Phil Kessel in 2014 against Slovenia. The runner up from that tournament, Team Sweden, can stake claim to having some of the top scoring defensemen across the five previous events: Nicklas Lidstrom shares the lead for career points among blueliners (14; tied with Marek Zidlicky of Team Czechia), while Erik Karlsson (PIT; Team Sweden) is the only defenseman to finish one of those tournaments as the scoring leader (he tied Kessel with eight points in 2014 while they represented the Senators and Maple Leafs, respectively).
* Click on the following links for the #NHLStats Pack for the Olympics, updated Jan. 21 following the Team USA roster change, and an NHL.com story featuring insights into how the new pages were built.
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QUICK CLICKS
* NHL Foundation sets own fundraising record at Go Forward! event
* NHL’s ‘My World’ YouTube docuseries features Avalanche‘s Martin Necas
* Josh Doan signs 7-year, $48.65 million contract with Sabres
* Ducks sport custom T-shirts to celebrate Alex Killorn’s 1,000th NHL game
* Seth Jones out for Olympics, replaced by Jackson LaCombe on Team USA
THURSDAY HAS RED WINGS–WILD ON ESPN, BLACKHAWKS–HURRICANES ON ESPN+
Thursday’s eight-game slate is headlined by Patrick Kane and the Red Wings visiting the Wild on ESPN as well as Sebastian Aho and the Hurricanes hosting the Blackhawks on ESPN+. Both contests are also available in Canada on Sportsnet ONE.
* Kane needs three points to pass Mike Modano (1,374) for the most by a U.S.-born player in League history and can do so in Minnesota, where Modano played each of his first four seasons after being selected by the North Stars with the No. 1 pick in the 1988 NHL Draft. Modano will be in attendance at Grand Casino Arena to watch Kane, who has 55 career points versus the Wild and needs one to pass longtime teammate Jonathan Toews for the sixth most against the franchise in League history.
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* Aho extended his multi-assist streak to a career high-tying three games during the Hurricanes’ win Monday (also 3 GP from Dec. 27-30, 2023), which also featured Brandon Bussi robbing Sabres star Tage Thompson of an open net during the second period. Ray Ferraro of ESPN, who played parts of his first seven seasons with the Hartford Whalers before the franchise relocated to Raleigh, has praised the play of Bussi and the Hurricanes’ offensive zone time this season.
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