The NHL has just four games on the schedule for today as bye weeks are about to start, including an afternoon matchup between the Nashville Predators and Colorado Avalanche. The Avalanche are trying desperately to stay within striking distance of the Predators in the Central Division, something that seems to be slipping away even as Nashville goes through some struggles of their own. As those teams and the rest of the league prepare for some time off for the All-Star break, we’ll keep track of all the minor moves.
- The Los Angeles Kings have returned Matt Luff to the Ontario Reign, given that today is their last game until February 2nd. Luff has ten points in 30 games for the Kings this season, but can spend the break playing big minutes for the Reign and continuing his offensive explosion at the minor league level.
- The Edmonton Oilers similarly have just a single game left before the break, meaning they can send Caleb Jones down to get some more playing time in the minor leagues. Jones has shown himself to be a capable NHL player this season, recording six points in 17 games for the Oilers and logging big minutes of late. He’ll almost assuredly be back up at some point, though several injured defensemen are set to return shortly meaning his minor league stint may be longer than expected.
“Jones has shown himself to be a capable NHL player this season…” Sorry, Gavin, Caleb Jones had a couple of dumb-luck good/OK games in a row, then has been a defensive liability ever since. He’s been struggling, BIG-time recently, as has the rest of the Edmonton D-core. Part, if not, most of that has to be thrown at the feet of Hitch and his suspect communication to his teams. The malaise he introduces stays with his former teams for long periods of time and looks like a bad case of mass-hypnosis. St. Louis is still infected, as well as Dallas. Now, count Edmonton as his latest victim.