The NHL has released the Three Stars from last week, with Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins taking home top spot. The veteran winger has been outstanding again this season, registering 43 points in just 30 games. With his six goals last week he has hit 20+ for the ninth consecutive season and leaves just the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season as the only year he’s missed that threshold in a 12-year NHL career (he had 18 in 45 games). Now 33, Marchand has been over a point-per-game in each of the last six seasons and currently sits eighth all-time in Bruins history with 758 points.
Second and third place went to Marc-Andre Fleury and Nikita Kucherov respectively, two more players who will likely be in the Hall of Fame one day. The Chicago Blackhawks netminder went 3-0 with a .957 save percentage and continues to create plenty of speculation as a deadline candidate around the league. Kucherov meanwhile tallied seven points in three games, taking his total to 13 in eight appearances this season. The 28-year-old now has 560 points in 523 career games.
- The Lightning will be without Zach Bogosian for the next two to three weeks with a lower-body injury according to Joe Smith of The Athletic, continuing what has been a brutal season for the veteran defenseman. Bogosian has played in just 23 games so far, coming out very few matches with a new injury. Certainly not the model of health throughout his career, Bogosian hasn’t played more than 65 games in a single season since he was a teenager with the Atlanta Thrashers.
- The Dallas Stars have placed Tanner Kero and a support staff member in the COVID protocol, further reducing the number of available bodies they have. Luckily, Denis Gurianov, Braden Holtby, and two other staff members were removed today and can rejoin the club. With players moving in and out on a daily basis, Riley Damiani, Rhett Gardner, and Thomas Harley have been brought back up to the taxi squad from the AHL.