NHL Recaps: Thursday, Dec 28, 2023

4 games: what happened that matters for your fantasy team, built from the play-by-play and shift charts.

Game recaps

Final

Full report

Montreal Canadiens

Carolina Hurricanes

Carolina Hurricanes beat Montreal Canadiens 5–3

Carolina Hurricanes beat Montreal Canadiens 5–3 at home. Sebastian Aho (CAR) led the scoring with 0G 4A. MTL's first power-play unit (Matheson, Monahan, Suzuki, Caufield and Slafkovský) scored 1 power-play goal on 4 attempts in 3:35 together.

•Andrei Svechnikov had a hat trick (3 points) on 3 shots in 16:07.
•Sebastian Aho had 4 assists (4 points) on 2 shots in 18:04.
•Brent Burns had 3 assists (3 points) on 1 shot in 20:48.

Full report: shot map, shifts, lines, box score →

Philadelphia Flyers beat Vancouver Canucks 4–1

Philadelphia Flyers beat Vancouver Canucks 4–1 at VAN. Joel Farabee (PHI) led the scoring with 1G 1A. Travis Konecny (PHI) played 14:55, −4:59 down on his 19:54 season average over 75 games.

•Joel Farabee had a goal and an assist (2 points) on 1 shot in 16:51.
•Travis Konecny (PHI) played 14:55, −4:59 down on his 19:54 season average over 75 games.
•Tyson Foerster (PHI) played 13:06, −4:13 down on his 17:19 season average over 76 games.

Full report: shot map, shifts, lines, box score →

Vegas Golden Knights edge Los Angeles Kings 3–2

Vegas Golden Knights beat Los Angeles Kings 3–2 at home. Anze Kopitar (LAK) led the scoring with 1G 1A. New look for VGK: Karlsson–Marchessault–Cotter skated 13:43 together at 5v5 as the L1 trio (32.3% of the shot attempts), a combination not used in the team's last 5 games.

•Anze Kopitar had a goal and an assist (2 points) on 3 shots in 19:38.
•New look for VGK: Karlsson–Marchessault–Cotter skated 13:43 together at 5v5 as the L1 trio (32.3% of the shot attempts), a combination not used in the team's last 5 games.
•Ben Hutton (VGK) played 6:37, −9:53 down on his 16:30 season average over 40 games.

Full report: shot map, shifts, lines, box score →

Edmonton Oilers rout San Jose Sharks 5–0

Edmonton Oilers beat San Jose Sharks 5–0 at SJS. Zach Hyman (EDM) led the scoring with 1G 1A. Connor McDavid (EDM) played 16:05, −5:21 down on his 21:26 season average over 75 games.

•Evan Bouchard had a goal and an assist (2 points) on 2 shots in 21:51.
•Ryan McLeod had a goal and an assist (2 points) on 2 shots in 14:06.
•Zach Hyman had a goal and an assist (2 points) on 4 shots in 15:19.

Full report: shot map, shifts, lines, box score →

Goal of the night

The hardest tracked shot of the night: Evan Bouchard for EDM @ SJS, 78.4 mph. Full game report →

Evan Bouchard (EDM @ SJS): Point shot, 3 passes, 78.4 mph shot.

Top performers

Player	Game	G	A	P	SOG	Hits	Blk	TOI	PP
Sebastian Aho CAR	vs MTL	0	4	4	2	0	0	18:04	—
Andrei Svechnikov CAR	vs MTL	3	0	3	3	2	0	16:07	—
Brent Burns CAR	vs MTL	0	3	3	1	0	2	20:48	—
Jesper Fast CAR	vs MTL	2	0	2	3	1	0	16:09	—
Zach Hyman EDM	at SJS	1	1	2	4	0	0	15:19	—
Anze Kopitar LAK	at VGK	1	1	2	3	0	1	19:38	—
Evan Bouchard EDM	at SJS	1	1	2	2	0	1	21:51	—
Ryan McLeod EDM	at SJS	1	1	2	2	0	0	14:06	—
Joel Farabee PHI	at VAN	1	1	2	1	1	2	16:51	—
Darnell Nurse EDM	at SJS	0	2	2	2	0	2	19:38	—
Brayden McNabb VGK	vs LAK	0	1	1	2	4	5	25:55	—
Jayden Struble MTL	at CAR	0	1	1	2	3	5	16:38	—

Line changes

New look for VGK: Karlsson–Marchessault–Cotter skated 13:43 together at 5v5 as the L1 trio (32.3% of the shot attempts), a combination not used in the team's last 5 games. Report →
New look for VGK: Stephenson–Amadio–Dorofeyev skated 10:07 together at 5v5 as the L3 trio (17.9% of the shot attempts), a combination not used in the team's last 5 games. Report →

Goalie notes

Goalie	Game	Dec	SA	GA	SV%
Logan Thompson VGK	vs LAK	W	34	2	.941
Cam Talbot LAK	at VGK	L	32	3	.906
Cayden Primeau MTL	at CAR	L	30	4	.867
Casey DeSmith VAN	vs PHI	L	25	4	.840
Stuart Skinner EDM	at SJS	W	25	0	.1000
Antti Raanta CAR	vs MTL	W	21	3	.857
Samuel Ersson PHI	at VAN	W	19	1	.947
Kaapo Kahkonen SJS	vs EDM	—	18	1	.944
Magnus Chrona SJS	vs EDM	L	12	4	.667
Carter Hart PHI	at VAN	—	8	0	.1000

Next up: tonight's starting goalies, today's line combinations and today's games. Takeaways are generated from the numbers with fixed rules; nothing is written by a language model.