Ovechkin, Meier among All-Star Weekend picks
Washington’s Alex Ovechkin and Edmonton teammates Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl headline the rosters for the NHL All-Star Weekend announced Thursday.
The Sharks’ Timo Meier is on the Pacific Division team for the event, which is scheduled for Feb. 4-5 in Las Vegas.
The All-Star Weekend features a three-game tournament played in a 3-on-3 format, with 11-man teams from each of the league’s four divisions. A player will be added to each team through Last Men In voting that ends Monday night.
Ovechkin was selected to the Metropolitan squad along with fellow forwards Sebastian Aho of Carolina, Claude Giroux of Philadelphia, Jack Hughes of New Jersey and Chris Kreider of the New York Rangers, defenseman Adam Fox of the Rangers, Zach Werenski of Columbus and Adam Pelech of the New York Islanders, and goalies Frederik Andersen of Carolina and Tristan Jarry of Pittsburgh.
McDavid and Draisaitl were selected to the Pacific team with fellow forwards Jordan Eberle of Seattle, Johnny Gaudreau
of Calgary, Adrian Kempe of Los Angeles, Meier, Mark Stone of Vegas, defenseman Alex Pietrangelo of Vegas and goalies John Gibson of Anaheim and Thatcher Demko of Vancouver.
Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy and defenseman Victor Hedman are set to represent the Atlantic along with forwards Auston Matthews of Toronto, Drake Batherson of Ottawa, Patrice Bergeron of Boston, Jonathan Huberdeau of Florida, Dylan Larkin of Detroit and Nick Suzuki of Montreal, defenseman Rasmus Dahlin of Buffalo and goalie Jack Campbell of Toronto.
In the Central, Nathan MacKinnon of Colorado was selected along with fellow forwards Kyle Connor of Winnipeg, Alex DeBrincat of Chicago, Kirill Kaprizov of Minnesota, Clayton Keller of Arizona,
Jordan Kyrou of St. Louis, Joe Pavelski of Dallas, defenseman Cale Makar of Colorado and goalies Juuse Saros of Nashville and Cam Talbot of Minnesota.
Thursday’s games
Bruins 3, Flyers 2: David Pastrnak had a hat trick and Tuukka Rask made 24 saves in his season debut in his return from hip surgery as host Boston beat Philadelphia. Rask, the winningest goalie in Bruins history, made his season debut after recovering from surgery last summer to repair a torn labrum. Rask was solid in net and got plenty of help from his teammates, who held Philadelphia to 27 shots as the Bruins won their fourth straight and seventh in eight games. Cam Atkinson and Joel Farabee scored for Philadelphia, which lost its sixth in a row.
Blue Jackets 6, Hurricanes 0: Yegor Chinakhov scored two goals and Elvis Merzlikins posted a 31-save shutout for visiting Columbus. Carolina was shut out for the first time this season.
Lightning 4, Canucks 2: Steven Stamkos scored his team-leading 18th goal and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 24 saves for host Tampa Bay.
Islanders 3, Devils 2: Mathew Barzal scored with less than five minutes left in the third period as host New York won to extend its points streak to five games (4-0-1).
Jets 3, Red Wings 0: Connor Hellebuyck made 33 saves for his second shutout of the season and Andrew Copp scored twice for visiting Winnipeg.
COVID-19 updates: Boston placed Matt Grzelcyk, Tyler Lewington and Jach Ahcan into the NHL’s COVID-19 protocols . ... The list of players entering COVID-19 protocols also includes Minnesota’s Joel Eriksson Ek and Winnipeg’s Paul Stastny . ... New Jersey’s Nathan Bastian, Andreas Johnsson, Yegor Sharangovich and Pavel Zacha were among the players to exit COVID-19 protocols.
Briefly: Montreal defenseman Chris Wideman received a one-game suspension for head-butting Boston’s Erik Haula on Wednesday . ... Edmonton goalie Mike Smith is expected to be sidelined for at least a week because of a thumb injury, coach Dave Tippett told reporters.