Niederreiter with fateful penalty and New Jersey loses again

New Jersey still led 1:0 at the first intermission. "We actually got off to a pretty good start and were skating well," Devils forward Timo Meier told the official NHL channel. "In the second period, they took more and more control of the game and we fell back into old, bad habits." Like his Swiss teammates Nico Hischier and Jonas Siegenthaler, the Appenzeller remained without a scoring point.

The gap between the Devils and a playoff spot has grown to four points. After 44 of 82 games in the regular season, New Jersey is in danger of losing touch.

Niederreiter's fateful penalty

Nino Niederreiter's situation with Winnipeg is even worse. The Jets are in last place in the West with just 15 wins from 42 games. This despite a promising start to the season with only one defeat from the first six games.

The Grisons team suffered another bitter defeat on Friday night. Despite leading 3:1 after the first period, Winnipeg lost their home game against the Edmonton Oilers 3:4. Niederreiter was in the penalty box for the visitors' decisive goal with just under ten minutes to go after sending the puck over the boards into the crowd.

Josi's Predators still on the upswing

Roman Josi and Nashville, on the other hand, are on the up. After an almost hopeless starting position, the Predators are back in the playoff race. Since the captain returned to the team at the end of November after a month's break due to a broken hand, the Predators have been performing more consistently. After the 2:1 win on penalties against the New York Islanders, they are now just one point behind a wild card spot.

Akira Schmid also enjoyed a victorious evening with the Vegas Golden Knights. Following the injury to Carter Hart, the Emmental goalie was substituted at 0:1 in the first period in the home game against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Schmid turned away 21 of 23 shots and the Golden Knights, who are currently in a playoff spot, won 5:3.