At 4:52 of the second period, Mikko Rantanen scored his first goal as a member of the Hurricanes. One minute later (5:59), Jaccob Slavin made it 3-1. For a team as offensively challenged as the Blackhawks, that felt like a hill too steep to climb.

Having played the Carolina Hurricanes just a week and a half ago in the Windy City, the Chicago Blackhawks went down to Carolina to take them on again on Thursday night.

Although the Florida Panthers weren't able to string more than two wins together in the month of January, head coach Paul Maurice seems confident the defending Stanley Cup champions are headed in the right direction.

"We have star players, too, that don’t seem to be protected as well as some of the other teams’ stars," Blackhawks captain Foligno said.

As the 4-Nations Face-Off tournament and the resulting break loom in February, the Tampa Bay Lightning are seeking one key as January comes to a close: normalcy.

Boqvist becomes the third defenseman the Islanders acquired within the last week after bringing Tony DeAngelo in last Friday before acquiring Scott Perunovich from the St. Louis Blues on Monday.

Well, here we are. It’s the end of January, and the Chicago Blackhawks have already played 51 of their 82 games in the 2024-25 season. We all know by now it hasn’t been the greatest campaign.

The Sharks’ loss to Seattle marked the sixth time in the last seven games that they have given up three goals or more in a single period. To put that into more context, in January, 20 of the 32 teams managed to hold opposing teams, on average, to under three goals per game.

The Chicago Blackhawks did not play a pretty game, taking on a Carolina Hurricanes team down a player for the night. The effort was there, even when the decision-making wasn’t. Ultimately, the talent gap was too big to overcome in a hard-fought 3-2 loss in Raleigh.

Mikko Rantanen scored his first goal with Carolina, helping the Hurricanes beat the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 on Thursday night

Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs has been named Captain for Team USA for the 4 Nations Face-Off. It will run from Feb. 12-20 in Montreal and Boston.