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Good morning, hockey folks. With 10 more games last night and 25 coming this weekend, can you believe the NHL season is about to hit the 450-game mark and will be more than one-third over? Me neither.

And you know what that means: The Olympics are coming fast …

Santaguilia Arena in Milan on Nov. 26. (Vincenzo Lombardo / Getty Images)

Rinky-dink: Will the Olympic arena be ready?

The arena for the men’s and women’s tournament in Milan has been making headlines for weeks now, with construction delays meaning test events have been pushed back to mid-January — less than a month before official games will be played at the Olympics.

Then, after Team Canada assistant coach Pete DeBoer mentioned on Toronto radio earlier this week that the Olympic ice surface is going to be three feet smaller than normal, the story really blew up across the hockey world.

Some NHL players who are headed to the Olympics were surprised that this could happen at such a high-profile event.

“I’m just flabbergasted a bit of how they handled that,” German Olympian Nico Sturm said. “It’s just an arbitrary size. Either you make it Olympic or you make it NHL-sized. Now it’s neither.”

“If you have a foot less space, it can be a big difference,” Colorado Avalanche and Team Canada star Nathan MacKinnon added.

This is going to be a massive story over the next two months, and the NHL is on the record saying it won’t go to the Games if the arena isn’t ready.

There’s no backup plan at this point, meaning it’ll be a race to the finish for Italian officials attempting to get Santagiulia Arena built on the fly.

And all those construction cranes don’t seem like a great sign. 😬

In other Olympic news: Final rosters are due on New Year’s Eve, less than four weeks from now. Don’t miss our latest staff debates over rosters for Team Canada and Team USA.

Leo Carlsson. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

Hot Ones 🔥Which players have improved the most?

Two months is a pretty decent sample size. And reading our piece earlier this week on young players taking “The Leap” made me wonder which players have boosted their production this year leaguewide.

Here’s a quick spin through the 15 players — 10 forwards and five blueliners — who increased the most in points per game through 25-odd games. Hope you have them all in your pool.

Forwards

Leo Carlsson, ANA: 1.33 PPG, +0.74 from last season
Connor Bedard, CHI: 1.44 PPG, +0.62
Cutter Gauthier, ANA: 1.11 PPG, +0.57
Macklin Celebrini, SJS: 1.43 PPG, +0.53
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, EDM: 1.11 PPG, +0.48
Trevor Zegras, PHI: 1.00 PPG, +0.44
Tyler Bertuzzi, CHI: 1.00 PPG, +0.44
Matthew Knies, TOR: 1.17 PPG, +0.43
Chris Kreider, ANA: 0.83 PPG, +0.39
Evgeni Malkin, PIT: 1.12 PPG, +0.38

This is a fascinating mix of some young players all really leveling up dramatically in their second or third seasons and a few reclamation projects getting back to their old selves.

The youth movement is led by Carlsson — who, at 20 years old, nearly doubled his point production year over year after signs late last season he was ready for the next step — but he has company in Anaheim (including Gauthier). The Ducks’ offensive explosion (from 30th to third) has been one of the bigger year-over-year goal increases we’ve seen from a team, and it’ll be what gets them into the playoffs if they make it this year.

Chicago’s similar in that it’s up from 26th to 10th in goals per game, and a ton of that is just Bedard looking like an MVP-level, world-class player and pulling up those around him. (When Kraken-castoff-turned-Bedard-linemate André Burakovsky almost makes this PPG list, it’s a sign.)

It’s also nice to see some good news stories in here, such as Zegras’ big rebound in Philadelphia, Kreider’s rebirth after being salary dumped by the Rangers and Malkin unexpectedly coming to life at 39 years old.

Maybe the NHL should have a comeback player of the year award? 🤔

Shayne Gostisbehere. (Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)

Defensemen

Shayne Gostisbehere, CAR: 1.12 PPG, +0.48 from last season
Nick Blankenburg, NSH: 0.65 PPG, +0.38
Miro Heiskanen, DAL: 0.86 PPG, +0.36
Oliver Ekman-Larsson, TOR: 0.74, +0.36
Darren Raddysh, TBL: 0.86, +0.35

Unlike the forwards list, this group feels more influenced by opportunity than anything. Injuries have meant more time in offensive situations and on PP1 for Blankenburg, Ekman-Larsson and Raddysh, for example, and that’s when the points start to rack up.

Heiskanen, meanwhile, just looks so much more like himself after an injury-plagued 2024-25, which bodes well for a playoff run for Dallas.

And Gostisbehere continues to be an underrated player and key part of Carolina’s attack whom it missed greatly when he was out. It’s impressive he’s produced this much, given the Canes PP sits last in the league (13.2 percent).

💡 MirTrivia Question

Montreal Canadiens stars Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki bring the NHL’s two longest active point streaks — nine and seven games, respectively — into Saturday’s big division rivalry game in Toronto.

If Caufield gets a point against the Maple Leafs, he will become the sixth player this season with a point streak of 10-plus games.

How many of the others can you name?

(Hint: One is a tap-in. And we’ve already mentioned two others in this fine newsletter.)

Coast to Coast

📣 What on earth is going on in the Western Conference? The Oilers, Jets, Mammoth, Blues and Canucks could all somehow miss the playoffs after tough starts.

📰 The criminal case against former NHLer Ryan Kesler, who is charged with two misdemeanor counts of criminal sexual conduct, is heading to trial.

🤑 No expansion talk is expected when the league’s owners assemble next week in Colorado, but there’s still plenty to discuss, including gambling, player safety, media rights, junior and college hockey, the World Cup of Hockey and, of course, the tense Olympics arena situation.

🍁 The Maple Leafs are finally winning after an ugly start to the season, including a convincing 5-1 thumping of the Hurricanes last night that moved them to 4-1-0 in their last five games. But there was bad news, too: They lost netminder Joseph Woll — their best player of late — in the process.

🤔 Shayna Goldman tries to answer a compelling question: If the Nashville Predators start a selloff, what exactly would teams be getting in veterans Ryan O’Reilly and Steven Stamkos? (They both scored last night in an OT win over the struggling Panthers, by the way. I know the Panthers are injured and no one wants to write them off in December, but they do not look like themselves right now.)

📈 And the latest 16 Stats from Dom Luszczyszyn has all kinds of good number nuggets, including items on the Sabres, Red Wings, Senators and Avalanche.

Nathan MacKinnon. (Tyler Schank / Getty Images)

Your MirTrivia Answer …

So, who’s been going streaking so far this season?

12-game point streaks: Kirill Marchenko (Columbus), Nick Suzuki (Montreal)
11 games: Nathan MacKinnon (Colorado), Leo Carlsson (Anaheim)
10 games: Jakob Chychrun (Washington)

Yes, this was a tough one. But if you didn’t guess MacKinnon — who piled up a ridiculous 15 goals and 23 points during his 11-game run that ended a couple weeks ago — don’t blame the Trivia Master.

His current 140-point pace should have been a clue. Every month is a new streak for him, basically.

MacKinnon is playing like a man on a mission this season, even if he had a rare pointless game last night as his team lost 6-3 to the New York Islanders for Colorado’s second regulation loss all season. (I definitely jinxed them with this column.)

Chychrun’s 10-gamer earlier this year, meanwhile, ranks in the top 20 for defenseman streaks in the salary cap era. He’s been a fantastic addition for the Capitals, who have now won six in a row for a streak of their own.

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