Anaheim's Ryan Getzlaf, right, lying on the ice, writhes in pain on the ice after injuring his ankle on Monday. (Victor Decolongon/Getty Images)

1. Getzlaf hurt a week before the Olympics

Anaheim Ducks star Ryan Getzlaf sprained his left ankle and departed the rink Monday on crutches after the Ducks' 4-2 win at home against the Los Angeles Kings.

An X-ray taken at the Honda Center was negative, but the team refused to speculate on the severity of the injury until the results of an MRI exam are known later on Tuesday.

Getzlaf and the Canadian Olympic team begin the men's hockey tournament against Norway a week from Tuesday.

"Hopefully, he won't be out too long," Ducks and Canadian Olympic team captain Scott Niedermayer said. "I don't have to say what he means to this team, what he does for us. So hopefully it's not bad.

"I know he would love to play and wants to play [at the Olympics], and we don't really know how badly hurt he is right now. Hopefully he's in our lineup in two nights. That would be good."

2. Gainey's successor will keep two goalies for now

New Montreal Canadiens general manager Pierre Gauthier has two pressing issues: whether to move out one of his two goalies, Jaroslav Halak or Carey Price, before the March 3 NHL trade deadline, and to deal or sign impending unrestricted free agent Tomas Plekanec.

It appears Gauthier, who was awarded a multi-year contract to replace Bob Gainey on Monday, will keep both goalies and will attempt to sign Plekanec to an extension.

"We have two very strong, young goaltenders, and they've been a very big part of our team this year," Gauthier said. "They give us a chance to win every night, that's a very important thing in a very close league.

"We believe that we can go forward with these two young men and that's our best chance to get into the playoffs this year. That's a strong position, and we'd like to keep it strong."

Gauthier revealed that he has engaged in preliminary discussions with Plekanec's agent Rick Curran to lay the groundwork for a new contract.

"We've both exchanged the wishes of staying together," Gauthier said. "I think Tomas would like to stay with the Montreal Canadiens and we'd certainly like to keep him."

3. Senators give goaltender coach a tryout

The Ottawa Senators had an extra coach at practice on Monday: John Stevenson, currently the goalie coach for the WHL's Saskatoon Blades. The Senators have brought him in on a trial basis to work with the organization's goalies in Ottawa and Binghamton for the rest of the season.

Stevenson is co-owner and director of the Goalie Centre near Edmonton. He has been a goaltending consultant for more than 20 years and was a pro scout for the Edmonton Oilers for seven years.

Senators head coach Cory Clouston and Stevenson are friends. When Clouston played for the University of Alberta, Stevenson was the team's goalie coach and he later helped out Clouston when he was the head coach of the Kootenay Ice of the WHL.

4. Colorado's kids are all right

What makes the Colorado Avalanche's surprising run this season all the more remarkable is that they have employed a league-high 10 rookies at various times this season, and that's not including first-year coach Joe Sacco.

Just take a glance at the scoring summary of the Avalanche's 5-2 win against St. Louis on Monday and you will find four of those freshmen with at least one point: Brandon Yip, T.J. Galiardi, Ryan Wilson and Matt Duchene.

The other rookies the Avalanche has used this season include: centres Ryan O'Reilly, Justin Mercier, Ryan Stoa and Philippe Dupuis as well as defencemen Derek Peltier and Wes O'Neill.

Of course, Duchene leads all the league's rookies in scoring with 18 goals and 40 points.

The Avalanche, by the way, already have 72 points with 24 games remaining this season, three points better than Colorado finished with last year.

5. Playoff spot howling at the Coyotes

Another club that already has matched their win total from a year ago are the Phoenix Coyotes with their 36th victory of the season on Monday. The Coyotes still have 22 games still remaining in the regular season and are trying to make the playoffs for the first time since 2002.

"I think we're proud of what we've done so far," Phoenix centre Matthew Lombardi said, "but we really don't want to sit back and look at it like that. We've got a long ways to go here. We're trying to build something here and our goal is to make the playoffs."