Twenty-three years after Fox’s glowing puck made its debut www.officialmapleleafsproshop.com , the NHL’s next big technological advancement will be on display this weekend during All-Star festivities.NBC will showcase puck and player tracking as part of its broadcast of the skills competition Friday night and then as the centerpiece of a digital-only broadcast of the All-Star 3-on-3 tournament Saturday night. It’ll be the first chance for American hockey fans to get an up-close look at the system that could be in place as soon as next season.With each player and puck fitted with a microchip, the amount of available information could be overwhelming. Look for everything from bubbles over players’ heads to skating and shot speed to ice time and even a small trail behind the puck as NBC takes tracking technology in hockey for a test drive.“Eventually it’ll go to possession time and more advanced (data), but right now it’s mainly focused on speed, shift time, distance traveled, mph on the shot and virtually connecting players on a goal,” NBC Sports producer Steve Greenberg said. “We’re scratching the surface here, and what we’re able to display this weekend is not what we’re going to be able to display next year and in the future, but it’s going to be able to be a really good first look at what these chips are going to be able to give us.”The NHL privately tested puck and player tracking in two regular-season games in Las Vegas earlier this month, but this will be the first time the data is available for public consumption. While other types of tracking technology were tested at previous All-Star games and the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, this is something of a dry run for the radio frequency system the NHL has been working with developers to perfect.Much like the glowing puck was criticized by purists, there’s the danger of overloading fans with too much, too fast. NBC will experiment with how much puck and player tracking data can and should fit onto a TV broadcast.“It’s a balancing act,” NBC Sports executive producer Sam Flood said. “Think about years ago when the yellow line came in for the first down in football. It’s now universal. There are going to be elements that’ll become universal in hockey telecasts based on what we learn over the next period of time.”Kenny Albert, who will call the puck and player tracking-heavy telecast available on NBC Sports’ app and online, likens this to the kind of ball-tracking technology that has become ubiquitous in golf coverage. He was with Fox in the 1990s when the glowing puck was perhaps ahead of its time but thinks fans are ready for puck and player tracking on TV.“We live in an age of information overload and people want stuff like ice time and the mph on a shot for example or how fast a player’s skating Toronto Maple Leafs T-Shirts Authentic ,” Albert said. “I have two teenage daughters and I don’t think anybody in that generation now just sits there and watches TV. They want information, whether it’s looking at their phone, their iPad, their computer, and there’s so much information out there.”Eventually, once the NHL implements player and puck tracking, fans will be able to take a deep dive into all the numbers and there will be an element of real-time sports gambling. But Commissioner Gary Bettman and other league executives have pointed out that the first goal was always to make it TV-ready.“The most obvious thing that (viewers will) probably notice is just sort of the correlations tied to speed,” NHL senior vice president of business development David Lehanski said. “It’s kind of the thing everybody talks about: how fast the game is, how fast the players are, how fast the puck moves.”KARLSSON CONUNDRUMSharks defenseman Erik Karlsson missed the final three games before the break with a lower-body injury, but there’s somehow still a chance he takes part in All-Star Weekend in San Jose. Obviously, coach Peter DeBoer said, the organization would love to have Karlsson on the ice in its home arena, but not at the risk of making it worse.“If there’s more damage to be done, no one in their right mind would play,” DeBoer said. “So I think it’s pretty simple.”Karlsson returned to California for tests Toronto Maple Leafs Hoodies Authentic , and defenseman Brenden Dillon said it’s a positive for the team to play it safe with the two-time Norris Trophy winner. Karlsson has fit in well with San Jose after an offseason trade from San Jose and gives the Sharks the look of a Stanley Cup contender with the deepest blue line in the league.“He’s an unbelievable talent and a guy that’s fit in our locker room great too,” Dillon said. “It’s something where collectively as a group we realized that it was going to be a little bit less whether that’s in minutes or situations … I think for everybody it’s kind of been a little bit less is more and understanding the kind of common goal. So far, so good.”SINKING CAPSThe defending champion Washington Capitals have lost six in a row for the first time since the disastrous 2013-14 season that led to the firing of general manager George McPhee and coach Adam Oates. After players-only meetings didn’t solve the problem, the latest gut punch was allowing a goal with 1 second left to cough up a two-goal, third-period lead to the Sharks on Tuesday in what turned into an overtime loss.“I think it doesn’t matter how many meetings we have,” captain Alex Ovechkin said after his hat trick against San Jose wasn’t enough. “It’s all about us and we know how to play hockey. We know when we play the right way we’re going to get success.”GAME OF THE WEEKThe Buffalo Sabres get an early test in the second half of the season when they visit the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday in each team’s first game after the All-Star break.LEADERS (through Tuesday)Goals: Ovechkin, 36; Assists: Nikita Kucherov (Tampa Bay), 56; Points: Kucherov, 78; Ice time: Drew Doughty (Los Angeles), 26:41; Wins: Marc-Andre Fleury (Vegas), 27; Goals-against average: Robin Lehner (N.Y. Islanders), 2.02; Save percentage: Lehner, .931. It’s only a couple weeks into the season, yet when the Vancouver Canucks meet the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday at PPG Paints Arena, one of the main story lines for both clubs will revolve around injuries.The Penguins (2-1-1) lost one of their top two-way defensemen when Justin Schultz had surgery Sunday for a broken lower left leg. He was hurt Saturday when he apparently got his skate stuck in a rut on the ice while falling and is expected to miss four months.“It’s a huge loss for us, especially what he brings Toronto Maple Leafs Hats Authentic , the role he plays in tons of aspects of our team,” fellow Pittsburgh defenseman Kris Letang said Monday. “He stabilizes the whole (defensive) corps.”Article continues below ...The Penguins still appeared to be looking at potential defensive pairings beyond the top tandem of Letang and Brian Dumoulin.“We have capable NHL defensemen, so I’m confident that we can put guys in that I know can help us win games,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “(Schultz) is not an easy guy to replace. He’s a very good player and has been very good for us for a long time. So it’s a tough loss from our standpoint, but certainly we’ve got to be prepared with the guys that we have.”Schultz has four assists in four games this season. Last season, he had four goals, 27 points in 63 games.It seems likely that Juuso Riikola will find a regular spot on the Penguins defense for the foreseeable future.Pittsburgh’s other injury news is more positive for them. No. 1 goaltender Matt Murray, who got a concussion Oct. 8 in practice, could start against Vancouver. He served as Casey DeSmith’s backup Saturday in a 4-3 shootout against the Canadiens.“It’s hard to know with injuries like that, but it’s no fun to have those injuries, either, so I was happy with how quickly it resolved,” said Murray, who has had three concussions during his NHL career, two this calendar year.“We are excited that he is healthy,” Sullivan said. “It’s great for our team. It’s great for Matt. It’s certainly encouraging that it didn’t linger or last for a significant amount of time.”Vancouver (3-2) Custom Toronto Maple Leafs Jerseys , which practiced Monday in Pittsburgh, will be without promising rookie Elias Pettersson and veteran Jay Beagle.Pettersson has a concussion after taking a hit Saturday from Florida’s Mike Matheson, who was suspended for two games by the NHL department of player safety.“He’s doing better,” Canucks coach Travis Green said Monday. “Better yesterday. Better today again.”Pettersson has five goals, eight points, leading Vancouver in both categories. He is expected to miss at least the next two games.“It’s tough to see an injury like that … (to) a player like that, who’s if not our best player, one of the best players in the league right now in my opinion,” Canucks forward Bo Horvat told NHL.com.Beagle is expected to miss six weeks because of a broken forearm he sustained blocking a shot.Green noted that Beagle’s injury has been overshadowed by Pettersson’s injury and the Matheson hit. Beagle has one assist.“It got lost in this a little bit,” Green said. “He’s also a big part of the group.”Vancouver recalled forward Adam Gaudette from Utica of the American Hockey League.The Penguins recalled forward Derek Grant from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton while returning goaltender Tristan Jarry, who had been on an emergency recall. Pittsburgh has not yet replaced Schultz on the roster.