Buffalo wrapped up their week with an early afternoon tilt against Carolina, and they handled it with the kind of structure and confidence we have not always seen from them this season.

Since Nov. 15, the Sabres have quietly built some momentum, winning three of four games. Toss this one onto the win column, and while they are still near the bottom of the Eastern Conference alongside teams like Toronto and the Rangers, it shows they’re finally starting to push in the right direction after a sluggish start to the season.

Alex Tuch kicked things off on the power play, wiring home his eighth of the season.

Josh Doan and Ryan McLeod picked up the helpers, and McLeod was not done there. He added another assist on Jack Quinn‘s goal in the second period, a well-timed finish that came off a feed from Jason Zucker.

Zucker now has five points in four games since returning from injury, and even with limited minutes, he is giving Buffalo the exact kind of secondary bump they were missing earlier in the year.

Beck Malenstyn stole the spotlight late in the second, though.

Tage Thompson iced it with the empty netter, extending his goal streak to six games and bringing him to 12 on the season. He looks like he’s finally heating up again.

On the other side, since returning from injury on Nov 11, Shayne Gostisbehere has seven points in his last seven games and he was the only Hurricane to hit the scoresheet in this one with a power-play strike. Outside of that? Not much. Carolina looked sluggish, out of rhythm and a step behind in transition.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen turned a strong performance with 28 stops on 29 shots, while Frederik Andersen could not make the same impact at the other end. Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov continue to alternate starts as usual, but recently it has been Andersen absorbing the losses while Kochetkov picks up the wins in their last seven games.

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Minnesota kept the momentum rolling with a clean 3–0 win over Winnipeg, and you could feel right away how different the Jets look without Connor Hellebuyck.

It’s only been a short stretch without him, but you can already sense how opponents view Winnipeg, still competitive, but nowhere near as intimidating when Hellebuyck is not there.

For the Wild, this was their fifth straight win, and once again it was Jesper Wallstedt steering the entire operation. He stopped 32 shots, grabbed his third shutout of the season, and pushed his record to 6-0-2 with a 1.94 GAA. He’s tracking like a goalie who’s ready for a real workload, not just sheltered reps.

Danila Yurov scored this third of the season off of a Yakov Trenin board battle. Trenin night was quietly strong with two shots, eight hits, one assist.

Brock Faber followed that up with a short-handed goal, thanks in part to Marcus Johansson, who continues to be one of the sneakiest productive players sitting on most waiver wires. Johansson sits at roughly 28% rostered in Yahoo!.

As I pointed out in last week’s ramblings, if Mats Zuccarello was available in your leagues, you should have jumped all over that if he was sitting on your wire (still only 30% rostered in Yahoo!). Since returning, he has put up one goal and four assists in three games, and the chemistry with Kaprizov has not faded at all. His usage is steady, and when Minnesota scores, he’s almost always involved.

Add in the fact that he’s never scared to get into a scrap despite being outmatched physically.

Eric Comrie made 27 saves in the loss, making it his second in three games started.

Only Gustav Nyquist managed more than two shots on goal (he finished with four). The rest of the Jets top players, Gabriel Vilardi, Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor were held to two shots each.

Adding to the frustration, Winnipeg’s blue line took a hit when Neal Pionk exited early with a lower-body injury. He logged just over two minutes before leaving and never returned.

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Chicago opened the night with all the energy, driving play early and outshooting Colorado 11–2 in the first. It looked like the Hawks were setting the tone, but the entire game flipped once the second period started. Colorado hammered them with 19 shots while allowing just a single puck to reach Scott Wedgewood at the other end and coming out with the 1-0 victory over the Blackhawks.

Wedgewood was rock solid again, turning aside all 22 shots for his first shutout of the season. His overall body of work has been steady and dependable. In 17 games he is sitting at 13-1-2, a 2.09 GAA, and a .918 SV%. That’s paired with 11 quality starts and a GSAx number of +5.20.

The lone goal came late in the second when Cale Makar buried a rebound created by rookie Tristen Nielsen, who earned his first NHL point on the play. Makar’s season is looking ridiculous with 21 points in 15 games and pacing for 100-plus points.

Nathan Mackinnon and Martin Necas were held pointless in the game.

For Chicago, it was a frustrating night. They generated plenty of chances but just could not convert. Spencer Knight was solid in net, stopping 25 of 26 shots and giving up just the one goal.

Over the course of the last week or more I noticed that Artyom Levshunov has been popping up on Yahoo transaction trends. His game has taken a noticeable step forward. He sits at 11 points in 20 games, all assists, and six of those on the power play. The question is how much of this is real and how much cools off.

There are positives. His on-ice S% at 5v5 is 12.2%, high but reasonable for a defender who moves the puck to dangerous areas. His IPP at 5v5 sits at 46% and on the power play, he is genuinely involved with a PPIPP of 60 percent, and getting close to half of Chicago’s available PP time.

However, his xG share at 5v5 is only 46%, showing Chicago still gets out-chanced with him out there. That’s also more about the roster than his individual play, but it does lead to dry spells. His secondary assist rate is also extremely high at 64%, and that likely will not hold. There is also the whole TOI issue and the Sam Rinzel factor to complicate things. Chicago wants both young defenders to grow through real minutes, expect to see them rotating between PP1 and PP2. Levshunov’s grip on the top unit is not locked in, nor is his overall TOI. We have seen his TOI fluctuate anywhere from 21 minutes a night to 15 minutes in the last five games alone.

The talent and opportunity are real, but the production will run hot and cold. In deeper leagues he should be held but in shallow formats, he fits better as a ride-the-heater option than a set-and-forget defenseman.

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For anyone leaning on Daccord or David Rittich in fantasy to cap off the weekend, both netminders delivered performances you cannot really argue with.

Rittich picked up the win with a perfect 19-for-19 night, with Kyle Palmieri‘s goal in the shootout sealing it for the Islanders.

Daccord was also impressive in net for Seattle, stopping all 34 shots he faced. In a game that saw zero goals through regulation and overtime, goaltending was the ultimate difference-maker.

The Kraken have been quietly competitive this season. Sitting at 11‑5‑6, they are third in the Pacific behind Anaheim and Vegas, and performances like tonight highlight why. Seattle’s scoring will inevitably have its ups and downs, but if Daccord keeps them in tight games, that is all you can ask from your netminder.

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Macklin Celebrini continues to make noise, extending his point streak to five games (4G,4A) with a goal and an assist on the power play, assisted by Dmitri Orlov and Tyler Toffoli.

Shakir Mukhamadullin hit a milestone with his first career goal, set up by Mario Ferraro and Barclay Goodrow, while Collin Graf added the empty-netter to seal the game. Celebrini also picked up an assist on the empty-net goal alongside William Eklund.

On the Bruins side, Morgan Geekie has been impossible to ignore. On Boston’s California road trip, the team scored six goals total, and Geekie accounted for five of them. He scored yet again, marking his fifth goal in three games and the 17th of the season, tying him with Nathan MacKinnon atop the league’s goal scoring leaders. Geekie’s production over this stretch has been electric, giving the Bruins a consistent offensive weapon even in tight games.

In net, Jeremy Swayman faced 28 shots and allowed three in the loss, bringing his record to 9-6-0 over 15 starts.

San Jose’s Yaroslav Askarov was nearly flawless, turning aside 34 of 35 shots he faced. He improves to 8-5-1 on the season and has been particularly hot lately, losing only once in his last eight starts dating back to November 1.

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The Calgary–Vancouver matchup was the highest-scoring game of the night, with the Flames taking a 5-2 win over the Canucks.

Defensemen Filip Hronek and Quinn Hughes were the only two who managed to get on the scoresheet, with Hroneks’ goal assisted by Jake DeBrusk and Hughes by Kevin Lankinen.

Hughes’ goal was a highlight-reel moment, an end-to-end effort on the power play, doing everything himself.

Lankinen had a tough outing allowing five goals on just 21 shots. Since taking the starters net with Demko’s injury, he has struggled to find consistency, winning only two of his last eight starts.

Rasmus Andersson put together a massive night with three assists, extending his point streak to five games. Over that span, he has racked up two goals and eight assists and is now pacing for 55 points on the season, which would be a career high.

Nazem Kadri, Mikael Backlund, and Blake Coleman all chipped in multi-point nights as well, with Kadri and Backlund each adding two assists and Coleman recording a goal and an assist.

Kadri is on a 62-point pace, slightly below last year’s 67 points however his S% has dipped to 5.2% from 12.6%, so there’s room for that to climb.

Additional contributors included Kevin Bahl, Morgan Frost, Yegor Sharangovich, and Connor Zary, all of whom found the back of the net.

Matt Coronato was in the lineup after that nasty hit from Mikko Rantanen the night before and continued his hot streak, extending his point streak to seven points in five games. His shooting confidence appears to be back, and his off-puck movement is sharper than ever.

Thanks for reading! See you next week! For more fantasy hockey content and analysis, follow me on X @Punters_hockey. If you have any questions about your team or a trade? My DMs are always open, happy to help!