The Kings may have lost Kevin Fiala and Andrei Kuzmenko to injury, but the addition of Artemi Panarin to the duo of Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe has been fantastic and has kept the Kings afloat. All three are were on hot streaks of point-per-game or better across the last week, prior to Tuesday night’s game, where the Kings only scored one goal in their overtime loss to the Bruins.

As one of my teams manages injuries, I traded for Anze Kopitar the night of our trade deadline, and hopefully this pace keeps up through the next few weeks. Kopitar has already noted that this is his last season in the NHL, but it seems like he still has enough left in the tank to tip the scales in some fantasy playoff races.

Jeremy Swayman only had to make 14 saves for the win.

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Tage Thompson earned the Third Star of the week honors last week, but the Sabres didn’t need him in on the scoring last night to come away with the 6-3 win. Jason Zucker, Ryan McLeod, and Jack Quinn each notched multi-point games. Zucker has been hot since the calendar flipped to March, with seven points in five games. In Quinn’s case, the hat trick and an additional assist to boot helps him buck a cold streak of only two points in the seven prior games since the NHL returned from the Olympic break. Ryan McLeod picked up assists on all three of Quinn’s goals, and will continue to put up points only as long as his linemates are humming. Rasmus Dahlin also chipped in with three assists, ho-hum night for him.

Macklin Celebrini hit 90 points last night with a goal of his own. I had him featured in a Ramblings article in the fall where I was trying to project rest-of-season paces for him, Connor Bedard, and Leo Carlsson. Needless to say, I undershot with Celebrini, who is on pace to finish with 120 points, a stark contrast from the 93-point season I pegged him for there.

Bedard and Calrsson I had pegged to finish over a 100-point pace, and both of them are under that even if they were healthy. The injuries likely played some role as well, but it’s also good to look back and learn from our missteps when projecting.

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The St. Louis Blues playing the New York Islanders might not have had much of a narrative to it over the last couple of years, but with the recent Brayden Schenn trade, it felt like there was a little more intrigue to this one. Interestingly, the Blues came out hot despite being the sellers in this case, while for the first two periods the Islanders didn’t look like a team that wanted to hold onto a playoff spot. Fittingly, Schenn assisted on the Mat Barzal OT winner.

Jimmy Snuggerud had three points, making seven in his last three games, while Robert Thomas continued his hot streak, now up to nine points in the five games since returning from his injury. Theo Lindstein made his NHL debut on the blueline for the Blues, recording an assist and no meaningful peripherals in 13 minutes of ice time. You can see his first NHL point here, with some simple but effective work from the blue line.

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The Habs and Jakub Dobes defeated the listless Leafs 3-1 last night. Dobes has been the go-to goalie for Montreal since the break, with three wins in his four games while Samuel Montembeault hasn’t fared all that well with nine goals against in two games since returning from the break.

Cole Caufield appeared to sustain an injury midway through the game, but remained on the bench and ended up playing through the third period, albeit in limited minutes. He ended up with only a little over 10 minutes of ice time in the game.

William Nylander had the only marker for the Leafs, while Easton Cowan had the assist. Cowan has three points in his last four games since he started playing second-line minutes.

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The Red Wings lost to the Panthers after Carter Verhaeghe scored two goals in the final 90 seconds of the game to flip the result. Justin Faulk had a goal and an assist for his first points in Detroit in his second game.

John Gibson started for the Red Wings, after his second injury scare in the last week. It’s a little worrisome as a Gibson owner, but his numbers have been solid lately, and it’s tough to replace goalies. The Red Wings are going to want to trot him out as much as possible until their playoff spot is clinched.

Daniil Tarasov got the start for the Panthers, making 25 saves in an unremarkable win. It was remarkable for him though, as it was his first in six weeks. Had Sergei Bobrovsky been traded, Tarasov’s value would have shot up. As it is, he’s a useful streamer for certain games.

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Columbus continues to haunt the Lightning, though this time around it was a new player doing the main damage for the Jackets. Conor Garland scored two goals, for the second night in a row (yes, four goals in less than 30 hours). This is just his third game with Columbus, but he seems to be fitting in just fine. Now why Rick Bowness can get every other forward going except Dmitry Voronkov is beyond me. Even Sean Monahan is back up to a 45-point-pace with six points in six games since the calendar turned to March.

Gage Goncalves was back on the top line for the Lightning with Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov. Great spot for him, and he looks to be sticking there with a goal in his first game back from an injury sustained last week.

Victor Hedman picked up the assist on the opening goal, and was running the top power play with Darren Raddysh away to attend his father’s funeral. All the best to the Raddysh family.

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Jonathan Quick and the Rangers shut out the lowly Flames, who were playing the second half of back-to-back games. Alexis Lafreniere had a hat trick, which led to a pair of assists for both his linemates in Gabe Perreault and Mika Zibanejad. The Rangers don’t have a ton to be excited about right now, but those three are keeping them in games.

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The Avs lines have been moving around a bit in order to see where Nazem Kadri fits best in his return to the lineup. With Brock Nelson in Kadri’s old spot, Kadri is being bounced around, and last night he was up on the Nathan MacKinnon line. With Gabe Landeskog and Arturri Lehkonen out at the moment as well, there’s room up the lineup for players like Ross Colton and Gavin Brindley, who have both thrived in limited opportunities with bigger minutes this year. With the opening goal last night and some solid play throughout, Colton looks to be the immediate beneficiary.

Nathan MacKinnon was questionably ejected from the game for skating right through Oilers goalie Connor Ingram. Tristan Jarry finished the win for the Oilers, who had their big guns lead the way.

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Injuries this time of year can be tough, as the teams in the playoff race keep their information closely contained, while injuries for teams out of the playoff race can mean they’re done for the year. With players such as Roope Hintz, Dylan Larkin, and Brad Marchand landing injury designations recently, the information on them has been harder to come by. It sounds like Larkin might be due back sometime in the team’s next few games, but that’s no certainty. For Hintz, he might be a few weeks, but as for anything more direct than that, good luck. In Marchand’s case, the hints seem to be that he could be shut down for the season (and there’s no reason for him to push through something right now), but the Panther’s don’t have to rush into that, so fantasy mangers are stuck holding the rat hot potato for the moment. Luckily, Logan Clarkson is going to have an injury update on all of these guys and more tomorrow afternoon. Having the injury Ward articles twice a week now has been a big help to me with the injury info.

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It’s back. 🏒Dobber’s 2026 Interactive Playoff Draft List has officially dropped.Nobody’s thinking about playoff pools yet… but the people who win them usually start early.Fully customizable. Set your projected finalists or just roll with Dobber’s list. See more at… http://dlvr.it/TRJ1vs

— Dobber (@dobberhockey.bsky.social) 2026-03-04T19:50:40.967Z

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Now that we’re past the trade deadline, we’re onto the stretch run and fantasy playoffs. Lot’s that we can prepare for there, but if you’re in a dynasty then you might also be looking ahead to the draft.

Chase Reid is a name that I’m wondering if he jumps a little higher in the NHL draft (maybe into the top-three?) than where a lot of public scouts have him as a top-10 player. One of those guys who just seems to check every single box as a smooth skating right-shot defence with size and puck management skills.

I have also recently learned that there is a set of twins who are up for the 2026 draft, and at this point in the public sphere it seems that they might both go in the top two rounds. Can we start the campaign now to have them picked by the same team? It doesn’t matter what team, we just need the Ruck brothers (Liam and Markus) to play together. They each had a pair of points last night for Medicine Hat in the WHL, giving them both 94 points in 63 games this year in case you’re wondering.

I’ll try to get some 2026 draft thoughts in over the next few months as we approach the big event in June.

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I’ll leave you today with Ryan Ufko’s first NHL goal from last night in the Preds win over Seattle:

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See you next Wednesday, and if you have any fantasy hockey questions or comments you can find me on BlueSky @alexdmaclean.