This article is part of our The Daily Puck series.
Around the Rink
Wednesday was a big night for the Los Angeles Kings, who jumped over the San Jose Sharks to get into the final wild card spot in the Western Conference. It'd been a long time since the Kings were in a playoff spot and it took them six straight wins to get in there. It was a good game that saw them bounce back from being down a goal and had Tyler Toffoli continue his current hot streak, potting the game-winner and adding an assist.
Meanwhile, the Wild beat the Flames in overtime to get close a wild card spot, but they haven't been able to jump over that hump despite having just completed a six-game winning streak and a ten-game point streak since the All-Star break. Overall, since the break, they're 9-1-1. They're 11-2-2 since acquiring Devan Dubnyk on January 14.
The Wild took their game on a very patient play by Mikko Koivu, who bounced it off Johnny Gaudreau, past Jonas Hiller.
The race in the West is getting even more interesting, as the gap between the handful of teams battling is slowly turning into just a couple of points in any direction is the difference between playoffs and 11th place.
With the Kings bumping the Sharks out of a wild card spot -- both have 66 points, but LA has a two games in hand -- it will make for an extra interesting Stadium Series game between the two on Saturday. That's something that was missing from the Winter Classic, which wound up being a great game, but lacked the intensity and meaningfulness that Saturday's should have.
It's two rivals with lots of recent playoff history (Kings knocked the Sharks out of the playoffs the last two years), they're fighting each other for a playoff spot, and a loss has implications beyond the battle between these two, with the Wild, Stars, Canucks, Flames, Jets, and Avalanche (kind of) all battling for the final spots in the Pacific and wild card spots.
Let's get to some fantasy advice.
Projected Goalie Starters (all times Eastern)
For updates on the projected goalies later in the day, check our Projected Goalies Grid
Nashville Predators (Pekka Rinne) at New York Islanders (Jaroslav Halak), 7:00 PM
Vancouver Canucks (Ryan Miller) at New York Rangers (Cam Talbot), 7:00 PM
Buffalo Sabres (Michal Neuvirth) at Philadelphia Flyers (Ray Emery), 7:00 PM
Columbus Blue Jackets (Curtis McElhinney) at Pittsburgh Penguins (Marc-Andre Fleury), 7:00 PM
Winnipeg Jets (Michael Hutchinson) at Washington Capitals (Braden Holtby), 7:00 PM
Florida Panthers (Roberto Luongo) at Montreal Canadiens (Carey Price), 7:30 PM
San Jose Sharks (Antti Niemi) at Dallas Stars (Kari Lehtonen), 8:30 PM
Injury News For Teams Playing Thursday
Nashville Predators
Anton Volchenkov, D - (lower body) was placed on IR on Tuesday.
Ryan Ellis, D - (lower body) isn't expected back.
New York Islanders
Casey Cizikas, C - (lower body) was placed on IR.
Eric Boulton, LW - (lower body) remains on IR.
Kyle Okposo, RW - (eye) still isn't skating.
Vancouver Canucks
Brad Richardson, C - (ankle) remains out.
Kevin Bieksa, D - (hand) isn't ready to return.
Alexander Edler, D - (upper body) is considered week-to-week.
Nick Bonino, C - (foot) is expected to return at some point during the current road trip.
Chris Tanev, D - (undisclosed) didn't travel with the rest of the team to New York.
Frank Corrado, D - (upper body) will be out for multiple weeks.
New York Rangers
Jesper Fast, RW - (knee) will be out for weeks.
Henrik Lundqvist, G - (neck) remains out.
Buffalo Sabres
Cody McCormick, C - (blood clots) will likely miss the rest of the season.
Josh Gorges, D - (lower body) is likely out.
Patrick Kaleta, RW - will miss 4-6 weeks.
Evander Kane, LW - (shoulder) is out for the season.
Mikhail Grigorenko, C - (lower body) is ready to start skating as of last week.
Philadelphia Flyers
Kimmo Timonen, D - (blood clots) took part in his first full practice with the Flyers on Wednesday.
Steve Mason, G - (knee) resumed working out on the ice Wednesday.
Shayne Gostisbehere, D - (knee) is on track to play either near the end of February or in early March.
Columbus Blue Jackets
Nathan Horton, RW - (back) is unlikely to play this season.
Nick Foligno, LW - (lower body) didn't play Tuesday.
Jeremy Morin, LW - (upper body) is out.
Sergei Bobrovsky, G - (groin) is traveling with the team.
Boone Jenner, LW - (back) has yet to resume skating.
Dalton Prout, D - (upper body) is unlikely to play.
Ryan Murray, D - (ankle) was placed on injured reserve Monday.
Pittsburgh Penguins
Olli Maatta, D - (shoulder) is done for the year.
Anton Zlobin, LW - is done for the year.
Christian Ehrhoff, D - (concussion) hasn't been cleared to practice with contact.
Pascal Dupuis, RW - (blood clot) has resumed skating.
Winnipeg Jets
Drew Stafford, RW - (upper body) missed Wednesday's practice, but is still considered day-to-day.
Jay Harrison, D - (upper body) remains out.
Mathieu Perreault, C - (lower body) could be out for the rest of the season.
Matt Halischuk, RW - (lower body) won't be back until early March.
Grant Clitsome, D - (upper body) is on IR.
Washington Capitals
Dmitry Orlov, D - (wrist) may not play this season.
Nate Schmidt, D - (shoulder) remains out.
John Erskine, D - (neck) remains out.
Florida Panthers
Dmitry Kulikov, D - (suspension) continues to serve a suspension for a hit on Tyler Seguin.
Brandon Pirri, C - (upper body) was placed on injured reserve Saturday.
Willie Mitchell, D - (upper body) is closing in on a return.
Montreal Canadiens
P.A. Parenteau, RW - (concussion) could be cleared to return to practice soon.
P.K. Subban, D - (leg) has returned to the ice but is dealing with discomfort.
Alexei Emelin, D - (upper body) left Wednesday's game.
Sergei Gonchar, D - (upper body) did not play on Wednesday.
San Jose Sharks
Raffi Torres, LW - (knee) appears increasingly unlikely to play this season.
Tye McGinn, LW - (undisclosed) is on IR.
Mike Brown, RW - (leg) has yet to receive clearance to skate.
Daniil Tarasov, RW - (undisclosed) is on IR.
Dallas Stars
Patrick Eaves, RW - (head) doesn't have a fracture in his head, but is undergoing concussion protocol and won't play Thursday.
Travis Moen, LW - (upper body) was placed on injured reserve on Wednesday.
Tyler Seguin, C - (knee) could be forced to miss as much as eight weeks depending on his progress in rehab.
Patrik Nemeth, D - (arm) will begin a rehab assignment at AHL Texas on Friday.
Valeri Nichushkin, LW - (hip) met with his doctor in New York last Friday and was told he would need another 4-to-6 weeks of recovery before he could play in a game.
Ales Hemsky, RW - (lower body) is iffy for Thursday's game against the Sharks.
Hot
Gabriel Landeskog, LW, COL -- Landeskog extended his goal streak to four straight games on Wednesday night when he potted the only Avalanche goal against the Kings. He's not on pace to match last season's career-high of 26 goals, but he's catching up, with goals in four straight. It might have been somewhat unreasonable to think that Landeskog would pass 26 goals this season unless he started to take a lot more shots. He had an 11.7% shooting percentage in all situations last season and that's higher than he was likely to sustain. At 8.7% this season, he's probably a little closer to what will be a career average. Through 58 games this season, he's averaging just a fraction more shots per game than last season, so it seems unlikely that he'll be hitting the heights of last year. He's on a good pace and you should be able to get continued production at this pace from Landeskog, even as Colorado's games start to matter less in terms of the playoff race.
Kyle Turris, C, OTT -- After a rough start to the year -- no goals in his first 13 games -- Turris is getting back on track as a leader of the Senators. In his last seven games he has four goals (including one game-winner) and three assists. He's also averaging 3.29 shots per game through that period and has crossed the 20-minute threshold four times. He's producing across categories, with the exception of plus/minus, which doesn't figure to change soon. Turris is playing like the player you drafted, which is great news if it's not too late for you already.
Cold
Semyon Varlamov, G, COL -- Varlamov, the man who carried the Avalanche through what should have been a trying year last season, has struggled lately. He's had a save percentage over .880 just once in the last five games. That doesn't include a game against the Coyotes when he faced five shots in the first, zero in the second, and was pulled to give him a rest in the third. He still let in a goal to give himself a surprisingly unpleasant GAA and a .800 Sv%.
Lars Eller, C, MTL -- After a particularly strong campaign in the lockout-shortened season and a decent outing last year, the expectations for Eller were elevated. While he's on pace to eclipse last year's total of 12 goals and 14 assists, he has struggled over the last month. He has just one goal since December 30, a span of 21 games. In that time he has registered just two assists and hasn't had one since January 3. There have been six games over that stretch where he hasn't registered a single shot. His fantasy value is waning. However, there are signs that the coaching staff still believes he get his game on track -- like being given 17:59 of ice time in Wednesday's loss to Ottawa. He could bounce back. He should bounce back. But whether that happens on your bench or on the wire should be dictated by the depth of your league.
Recommended Pickup
Mike Hoffman, LW, OTT -- I think most of us were betting on Hoffman to have an incredible year. The three goals and three assists he put up last year through 25 games -- the most he'd ever played in a season -- said that this guy could be a 30-goal scorer. Right? Probably not. But here we are, it's not even the end of February and Hoffman has 20 goals and 34 points. He's been on a roll lately too, with points in five straight games -- three goals and three assists. Since January 21 -- a stretch of 11 games -- Hoffman has five goals and six assists. He's also averaging a healthy 2.27 shots per game over that stretch. This isn't a flash in the pan kind of thing. He's doing this with limited ice time, so there isn't much danger of it being a case of a young player climbing the lineup, feeding off vets, then disappearing in a reduced role. Hoffman is for real and is worth a pick up.
