Fisher is a stud, Tavares stays hot, Barkov on a roll,lamenting a rash of short-handed goals and more…

 

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Good matchup of stud goalies in the Rangers-Canadiens contest.

 

Carey Price vs. Henrik Lundqvist and the thing ends 1-0 on a goal late in the third period. That's pretty much the dream if you started either of these goalies because there was certainly a chance one would get roughed up considering the opposition. Nope, just two of the best doing what they do.

 

It should be noted that the one goal Lundqvist gave up to Max Pacioretty was a real softie, which probably cost us the dual shutout we all deserved. Good show though. I could go for another round of this in the Eastern Conference Finals. Only this time let's have Price healthy.

 

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After a dreadful start to 2015 Reilly Smith has started to get the ball rolling and a promotion onto the David Krejci–Milan Lucic line sparked him to a three-point night. That gives him five points in the past three games, which is good progress for a player who has really struggled with consistency.

 

The unfortunate consequence here is that David Pastrnak got dropped onto the third line with Chris Kelly and Carl Soderberg. There are worse fates but it also saw Pastrnak skate just 10:33, which isn't the best sign.

 

I'm not overly concerned. I still love this kid's game. Young players yo-yo their way about the lineup all the time. Pastrnak probably earned the demotion having scored just one point in the last five games. He has just four SOG over that span too, which is uncharacteristic.

 

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Interesting move by the Islanders giving Jaroslav Halak the start against Boston. Last time around (way back in October) the Islanders let Chad Johnson start against his former team. It worked with Johnson and the Islanders coming away with a 3-2 win. Johnson has been mostly dreadful since then though, which probably factored into this decision.

 

The Islanders head to Boston next Saturday. I'll be curious who gets the start in that one, especially in a back-to-back situation with a trip to Buffalo the following day.

John Tavares keeps on trucking. He scored on both Islander goals and fired off nine SOG.

 

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Petr Straka (no, not that Petr Straka) got his first NHL point last night. I never would have even known he'd been called up if not for the point. He skated just 7:05 and should not be considered a fantasy asset any time soon. He's scoring less than half a point per game in the AHL this season.

 

That Michael Del Zotto though. Holy, what a run. He's got six points on a five-game scoring streak and has been an asset ever since returning from a rash of healthy scratches towards the end of 2014. I don't actually like Del Zotto for straight points but in leagues with hits and blocks he's a nice asset. I would love to hear the story behind his run of benchings though. It's probably a good one.

 

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BONUS READ: Check out Brendan Ross’ Friday morning prospects ramblings over at Dobber Prospect as he touches on 2015 NHL Draft rankings, debates Dylan Strome vs. Mitch Marner, checks in on Max Domi post-WJC and Johnny Gaudreau.

 

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Interesting debate in the comments of yesterday's ramblings. We had a reader supporting shorthanded points as a good fantasy stat. Full disclosure, I play in leagues with SHP as a stat and I hate those leagues. Shorties are a dumb fantasy stat.

 

Case in point, last night's Dallas-Ottawa game where the Stars scored not one but two shorties into an empty net. Full marks from breaking loose with the puck in a six-on-four situation but those shouldn't count the same as other SHP. In fact, that shouldn't be a category in fantasy hockey leagues at all.

 

This game was billed as the big homecoming event for Jason Spezza but I suppose the Senators didn't want him coming into the joint and ruining it for the home fans so Spezza was held scoreless. It's also possible that this was simply a random six-goal game for the Stars that Spezza just happened not to score in. Feel free to pick, whichever narrative you like.

 

You know who did score though? Trevor Daley that's who. He's up to 12 goals on the year on a ludicrous 14.8% shooting. And if you are wondering his was indeed one of the empty-netters. Regression is coming for Daley but what's crazy is that he could not score another goal all year and still end up with a shooting percentage above 10%. His shooting pace would have to slow for that to happen but just as it was unlikely but possible that he'd have 12 goals at this point in the season, it's also possible he doesn't score another.

 

Give Daley this though: the dude keeps getting minutes. He's stuck in a duelling banjos rotation with John Klingberg for the lone defense spot on the Stars' top power play unit where the only thing we know for certain on any given night is that Alex Goligoski has lost.

 

Klingberg was on PP1 last night and he scored a goal and an assist of his own. After a bit of a dry spell, Klingberg is up to nine points in the last 12 games. I'd love to tell you that Klingberg takes the ball and runs with it here but I can't. He's too young and inconsistent.

 

What's fun about the situation is that it does leave room for both Klingberg and Daley to be fantasy relevant. I'm all for it. The reality is that there are very few defensemen who can score enough points to not be considered "streaky." The difference here is that these two simply take turns, except for last night when the Senators gave both a free ride.

 

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Craig Anderson missed last night's contest with a hand injury. No word yet on the severity. Robin Lehner got the start with Andrew Hammond backing up on an emergency basis.

 

It took Hammond getting called up for me to realize why the Senators won't be dealing a goalie any time soon. They have nothing in terms of pro-ready talent in the system were they to trade a goalie and then have one get hurt.

 

They do have a couple of intriguing prospects in the system but neither is anywhere close to ready. Chris Drieger (read more on him here) is currently skating in the ECHL in his first year of pro hockey and while he might be something someday, he won't be doing anything for the franchise right now. Meanwhile, Marcus Hogberg (read more on him here) is back in Sweden but is competing at the highest level there.

 

If/when there's another promising youngster in the system, we'll see the Senators move a goalie, like they did with Ben Bishop once it became clear Lehner was ready to come up. It would also help if Lehner proved it to the front office that he is ready to run with the starting job but that's only one factor.

 

Also of note from this contest, Bobby Ryan kept his hot streak rolling. He now has 22 points in 23 games since the start of December. I can't recall at what point the Senators made their coaching swap but he has certainly been productive since that time.

 

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Still no solutions to the lack of scoring in Leaf Land. They managed just one goal last night from Phil Kessel.

 

Just one night after skating over nine minutes on the power play Jake Gardiner was returned to his second unit role skating just 1:58. Instead Cody Franson rolled back out as the lone defenseman on the top power play unit and Peter Holland joined the Kessel, Tyler Bozak, James van Riemsdyk group up front. These changes did not work as the Leafs went 0/3 with the man advantage.

 

I mean, they made Mike Smith look good, which is probably the most damning thing you can say about an offense in 2015.

 

Joffrey Lupul returned but skated just 10:30 as he was being eased in on the fourth line.

 

Poor Jonathan Bernier stopped 42 of 45 but still lost his sixth straight. He does deserve negative points for this being one of the goals he failed to stop:

 

 

Thanks to Fisher, suddenly Colin Wilson and Craig Smith are worth owning. Wilson has teamed up with Fisher and James Neal on a solid second line (arguably the first line), while Smith has jumped up with the blazing duo of Filip Forsberg and Mike Ribeiro.

 

A lot to love about this team. They did lose in the shootout to the Blues last night but let's factor the lack of Pekka Rinne and surplus of Carter Hutton into that result, shall we.

 

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I hope you rolled out your Sharks last night because Ilya Bryzgalov was in goal for the Ducks and he was awful. Just a reminder, Bryzgalov is making $2.88 million this season, more than the Ducks' other three goalies combined.

 

What a horrible misstep by the Ducks, a team with a chance at winning the Cup and is looking to add talent at the deadline has a terrible backup as their ninth highest paid player. This especially stings considering how fantastic the Ducks have been at developing goaltending talent with John Gibson, Jason LaBarbera and Igor Bobkov all likely capable of doing better than Bryzgalov but for much cheaper. Poorly timed injuries though and bam, cap-sucking anchor.

 

That's a great agent Brygalov has though.

 

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Supposedly there was an NHL game taking place in Edmonton last night but I look at the box score and saw AHL stars Anton Lander and Matt Fraser each put up three points.

 

Also, former NHL star Brian Gionta is still kicking around in pro hockey. He got a pair of assists

 

I dunno, I think NHL.com messed up and slipped an AHL result into the mix. No convincing me otherwise.

 

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TSN's Travis Yost takes an interesting look at Alexander Semin's brutal season.

 

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Great piece from CBS's Adam Gretz on why some of hockey's most hated players aren't going away:

 

Let’s take Steve Downie as an example.

He has had his fair share of run-ins with NHL (and AHL) discipline, and has crossed the line on more than one occasion. Unless he plays for your team, you probably do not like him as a hockey player. And maybe even if he does play for your team. But despite getting almost no power play time throughout his career, and averaging less than 15 minutes of ice-time per night, he has pretty consistently scored at a better than 40-point pace over 82 games. Over the past five years alone he has averaged 1.94 points per 60 minutes of 5-on-5 ice-time. That places him 79th in the entire league out of 387 forwards (minimum 1,500 minutes). That is borderline second-line production, and puts him in the same neighborhood as players like Johan Franzen, David Perron, Patric Hornqvist, James van Riemsdyk, Valterri Filppula, Clarke MacArthur, Mike Ribeiro, Evander Kane, Jeff Carter and Gabriel Landeskog. Those are really good players, that all make a lot more money.

 

He doesn't get mentioned in the piece but Brad Marchand is probably the best example. Infuriating player but infuriatingly effective.

 

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Apparently the Penguins made an offer for Toronto's Daniel Winnik before consummating the Marcel Goc–Maxim Lapierre deal. I get moving on to other options if Winnik couldn't be gotten but that doesn't excuse moving Goc for a less effective player. And yes, swapping fourth-liners is relatively minor but you need all 23 on the roster to contribute in a playoff series so any self-inflicted step backwards is a head scratcher.

 

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The Score takes a look at why we probably won't see Shane Doan traded any time soon.

 

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You can follow me @SteveLaidlaw.