The Kevin Shattenkirk injury, the underrated Roman Josi, the Devan Dubnyk revelation  and more…

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Beau Bennett was injured in Sunday’s game after colliding with Max Lapierre. He went to the dressing room. But just when you started to file that under “here we go again”, he returned to the game.

Since taking the reins from an injured Rinne, Carter Hutton has been ho-hum. Not bad, not great. But any questions on whether or not the Preds would ride his mediocrity throughout the duration were answered Sunday when he picked up the shutout. So while the 3-1-2 record is satisfactory, it’s that shutout that truly instills confidence in all involved. But what matters is how the coach feels – and Laviolette feels pretty damn good about Hutton. I’m thinking we won’t even see Mazanec, when frankly I thought Hutton would mess up by now and it would be all Mazanec.

I always considered Roman Josi as Shea Weber‘s sidekick. A guy who would maybe post whatever Weber posted in a given year, minus about 10 points. But not only is he keeping up with Weber (just one point back), but he’s also at times seeing more ice time than Weber. Sunday was the second time in four games that he’s logged more ice time. Josi is on pace for 56, which is higher than the upside I’ve been giving him. I hate it when players do that. Yes, I hate being wrong.

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Marc-Andre Fleury is gearing up for the playoffs. His 4-7-3 record over the last 15 games tells me he’s ready to show us some more postseason magic!

Usually when Sidney Crosby is hurt, Evgeni Malkin really takes off. I also find that the reverse is true – when Malkin is out then Crosby steps it up. But not this time. Theory out the window. Crosby has just one point in the four games he’s played with Malkin in the lineup. This, of course, sucks for those fantasy owners who stock up on Penguins (ahem).

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Kevin Shattenkirk was injured Sunday and he left the game. The team is calling it our friend the lower-body injury. If it’s long term, I’m sure we’ll hear more today. Otherwise, his status for Tuesday is questionable. He looked like he went down wrong while trying to take out Ovechkin. Looks like the splits gone wrong…

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With Shattenkirk out, Alex Pietrangelo slid into the top PP slot (with four forwards). Check out Pietrangelo’s game log, courtesy of the DobberHockey player profile:

I bolded the PP% column to illustrate his usual PP time versus what it jumped to on Sunday.

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TJ Oshie continues his ridiculous streak, which kicked off right around the time that I said in the Midseason Guide that he was probably going to be stuck in a defensive role at even strength and the only way he turns things around is via the power play. Well, actually it started two weeks before the Guide came out – since December 27 he has points in 13 of 15 games (21 points in all). Five of those 21 points came on the PP. So that was a bit of a miss on my part so far.

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Here are Alex Ovechkin‘s numbers the last 15 games: 15 goals, five assists, plus-6, 10 PIM, 75 SOG (!), 37 Hits, eight PPPTs. Still the best roto-own…

Andre Burakovsky was off the big line Sunday. Actually, he was off the playing roster and in the press box. Instead, Tom Wilson got the golden ticket again. And managed to not get a point despite Ovechkin getting three. Jay Beagle also saw time there, and also went pointless.

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Random thought – how scary are the Tampa Bay Lightning when they can trot out a guy like Cedric Paquette to score five goals in three games while the team’s superstars work through a slump? There’s nothing about his ice time to indicate that this will continue, but I’ve always seen him as a potential Curtis Glencross-type who can do this every once in awhile.