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On Saturday night, at least, the New York Islanders’first-line barely missed Kyle Okposo.

Fantasy darling Anders Lee had some game while flanking Josh Bailey and John Tavares, managing four assists in New York’s 6-2 victory over the Columubs Blue Jackets. Bailey chipped in two goals and an assist (and three shots), while Tavares went off for two goals, two assists and nine shots on goal. 

A strange fact: Josh Bailey is ahead of Jakub Voracek in 5-on-5 assist rate this season, and only narrowly behind Derek Stepan. Those are two of the best setup guys in the league, so that’s very surprising. Playing with Tavares is a cushy gig, it seems.

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The Nashville Predators stomped the New Jersey Devils 3-1 on Saturday night, with Colin Wilson and Craig Smith both scoring goals.

In lists of ‘major reasons for the Predators’ turnaround’ this season, I feel like the contributions and improvements of Smith and Wilson have been given short-shrift. The two American born forwards have an outside chance of hitting 20 goals this campaign

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Steve Bernier scored his 10th of the season. On the power-play. 

Your 2014-15 New Jersey Devils, ladies and gentleman!

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Thomas Vanek went off on Saturday night in a 6-3 Minnesota Wild victory over the Carolina Hurricanes. The Austrian born sniper, a disappointment in his first season with the Wild, scored two goals in the opening 10 minutes of Saturday’s contest and finished the night with three points (he’d later add an assist) and four shots on goal. 

The red-hot Wild have now won eight of their last 10 games, and have managed at least a point in every contest they’ve played since January 19th. Now that’s how you get back into the playoff race.

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Mike Smith’s nightmare season continued as the Rangers pumped five goals past him on Saturday night in a lopsided 5-1 victory that was the 500th coaching victory of Alain Vigneault’s career. 

Among the players that scored on Smith: former Coyotes legend and one-time NHL Player of the Month Lee Stempniak. There’s nothing snide about calling Stempniak a “Coyotes legend” by the way, not after the way he singlehandedly carried the club to the postseason in the spring of 2010…

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The Seguin-less Dallas Stars are not going to be equipped to make a late charge to the postseason, and we all know it. 

Dallas lost 4-1 to the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday, and looked bad doing it. Getting outshot by the Avalanche while trailing for most of the game is never a good luck.

Recently acquired Jhonas Enroth made his Stars debut, and it wasn’t a happy one as he permitted four goals against on 30 shots faced. 

On the Avalanche side Alex Tanguay – the ageless one – and rookie Dennis Everberg (who has been impressive in limited action this season and has a great name) managed multi-point nights.

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The Vancouver Canucks had an opportunity to really make life tough for the Calgary Flames on Saturday night, and instead opted to shoot themselves in the foot.

The Canucks started Ryan Miller for the second consecutive game on Saturday, despite a mountain of evidence that starting a goalie back-to-back is not smart and employing a perfectly serviceable (or better) backup netminder in Eddie Lack. It didn’t work out for the Canucks, as they dropped a 3-2 decision in regulation to the Flames.

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Don’t look now, but the Los Angeles Kings have now won four in a row. Now it’s about time for Dean Lombradi to hoodwink an opposing general manager in a trade and laugh his way to at least the Western Conference Final…